USB SDR over IP: Anyone Tried this yet?

[KC1UA]

I've always thought it would be nice to run my Airspy over the LAN instead of having it restricted to just one PC in the house. A recent search found this device:

USB over IP 1-Port - USB Servers - Device Servers - IT PRODUCTS

Supposedly with the accompanying software utility the PC is fooled into thinking the device is directly attached to a USB port. Supposedly.

Has anyone ever tried this? Looking for feedback prior to taking the plunge; they're available on eBay new for under $60 delivered. I think it "should" work...maybe?

Thanks in advance.

 

[blantonl]

It's probably based on the USBIP open source project.

I successfully used the USBIP project to remotely place a AirNav Radarbox connected to a Linux server.

 

[krokus]

If this can tunnel, it would be an interesting way to place things in other locations.

I wonder how significantly latency might affect the SDR software.

Sent via Tapatalk

 

[KC1UA]

Thanks guys. Lindsay, I haven't seen any direct correlation between this device and the project you refer to but I'll keep looking. Krokus, I agree with your concern regarding latency although my primary use would simply be across my LAN and not necessarily over the internet.

I guess the only way to find out is to give it a whirl. I ordered one, and I'll follow up. If it doesn't work for the Airspy, I'm sure I'll find some other use for it.

 

[k9wkj]

remember these things use a ton of bandwidth!
much more than just the hunk of spectrum it serves
i use https://github.com/kpreid/shinysdr
its a server that runs on a linux,bsd,os10 server where the dongle is plugged in
i have it running on a dual core atom thing running Debian
and you run the dongle in a browser
here is 15m during this weekends ssb contest
https://goo.gl/oZoGPR
this setup only sends the decoded audio and the FFT waterfall data
so it uses minimal bandwidth. i use this over a 300ft non line of sight wifi link running N speeds
and it can have issues with packet loss

i have another way to do it that uses a modified rtl_sdr module
that forwards the stream from the remote to your local machine and that lets you use most of the normal programs as if the dongle was local (it has issues yet, the developer has gotten busy for now and doesnt have time to work on it much) i dont recomend it

the other way was RTL_TCP which is part of your driver set
which apparently doesnt work at all anymore, and nobody seems to care !!

 

[Pape]

I did use the rtl_tcp for fun on my e4000, it does work but unstable.

Couple years back I used a Logitech device to broadcast music to a base receiver. The device on the computer was refereed as a wireless USB hub and each receiving device was show as a USB receiver.
Pretty interesting concept but plague with software issue