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Hi all, I recently bought a new SDR Hands-on Kit from Elektor, but it doesn't appear to be acting normally. Below is a summary of what I've done and am seeing. If anyone has suggestions on further troubleshooting, I'd be very grateful. I have an oscilloscope if that would be helpful.

Thanks much,

Frank


-- Soldered the four pin-headers to the SDR shield's board, installed an antenna connector, mounted the SDR shield atop my Arduino Uno board, connected to Windows 10 PC via USB. Attached an antenna (known to work well with another SDR). Used a stereo audio cable to connect the SDR shield's output to my PC's soundcard input.

-- Downloaded G8JCFSDR Build 282, installed it on the PC. Configured it to run as Administrator. Configured for the COM port, SDRModel = ElektorSDRShield, selected soundcard's in and out as per my PC. Entered other settings on the G8JCFSDR top panel per the manual.

-- When I first launched the program, it advised me that the Uno firmware must be updated. It performed an update to v1.3 with no errors.

-- After rebooting my PC, I launched the program and clicked to set Power = On. At this point, there is no visible activity on the top panel, and no sound from the PC's speakers. I tried tuning to known active frequencies (10 MHz for WWV, 7.074 MHz for 40-meter FT8), with no change.

-- To verify that the Windows sound system is set correctly, I closed the G8JCFSDR program and launched the audio app Audacity. With the SDR shield connected, Audacity shows a low level of noise at the soundcard input. If I connect/disconnect the antenna from the SDR shield, there is a momentary jump in noise. However, there is no perceivable modulation, just a low level of random noise.

-- A multimeter shows that +3.3v, +5v and gnd are reaching the SDR shield.

Hi Frank

U need to enable the Microphone (I think).

Do Winkey+I, Microphone, Make sure "Allow desktop apps to access your microphone" is set to ON.

See /g/g8jcfsdr/topic/run_time_error_2147467259/75822182?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,0,75822182 for more details

73

Peter - GM8JCf

Hi Peter, thanks for the suggestion. "Allow desktop apps to access your microphone" is already set to "on," and G8JCFSDR Main Executable is in the list of desktop apps covered by it.

Frank

An update:

Based on the magazine article linked on this page: I downloaded the VB app designed to set the Elektor SDR Shield's frequency. This app appeared to recognize the Arduino Uno when I opened the com port. The app sends commands to change frequency, but does not process the I/Q signal from the soundcard.

For that purpose, the above article gave an example using SDR# to process the I/Q. Therefore, I launched SDR# and set the input to "Baseband from Sound Card."

On the SDR# spectrum display and waterfall, I'm now seeing what looks like signals (see attached screen shot), and on the PC speaker I'm hearing what sounds like an image from an AM broadcast station.

However, the tuning does not change at all when I go to the VB app, enter a new frequency and click "set."

There is still no change from the status noted above for G8JCFSDR.

How much of the advice of the book included in the kit did you follow?
--
PE3ES / F4VTQ de Erwin

Hello, my experience lately is that only version 280 works with the Elektor shield and not the newest version 282

regards

Henk

Hi Frank

Since the firmware V 1.3 has been successfully uploaded, you can use a terminal emulator, eg Tera Term, to connect to the UNO and directly send commands.

So, start up Tera Term
Set Baud Rate to 115200, 8 Data bits, 1 Stop Bit, No Parity and connect to the COM port

type
v<ENTER> The SDR Shield should respond 1.3

If U can't get this "v" command to respond then there is some really basic problem with your SDR Shield/PC Setup

if the "v" command works correctly, then U can issue the tune command, eg for BBC Radio 4 on 198 KHz

f? 198000 198000<ENTER>? should start receiving BBC Radio 4.

NB the firmware 1.3 is applicable ONLY to the G8JCFSDR, other software will require their own SDR Shield firmware, and hence will not tune the SDR Shield when the V1.3 firmware is uploaded.

Hope this helps get you going

Peter - GM8JCF

Hi Henk

That is very bad news to hear re 282, has anybody else had this problem, ie 280 working but 282 not working ?

