[Discuss-gnuradio] AirSpy HF+ with GNU Radio and gr-osmosdr

[Richard Hedlund]

Hello,

First of all, this is my first post on a mailing list and i apologize if this is the wrong place to ask this kind of question.

After having spent almost a full work week on getting the AirSpy HF+ to work with GNU Radio i thought it was time to post here. It feels like i have searched everywhere; different mailing lists, forums, AirSpy support along with their github and the web in general.

I have tried installing GNU Radio using pybombs following the guide:

https://www.gnuradio.org/blog/pybombs-the-what-the-how-and-the-why

I have tried installing GNU Radio following the guide by Alexandru Csete:

http://gqrx.dk/download/install-ubuntu

I have tried building and installing:

https://github.com/airspy/airspyone_host

https://github.com/airspy/airspyhf

The AirSpy HF+ works with:

SDR# under Windows 10

GQRX under the Ubuntu system below

I does however not work with GNU Radio under Linux which is were i intend to use the HF+.

My system info (Dell Latitude 7480):

• Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS (full installation on a USB-stick)
• 4.15.0-34-generic #37-Ubuntu SMP Mon Aug 27 15:21:48 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
• 16 GB RAM
• Intel Core i7 7600U

Output of: dmesg | grep usb

[ 7243.420121] usb 1-2: new high-speed USB device number 13 using xhci_hcd
[ 7243.569041] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=03eb, idProduct=800c
[ 7243.569052] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 7243.569060] usb 1-2: Product: AIRSPY HF+
[ 7243.569067] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: www.airspy.com
[ 7243.569074] usb 1-2: SerialNumber: AIRSPYHF SN:3652A98094C73FA0

Output of: airspy_info

airspy_lib_version: 1.0.9
airspy_open() board 1 failed: AIRSPY_ERROR_NOT_FOUND (-5)

Running GNU Radio:

I try to run a simple flowgraph in GNU Radio with an osmocom source connected to a WX gui FFT sink. The output is the following:

Generating: '/home/hedric/top_block.py'

Executing: /usr/bin/python -u /home/hedric/top_block.py

Warning: failed to XInitThreads()
linux; GNU C++ version 7.3.0; Boost_106501; UHD_003.010.003.000-0-unknown

gr-osmosdr v0.1.x-xxx-xunknown (0.1.5git) gnuradio 3.7.11
built-in source types: file osmosdr fcd rtl rtl_tcp uhd plutosdr miri hackrf bladerf rfspace airspy airspyhf soapy redpitaya freesrp
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/hedric/top_block.py", line 101, in <module>
    main()
  File "/home/hedric/top_block.py", line 95, in main
    tb = top_block_cls()
  File "/home/hedric/top_block.py", line 65, in __init__
    self.osmosdr_source_0 = osmosdr.source( args="numchan=" + str(1) + " " + 'airspy=0' )
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/osmosdr/osmosdr_swig.py", line 1170, in make
    return _osmosdr_swig.source_make(*args, **kwargs)
RuntimeError: Failed to open AirSpy device (-5) AIRSPY_ERROR_NOT_FOUND

Hopefully this is enough information for you, if not please let me know. I am by no means an advanced Linux user but still eager to learn.

Kind regards,

Richard