New rtlsdr Plugin

[kubek]

Hi,

I do a RTL-SDR_VB-cable_AISMon - on Windows, but what I need to run this plugin on Windows, I already installed GNU Radio - but I cannot find gr-ais.py compiled for Windows.
Maybe I miss something important.....

Kubek

[rgleason]

Perhaps Sean can help. He may notice this thread. He had doubts it would work under windows, but would like to get it working. What is happening, or not happening? What is missing? I think I need to order one of these devices now.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by kubek

Hi,

I do a RTL-SDR_VB-cable_AISMon - on Windows, but what I need to run this plugin on Windows, I already installed GNU Radio - but I cannot find gr-ais.py compiled for Windows.
Maybe I miss something important.....

Kubek

gr-ais.py is in the apps directory in gr-ais which is a separate repository (in git) which you must clone and build. It depends on gnu radio.

[rgleason]

Sean, Is this something I should do when I build the Windows version of the plugin?
Thus the drivers get wrapped into to plugin.dll that is distributed for windows, and the users don't need to do anything?

[seandepagnier]

If you can build gr-ais on windows, then run the script and get ais messages.. let me know. Try also gr-ais.grc script.

Perhaps you should wrap it all together to make a single package for windows users so they would not be required to build anything.

Finally a howto would be needed so that just about anyone can make this work with minimal effort.

I'm not really going to be able to help with any windows specific stuff.. I wrote this with linux users intended, but I believe it should be possible to make it all work on windows too.

[rgleason]

Trying to get a handle on compiling gr-ais on Windows. I assume I use MSVC. Should I just try to git this https://github.com/bistromath/gr-ais
and compile it? Searched on 'gr-ais windows compile' not much available.

From Need help on how to use a Realtek DVB-t dongle to detect and decode AIS signals : RTLSDR

Important: I found out the following. If you want to use Shipplotter - a Windows software - with gr-ais you have to patch line 175 of ais_rx.py from conn.send(sentence + "\n") to conn.send(sentence + "\r\n"). Windows AIS decoders like Shipplotter or AIS Decoder need CR LF!!! Not LF only!

[rgleason]

Here are some of the Windows screenshots that Sean has developed. I'll get this dll revised dll up on file thing soon. Looks pretty darn good, but we need to test it with USB SDR dongles. Does anyone know if we can compile gr-ais in Windows? We need that software to enable that feature set. I will try to do this when I have more time, but perhaps someone else is more familiar....?

[rgleason]

Windows - Trying to understand what is needed

kubek [linux & windows]: I do a RTL-SDR_VB-cable_AISMon - on Windows, but what I need to run this plugin on Windows, I already installed GNU Radio - but I cannot find gr-ais.py compiled for Windows.

sean [linux]: gr-ais.py is in the apps directory in gr-ais which is a separate repository (in git) which you must clone and build. It depends on gnu radio.

Gnuradio Companion Requirements [Linux, generally]
GNU Radio - GNURadioCompanion - gnuradio.org
[Python 2.5 (or above) http://www.python.org/download/]
[Python-LXML 2.0 (or above) http://codespeak.net/lxml/installation.html]
[Cheetah Template Engine 2.0 (or above) http://www.cheetahtemplate.org/download.html]
[Python-GTK 2.10 (or above) http://www.pygtk.org/downloads.html]

Installing GnuRadio
GNU Radio - InstallingGR - gnuradio.org

Windows users: If you want to install from pre-compiled binaries see above Using pre-compiled binaries from Ettus Research. GNURadio Windows - uhd - Ettus Research LLC This page presents a guide for installing GNU Radio and the UHD package on Windows from pre-built installers. Dependencies: Python, Numpy, PyQt, setuptooks, PyGTK, wxPython, PyQWT, lxml, VisualC++2010, Cheetah, PyOpenGL then GnuRadio. http://code.ettus.com/redmine/ettus/...URadio_Windows


If you need to install GNU Radio from source refer to the windows install guide. GNU Radio - WindowsInstall - gnuradio.org

New: You can build gnuradio with the MSVC compiler using the cmake branch: CMakeWork GNU Radio - CMakeWork - gnuradio.org

[rgleason]

rtlsdr plugin (win & linux) updated and new compile and some changes by Sean.
See Plugins Thread Post #80

[rgleason]

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Rtlsdr

[rgleason]

Sean has made changes to the plugin. The lastest is attached.
Take off the doc and test please if you have dongle or are attached to a radio.

[prof_mariner]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Sean has made changes to the plugin. The lastest is attached.
Take off the doc and test please if you have dongle or are attached to a radio.

Does this version only work with OpenCPN beta? I tried installing it with the stable version of OpenCPN and the plugin didn't appear.

I don't have an RTL SDR dongle but would like to get one and give this a try. Which one(s) are known to work with OpenCPN and Windows (I'm using Windows 8).

Thanks!

[seandepagnier]

This plugin requires beta opencpn.

afaik you need gr-ais.py script to work from the command line. If you can achieve this then it can work, but so far no-one has reported this on an operating system other than linux.

The latest gnuradio and gr-osmosdr do not seem to be compatible with gr-ais and after 3 hours I gave up trying to fix gr-ais, so must use older versions of the dependencies.

[prof_mariner]

afaik you need gr-ais.py script to work from the command line. If you can achieve this then it can work, but so far no-one has reported this on an operating system other than linux.

Any particular version of Python need to be installed?

I plan on buying a R820T - based RTL-SDR in the next few days. After I have that in hand and functional I'll be happy to try it on a couple of my machines.

[seandepagnier]

I have updated the plugin to use aisdecoder. It is a much lower cpu decoder for ais. Currently uses 3% cpu, I estimate 15% cpu use on a raspberry pi.

It currently only does one channel at a time, but this could eventually be fixed. Otherwise using gnuradio is still supported which receives both channels together. I also added an autocalibration routine. I"m picking up over 60 ais targets all less than 3 miles away.

I compiled the rtl_fm and aisdecoder programs to run on windows, but I have no way of testing/verifying them. Maybe for example you have to create the right inf file and install it using a tool for libusb? Not sure.

Someone who has windows and one of the supported usb dongles should try running rtl_fm program: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ope...s.zip/download And at least figure out if the card is detected and should be able to record fm radio to a file using only the stock antenna. If this works and you can verify it, then I can package things up to make the installer for the plugin do everything to make this work very easily for windows users. Otherwise I need to know how to make it work. The same should also work for macosx, if someone can verify success.

The idea is, you get an r820t dongle, splice in a vhf antenna, plug into usb port, install rtlsdr plugin, and run opencpn, and you have ais data without any additional work.