Troubleshooting

This page provides some quick tips on troubleshooting problems.

Most common problem to use AirSpy at full speed 10MSPS(320Mbit/s) (and even 2.5MSPS) are mainly related to USB controller or/and CPU.

We created a set of command line utilities to help troubleshooting the performance problems.

Windows:

• Performance problems:
  • Download the latest release of the tools package
  • Open a console (cmd.exe) and run airspy_rx -r NUL -t 0
  • Leave it running for 30 seconds, then Ctrl+C If the average throughput is bellow 10.0 MSPS then either your USB controller has problems or you CPU can’t process the data.
  • Possible solutions:
    • Use another USB port
    • Update your USB drivers (Prefer OEM drivers to generic ones)
      • See https://github.com/libusb/libusb/wiki/Windows for more details
    • Check your anti-virus or any other CPU heavy task
    • Use a PCIe USB2.0/3.0 controller

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu):

Ubuntu users: 14.04 LTS (Trusty) is highly recommended.

• Building airspy, gr-osmosdr and gqrx:

  1. Download the airspy-git repository, compile it, install it
  2. Download the gr-osmosdr repository, compile it, install it
  3. Download the gqrx repository, compile it, install it
  4. Get pulseaudio using standard Arch way
  5. Configure pulseaudio (add user and group, such things)

  Thanks to SEGFAULT Post http://airspy.com/?topic=linux-airspy-gqrx/#post-658

• Performance problems:

  • Build the host tools following "How to build the host software on Linux:" https://github.com/airspy/host
  • Open a shell and run airspy_rx -r /dev/null -t 0
  • Leave it running for 30 seconds, then Ctrl+C If the average throughput is bellow 10.0 MSPS then either your USB controller has problems or you CPU can’t process the data.
  • Possible solutions:
    • Use another USB port
    • Update your kernel
    • Use a PCIe USB2.0/3.0 controller

• Kernel >= 3.17 problems:

  • Since kernel 3.17 the kernel have intergrated SDR kernel supporting airspy (see http://palosaari.fi/linux/)

  • Support for linux kernel >= 3.17 (or older) is available as file patch https://gist.github.com/bvernoux/3c162d655faca9ab131d#file-airspy_host_linux_kernel_driver-patch This patch shall be applied on airspy library source code (https://github.com/airspy/host/blob/linux_kernel_driver/libairspy/src/airspy.c) and avoid to blacklist airspy driver like described hereafter.

    • So until we support it officially in airspy lib it shall be disabled/blacklisted in order to use airspy tools, gr-osmosdr, GRC, gqrx and other linux tools. For more details about blacklisting kernel module see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/kernel_modules

    • Ubuntu 15.x or more (Kernel >= 3.17) blacklist airspy driver:
      

echo blacklist airspy |sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/airspy-blacklist.conf ; sudo rmmod airspy

• gr-osmosdr problems:
  • Use latest trunk for gr-osmosdr with at least this fix http://cgit.osmocom.org/gr-osmosdr/commit/?id=46bb1ad1a08b44f9c06dd2bf099731aa3bc0e995 else you will have error "FATAL: Failed to open AirSpy device (-5) AIRSPY_ERROR_NOT_FOUND" on some airspy firmware (>0.9.9).
  • "FATAL: Failed to open AirSpy device (-5) AIRSPY_ERROR_NOT_FOUND" problem is fixed since airspy firmware v1.0.0-rc6 see https://github.com/airspy/firmware/releases

OSX:

• For Gqrx, gr-osmosdr and AirSpy see https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/gqrx/u4duL8iPva0

• Performance problems:

  • Open a shell and run airspy_rx -r /dev/null -t 0
  • Leave it running for 30 seconds, then Ctrl+C If the average throughput is bellow 10.0 MSPS then either your USB controller has problems or you CPU can’t process the data.
  • Possible solutions:
    • Use another USB port
    • Update your kernel
    • Use a PCIe USB2.0/3.0 controller
    • See also OS X: Identifying USB ports on your Mac and test different USB port if you have speed issue at 10MSPS

