https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/radio-receiver/miieomcelenidlleokajkghmifldohpo?hl=en
I tested this app this morning and it seems to work fine. I've been thinking about a light weight AM receiver that I could use while driving around with the Driveby System to listen to various frequencies.
GQRX also seems to work fine, but not really as light weight as the Google Chrome App. GQRX is quite nice however, and I wouldn't rule it out. The issue is the laptop I'm using is quite low end. And basically I really only want to hear noise while I drive, I don't care about a waterwall, vfo, or any other modes than AM really since this works the best for listening to Power Line noise.
Setup of the Google App "Radio Receiver" for use with RTL's is about as simple as it gets that I've seen. Nice little app.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Ubuntu Bluetooth Network Tethering - Smartphone
Currently the DRIVEBY system I've been working on prefers to have a live internet connection for using the Google Maps API as well as Google Charts API. Live Mapping isn't a requirement of the system to gather GEOTAGGED RF Noise Floor levels. All of that RF and GPS logging happens regardless of whether there is a live Internet connection.
However, it's nice to have the Google Maps on the Web GUI updating while you are driving so you can see where you've already been and how well the measurements were done on the various roads you've been on. For example if you're driving at 20-30 mph and someone comes up behind you, and there's no where to pull off for a moment you have to speed up or risk pissing them off. :-) I've modified the code a bit to speed up GPS lat/long to TIME recording. So this is less likely to happen the next time I go out. HOWEVER, without seeing the live map you don't really know for certain if you where able to collect solid data down a stretch of road. If there are gaps, you can simply redrive the same road several times and things will fill in on the map and you will also get better coverage of measurements in the archived data.
So it's helpful to have the live maps updating while you are driving around, even though they're not a requirement. In order for this to work, I need to have a TETHERED Network connection on my laptop. Yesterday when I went out testing my USB tethering cable seemed to have a loose connection. I also discovered that on my Android 4.4.2 Galaxy S3 smartphone I was unable to activate USB Tethering. Even after spending at least an hour or two researching what to do. So I used an older Galaxy Note 2 tablet that uses and older version of Android and I was able to USB tether that to my laptop. While driving I discovered that the USB cable had an intermittent issue with connectivity to my laptop. That's problematic when you are driving and altogether to risky.
SO today I plugged an ASUS Bluetooth dongle into my Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Laptop and was able to get Tethered Internet access via Bluetooth from my Galaxy S3! And bonus it was SUPER SIMPLE. Ubuntu rocks for ease of use related to this sort of thing. Now I don't have to fret about a loose USB cable and the phone can be anywhere within Blue tooth range making placement of things MUCH easier as well.
I can post details on how this is done if anyone needs or wants to know the detail.
However, it's nice to have the Google Maps on the Web GUI updating while you are driving so you can see where you've already been and how well the measurements were done on the various roads you've been on. For example if you're driving at 20-30 mph and someone comes up behind you, and there's no where to pull off for a moment you have to speed up or risk pissing them off. :-) I've modified the code a bit to speed up GPS lat/long to TIME recording. So this is less likely to happen the next time I go out. HOWEVER, without seeing the live map you don't really know for certain if you where able to collect solid data down a stretch of road. If there are gaps, you can simply redrive the same road several times and things will fill in on the map and you will also get better coverage of measurements in the archived data.
So it's helpful to have the live maps updating while you are driving around, even though they're not a requirement. In order for this to work, I need to have a TETHERED Network connection on my laptop. Yesterday when I went out testing my USB tethering cable seemed to have a loose connection. I also discovered that on my Android 4.4.2 Galaxy S3 smartphone I was unable to activate USB Tethering. Even after spending at least an hour or two researching what to do. So I used an older Galaxy Note 2 tablet that uses and older version of Android and I was able to USB tether that to my laptop. While driving I discovered that the USB cable had an intermittent issue with connectivity to my laptop. That's problematic when you are driving and altogether to risky.
SO today I plugged an ASUS Bluetooth dongle into my Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Laptop and was able to get Tethered Internet access via Bluetooth from my Galaxy S3! And bonus it was SUPER SIMPLE. Ubuntu rocks for ease of use related to this sort of thing. Now I don't have to fret about a loose USB cable and the phone can be anywhere within Blue tooth range making placement of things MUCH easier as well.
I can post details on how this is done if anyone needs or wants to know the detail.
The Hobbyist's Guide to the RTL-SDR: Really Cheap Software Defined Radio
Kindle Book (link to Amazon) there is even a free Kindle Book Reader for PC's if you don't have a Kindle.
Nice book!
Nice book!
Thanks RTL-SDR.com!
See their post about Driveby
Thanks for noticing the "Driveby" project rtl-sdr.com! I was surprised to see your article, but pleasantly so! I hope others try to do similar stuff.
Take Care Guys!
Thanks for noticing the "Driveby" project rtl-sdr.com! I was surprised to see your article, but pleasantly so! I hope others try to do similar stuff.
Take Care Guys!
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
DRIVEBY System Live on the road
UPDATE Code for this now available here
After a bit of work last night I got the GPS working again. Just needed to re-seat the USB cable in the hub for the GPS. Today I got out with a large discone antenna that covers 25-1300Mhz and was able to get good GEOTAGGED Data with the Driveby System.
