New rtlsdr Plugin

[rgleason]

rtlsdr_pi has been updated

Are there any Windows users who can report their experiences/details re use?
Please, we need testers to verify that this plugin works properly under Windows.

[rgleason]

Congratulations Sean, rtlsdr_pi no longer gags/crashes opencpn. It is now a cooperative player.

Now we just need Windows users to verify that it works properly!

[harenber]

Hi,
thanks for providing this plugin. Trying to get it run on Win10. We got rtl_fm to work on the command line, however the plugin doesn't seem to find the binary. All fields but "ADS-B" is greyed out and the pulldown unter "Program" contains nothing. We have the same hardware running under Linux, however the "boat laptop" is supposed to run Win10.

Where does the plugin expect the rtl_fm binary?

Thanks for any hint.

[harenber]

Hi again,

I got the plugin itself to work on Win 10. I downloaded rtl_fm and aisdecover manually and put the path to the .exe files into the system's PATH. Now the plugin offers the "rtl_fm | aisdecoder" setting.

However, I fear that the plugin is trying to run something like

rtl_fm -d 1 -f 161975000 -p 35 -s 48k | aisdecoder -h 127.0.0.1 -p 10110 -a file -c mono -d -f /dev/stdin

afterwards, which fails, as Windows handles the pipe differently and there is no /dev/stdin

I tried a bash installed by MinGW as well as the powershell. Powershell looks promising, it has a pipe and this could possibly even do what you would expect, BUT there is still no place like /dev/stdin. To make it even worse, there seems to be no easy way to create FIFOs on Win.

I am stuck at the moment... Hope someone has a clue.

[seandepagnier]

use rtl_ais not rtl_fm | aisdecoder

[piluso]

OS:WinXp
OpenCpn v4.8.4
rtlsdr_pi-1.2a-win32
zadig installed, rtl_ais working

results:

In preferences: the item "programs" show an empty list
If I cllick "Activate", a message box error titled "rtldsr" apears "Error openning: (_empty string_)" (I have the spanish version, the message could be different)

I'm missing some config ?

[dsm]

I'm experiencing similar problems on Windows 10. OpenCPN can't find the path of the rtl_ais executable. I've tried putting the rtl_ais files in the OpenCPN root, in the plugins directory and in its own directory. I've added that directory to the System Path and still no joy.

I'm running:
OpenCPN: 4.8.4
rtl_ais: 0.2
rtlsdr_pi: 1.2a (I've also tried 1.2)

rtl_ais seems to work and I can see the AIS signal in SDR#.

Am I doing anything obviously wrong?

Thanks,
dsm

[AntBar]

Hi to everyone following this thread!
A special thanks to BA for his amazings Plugins.

I'm posting especially to Os Windows users in the hope my experience of roughly two year trying to get this plugin to work can help someone.

1- As stated on the first post, this plugin isn't needed to aquire and display AIS targets, and to be honest, for myself I don't see any use for it as I can't select any of the other options and couldn't find any documentation about them.
Maybe they aren't implementated yet. This is something that just BA can answer.

2- As said by BA a few posts above, we must use "rtl_AIS" and not "rtl_fm" that is coming with the plugin.
To use rtl_AIS with the plugin, we must go to the folder "bin" and delete his content. All the files of "rtl_AIS" must go now to that empty folder "bin".
Run the rtlsdr plugin and click on "preferences". In "program" you must see now "rtl_ais" instead of "rtl_fm".

3- Now, if we have the "Zadig" driver inst., a correct calibration, and AIS targets, they must show up.

[AntBar]

We can do the same without plugin:

1- go to "bin" folder, edit file ais.bat and replace ppm correction valor by the correct valor for your dongle, save and run the file and you will see a window with information about the program and about possible targets.
2- Run openCPN and you will see the targets on map.

[stow]

Where I get bin folder with rtl_ais? Windows setup package contains only .dll .

[PA3JMS]

Several times I have tried to let RTLSDR work on OpenCPN. Yesterday I tried it again and found the post of Antbar. This worked for me on W10. Not right away but it was very help full.

The steps that I had to make:

1 Install Zadig driver.
2 Connect and test the dongle. I used SDRShrap.
3 Install the plugin. ( Important it only installs rtlsdr_pi.dll !! )
4 Manual add the directories:
C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\rtlsdr_pi
C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\rtlsdr_pi\bin
You need admin rights.
5 Download rtl_ais_win_v0.3. Extract in the folder downloads.
6 Copy the files to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\rtlsdr_pi\bin
7 Now you see Program rtl_ais under rtlsdr preferences in OpenCPN! (and not rtl_fm!)

At this point I encountered some problems. But they were NOT related to the rtlsdr Plugin. I solved it by running rtl_ais from the command line. I did NOT do this in the OpenCPN directory. I placed a copy of the plugin folder in the root. There I needed no admin rigths. From here on you need to make ais work. In my case I found that (I do not know why) rtl_ais found two devices. It default uses device 0. This one gave an USB error. After forcing rtl_ais to use device 1 (option -d1 ) and add this to extra args in trlsdr preferences it worked!

Now it also worked in OpenCPN. One thing which is left is setting the error correction. I ussed the setting found in SDRsharp.

I receive AIS in my house on a small antenna from ships in a nearby river which flows to the port of Rotterdam

It would be useful if the manual in OpenCPN could be updated with the info ANTBAR gave or if the plugin could install rtl_ais. This was the missing link for me!

[rgleason]

PA3JMS,


I can update the manual for everyone, but do not know where to start.


Are these revisions a replacement of what is in the [[https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...r_usb|manual]] or an augmentation?


There seem to be several descriptions that need to be used.
Post #386

Post #383

Post #384


If someone could bring this together into one statement with the images and identify where to locate this description in the Wiki text, and what lines to remove, I will do fix it.


Then of course someone will have to review what has been done.

[houlejm]

I had some time to experiment with rtlsdr_pi. I used lhe latest version from: git://github.com/seandepagnier/rtlsdr_pi.git which I compiled on linux.

It works well for receiving ais. It has always worked for me (older versions)

Then I tried to receive FM broadcast. It worked. Before I could not receive anything, not even noise.

Next went VHF. I tried a local weather channel. I received something, but it was very distorted. I noticed in the that the frequency was sent to 1 decimal place but we need 3 decimal places on those frequencies. I edited the source, changed the format to 3 decimal places and bingo. Problem solved.


Then I noticed another problem with standard channel frequencies. Some channels could not be received. Those were the duplex channels. On the VHF marine band some channels are designated DUPLEX channels and the receive frequency for those is 4.2 MHz higher. To make things worse, those DUPLEX channels are not the same for all countries. On my radio there is a choice for International, US or Canada. I patched the source to use international frequency allocations.


I do not feel competent enough to make changes on git, but if someone could do it I will happily share the changes I made to the code.


Jean-Marie

[Moo]

Is there a debian/ubuntu Linux version of this plugin for 5.0 it doesn't seem to be in the ppa?

[Harry99]

Originally Posted by Moo

Is there a debian/ubuntu Linux version of this plugin for 5.0 it doesn't seem to be in the ppa?

I couldn't find it either. I'm using a Raspberry Pi 4 with Rasbian.