• gr-osmosdr problems:

  • Use latest trunk for gr-osmosdr with at least this fix http://cgit.osmocom.org/gr-osmosdr/commit/?id=46bb1ad1a08b44f9c06dd2bf099731aa3bc0e995 else you will have error "FATAL: Failed to open AirSpy device (-5) AIRSPY_ERROR_NOT_FOUND" on some airspy firmware (>0.9.9).
  • "FATAL: Failed to open AirSpy device (-5) AIRSPY_ERROR_NOT_FOUND" problem is fixed since airspy firmware v1.0.0-rc6 see https://github.com/airspy/firmware/releases

VMWare Linux

Unable to enumerate product, serial, and manufacturer when connected to VMWare VM (Linux)

• See issue https://github.com/airspy/host/issues/40

A fix which is reported as working with Kali Linux VM (Linux kalivm 4.8.0-kali1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.8.5-1kali1 (2016-11-04) x86_64 GNU/Linux)

usb.quirks.device0 = "0x1d50:0x60a1 skip-setconfig"

For more details see also https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=774

Problematic Configurations

Post here only if minimum hardware requirements match:

• 3rd gen Intel i3 2.4 GHz CPU or equivalent
• 2GB of RAM (to run your own OS, airspy barely needs 1MB of memory)
• High speed USB 2.0/3.0 controller

Configuration Name	OS	CPU/RAM and/or CPU-Z Validate Link	HDD (optional)	USB2.0/3.0 Controller	Solution
Ben Hall ASRock Z77 Extreme4	Win?	Intel Core i7-3770 CPU 3.40GHz			PCIe NEC uPD720202

Interesting Streaming Rate benchmarks by Ettus: http://www.ettus.com/kb/detail/usrp-b200-and-b210-usb-30-streaming-rate-benchmarks

It seems a recommended cheap USB2.0/3.0 Controller is the "NEC uPD720202 / NEC Renesas µPD720202" Which can be found for example on: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ID0C4GC/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

More feedback are welcome about those cheap PCIe USB2.0/3.0 controller to ensure they work fine with AirSpy+Host Tools (especially with Windows, Linux & MacOS).

USB transfer problems with long cable can be solved using extension/repeater like this one (tested with success by superkuh): 16ft 5M USB 2.0 A Male to A Female Active Extension / Repeater Cable (Monoprice) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ANARPC8/

How to check external clock is active

To check if the external clock was active while the Airspy was powered on the following command can be used:

airspy_si5351c -n 0 -r

If bit 4 is set then it is not using the clockin (TCXO is active clock)
[ 0] -> 0x11
And if bit 4 is clear then it is using the clockin (ext clock is active clock)
[ 0] -> 0x01

The first nibble is bits 7-4 and the second nibble is bits 3-0, which can be confusing. The Airspy only checks for a valid external 10MHz 3.3v CMOS clock once while it is being powered on. For technical details about the CLKIN Loss Of Signal register query in the command above see section "8.1. Register Map Summary" and section "9. Register Descriptions" of Silabs AN619 - Manually Generating an Si5351 Register Map.

Questions & Answers about External Clock: https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/airspy/conversations/messages/2397

Using multiple AirSpy

Multiple AirSpy use case is mainly for Coherent Receiver Array, Direction Finding, Passive Radar ... which requires to have multiple AirSpy running at same time (on the same PC).

• StarTech 4 Port PCI Express (PCIe) SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Card Adapter w/ 4 Dedicated 5Gbps Channels - UASP - SATA / LP4 Power
• Recommended by https://github.com/openstf/stf#usb-extension-cards
• StarTech 4 Independent Port PCI Express USB 2.0 Adapter Card (PEXUSB400)
• StarTech with dedicated USB channels seems to be one of the best cards on the market, see for example some test here https://github.com/openstf/stf

It is heavily recommended to have a high end PC at least CoreI7 in order to use multiple AirSpy at same time on the same PC.

• For example with a CoreI7-3630QM @2.4GHz (4cores), SDR# use about 10% CPU with 10MSPS with 32K FFT and FM stereo.