Tagged: rtl2832u

Modifying a Laptop by Embedding an RTL-SDR and FunCube Dongle

Blogger “French Fry Cattaneo” wanted a portable laptop with built in SDR capability. To achieve this he opened up his Panasonic ToughBook CF-30 laptop and embedded an RTL-SDR FubCube dongle into the laptop using the space left by unused expansion ports.

Cattaneo connected the two SDRs to a small hub and soldered the usb hub connections directly onto a laptop USB port. He also installed an external SMA connector for the RTL-SDR and connected the FunCube’s antenna port to a cellular antenna that was built into the laptop.

He notes that there could be RF interference issues from the laptop, but has so far had no trouble receiving the strong signals he is interested in.

Laptop with built in RTL-SDR and FunCube Dongles
Laptop with built in RTL-SDR and FunCube Dongles

FlightAware Introduces PiAware for use with RTL-SDR and dump1090 on a Raspberry Pi

FlightAware is an online service providing real time flight tracking. The flights are primarily tracked by volunteers who run ADS-B decoding hardware which is networked through the internet to the FlightAware servers.

Now FlightAware have written in to RTL-SDR.com to let us know about their new PiAware software which enables a Raspberry Pi running dump1090 to contribute data to the FlightAware network. Dump1090 is a popular RTL-SDR compatible ADS-B decoder program for Linux systems.

A major perk for running their software and contributing data is that FlightAware will buy you a licensed copy of PlanePlotter.

The press release provided is quoted below.

If you are running an inexpensive Raspberry Pi ADS-B receiver with dump1090 then you can install the PiAware Package from FlightAware to freely view nearby flight traffic and transmit this data to FlightAware’s tracking network.  Most aircraft within Europe by 2017 and USA by 2020 will be required to have ADS-B transmitters onboard.
FlightAware’s user-hosted worldwide ADS-B receiver network tracks about 90,000 unique aircraft per day and feeds this live data into the FlightAware website in combination with other public/private flight tracking data sources.  FlightAware has over 500 user-hosted ADS-B sites online across 60 countries, with top contributors tracking over 10,000 aircraft per day.  To see how ADS-B data is put to use, check out the FlightAware Live Map.
The PiAware installation process takes only a few minutes.  If you don’t have PlanePlotter, you can download it and then send FlightAware your installation’s serial number and we’ll buy you a license.  FlightAware will also give users a free Enterprise Account ($90/month value) in return for installing PiAware.
flightaware
FlightAware Real Time Map Example

Using an RTL-SDR as a Cheap Entropy Source

One of the many uses of the RTL-SDR is as a random number generator for generating entropy. Entropy is needed in computing for many application such as in encryption and security.

Noel Bourke has written an article on his blog about using the RTL-SDR as an entropy source on Linux. Noel uses RTL-Entropy and shows how to set up Linux to use the RTL-SDR as the entropy source for /dev/random.

Receiving NTSC Analogue TV with GNU Radio and an RTL-SDR

Over on GitHub user kik has uploaded a tutorial and code showing how to decode NTSC analogue TV in GNU Radio and an RTL-SDR. The tutorial is in Japanese, but Google translate should be good enough to understand the text. Kik shows us what GNU radio blocks to use and provides the python code needed to display the images on a simulated scope.

If you just want to receive analogue TV signals, try TVSharp.

gnuradiontsc
GNU Radio Decoding NTSC and showing images on a Scope

Reverse Engineering Wireless Wall Outlets And Automatically Cloning OOK Signals

Wireless wall outlets are electrical outlets that can be turned on or off by a wireless remote. Fabien is an experimenter who was looking for a way to control the power of his home devices from a remote location using HTTP. He thought of building his own from scratch, but quickly realized that the device would need to be certified for insurance purposes. Instead he bought a cheap commercially made certified wireless wall outlet and reverse engineered the protocol using an RTL-SDR.

To do that he used the existing OOK-Decoder software available on GitHub. From the analysis provided by OOK-Decoder, Fabien was able to successfully reimplement the transmission using an AVR microcontroller and 433 MHz transceiver circuit from Sparkfun.

After being successful with this, Fabien decided to take the project a step further and create the OOKLONE – a device that could automatically clone any 433.92 MHz OOK signal and replay it. The video below shows the OOKLONE in action.

RTL-SDR Software Radio with CTypes

Thomas Winningham, author of the rtl_fm_python web application for the RTL-SDR has given a talk at the PyOhio 2014 conference. In Thomas’ presentation he gives an overview of the RTL-SDR dongle and then goes on to discuss his RTL-SDR Python library and software.

If you are interested in developing your own software for the RTL-SDR this talk may be of interest to you as he discusses several aspects of the code used in his RTL-SDR library.

Software Radio with CTypes

XiOne – A RTL2832U based Portable Software Defined Radio: Indigogo Funding Campaign

A new funding campaign for an RTL2832U based software defined radio has gone up on Indiegogo. The new SDR is called the XiOne and is intended to be the first SDR that is easy to use with smartphones and open to the maker community.

With its 100 kHz to 1.7 GHz receiving range, the XiOne has a similar tuning range to the standard RTL-SDR dongles when an upconverter or the direct sampling mod is used. What makes the XiOne different is that it will have a built in MIPS processor, an internal rechargeable battery for portability and it will connect directly through WiFi to a smart device. They are also developing SDR GUI software for mobile devices including decoders for things like ADS-B, AIS and NOAA Satellites.

The IndieGoGo backer price for a XiOne is $179 USD, but if you act fast there are 100 units available at the promotional price of $139 USD. At the moment they have a working prototype with completed firmware, portable Java based SDR GUI, iPhone demodulation software, a MacOS ADS-B receiver, an iPad AIS receiver and an iPad spectrum analyzer. The fundraiser is to help them begin serial production.

There is a Reddit thread discussing the project here.

XiOne Prototype Internals
XiOne Prototype Internals
XiOne Casing
XiOne Casing

Hak5: ToorCamp Finale And More Fun With SDR

In this episode of Hak5 amongst other things presenter Shannon explores yet another SDR GUI alternative at around the 14 minute mark. This time she shows SDR-RADIO which is an RTL-SDR compatible alternative to SDR# and HDSDR. She shows how to install SDR-RADIO and how to use it. If you are interested in SDR-RADIO we also have installation instructions available on our Quickstart Guide.

ToorCamp Finale And More Fun With SDR, Hak5 1625