Here is a screen shot of one of the heatmaps:
After a bit of work last night I got the GPS working again. Just needed to re-seat the USB cable in the hub for the GPS. Today I got out with a large discone antenna that covers 25-1300Mhz and was able to get good GEOTAGGED Data with the Driveby System.
Here is a screen shot of one of the heatmaps:
There are some areas that are pretty obvious others are more subtle. It's difficult to drive slow enough for the system to get good contigious GEO tagged data. However, this is working pretty good for a first REAL RUN since I've been working on it and testing with it.
I'll do some tweaks to speed up gps readings, and noise floor readings so that I can drive at least 30mph. I tried to do about 20mph as much as I could and slower when there was no real traffic around.
Notice how even 144 (2m) Mhz is effected by this noise. This is the first location where I've seen this.
Monday, January 12, 2015
First MOBILE use of DRIVEBY
I didn't connect the planned large 25-1300Mhz Discone antenna for this test. So I am rather impressed that the 1 meter long whip antenna I used was enough to detect what it did.
In the chart below I was driving around and once I saw the first spike on 49Mhz and NONE on 50 Mhz I knew I was close to a Baby Monitor. There are about 5-6 of them in the town I live in. This is the first time I've pin pointed one of them 'to the house'. So please remember as creepy as this sounds the idea is to locate them, then ask the owner if they'd be willing to accept a 900Mhz or 2.4Ghz baby monitor as a swap. The idea is to move them off these monitors that effect my 50 Mhz Radio operation. And that's all. Nothing creepy or sinister there.
I was also able to spot what may possibly be one of the main sources of Power Line noise that's local to me. At the end of my street the graphs gradually rose up and then sank again as I was driving along. On my return pass (always have to pass source at least twice to three times to verify it) It once again began to raise up again. Looking briefly I noticed a power line leading from a pole to a home. The line is rubbing on a large dead branch. (probably dead from AC exposure if you ask me!). I suspect now that this is one of my larger noise sources and probably and easy one to cure!
Here's the graph....the next time I take this on the road I'm going to make sure the GPS is functional. This is the first time it's failed to work for me....so I'll have to research what's going on there.
Jan 13th 2015 I hope to retest with the GPS working. If successful I'll drive the entire town I live in and post the results here. I didn't do a Video today because I decided without the GPS and the mapping working it wouldn't be all that interesting to most folks. I got the GPS working again tonight back at home, so it's just something simple. All I had to do what disconnect and reconnect the USB cable once, and it started right up.
A note to self: service gpsd restart
Outputs more interesting command line results than service gpsd stop and then service gpsd start which returns nothing at all. "restart" at least provides the typical Linux 'service' command line result with a satisfying "OK" message. LOL
Sunday, January 11, 2015
"Driveby" system nearly completed
Today I completed final assembly of the "Driveby" system I've been working on for about a month and half except for carrying handles added to the 10"x19"x15" rack mount box it's housed in and final placement of the internal GPS and external Digital Compass. I'm sure I'll have that completed tomorrow.
This is the first time I've been able to test accurate voltage and amperage use of the system at idle and while using 5 RTL SDR dongles simultaneously. I'll post those numbers tomorrow after everything is completed and I've run some tests on the system.
I can tell at idle with both the TK1 and the Odriod XU3 shutdown 12vdc running fans and two usb hubs is at 1.46amps. 5vdc running almost nothing is at .20 amps.
My phone is dead so I can't take any photo's until later but it looks really simple and nice just like I'd hoped it would. There are two rf ports one is for the 8 internal RTL's and one is for the internal GPS. 1 Network cable that connects my laptop GUI to the TK1's web-app. There are two power meters on the face of the box as well. On the rear of the box is a single 120vac cord/plug. When mobile this will be plugged into a 13.8vdc to 120vac Inverter. This is why I added the power meters, so that I could confirm that the voltages were stable on both 12vdc and 5vdc simultaneously.
I'm still waiting for the Inverter to arrive next week I assume. Once that arrives I'll be ready to road test the entire system. I expect to be on the road with this next week Jan 12th thru the 18th sometime. I hope to make several runs in various conditions. The weathers been crazy enough lately that shouldn't be a problem LOL.
You can see some of the final assembly pix here HERE. And I'll post the actual final external views of it tomorrow I expect.
UPDATE Jan 11th, 2015:
I added the GPS this morning. Ran some tests and all seems fine. Here is a video of the initial test running 5 RTL SDR Dongles and the GPS. All that's left now is to mount the USB Digital Compass and the carrying handles on the Rack mountable Box.
I had been using a USB Hub in order to connect both the Yocto-3D digital compass and the L10 GPS at the same time. I forgot about that while building this out. So I need to resolve being able to connect two devices on the single USB3.0 connector of the TK1. :( Honestly the compass is just a neat add-on and isn't really required for this system. So I can still do test runs while driving next week even without the Yocto-3D. I may just try to use a USB3.0 splitter "Y" cable if I can get one here soon enough. I really don't want to add another USB Hub in this if I don't have to. I DO have some options available on site now, but I don't have a Y-Cable. I've never used one and not really sure how it would effect these two devices. But I think I will try it.
