USB 3.0 won't work with SDR dongles?

[KA2ZEY]

I've been reading on some posts that Airspy, SDRPlay and RTL-SDR dongle will have problems with a computer that has USB 3.0. Is this confirmed?

 

[Voyager]

It's not that the units have an issue with USB3 - it's that many USB3 chip manufacturers do not support the full spec. So far, only NEC is confirmed as to fully supporting the specs of USB3, so get a card that uses NEC chips.

 

[KA2ZEY]

So you just have to find out if the tablet/laptop has an NEC chip for USB?

 

[Voyager]

Unfortunately, yes. Until the other manufacturers catch up, you risk having incompatible ports. I don't know if NEC is the only one up to speed, but they are the only ones I've heard of thus far.

I would hope there will be driver upgrades for other chips eventually.

 

[KA2ZEY]

Unfortunately, yes. Until the other manufacturers catch up, you risk having incompatible ports. I don't know if NEC is the only one up to speed, but they are the only ones I've heard of thus far.

I would hope there will be driver upgrades for other chips eventually.

Ok in that case I think I'm just going to go for a Lenovo X230

 

[dsalomon]

Just because the chipset used is not NEC does NOT mean that you will definitely have problems. If you already have or are getting a SDR and already have a PC (desktop or laptop), try it first before just running out and trowing money at a new one. My SDRs work just fine on my Micrsoft Surface Pro 3, which has an Intel USB chipset.

Having said that, I found myself that the ONLY USB boards I could get to work 100% reliably on my desktop were manufactured by Renesas and used a NEC chipset.

It's not just the USB chipset that determines whether or not it will work reliably. The motherboard may not process USB fast enough, the route from USB to disk might be too slow, etc. So, again (wait, let me beat this dead horse once more , please try your current setup before you buy (unless, of course you want to buy something new anyway for some other reason, which is none of my business and I'll keep my 2 cents to myself .

One of the things you might want to consider is how many SDRs you need to run simultaneously. These guys use a LOT of bandwidth. For example, the Airspy used the entire USB 2.0 bandwidth until Youssef added the bit packing option, which reduced bandwidth but increased processing requirements on the PC side. You might get one to work on a card, but run into stuttering problems when you add and run a second SDR. I run up to four simultaneously. It took trying about a dozen different cards in my desktop before I came across this one. It is made by Renesas and has one chipset PER PORT. So, instead of 5.0Gbps for the entire card because the four ports are sharing a single chipset, it has up to 20.0 Gbps, 5.0Gbps PER PORT. The card is expensive, but is the only one I found that worked 100% after several weeks of trying and looking.

I wonder if anyone has done and published information comparing the bandwidth requirements of various SDRs? It would be nice to see their requirements side by side. I'll do some Googling and post if I find something useful.

Best regards, David

 

[KA2ZEY]

Just because the chipset used is not NEC does NOT mean that you will definitely have problems. If you already have or are getting a SDR and already have a PC (desktop or laptop), try it first before just running out and trowing money at a new one. My SDRs work just fine on my Micrsoft Surface Pro 3, which has an Intel USB chipset.

Having said that, I found myself that the ONLY USB boards I could get to work 100% reliably on my desktop were manufactured by Renesas and used a NEC chipset.

It's not just the USB chipset that determines whether or not it will work reliably. The motherboard may not process USB fast enough, the route from USB to disk might be too slow, etc. So, again (wait, let me beat this dead horse once more , please try your current setup before you buy (unless, of course you want to buy something new anyway for some other reason, which is none of my business and I'll keep my 2 cents to myself .

One of the things you might want to consider is how many SDRs you need to run simultaneously. These guys use a LOT of bandwidth. For example, the Airspy used the entire USB 2.0 bandwidth until Youssef added the bit packing option, which reduced bandwidth but increased processing requirements on the PC side. You might get one to work on a card, but run into stuttering problems when you add and run a second SDR. I run up to four simultaneously. It took trying about a dozen different cards in my desktop before I came across this one. It is made by Renesas and has one chipset PER PORT. So, instead of 5.0Gbps for the entire card because the four ports are sharing a single chipset, it has up to 20.0 Gbps, 5.0Gbps PER PORT. The card is expensive, but is the only one I found that worked 100% after several weeks of trying and looking.

I wonder if anyone has done and published information comparing the bandwidth requirements of various SDRs? It would be nice to see their requirements side by side. I'll do some Googling and post if I find something useful.

Best regards, David

Hi David,

My dream is to use something like the Surface Pro 3 with either Airspy or SDRPlay and have not problems with full bandwidth. I'd like to use it with something like Unitrunker and cover one trunking system with 8 or t0 Mhz. Is this possible?

 

[dsalomon]

My Surface Pro 3 works just fine with my Airspy at its full bandwidth. My SP3 has the i7 processor and 8GB RAM. I also have a SDRPlay, but I haven't tried it yet with the SP3. I'll let you know what happens when I try it. I'm guessing that it will work.

Re: Unitrunker, I downloaded it, but have not yet installed and used it.