IIRC in 280, the baudrate was automatically set inside the G8JCFSDR to 115200, whereas in 282 the operator must configure the baudrate to 115200 in the Serial I/F tab in config, could U please try that.

Peter - GM8JCF

It was not the baudrate but there was no spectrum display

i tryed al recommended solutions before finding a post where adviced was to download 280 that was in that post


regards Henk

Hi Herigs

This is getting concerning to me :-(

Does the test using Tera Term and the v command work ? see earlier post in this thread

What sampling rate are U using ? Use 48000 until U have got everything working. Also with W10, run MMSYS.CPL, select your input device - Recording tab -? Advanced tav - and make sure the sampling rate is also set to 48000

73

Peter - GM8JCf

Based on Henk's and Herigs' comments, I uninstalled Build 282 and installed 280. Now I'm seeing a normal SDR-type spectrum including a background noise level and some signals in the G8JCFSDR display. Also I am hearing typical audio on my PC speakers.

However, the Uno and/or Elektor SDR Shield do not appear to respond to frequency-change commands. When I change the frequency in G8JCFSDR, there is no change in the positions of observed signals on the spectrum display.

One note is that, although Build 282 was uninstalled using the procedure in the installer, the PC appears to have retained some settings. Of particular note, I was not prompted to install the Uno firmware, so my Uno must still be loaded with v1.3 as installed by Build 282. Would this be ok with Build 280, or should I use the XLoader to manually upload the si5351vfoGM8JCF.hex file included with Build 280?

Also, I'm wondering if I might have any issues with the connection between the Uno and the Elektor SDR Shield, such as an incompletely soldered pin on one of the headers. I have the latest SDR Shield (170515-1, v2.0). The article linked on this page includes a schematic. If I'm reading it right, there are actually very few connections between the Uno and the SDR Shield. Header K2 supplies only +3.3v, +5v and ground. Headers K4 and K5 appear to have no connections. Header K3 has a ground, plus two lines (SCL on pin 10, SDA on pin 9) that are connected through 330-ohm resistors to the Si5351A chip. Is the clock waveform generated in the Uno, and should I be seeing a waveform on either or both of these pins?

Frank

I Have used the seperate loader to put also the firmware that is with 280 intothe Uno

regards Henk

Thanks, Henk. I just used the XLoader to upload the 280 firmware to the Uno, and everything appears to be acting normally -- I'm seeing and hearing signals, and frequency-change commands are now carried out correctly. So it looks good at this point.

Frank

Hi Frank

U've come across a bug !!

When U uninstall build 282 and install 280, the firmware in the UNO isn't changed as U discovered. When the G8JCFSDR starts up it requests the Version from the SDR Shield and just test that the version is equal to or greater than a required version number, so 280 looks for V 1.2 or greater, and of course the shield will respond with 1.3 which is greater, but unfortunately, V1.3 is NOT backwards compatible with V1.2 - my fault - so it won't work. Using the Xloader method one can then manually upload the correct firmware.

I'll have to fix this in future, thanks for pointing it out to me.

I am becoming increasingly concerned that you need to downgrade to 280 from 282 for things to work, we'll need to do some serious investigations !!

Peter

Thanks, Peter. I'm not a software developer but I work with quite a few, so I know how that goes!

Frank

lol !!

Hi All

Just to make sure that nothing in the latest version of Windows 10 is causing a problem, I just started up build 282 and can confirm that everything does work correctly - phew !!.

I am running :
Edition??? Windows 10 Pro
Version??? 20H2
Installed on??? ?2020-?11-?10
OS build??? 19042.685
Experience??? Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.551.0

which I believe is the very latest W10 version.

For those of you unable to get Build 282 to function, I would really appreciate it if U could run the G8JCFSDR in trace mode and email me the resulting log file please, which might give me a clue as to why 282 is not working on your machine.



Use the Start Menu "G8JCFSDR Logfile" to view the log file.

Thank You

Peter - GM8JCF