Dongles.....

[Archive-8]

Its not Black Friday yet but these appear to be under £8 delivered. So I've ordered on, plus one of the 0.5PPM jobbies for under £30 all in

Amazon.com: Blue Ocean Digital USB2.0 RTL2832U+R820T Tuner Receiver Stick DVB-T SDR+DAB+FM TV HDTV Blue: Home Audio & Theater

If you need any help, setting up let us know

We will nearly have enough of us to start our own virtual radar server. (Joke)

 

[Analoguesat]

We will nearly have enough of us to start our own virtual radar server. (Joke)

Not much coverage north of Manchester though

 

[jeallen01]

""proper" FWIW, I'm rejigging the physical layout of my ACER net-top and the SDR dongle (which I now see is metal-cased) and Simple Spectrum Analyser dongles connected to it.

Therefore tomorrow, whilst waiting for the new dishwasher to arrive (sometime between 7am and 7pm!), I'm going to strap the two dongles together with some solid core wire (from some old house wiring mains cable) with some heatsink compound between them so that the some of the heat from the SDR dongle is (hopefully!) transferred to the metal S/A housing - which does not get very warm (and thus I don't need to try to fit a "proper" heatsink to the SDR dongle). "Simples" possibly? - but I hope it works.

Something simple like strapping "your" SDR module to a metal plate instead of a "dedicated" heatsink, with heatsink compound between them, might reduce the temps to more reasonable and reliable levels.

Will try to report back with what I then find.

 

[Archive-8]

""proper" FWIW, I'm rejigging the physical layout of my ACER net-top and the SDR and Simple Spectrum Analyser dongle but the SDR dongle gets rather warm (but which I now see is metal-case) connected to it.

Therefore tomorrow, whilst waiting for the new dishwasher to arrive (sometime between 7am and 7pm!), I'm going to strap the two dongles together with some solid core wire (from some old house wiring mains cable) with some heatsink compound between them so that the some of the heat from the SDR dongle is (hopefully!) transferred to the metal S/A housing - which does not get very warm (and thus I don't need to try to fit a "proper" heatsink to the SDR dongle). "Simples" possibly - but I hope it works.

Something simple like strapping "your" SDR module to a metal plate instead of an actual "heatsink, with heatsink compound between them, might reduce the temps to more reasonable and reliable levels.

Will try to report back with what I then find.

You could order a couple of these to help with heat.

Raspberry Pi Heatsink Kit 3x Adhesive Aluminium Heat Sink 3pcs Easy Peel

The metal case acts as heat sink, to take away the heat from the chip set.

 

[jeallen01]

Chris.

If what I am going to do does "work" then that's a zero-added time/cost solution!

 

[Channel Hopper]

Chris.

If what I am going to do does "work" then that's a zero-added time/cost solution!

You could try the grease packed condom trick, and put the whole device out of the window in this weather.

 

[jeallen01]

Just rejigged the ACER layout, and the SDR unit is now secured firmly to the S/A unit by 3 wire "bands" and with some decent heatsink compound in between

Both have been running and "doing things" for about an hour or so - the S/A might be a little bit warmer but the SDR unit is certainly running a lot cooler (only just slightly warm to touch, whereas previously the surface temp was getting into the 50C range, and 60C is about as hot as you can keep your fingers on for any length of time) .

 

[jeallen01]

What it all looks like now (Very cramped corner of our bedroom "office" but the only place I can put the stuff with all other kit in there):

 

[Channel Hopper]

What it all looks like now (Very cramped corner of our bedroom "office" but the only place I can put the stuff with all other kit in there):

When you say 'our'......

 

[jeallen01]

CH

"Clarification" seems in order! It was a bedroom, but it is now our "office" and we sleep elsewhere!!

3hrs & counting and the SDR unit is still only just slightly warm to the touch - my "no added cost" solution seems to work!

 

[jeallen01]

CH/Chris

About those Blue Ocean dongles, and similar products at that price point because they look interesting for the lower end of the frequency ranges, and so read a few of the reviews on Amazon.com, and those pointed to a few issues with them:
- the "MCX" antenna connectors which are on most of the dongles are pretty ropey in most cases and you will probably need an MCX to SMA adapter, and the small supplied antennas are not much use either. There are some units with SMA connectors, but the construction, and the mounting of the SMA connectors can be "suspect"
- No front-end filtering, and so lots of off-channel interference seems widely reported
- Don't use the supplied s/w (if any), but I expect that you already knew that.

Sounds like not bad for the price but not to expect too much for $20-$30, and there are apparently better ones in the $150-$200 range.

 

[Archive-8]

- No front-end filtering, and so lots of off-channel interference seems widely reported
- Don't use the supplied s/w (if any), but I expect that you already knew that.

none of the dongles have a filter, in my case my ads-b dongle is being feed from my filtered pre-amp.

Another dongle has a home brew aerial in the front room window at the moment, that's for the ascars decoding, that's unfiltered.

But the ascars dongle is listening to 4 channels at once, and is working ok, oddly enough none of my ascars messages are from plotted aircraft.

Most of them seem to be British airways, for some reason I don't get a lot of them over head.

At some point I also want to explore the other 2 ascars channels, and 978mhz don't know if I will get anything on that.

 

[jeallen01]

Chris

Was obviously preaching to the converted! - just thought people ought to know a bit more before thinking of ordering their own (I was, but will hang fire on that).

 

[Analoguesat]

978MHz is mainly across the pond isnt it?

 

[Archive-8]

978MHz is mainly across the pond isnt it?

From what I understand is that 978 is the weather type data.

I am curious to see if I get anything.

I just need to add the prog in to my pi, to give it a go.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Do those Nooelec square dongles make any appreciable difference to the number of aircraft tracked?

Don't know as yet, but it has just arrived (alone), all the way first class post from NooElec in Niagra Falls. The customs declaration claims a value of $7.95.

I'll have a go at plugging her in over the weekend (I think)

 

[Channel Hopper]

Oooh, it looks as though it can be taken apart.

There are external philips screws at the USB end, and the antenna nut holding the PCB in at the other......

 

[Archive-8]

And we have another member to the club


If you do take the top off, try and grab a photo or two please.

 

[Channel Hopper]

And we have another member to the club


If you do take the top off, try and grab a photo or two please.

I wouldn't normally dream of stripping her down before turning her on.

 

[Channel Hopper]

And the second unit arrived earlier today(or was it yesterday ?) , everything, apart from the stick looks identical to the earlier kit that I have had for ages, including the remote control. It will be interesting to see what is on the disc that came with it.