Ryde receiver works with Picotuner over USB but not over the LAN

[TimH]

Hello,
This is my first post here in the BATC Forum, and I am trying to get the PicotunerWH to work with the Ryde receiver.
1.) After running the netcat -kluv 9997 command on the Pi I get the correct data screen with an IP of 192.168.1.130
2.) When I run the: echo "[to@wh] rcv=1 freq=2395000 offset=0 srate=1300 fplug=a" | netcat -uw1 192.168.1.130 9920, it seems to take the command without complaining, but the monitor still says "Source not Connected"
3.) I can ping the PicoWH at 192.168.1.130 on the PI successfully.
4.) A strange thing I noticed is that the PicoWH will only get a DHCP IP immediately after I flash it with the .uf2 file. If I power it down after it is flashed it will not get the DHCP IP on power (solid double green LEDs). I have to load the .uf2 file again to get the DHCP IP. I am flashing it with the ptwh0v3e-w5100s.uf2 file.

Am I missing something or doing something wrong? I am trying to receive 2395 MHz with a 1.3msPS rate and this works with the USB port.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

TimH
N4IFP
Deerfield Beach, Florida, US

[TimH]

So,

I guess since nobody has replied to my question, that nobody is using the Picotuner V3 with the Ryde receiver over the LAN port? My reason for asking the question is that apparently the USB port on the Pi Pico is a bottleneck for sampling speed and will not allow speeds over 1 Ms/s. If this is true I will not be able to use it for ISS HAMTV at 2 Ms/s???

-Tim
N4IFP

[g0mjw]

It is a pity you don't have a PC as it is possible to use the Picotuner over the LAN with that. As far as I know, the Ryde is not designed to work over the LAN in that way, but it might be possible to modify the software so it can. The USB is a bottleneck, but it should be able to cope with the ISS at 2 Ms/s FEC 1/2 which equates to 2 Mb/s. It can cope with the QO100 beacon after all which is 1.5Ms/s FEC 5/6 - i.e. 2.5 Mb/s.

Mike

[TimH]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the response! I have connected the Picotuner 3 to my Portsdown 4 and radiated a video signal with a Pluto and Express DVB Transmitter and it receives just fine at 1.3Ms/s FEC 1/2. When I switch to 2.0Ms/s FEC 1/2 it stops working, which I assumed was because of the USB bottleneck. I Googled using the Pico 3 with the Ryde receiver and AI gave me the impression that the two would work together over the LAN port. It seems that it is hard getting the full answer of what works and doesn't work with the Ryde receiver. The Portsdown 4 appears to only work with the USB port and not the LAN port.

When you said to use the Picotuner with the PC, are you referring to use it with SDRAngel or some another SW program?

Regards,
-Tim

[g0mjw]

Hi Tim

The ethernet and USB are supported with different firmware, see the Picotuner Wiki. The Ethernet is intended for use on your network, e.g. with the Winterhill compatible firmware. As you are using a Portsdown, just use the USB and the USB firmware. The PC could use Tom ZR6TG's opentuner for example.

All of this is in the Wiki https://wiki.batc.org.uk/PicoTuner which I suspect from these questions, and the reference to google and AI, that you had not found.

Mike

[TimH]

Hi Mike,

Thanks again for the response. My original plan was to use the PicoTuner with Portsdown over USB, but as I mentioned it did not work reliably at 2 Ms/s. I was hoping that it would all work together and make a nice stand-alone ISS HamTV solution. When this did not work, I moved to direction of the Ryde receiver only to find the same speed issue over USB.
I will investigate Opentuner again and see how it works over LAN.

Regards,
-Tim

[G8GKQ]

Tim

Your problem might be because you are not using the original PicoTuner design (RP2040 with USB-only interface) or it could be that you have a sub-standard USB cable.

I have the original PicoTuner Design and a Portsdown 4 running perfectly here at 2MS FEC 1/2. I increased the FEC to 7/8 and there are still no problems. I have also checked that it will receive a transmitted IQ recording of the ISS HamTV perfectly.

So perhaps go back to the simple solution (cheapest RPi Pico, USB-only) and start from a known baseline. I know that Colin has tested this to simultaneously receive 2 signals of greater bitrate than the ISS, so the USB in the original design is not the bottleneck that you suggest.

73

Dave, G8GKQ