I need to be able to communicate with this oscillator ...

as part of a SDR transceiver that uses it.

Both the oscillator (a separate group) and the transceiver
have only been tested (as best I can learn) using a MS version
of windows.

I've asked both groups/vendors and so far they only seem to
be familiar with MS.

WDYT?

Meanwhile, I'm also looking for an affordable USB audio interface
good to at least 48khz (preferably 96 khz) - that's Linux friendly.

Thanks,

David KD4E

Reading your question inspired me to blow the dust off one one of my old SoftRock receivers and see if i could one to work on the Pi4b under Buster.

The SoftRock that i tested with is a "Lite+USB Xtall V9.0" with a 40M piggyback filter. This uses the DG8SAQ USB to I2C protocol to control the on board SI570 chip. This should be the same or quite similar to the device you are desiring to use.

The short answer is yes it works with hamlib, but not with FLRig (so far). Though FLDigi can be configured to use hamlib to control the DG8SAQ-SI570.


Once the SoftRock was powered up, i plugged the USB cable into the Pi and checked with dmesg to see if the SoftRock was found:


?? dmesg
....
[? 677.642756] usb 1-1.2: new low-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[? 677.781907] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=16c0, idProduct=05dc, bcdDevice= 1.00
[? 677.781923] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[? 677.781936] usb 1-1.2: Product: DG8SAQ-I2C
[? 677.781949] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: www.obdev.at
[? 677.781960] usb 1-1.2: SerialNumber: PE0FKO-0

Good! but no ttyUSBx port was assigned.

Doing some web searching i came across a site that remined me that we have to add a udev rule allow use of the device.

?? http://n8mdp.com/sdrLinux.php

lots of good info at this site. You dont need to install the "usbsoftrock" to test this out you just need to add the udev rule.

open a termnal and type:

? sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-softrock.rules

next copy and paste in the following line:

? SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="16c0", ATTR{idProduct}=="05dc", MODE="0666", GROUP="dialout"

then save the file:

? ctl x y enter

then reboot.

In a terminal start hamlib:

? rigctl -vvvvv -m 2509 get_freq

mine returned:
....
rig_open called
port_open called
usb_port_open called
find_and_open_device called
find_and_open_device: looking for device 16c0:05dc... 1d6b:0002, 1d6b:0003, 0d8c:013c, 046d:c52b, 16c0:05dc, vendor >www.obdev.at< product >DG8SAQ-I2C< -> found
si570xxxusb_open called
si570xxxusb_open: detected PE0FKO-like firmware
si570xxxusb_open: using Xtall at 114.399 MHz
rig_get_vfo called
Opened rig model 2509, 'Si570 AVR-USB'
rig_strstatus called
Backend version: 0.3, Status: Beta
rig_get_freq called
si570xxxusb_get_freq_by_value: Freq raw: 7b148e03 endian converted: 59643003
7110000
rig_close called
port_close called
rig_cleanup called


Yay! It works

Note: no ttyUSBx was assigned, this device does not appear as a tty device, but rather uses a unique protocol over the USB, and Hamlib is aware and does not require you define a port or baud rate on the command line to communicate.

rigctld is a once and done, to use Hamlib with FLDigi, or any other program that will work with Hamlib you need to start it in daemon mode:

open a terminal and type:
?
?rigctld -vvvvv -m 2509

the -vvvv is optional it sets the verbose mode to display what is going on.
rigctld will establish itself then standby for a client like FLDigi, so dont close the terminal window.

Now open FLDigi and go to the menu Configure/Rig Control/ then click on the "Hamlib" tab then check the "Use Hamlib" box at the top. the remainder should be OK with the defaults. Save/ Close.

Now try changing the frequency in the FLDigi frequency display.

hope this helps.

73 de K3TL

David,

should Kevin's reply not be sufficient, then I can provide my notes, written in 2017, on compiling & using usbsoftrock under Ubuntu Linux.

73, Robin, G8DQX

PS: most USB audio dongles "just work" these days with a modern Linux. For other purposes, I use UCA202 line level dongles. YMMV, of course! (Beware of mono input dongles.)

Thank you - very much appreciated!

I'll get the hardware all gathered together then start working
on coaxing Linux to play nicely with it.

David

David,

There are several ways the device can be controlled, what is your application?

de K3TL

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I could certInly be wrong but the GenesisRadio software is winows only.

You might want to look into Quisk. It is about the only Linux based SDR radio software that supports sound card IQ, has full TX capability,? is still maintained and up to date. Not as pretty as some of the recent SDR radios, but very capable.? Since 2012 or so, most development has been focused on the RTL- SDR and soundcard IQ has been left behind.

To test the dusted off SoftRock, i installed Quisk and used an old Soundblaster USB 96k 24 bit. All worked FB and Quisk controlled the SI570 once ths udev rule as posted earlier was in place. The audio was quit pleasant and had fun cruising the bands

Good luck with your build

73 de K3TL

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