I must be missing a step, because it ain't working

NC1 · Jul 6, 2016

Today my RTL2832U / R820T2 TCXO dongle arrived. With each passing hour I am no further along than getting the dongle and software installed. This is getting to be a big disappointment.

Everything installed just fine, but I get nothing, absolutely nothing. Even with a 2 watt HT across the room on MURS, I get zip, nada, zilch. Nothing with NOAA weather either, which has a solid signal here.

So, anybody have any ideas before I send it back? The attached pictures may answer some of your questions, and there IS an good antenna attached.

It seems the software is not talking to the dongle, or vice versa.

I am really at a loss as to why this is not working. I uninstalled and reinstalled both, shut down and rebooted.
Still not a hing of receiving a signal.

Markb · Jul 6, 2016

1. Did you install the correct driver using Zadig?

2. Have you tried a real antenna?

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

dave3825 · Jul 6, 2016

I dont use that program enough to trouble shoot. Have you tried sdrsharp? I am sure someone will come along and offer help. It does look like its receiving.

You will need to tune to a known working freq in order to know what your ppm setting will be. Have you turned up the gain under ExyIO? Can you hit that ExtIO and snap a pic?

Markb · Jul 6, 2016

3. Are your gain settings turned up to a decent level?

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

NC1 · Jul 6, 2016

Markb said:
1. Did you install the correct driver using Zadig?

2. Have you tried a real antenna?

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

1 - I installed the 32 bit drivers for my 32 bit Windows Vista from Zadig

2 - With a 2 watt HT in the same room, I'm sure even a wet piece of spaghetti would have worked, lol

Any other drivers needed?

NC1 · Jul 6, 2016

dave3825 said:
I dont use that program enough to trouble shoot. Have you tried sdrsharp? I am sure someone will come along and offer help. It does look like its receiving.

You will need to tune to a known working freq in order to know what your ppm setting will be. Have you turned up the gain under ExyIO? Can you hit that ExtIO and snap a pic?

I tried installing sdrsharp, but it had a problem and wanted me to download more software before I could proceed. Something tells me that it's a sign of trouble and will be a heap of problems, only to have it not install in the end. I have been through that situation too many times - I have learned to forget about it once that crap starts.

I don't think this is receiving at all. I tune to the peaks, and all it does is raise the squelch to the point that I don't hear anything. I'm beginning to think this one is a dud.

I messed with the gain, no difference. I'll look at the ExyIO, but I don't think that would solve the receive problem, I gave it a S20+++++ signal and it did not even blink.

I may have to get the screwdriver out since it isn't working anyway, lol

NC1 · Jul 6, 2016

Markb said:
3. Are your gain settings turned up to a decent level?

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Yup. Not even a burp with any gain setting.

NC1 · Jul 6, 2016

So, I pulled the SDR dongle out while the software was running, and there was no change.

I also noticed it was not even warm to the touch - room temp at best. I know it is connecting because the computer plays two tones when it detects something being plugged in or removed - and it detects the SDR dongle.

I thought I would be enjoying this by now, but it is rapidly losing it's luster after wasting 7 hours.

Grrrrrrrrr!

Markb · Jul 6, 2016

NC1 said:
1 - I installed the 32 bit drivers for my 32 bit Windows Vista from Zadig

2 - With a 2 watt HT in the same room, I'm sure even a wet piece of spaghetti would have worked, lol

Any other drivers needed?

Well, there are no 32 bit drivers in Zadig (other than libusb-win32, which is the wrong one). Are you sure you installed the WinUSB driver and not something else?

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

nosig55 · Jul 6, 2016

Try a different usb port and reload driver.
SDR# has to download the latest version to install, it pops up a cmd window but is OK

NC1 · Jul 6, 2016

Markb said:
Well, there are no 32 bit drivers in Zadig (other than libusb-win32, which is the wrong one). Are you sure you installed the WinUSB driver and not something else?

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Tried WinUSB and it did not work, along with another option that was there. I'll try again though. Maybe tonight if I have time.

stephend · Jul 6, 2016

NC1

Looking at the photo, it looks like your bandwidth is set too wide?

