Trouble getting a generic RTL2832U to work

[Mapariensis]

I apologise if the answer to my question is obvious, but googling hasn't helped in solving this problem thus far. The USB ID of my device is 0BDA:2832.

I've installed the driver through Zadig, which seemingly succeeded. No problems so far (see http://i.imgur.com/S9yNlm8.png). However, rtl_test throws the "No supported devices found" error, and neither HDSDR nor SDR# recognise the device ("RTLSDR/USB device is either not connected or its driver is not working properly"). I assumed it was a driver problem, so I retraced my steps, but Zadig seems to do its job, and I'm kinda lost now.



I'm working under Win7 64-bit.

Any clue as to what's going on here? If you require any further information, I'll provide it.

EDIT for good measure: device manager screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/erQAyCF.png (shows up under Universal Serial Bus devices, nothing out of the ordinary there)

I've done some probing through libusb-1.0 and libusb0, and I discovered some weird things:
- Installing the WinUSB driver through Zadig made me unable to detect the dongle through both libusb-1.0 and libusb0 (by not detecting I mean that it doesn't even show up when calling enumerate_devices() )

- For some reason, when using the libusb-win32 or libusbK drivers I can detect the dongle just fine through libusb0, but libusb-1.0 doesn't detect it.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

 

[productionguy85]

Is this some kind of USB-Serial adapter? If it is, or anything that is USB, use the drivers that come with it or download the the drivers off there website.

 

[Mapariensis]

It's a DVB-T dongle, made for digital television. It should function as a SDR with librtlsdr, but I'm having some usb driver troubles.

The manufacturer's drivers won't work here; they serve a different purpose.

 

[rbm]

It seems that your driver did not install.

Did you follow these steps to install the zadig driver?
Quick Start Guide - rtl-sdr.com

Make sure that you selected .........
“Bulk-In, Interface (Interface 0)” from the drop down list

And, for Win7, you should run zadig in Administrator mode.

Rich

 

[Mapariensis]

It seems that your driver did not install.

Did you follow these steps to install the zadig driver?
Quick Start Guide - rtl-sdr.com

Make sure that you selected .........
“Bulk-In, Interface (Interface 0)” from the drop down list

Rich

Thank you for your response

Yes, I did follow those instructions (result: http://i.imgur.com/S9yNlm8.png ). There is no "Bulk-In, Interface (Interface 0)" in my list, but some searching seemed to indicate that the RTL2832U-option was equally valid. The driver is installed (the device manager lists the libusbx driver), but for some reason libusb1 doesn't detect the dongle.

 

[productionguy85]

It seems that your driver did not install.

Did you follow these steps to install the zadig driver?
Quick Start Guide - rtl-sdr.com

Make sure that you selected .........
“Bulk-In, Interface (Interface 0)” from the drop down list

And, for Win7, you should run zadig in Administrator mode.

Rich

The links you provide, have driver downloads so why not just use those? Why the whole zadig driver?

 

[Mapariensis]

The links you provide, have driver downloads so why not just use those? Why the whole zadig driver?

Actually, Zadig is the driver installer included in the link.

 

[rbm]

The links you provide, have driver downloads so why not just use those? Why the whole zadig driver?

I'm not sure what you're asking.
zadig IS the driver.

The drivers that come with the dongle are intended for European digital TV reception and should not be installed.
(Unless of course you're in that area of the world and intend to use the dongle for TV reception.)

Rich

 

[rbm]

EDIT for good measure: device manager screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/erQAyCF.png (shows up under Universal Serial Bus devices, nothing out of the ordinary there)

This is what device manager (Win7 64 bit) should display.

Rich

 

[rbm]

I've heard of several case where people had wrong libusb files.

Did you install SDRSharp using the install.bat file?

These are what I'm running with:
07/27/2013 11:11 AM 77,824 libhackrf.dll
07/27/2013 08:11 AM 68,096 libusb-1.0.dll
02/16/2010 10:02 AM 37,376 libusb0.dll

Also, are you sure that you are using a 'powered' USB port?

Rich

 

[productionguy85]

I'm not sure what you're asking.
zadig IS the driver.

The drivers that come with the dongle are intended for European digital TV reception and should not be installed.
(Unless of course you're in that area of the world and intend to use the dongle for TV reception.)

Rich

So really, your trying to use the dongle for other then it was made since you CAN'T use the supplied drivers for your purpose?

