SDRSharp breaking support of SDRplay?

[Voyager]

I believe the SDRPlay folks have said they are working on an updated "driver", so that should end the issue. Why try to fan the flames of a dying fire only to then then complain of the heat?

And yes, the scanner plugin needs updated. That too is happening.

Is this REALLY any more than the driver availability issues of Windows 10? A new OS comes out and everyone expects it to be the same as the older one. If it were the same, there would be no need for the newer one.

On the other hand, the move to 4.6 now makes it that much longer until the next "upgrade that breaks things". The best way to pull off a Band-Aid is to yank hard and put up with the pain as opposed to drag out the pain.

 

[br0adband]

See, this is how you handle things appropriately (given that a solution does actually exist, of course, because sometimes there really isn't one depending):

https://twitter.com/sdrsharp/status/645028719996895232

They're working on getting SDRPlay back into the fold with SDR#, awesome. My faith has been restored...

 

[WyoDuner]

Well... SDRSharp tweeted: "We prepared a package for SDRPlay users as an interm solution while the new .NET 4.6 driver is being developed."

As far as I can tell it's just the same version of SDR Sharp that was available a week ago but without the RTL, HackRF and Funcube .dlls and a few other items. It great they made it available but the reality is they just basically re-released last week's version of SDRsharp. Again - nice of them to make it available but my humble opinion is this just to curb the bad blood about cutting their nearest competitor out of their software platform unexpectedly.

My faith is NOT RESTORED.

 

[SCPD]

Just for the record i spoke to Youssef and Ian of SDR# personally and after what was discussed between us (about and hour going back a forth) They created the sdrplay release.

This bad blood is honestly not the case... I thought it was and so did most people. Everything is settled and this honestly has nothing to do with the Airspy. The Sdrplay will be in future releases and fully supported. They will have the code that is needed to add native support.

 

[dsalomon]

Jon -

Thanks for responding to this post and thanks for the statement that you do intend to continue supporting SDR#. It is good software. I personally prefer Simon's SDR Console, which already works with SDRPlay, but it's always nice to have options. SDR# has a lot of very well done plugins that are not available in other software. The combination of those plugins and your hardware enables functionality that simply is not available elsewhere at a reasonable price.

73 - David, AG4F

 

[wd9ewk]

Just for the record i spoke to Youssef and Ian of SDR# personally and after what was discussed between us (about and hour going back a forth) They created the sdrplay release.

This bad blood is honestly not the case... I thought it was and so did most people. Everything is settled and this honestly has nothing to do with the Airspy. The Sdrplay will be in future releases and fully supported. They will have the code that is needed to add native support.

I hope you're right. It definitely appeared to start out as bad blood, with SDRsharp's tweet yesterday morning complaining about SDRplay redistributing SDR#. The unofficial SDRplay Facebook group had that download, not SDRplay's web site or its official Facebook group. I saw on the SDRplay forum that the download was removed after a few hours. Perhaps SDR# should have tweeted an apology for the original tweet.

I hope SDR# supports the SDRplay, whether by ExtIO, native support, or whatever. I prefer HDSDR for my satellite work, but I use these two programs and SDR-Console on my Win7 laptop & Win10 tablets. It is good to have a choice of software to use with these receivers, and not be stuck with using only one program.

 

[Voyager]

Like SOOOO many other things, people jump to conclusions, and they are usually wrong.

 

[wd9ewk]

Like SOOOO many other things, people jump to conclusions, and they are usually wrong.

That may be the case. In the case of the tweet by SDR#, an apology to SDRplay in the same manner would be appropriate. For something like that, the "shoot first, then ask questions later" approach taken by SDR# is poor form.

 

[SCPD]

The download is still available.
http://airspy.com/downloads/sdrplaysharp.zip

I hope that picture was a case of hitting the return key to fast. I really really do.....

 

[SCPD]

Its an old tweet. It's pointless to get pissed about it...

Sept 18th tweet

sdrsharp ‏@sdrsharp Sep 18
We prepared a package for SDRPlay users as an interm solution while the new .NET 4.6 driver is being developed. http://airspy.com/downloads/sdrplaysharp.zip …

 

[wd9ewk]

Its an old tweet. It's pointless to get pissed about it...

