Issue with streaming on Apple M1

[no111u3]

I have sdrplay likely adapter. It fully detected by soapy:

% SoapySDRUtil --probe="driver=sdrplay"
######################################################
##     Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library     ##
######################################################

Probe device driver=sdrplay
[INFO] devIdx: 0
[INFO] SerNo: B0000P0003
[INFO] hwVer: 1
[INFO] rspDuoMode: 0
[INFO] tuner: 1
[INFO] rspDuoSampleFreq: 0.000000

----------------------------------------------------
-- Device identification
----------------------------------------------------
  driver=SDRplay
  hardware=RSP1
  sdrplay_api_api_version=3.070000
  sdrplay_api_hw_version=1

----------------------------------------------------
-- Peripheral summary
----------------------------------------------------
  Channels: 1 Rx, 0 Tx
  Timestamps: NO
  Other Settings:
     * RF Gain Select - RF Gain Select
       [key=rfgain_sel, default=1, type=string, options=(0, 1, 2, 3)]
     * IQ Correction - IQ Correction Control
       [key=iqcorr_ctrl, default=true, type=bool]
     * AGC Setpoint - AGC Setpoint (dBfs)
       [key=agc_setpoint, default=-30, type=int, range=[-60, 0]]

----------------------------------------------------
-- RX Channel 0
----------------------------------------------------
  Full-duplex: NO
  Supports AGC: YES
  Stream formats: CS16, CF32
  Native format: CS16 [full-scale=32767]
  Antennas: RX
  Corrections: DC removal
  Full gain range: [0, 42] dB
    IFGR gain range: [20, 59] dB
    RFGR gain range: [0, 3] dB
  Full freq range: [0.01, 2000] MHz
    RF freq range: [0.01, 2000] MHz
    CORR freq range:  MHz
  Sample rates: 0.0625, 0.096, 0.125, 0.192, 0.25, ..., 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 MSps
  Filter bandwidths: 0.2, 0.3, 0.6, 1.536, 5, 6, 7, 8 MHz

But than I start streaming from cubicsdr I have an issue:

[INFO] Using format CF32.
[ERROR] error in activateStream() - Init() failed: sdrplay_api_Fail
SDRThread : Device Stream set to MTU: 65536

After this error SoapySDRUtil --probe="driver=sdrplay" doesn't work perfectly

% SoapySDRUtil --probe="driver=sdrplay"
######################################################
##     Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library     ##
######################################################

Probe device driver=sdrplay
Error probing device: no available RSP devices found

But device is still present in system:

% lsusb
Bus 000 Device 005: ID 1df7:2500 1df7 Vendor-Specific Device  Serial: 0000000001

[fventuri]

@no111u3 - that error typically occurs when one of the settings of the RSP (for instance one of the gain values) is out of range.

A good way to troubleshoot this problem is to enable verbose debug mode in the SDRplay API by commenting out line 356 in Streaming.cpp and uncommenting line 357 (https://github.com/pothosware/SoapySDRPlay3/blob/master/Streaming.cpp#L357); then rebuild and reinstall the SoapySDRPlay3 module, and the next time this problem occurs, the API will write a detailed error message to the system log file (on Linux it would be /var/log/messages; I imagine on your Mac it will be some log file under /var/log).

This detailed error message usually contains the exact reason why the call to sdrplay_api_Init() failed.

Hope this helps, Franco

[no111u3]

@fventuri thank you for detail instruction, it looks as error on cubicsdr side:

2023-06-14 10:48:23.809969+0200 0x621d4    Default     0x0                  19941  0    sdrplay_apiService: [0x16dd3b000]: devIdx0: sdrplay_apiService_rsp: checkTunerParamLimits: ERROR: Tuner1: rfFreq rfHz out of range (0.000000:2000000000.000000) = 4294967295.000000
2023-06-14 10:48:23.809981+0200 0x621d4    Default     0x0                  19941  0    sdrplay_apiService: [0x16dd3b000]: devIdx0: sdrplay_apiService_rsp: Init: ERROR: Tuner1: checkDeviceParamLimits returns error 3
...
2023-06-14 10:50:01.166046+0200 0x628ac    Default     0x0                  19941  0    sdrplay_apiService: [0x16dd3b000]: devIdx0: sdrplay_apiService_rsp: checkTunerParamLimits: ERROR: Tuner1: rfFreq rfHz out of range (0.000000:2000000000.000000) = 4294967295.000000
2023-06-14 10:50:01.166056+0200 0x628ac    Default     0x0                  19941  0    sdrplay_apiService: [0x16dd3b000]: devIdx0: sdrplay_apiService_rsp: Init: ERROR: Tuner1: checkDeviceParamLimits returns error 3

I try to change frequency but has no result as you can see in the upper logs btw the streaming from utility works correctly:

% SoapySDRUtil --args="driver=sdrplay" --direction=RX --rate=10e6
######################################################
##     Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library     ##
######################################################

[INFO] devIdx: 0
[INFO] SerNo: B0000P0003
[INFO] hwVer: 1
[INFO] rspDuoMode: 0
[INFO] tuner: 1
[INFO] rspDuoSampleFreq: 0.000000
[INFO] Using format CS16.
Stream format: CS16
Num channels: 1
Element size: 4 bytes
Begin RX rate test at 10 Msps
Starting stream loop, press Ctrl+C to exit...
9.01388 Msps    36.0555 MBps
9.5105 Msps 38.042 MBps

[fventuri]

@no111u3 - that frequency you see is the value -1 written as an unsigned int.

I too suspect it comes from some problem with CubicSDR, and I would look at your CubicSDR default configuration, which is usually stored in the XML file $HOME/.CubicSDR/config.xml. Please review the contents of that file, and if it is obvious what's wrong with it, fix it with an editor. If you are uncertain of where the problem might be, or you don't feel comfortable editing it, you could just rename it to something else, like config.xml.broken, restart CubicSDR, and it should create a new config file for you, that hopefully works.

Franco

[no111u3]

@fventuri thank you, I already debug this issue, yes it was -1 but they use double and on some layer of drivers it converts to int and back. But in origin it happens after setup 530 Ghz for allowed only 4.2 (I don't know who is guy to decide this).

Thank you for your time. BTW if we cover this issue on our side it will be better for future diagnostic.

[fventuri]

@no111u3 - good idea. I just pushed this commit to the master branch: https://github.com/pothosware/SoapySDRPlay3/commit/ab0f5164114ed7fe59938da231e19afc2b6690d4 that makes sure that setFrequency() is called with a valid frequency value.

Franco