Home

Awesome

gr-funcube is an linux oot-module for gnuradio to implement a funcube dongle and a funcube dongle pro+ source.
On linux it autodetects the correct soundcard from /proc/asound/cards.
This idea was taken from the osmosdr drivers.

To control the device the hidapi usb version is used.

  1. Dependencies:
     
    gnuradio (>= 3.10 ) with pybind
    alsa usb drivers activated
    hidapi-libusb

  2. Installation:
     
    The build process is cmake based.
    So get the latest code from https://github.com/dl1ksv/gr-funcube
    and change to the code directory. There
     
    mkdir build
    cd build
    cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX= "path to gnuradio installation" ../
    make
    su
    make install
     
    After that executing grc you'll find in the section Funcube
     
    Funcube Dongle
    Funcube Dongle control
    Funcube Dongle Pro+
    Funcube Dongle Pro+ control

    Hint:
    You can install gr-funcube to an other directory than "path to gnuradio installation". But then you have to add the location of your python modules to the PYTHONPATH environment variable and add the location of the lib to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.

    To see the newly created blocks in grc you have to set the local_blocks_path entry in ~/.gnuradio/config.conf. Example: If you choose /usr/local/oot as installation directory, you have to set local_blocks_path = /usr/local/oot/share/gnuradio/grc/blocks

  3. Important:
     
    Don't forget the udev rules:
    For instance:
     
    ## Udev rules for the Funcube Dongle Pro (0xfb56) and Pro+ (0xfb31)
    ## HIDAPI/libusb:
    SUBSYSTEMS=="usb" ATTRS{idVendor}=="04d8" ATTRS{idProduct}=="fb56" MODE:="0666"
    SUBSYSTEMS=="usb" ATTRS{idVendor}=="04d8" ATTRS{idProduct}=="fb31" MODE:="0666"
    ## HIDAPI/hidraw:
    KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{busnum}=="1", ATTRS{idVendor}=="04d8", ATTRS{idProduct}=="fb56", MODE="0666"
    KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{busnum}=="1", ATTRS{idVendor}=="04d8", ATTRS{idProduct}=="fb31", MODE="0666"

  4. Installation example for Ubuntu
     
    cd $HOME
    sudo apt install libusb-1.0-0-dev libudev-dev libhidapi-dev
    gnuradio-config-info --prefix
    git clone https://github.com/dl1ksv/gr-funcube.git
    cd $HOME/gr-funcube
    mkdir build
    cd build
    cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<prefix from gnuradio-config-info> ../
    make
    sudo make install
    sudo ldconfig
    cd /etc/udev/rules.d
    sudo cp $HOME/gr-funcube/50-funcube.rules ./
    sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
    sudo udevadm trigger
     
     
    The names of the packages that are required for build may differ between Linux distros.

  5. Usage
     
    Four modules are available:
     
    fcd_control
    fcd
    fcdpp_control
    funcube
     
    The control modules only controls the dongles, while the other modules control the dongles and provide the IQ samples. All modules accept messages to control the frequency. That was the reason to introduce the control modules.  
    The fcd modules where introduced, as gnuradio 3.8 does not contain gr-fcd any longer.
    See the examples of a simple fm receiver in the examples directory or see a more complex example in in gr-display

  6. Credits
     
    Some code is taken from qthid-4.1 by Alexandru Csete, OZ9AEC.
    Thanks to Michael Dickens, who gave valuable hints for implementing message in hier2_blocks.
    Thanks to Barry Duggan for the installation example for Ubuntu