UPDATE Jan 12th, 2015:
This morning I added another 4 port usb hub to support the GPS and the Yocto-3D digital compass. Since they connect to the TK1 and it only has a single USB port I had to add a hub :( (I'm liking the TK1 less and less, at this point it's saving grace is the native Sata onboard for the SSD drive).
I've tested the addition usb hub with the GPS and Compass this morning and all seems fine. I had to butcher the usb cable that feeds the hub down to a length of about 1.5 feet (it was just way to long and sloppy otherwise).
All that remains now is to split the compass PCB sensor and remotely mount that away from any metal objects. Then wire the 4-wire connection back to it's base which will be mounted in the large box with everything else. This item isn't a required item for drive testing, it's just a nice to have.
Also just now, the PV375 Inverter has arrived via US Post. I've connected that to a 13.8Vdc supply I have, and plugged the Driveby Systems 120vac plug into the PV375, and all seems to run perfectly fine. This means the tiny Inverter will be able to power the Driveby Systems perfectly fine. YAY! Finally getting there!
NEXT ROUND:
The performance of the Odroid XU3 has been so good that I may buy a second one and replace the Nvidia TK1 with it. Since I'm not really making use of the Cuda chip which is the 'big deal' with the TK1. If I did that however I'd have to use a USB <> SATA converter to mount the SSD Storage shared for NFS and add NFS server to the XU3's Ubuntu Kernel I suppose.
This is the first time I've been able to test accurate voltage and amperage use of the system at idle and while using 5 RTL SDR dongles simultaneously. I'll post those numbers tomorrow after everything is completed and I've run some tests on the system.
I can tell at idle with both the TK1 and the Odriod XU3 shutdown 12vdc running fans and two usb hubs is at 1.46amps. 5vdc running almost nothing is at .20 amps.
My phone is dead so I can't take any photo's until later but it looks really simple and nice just like I'd hoped it would. There are two rf ports one is for the 8 internal RTL's and one is for the internal GPS. 1 Network cable that connects my laptop GUI to the TK1's web-app. There are two power meters on the face of the box as well. On the rear of the box is a single 120vac cord/plug. When mobile this will be plugged into a 13.8vdc to 120vac Inverter. This is why I added the power meters, so that I could confirm that the voltages were stable on both 12vdc and 5vdc simultaneously.
I'm still waiting for the Inverter to arrive next week I assume. Once that arrives I'll be ready to road test the entire system. I expect to be on the road with this next week Jan 12th thru the 18th sometime. I hope to make several runs in various conditions. The weathers been crazy enough lately that shouldn't be a problem LOL.
You can see some of the final assembly pix here HERE. And I'll post the actual final external views of it tomorrow I expect.
UPDATE Jan 11th, 2015:
I added the GPS this morning. Ran some tests and all seems fine. Here is a video of the initial test running 5 RTL SDR Dongles and the GPS. All that's left now is to mount the USB Digital Compass and the carrying handles on the Rack mountable Box.
I had been using a USB Hub in order to connect both the Yocto-3D digital compass and the L10 GPS at the same time. I forgot about that while building this out. So I need to resolve being able to connect two devices on the single USB3.0 connector of the TK1. :( Honestly the compass is just a neat add-on and isn't really required for this system. So I can still do test runs while driving next week even without the Yocto-3D. I may just try to use a USB3.0 splitter "Y" cable if I can get one here soon enough. I really don't want to add another USB Hub in this if I don't have to. I DO have some options available on site now, but I don't have a Y-Cable. I've never used one and not really sure how it would effect these two devices. But I think I will try it.
UPDATE Jan 12th, 2015:
This morning I added another 4 port usb hub to support the GPS and the Yocto-3D digital compass. Since they connect to the TK1 and it only has a single USB port I had to add a hub :( (I'm liking the TK1 less and less, at this point it's saving grace is the native Sata onboard for the SSD drive).
I've tested the addition usb hub with the GPS and Compass this morning and all seems fine. I had to butcher the usb cable that feeds the hub down to a length of about 1.5 feet (it was just way to long and sloppy otherwise).
All that remains now is to split the compass PCB sensor and remotely mount that away from any metal objects. Then wire the 4-wire connection back to it's base which will be mounted in the large box with everything else. This item isn't a required item for drive testing, it's just a nice to have.
Also just now, the PV375 Inverter has arrived via US Post. I've connected that to a 13.8Vdc supply I have, and plugged the Driveby Systems 120vac plug into the PV375, and all seems to run perfectly fine. This means the tiny Inverter will be able to power the Driveby Systems perfectly fine. YAY! Finally getting there!
NEXT ROUND:
The performance of the Odroid XU3 has been so good that I may buy a second one and replace the Nvidia TK1 with it. Since I'm not really making use of the Cuda chip which is the 'big deal' with the TK1. If I did that however I'd have to use a USB <> SATA converter to mount the SSD Storage shared for NFS and add NFS server to the XU3's Ubuntu Kernel I suppose.
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