I don't understand...

 

[rbm]

So really, your trying to use the dongle for other then it was made since you CAN'T use the supplied drivers for your purpose?

I don't understand...

Here's a good starting point.

rtl-sdr
DVB-T dongles based on the Realtek RTL2832U can be used as a cheap SDR, since the chip allows transferring the raw I/Q samples to the host, which is officially used for DAB/DAB+/FM demodulation.
rtl-sdr

and an extract from the link contained in my first post above:

"something to know about these dongles is that they are not actually designed for SDR purposes.
They are a mass produced device intended for watching DVB-T HDTV on a PC.
What experimenters have done however, is created a special third party driver to enable SDR capabilities.
The software and drivers most dongles come with are the official ones from the manufacturer that will only allow DVB-T HDTV to be watched."

 

[Mapariensis]

I've heard of several case where people had wrong libusb files.

Did you install SDRSharp using the install.bat file?

These are what I'm running with:
07/27/2013 11:11 AM 77,824 libhackrf.dll
07/27/2013 08:11 AM 68,096 libusb-1.0.dll
02/16/2010 10:02 AM 37,376 libusb0.dll

Also, are you sure that you are using a 'powered' USB port?

Rich

Yes, I'm pretty sure the port is powered. I tested that by booting from a Linux pendrive, installing the relevant libraries and it worked. At least, rtl_test completed successfully, I haven't gotten the chance yet to try the actually interesting stuff yet.

Anyway, I retried the installation using the bat file, and still no luck. WinUSB is the right driver, right?

 

[rbm]

Yes WinUSB is the correct driver.

 

[SCPD]

First, make sure you do NOT have copies of these files anywhere under your Windows folder.

Second, make sure you're using current version of libusbx.

Download libusbx from SourceForge.net

Third, make sure you've a current version of librtlsdr.

http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/raw-attachment/wiki/rtl-sdr/RelWithDebInfo.zip

If your SDR software is 32 bit, make sure your DLLs are 32 bit.

 

[mancow]

Did you choose the "Show all devices" option in the Zadig menu so you can see the bulk interface devices?

 

[rbm]

Unitrunker has a good point.
I forgot to mention that it shouldn't be installed in "C:\Program Files (x86)"

There's a lot of information in this thread that may help you sort it out.
http://forums.radioreference.com/software-defined-radio/279490-rtl-sdr-what-am-i-missing.html

Rich

Rich

 

[Mapariensis]

Thank you for the help, everyone
I backed up and removed all files containing "libusb" in their filename in the Windows\* directory tree. That didn't change anything. Even with the latest version of libusbx in the rtl-sdr release folder, rtl_test reports "no supported devices found" on both x32 and x64.

So, fresh start: I've now tried deleting all drivers associated with the device, but it still doesn't show up as "Bulk In,...". The driverless device shows up in Zadig like this: http://i.imgur.com/O6a5b3W.png . Should that matter?


EDIT: I should probably mention that my tuner is not of the e4k variety. I have a Rafael Micro R820T, which is listed as compatible.

 

[rbm]

Thank you for the help, everyone
I backed up and removed all files containing "libusb" in their filename in the Windows\* directory tree. That didn't change anything. Even with the latest version of libusbx in the rtl-sdr release folder, rtl_test reports "no supported devices found" on both x32 and x64.

So, fresh start: I've now tried deleting all drivers associated with the device, but it still doesn't show up as "Bulk In,...". The driverless device shows up in Zadig like this: http://i.imgur.com/O6a5b3W.png . Should that matter?


EDIT: I should probably mention that my tuner is not of the e4k variety. I have a Rafael Micro R820T, which is listed as compatible.

First, the R820T is good. I have five of them and they work perfectly.

NOTHING will work if zadig driver doesn't get installed properly.
That step MUST be completed successfully first.

If you run zadig as administrator
And select OPTIONS
LIST ALL DEVICES

You should see something like the image below. (Some of those devices are specific to my computer.)

If you don't have Bulk-In, Interfaces showing, and RTL2832 is the only relevant thing listed, I guess you're stuck selecting it.

Rich

 

[Mapariensis]

If you don't have Bulk-In, Interfaces showing, and RTL2832 is the only relevant thing listed, I guess you're stuck selecting it.

Rich

That's exactly what's happening. :/
I guess I'm stuck using it with my Linux stick.