Raspberry Pi 2 + Airspy??

[mfJones]

Hello. First time poster so I'll give a brief intro. I am a senior electrical engineering student just getting his feet wet in the field of RF. I have taken classes in DSP and I am currently studying Modern Communication Systems such as AM, FM, ASK, PSK, etc...

Despite my noobiness in the field, I was given the following senior design project: design and build a spectrum monitor using low-cost hardware capable of displaying to a website. Our current design uses an RPi 2 and Airspy combination. Does anyone one know of any projects or works that have used these two together successfully? All I have been able to turn up are a multitude of projects using the significantly cheaper Realtek dongle.

[rtlsdrblog]

Haven't seen any projects with the AS and Rpi2 yet. The AS is still pretty new so it may just be some time. There are Linux drivers for the AS available.

If you can get the AS running on the Rpi2 then you might be able to adapt some code written for the RTL-SDR. If I were you i'd get the web stuff working with an RTL-SDR first, then adapt it to the AS if you have time.

[mfJones]

If I were you i'd get the web stuff working with an RTL-SDR first, then adapt it to the AS if you have time.

That's probably a good idea. We are developing a design using the RTL-SDR as an alternative in case the AS doesn't work out.
We recently had a design review and the primary criticism received was over our choice of RPi; many don't believe that it can handle processing the output from the AS. It was my hope that someone has already disproved this criticism :/

[rtlsdrblog]

Processing power is definitely a concern with the AS as it does a lot of processing that would normally be done on the SDR in software instead. You might only be able to run it in 2.5 MSPS mode.

[mfJones]

Putting the instantaneous BW ~equal to that of the RTL-SDR. At which point, we would have to consider whether we want to shell out the extra money for just the extra bit resolution and front-end RF goodies...

Thanks for the input. If we come up with anything worth sharing or if I come up with more questions, I will post it up in the projects section.

[rtlsdrblog]

Excellent, looking forward to hearing about any progress you make.