I'm not pissed about anything. Reread the tweet, and see who was pissed. It is simply poor form to say something like that tweet, find out the statement in the tweet is not correct (SDRplay wasn't redistributing any version of SDR#), and then not apologize for what was said. As for "old"... a day old is now "old"? Guess that's how the times are now...

Yes, an old version of SDR# is available once again from Airspy. Congratulations to them for leaving one way for SDRplay users to still have a working version of SDR#, I guess. One way or another, it appears that SDRplay users will have a way to use the newer versions of SDR# in the near future. Maybe SDRplay is OK with how things have turned out, and others will just sweep that outburst under the rug. Fine. I might take another look at SDR# once SDRplay is compatible with the newer versions.

 

[SCPD]

LOL no no no I meant me getting pissed not you buddy ..... Totally my fault.

 

[SCPD]

I jumped the gun when I saw the twitter picture.I was like WTF is this? are you kidding me....I spent like an hour and half with these two (sdr#) trying to iron out this mess and they post this S***...Everything is A-ok now and yes an apology is in order...

 

[wd9ewk]

I jumped the gun when I saw the twitter picture.I was like WTF is this? are you kidding me....I spent like an hour and half with these two (sdr#) trying to iron out this mess and they post this S***...Everything is A-ok now and yes an apology is in order...

OK, I didn't think you were angry with me. No worries.

I posted the screengrab of that tweet, to show where it came from. The SDR# Twitter feed is a public feed (you don't have to be a Twitter user that follows SDR# to see it), but I didn't want to make a statement about what was said on Saturday via Twitter if I could not back it up with the screengrab. I did engage whoever manages the SDR# Twitter account after that tweet, pointing out that SDRplay didn't have the old SDR# version on its web site. I think they got the message, when they realized there was a difference between the official and unofficial Facebook groups for the SDRplay, and the unofficial SDRplay Facebook group had the file (which was removed later in the day).

I think it benefits both the software developer and the receiver manufacturers to have one working with the other. I get the changes that going to .NET 4.6 entails; that is a potential issue for some software at my office that we are having to address. I get that Airspy and SDRplay are competing in the same part of the marketplace, other than the SDRplay having more coverage above and below the range covered by the Airspy (and a lower price). But it is good to have competition in the hardware and software space - just keep it a friendly competition, that's all.

Thanks!

 

[SCPD]

Pat you nailed it right on the head. I help run and maintain the unofficial FB SDRPlay group. When i saw what was taking place and statements that people started to make I acted on my own and got a hold of the people at SDR#. After a long long long discussion between myself and the people at # the packed a working version of SDR# as a temporary fix to the issue. The developer at SDRPlay is re coding and sending them everything that is needed to get up to speed with the new framework SDR# is using.

Thank god this is all settled now and people can just use the sdr and not have to worry about the politics and behind the scenes drama.

If you would like more details of the conversation you are more then welcome to PM me.

 

[Flatliner]

I rarely use the Airspy dongle since the SDRplay arrived. Now that the UHF hole is plugged, I have no reason to ever need to use it again. The SDRplay is simply better. I also cannot believe how cheap it is also. A veritable bargain.

Fortunately I have a local SWL who was interested in an the Airspy but refused to buy one brand new after seeing some of Youssef Touil's rather odd behaviour around the forums, so he's going to take it. I acquired this Airspy second hand myself, for the same reason. So that'll be two units that I personally know of that he failed to sell, all down to his chav manners.

So, with regard to this omission of SDRplay from the latest version of SDR#, I had "joked" a few times elsewhere about Youssef coding SDR# to make SDRplay look bad. It seems that I wasn't far off of the mark. I reckon that he knew exactly what he was doing. Given Youssef's tendency to get very openly abrasive towards people, when SDRplay was unceremoniously dropped by way of giving little to no notice the the SDRplay team of changes, it was likely because Youseff used this as a tool of temporary disruption. Evidently, he has the personality for it.

Anything that has been since done by him, was likely because he realised that he crossed way over the line this time, and that it will affect sales.

The best of SDR# is written by a Russian plugin coder anyway. I hope that Youseff has sent him a few million roubles in commission for helping sales of Airspys.

Anyway, SDR# is no longer on this machine now - it's been dumped too. I prefer SDR-Radio.