Stephen

NC1 · Jul 6, 2016

stephend said:
NC1

Looking at the photo, it looks like your bandwidth is set too wide?

Stephen

Even if it was wide, I should have had a huge spike when I keyed up 2 watts in the same room. It did nothing.

I'm going to uninstall everything tomorrow and give it one more try, after that it goes back and I'm done with SDR until they can figure out how to make it work on a standard computer like mine without having to do a funky chicken dance and waste 2 days.

Seriously, this is the best they can do?

nosig55 · Jul 6, 2016

"a standard computer like mine "

Maybe get an automatic if you can't drive a "stick"

stephend · Jul 6, 2016

NC1
I also see that you have a signal showing even if it doesn't seem like much. Move the mouse over one of the peak signals, narrow the output bandwidth to 24000 (you might have to move the slider a little) and open squelch (click on lower side of signal meter needle tip). Volume looks high enough. You should be able to hear something? Hope this helps.

natedawg1604 · Jul 7, 2016

NC1 said:
I tried installing sdrsharp, but it had a problem and wanted me to download more software before I could proceed. Something tells me that it's a sign of trouble and will be a heap of problems, only to have it not install in the end. I have been through that situation too many times - I have learned to forget about it once that crap starts.
....

Okay, just take a deep breath and back up a bit: what, specifically, did it ask you to install? What error messages did you see?

pinkfish457 · Jul 7, 2016

It looks like the SDR device is running under the Sound, video & game controllers, it should be running under - Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Go to the Windows Device Manager, see if it is. If it is not, go to the sound and video & game controllers and delete it from there. Restart your PC and reinstall using Zadig. I found running Zadig as administrator sometime messes things up.

The Zadig in SDR# is the one I use.

dave3825 · Jul 7, 2016

NC1 said:
Even if it was wide, I should have had a huge spike when I keyed up 2 watts in the same room. It did nothing.

I'm going to uninstall everything tomorrow and give it one more try, after that it goes back and I'm done with SDR until they can figure out how to make it work on a standard computer like mine without having to do a funky chicken dance and waste 2 days.

Seriously, this is the best they can do?

It sound like the dongle drivers are not installing correctly. You also don't install sdrsharp like hdsdr. With sdrsharp, it works right out of the folder after its unzipped. You may need a few dll files that are not in the latest sdrsharp. Or maybe someone can zip up a folder for you.

In any event, remove the dongle and download Zadig - USB driver installation made easy Then plug the dongle into another usb port. When you run this, you may need to check "list all devices" in the options. The dongle will look like the pic below. I have 2 so that's why there are 4 entries. Here is a video showing how it works. He is installing something else. You will pick from the drop down, your dongle (Bulk-in, Interface (interface 0).... Dont remember what people have said, but some people say to do only (interface 1), some say only (interface 0) Or vica versa. I did both and mine works fine..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjHHbOVs7nQ

.

DaveNF2G · Jul 7, 2016

Also, if you are running Windows XP, then you must use Zadig-XP to install the drivers.

natedawg1604 · Jul 7, 2016

dave3825 said:
It sound like the dongle drivers are not installing correctly. You also don't install sdrsharp like hdsdr. With sdrsharp, it works right out of the folder after its unzipped. You may need a few dll files that are not in the latest sdrsharp. Or maybe someone can zip up a folder for you.

In any event, remove the dongle and download Zadig - USB driver installation made easy Then plug the dongle into another usb port. When you run this, you may need to check "list all devices" in the options. The dongle will look like the pic below. I have 2 so that's why there are 4 entries. Here is a video showing how it works. He is installing something else. You will pick from the drop down, your dongle (Bulk-in, Interface (interface 0).... Dont remember what people have said, but some people say to do only (interface 1), some say only (interface 0) Or vica versa. I did both and mine works fine..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjHHbOVs7nQ

.

Yeah installing & using SDR# should not be complicated, this is probably a very simple driver problem/conflict, as others have noted. In my experience (albeit with Windows 7) once the driver is properly installed you never have to worry about it again, regardless of what program you use, and regardless of how many dongles you use.

Also once the driver issue is resolved, I would recommend downloading & using rtl_test, it allows you to easily and quickly verify dongle connectivity status.

I must be missing a step, because it ain't working

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