[Skimmertalk] "Dongle Server" image available

[John Ackermann N8UR]

Hi Tim --

As far as I can tell, the "Too Many Receivers Selected" is sort of a 
catch-all error message that mainly means the Skimmer and the donglebox 
aren't handshaking.

One cause is what the name implies -- that in the "Skimmer" tab you have 
more band segments selected than you have receivers.

Another is that you have a firewall or related problem and the units 
aren't able to complete the connection.  In fact, this was burning me 
just a couple of days ago.

I found it was helpful to view the rtl_hpsdr log file in a terminal 
window while starting the Skimmer to see what messages are logged. 
Assuming you're running my default configuration, ssh into the donglebox 
and type "tail -f rtl_hpsdr.log".  That will display the last few lines 
of the log file, and display new lines as they are written.

Then, start skimmer and see what happens.  If you see that rtl_hpsdr 
logs something like "Was discovered by..." and "Sending discovery 
acknowledgement" and not further messages, and Skimmer reports an error, 
that could be a firewall or other comms problem.  What you *should* see 
in the log after the discovery acknowledgement are a few more lines 
indicating that a start command has been received.

If you're left with nothing after the "Sending discovery 
acknowledgement" message, you probably need to restart rtl_hpsdr before 
making another attempt for Skimmer to connect.  The 
"restart_rtl_hpsdr.sh" (or something like that) script in the home 
directory makes that fairly painless.  From the command prompt, just do 
"./restart_rtl_hpsdr.sh" and that will kill the current process and 
restart it.

Hope this helps a bit...

73,
John
----

On 02/01/2018 04:24 PM, tim04 at swandhams.com wrote:
> Hi John,
> Many thanks for uploading that image of the RTL_HPSDR server.
> 
> My first RPi arrived yesterday and booted OK, and after some inevitable 
> messing-about, I've got the RTL_HPSDR s/w running OK, with WiFi (not 
> Ethernet) and a LAN address from my DHCP server on the ADSL router.
> 
> I have CW Skimmer Server and RTTY Skimmer Server on a PC also networked 
> via WiFi, and on that PC when either running the CW or the RTTY server 
> looking for a Hermes RX, I get similar entries in the RTL_HPSDR log file.
> Both RTTY and CW skimmers report "SDR Failure: Too many receivers selected"
> (Sorry that I can't cut/paste from RPi to this PC.)
> 
> Excerpt from RTL_HPSDR log file on the RPi -
> "Revealing myself as a Hermes version 2.6 rcvr. -- Skimmer Mode
> My IP Address: 192.168.0.115
> ..............
> Was discovered by 192.168.0.76
> Sent discovery acknowledgement
> ..............
> Received Stop command
> Received Stop command
> "
> And then it restarts and goes round again .....
> 
> In CW Skimmer Server, in the Skimmer tab selected Receiver dropdown, the 
> options shows as
> "01 RTLdngl v26 99:b0"
> where "99:b0" just happens to be the last four digits of the WiFi Mac 
> address on the RPi.
> 
> So can anyone offer any advice ... I feel I'm almost there, but 
> restarting either piece of s/w hasn't come up with a connection yet.
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> 73
> Tim Hugill
> G4FJK
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________________ 
> 
> 
> [Skimmertalk] "Dongle Server" image available
> John Ackermann N8UR jra at febo.com
> Fri Jan 26 16:13:00 EST 2018
> •Previous message (by thread): [Skimmertalk] VHF RBN Update
> •Next message (by thread): [Skimmertalk] Red Pitaya 14:1 HF transformers 
> finally available again
> • Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
> 
>   If anyone would like a (fairly) painless way to play with N1GP's
> rtl_hpsdr software that makes a bunch of RTL-SDR dongles look like an
> HPSDR Hermes with up to 8 receivers, I've uploaded a plug-and-play image
> file to http://febo.com/pages/os_images/
> 
> You should be able to unzip it, load to a 2GB SD card, stick in a
> Raspberry Pi 3, and go to town.  No warranties express or implied...
> 
> (I also uploaded to the same folder an image file for an RPi 2 with GPS
> working as an NTP time server, if anyone's interested in that.  And soon
> to come is a P25 scanner that also runs on an RPi using an RTL-SDR dongle.)
> 
> 73,
> John
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Skimmertalk mailing list
> Skimmertalk at contesting.com
> http://dayton.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/skimmertalk