 

[mtindor]

I rarely use the Airspy dongle since the SDRplay arrived. Now that the UHF hole is plugged, I have no reason to ever need to use it again. The SDRplay is simply better. I also cannot believe how cheap it is also. A veritable bargain.

Fortunately I have a local SWL who was interested in an the Airspy but refused to buy one brand new after seeing some of Youssef Touil's rather odd behaviour around the forums, so he's going to take it. I acquired this Airspy second hand myself, for the same reason. So that'll be two units that I personally know of that he failed to sell, all down to his chav manners.

So, with regard to this omission of SDRplay from the latest version of SDR#, I had "joked" a few times elsewhere about Youssef coding SDR# to make SDRplay look bad. It seems that I wasn't far off of the mark. I reckon that he knew exactly what he was doing. Given Youssef's tendency to get very openly abrasive towards people, when SDRplay was unceremoniously dropped by way of giving little to no notice the the SDRplay team of changes, it was likely because Youseff used this as a tool of temporary disruption. Evidently, he has the personality for it.

Anything that has temporary been done by him was likely because he realised that he crossed way over the line this time, and that it will affect sales.

The best of SDR# is written by a Russian plugin coder anyway. I hope that Youseff has sent him a few million roubles in commission for helping sales of Airspys.

Anyway, SDR# is no longer on this machine now - it's been dumped too. I prefer SDR-Radio.

FL,

Historically your posts have been so anti-SDR# / anti-Youssef, so it comes as no surprise that you haven't a good word to say about it.

This isn't a smartassed question -- can you qualify your statement about SDRplay being better? I went to the site and it looks interesting, has nice specs. I haven't been able to find enough video / video-reviews online of the SDRplay in use on VHF/UHF and used for decoding digital signals, so I can't really grasp what makes it better [other than a more charismatic person behind the device].

Mike

 

[Flatliner]

I have actually recently posted that Airspy is good, but that I found SDRplay to be better.

I've done quite a bit of real world comparing of Airspy (which I acquired first) with SDRplay. In very many cases, regardless of how I adjusted gain and decimation, changed USB cables, etc, the SDRplay would resolve weak signals that the Airspy couldn't. A growing number of others have found similar. This different is around 3 db. I even did a swap with a friends unit in case there was something wrong with mine (after all, Youseff had been claiming some remarkable figures) and as I had got mine second-hand, I wondered if was simply faulty, and it was not possible to return it, obviously. Well, the borrowed device was exactly as mine, so it wasn't a duff box.

If we ignore the fact that SDRplay are a nicer bunch to deal with, IMO it's better because it covers 100KHz to 2 GHz (though goes down even lower, i.e. MSF on 60 KHz decodes with Clock perfectly) as opposed to Airspy's 24MHz to 1.8GHz, is more sensitive, and is much cheaper. When it was reduced to £125 to my door, I didn't think for another second.

That's it, really. For me, that's enough.

If I recall, Youseff shafted the SDRtouch guy a couple of years back too.

 

[Voyager]

It's odd that someone would badmouth Youssef because Microsoft .NET 4.6 does not support ExtIO. Neither ExtIO nor .NET were designed by Youssef.

He did nothing other than updating SDR# to use a newer Microsoft package. Is it his fault ExtIO doesn't support .NET 4.6 or vice versa? .NET 4.6 also won't load on XP. I suppose that is Youssef's doing as well? If you can prove that Youssef owns Microsoft, I will gladly apologize for my comments. Otherwise, I believe you should apologize for blaming him for an issue he has no control over.

 

[Flatliner]

I'm not sure if your post is directed towards me. I'm also not sure what the "issue" is either. It wasn't broken before, but after the "update", it is now.

The other SDR vendors are supported in SDR# except for the one unit that is a clear competitor to his own product. I think that that's the point. And that fine. It's his ball, and he can do what he wants with it, but as an increasingly aggressive business, profiting from a group of mainly hobbiests, I would say that those customers reserves the right to voice their opinion, at least (though he didn't get my money). As far as "bad mouthing" is concerned, Youseff hasn't exactly been pleasant with others exercising their right to give those opinions. He's not "Youseff, the SDR# bloke" any more, he is "Youseff the businessman", using a model that businesses use - to get people dependant on a product, then to use it to exert leverage.

Anyway, other opinions are available, as are other products!