NanoPi NEO as remote SDR server for RTL2832u – Jan Taczanowski's tech blog

Hi!
Today I will show how to make remote SDR radio server for RTL2832u dongle with very small and cheap device such as NanoPi NEO.

The main purpose of this is that I want place the NanoPI with RTL dongle and antenna attached to it on remote location – on high building 250 meters far away from my home. I have wireless bridge connecting my home with this place.

Notice: Wireless have to be able to send about 16Mb/s of tcp trafic from NanoPi to PC.

On NanoPi I installed Armian Linux. After that I was set up rtl_tcp server:
900001 – this is lowest sample-rate which can be used, I used lowest because my wireless bridge wasn’t able to pass more traffic.

 apt-get install rtl-sdr; rtl_tcp -a 0.0.0.0 -s 900001

1	apt-get install rtl-sdr; rtl_tcp -a 0.0.0.0 -s 900001

 _   _                   ____  _   _   _            
| \ | | __ _ _ __   ___ |  _ \(_) | \ | | ___  ___  
|  \| |/ _` | '_ \ / _ \| |_) | | |  \| |/ _ \/ _ \ 
| |\  | (_| | | | | (_) |  __/| | | |\  |  __/ (_) |
|_| \_|\__,_|_| |_|\___/|_|   |_| |_| \_|\___|\___/ 
                                                    

Welcome to ARMBIAN 5.25 stable Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS 4.9.4-sun8i   
System load:   0.44            	Up time:       7 days		
Memory usage:  4 % of 497Mb  	IP:            192.168.51.30
CPU temp:      34°C           	
Usage of /:    17% of 14G    	


[ 23 updates to install: apt-get upgrade ]

Last login: Fri Feb 17 00:16:31 2017 from 192.168.51.24

root@nanopineo:~# apt-get install rtl-sdr
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  rtl-sdr
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 23 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/50.0 kB of archives.
After this operation, 159 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Selecting previously unselected package rtl-sdr.
(Reading database ... 75756 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../rtl-sdr_0.5.3-5_armhf.deb ...
Unpacking rtl-sdr (0.5.3-5) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Setting up rtl-sdr (0.5.3-5) ...

root@nanopineo:~# rtl_tcp -a 0.0.0.0 -s 900001
Found 1 device(s):
  0:  Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001

Using device 0: Lifeview LV5TDeluxe
Found Fitipower FC0013 tuner
Exact sample rate is: 900001.019241 Hz
Tuned to 100000000 Hz.
listening...
Use the device argument 'rtl_tcp=0.0.0.0:1234' in OsmoSDR (gr-osmosdr) source
to receive samples in GRC and control rtl_tcp parameters (frequency, gain, ...).

_ _ ____ _ _ _

| \ | | __ _ _ __ ___ | _ \(_) | \ | | ___ ___

| \| |/ _` | '_ \ / _ \| |_) | | | \| |/ _ \/ _ \

| |\ | (_| | | | | (_) | __/| | | |\ | __/ (_) |

|_| \_|\__,_|_| |_|\___/|_| |_| |_| \_|\___|\___/

Welcome to ARMBIAN 5.25 stable Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS 4.9.4-sun8i

System load: 0.44 Up time: 7 days

Memory usage: 4 % of 497Mb IP: 192.168.51.30

CPU temp: 34°C

Usage of /: 17% of 14G

[ 23 updates to install: apt-get upgrade ]

Last login: Fri Feb 17 00:16:31 2017 from 192.168.51.24

root@nanopineo:~# apt-get install rtl-sdr

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree

Reading state information... Done

The following NEW packages will be installed:

rtl-sdr

0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 23 not upgraded.

Need to get 0 B/50.0 kB of archives.

After this operation, 159 kB of additional disk space will be used.

Selecting previously unselected package rtl-sdr.

(Reading database ... 75756 files and directories currently installed.)

Preparing to unpack .../rtl-sdr_0.5.3-5_armhf.deb ...

Unpacking rtl-sdr (0.5.3-5) ...

Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...

Setting up rtl-sdr (0.5.3-5) ...

root@nanopineo:~# rtl_tcp -a 0.0.0.0 -s 900001

Found 1 device(s):

0: Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001

Using device 0: Lifeview LV5TDeluxe

Found Fitipower FC0013 tuner

Exact sample rate is: 900001.019241 Hz

Tuned to 100000000 Hz.

listening...

Use the device argument 'rtl_tcp=0.0.0.0:1234' in OsmoSDR (gr-osmosdr) source

to receive samples in GRC and control rtl_tcp parameters (frequency, gain, ...).

The next step was to setup and start gqrx on my home computer:
Notice: Input rate must be the same as set on rtl_tcp server. 192.168.51.30 – this is IP address of my NanoPi.

And now, we can hear everything around us

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