[NLRS] FunCube

[Doug Reed]

Regarding Zack's comment about installing SDRsharp, this is my opinion....

The trick to installing SDRsharp (SDR#) is to use the install.bat file
instead of trying to do it by hand. The annoying thing about the
install.bat file from the web page is that it DOES NOT do any error
checking. When the install.bat tries to download needed files, there
is no error message if it failed to do so. Similarly, there is no
error message if a download was corrupt or it failed to create a
needed directory.

There is an enhanced install.bat file out in the files section of the
SDRsharp Yahoo group. I've never found it or looked for it, but it is
supposed to handle all possible failures. I did leave some files out
there under my call sign that adds some error checking, but not to the
extent the other file has. If you don't want to look for the enhanced
files, the easiest option is to edit the install.bat file from the web
page and add some 'pause' statements between lines of the original
file, and specifically as the last line of the file. Each 'pause'
command will halt execution until you press ENTER to continue. This
gives you the added time you need to read the text and see if there
was an error.

Another standard problem is that you DO NOT want to attempt to install
SDRsharp in the Program_files directory under Win7 and above. I
suggest you install it in any directory you create yourself on C:
drive or D: drive, anywhere but C:\Program_files. SDRsharp needs to be
able to modify its own files but Win7 or Win8 will not allow that when
installed in Program_files. I put mine in D:\sdrsharp just to avoid
that problem. Don't forget you also need to have MS (dot) NET
installed before you can run SDRsharp.

After you've got SDRsharp installed, you then run the zadig.exe
program to replace the driver installed by Windows with the correct
driver for SDR. One thing that screws people up is there are TWO
versions of zadig.exe, one version for WinXP, another version for
Vista and newer. The install.bat file grabs the Vista+up version....

The usual hope is that Windows will install some default driver when
you plug in the DVB-T dongle. You then use zadig to install the real
driver. But sometimes Windows will not install a driver and in that
case you will be forced to install the driver that came with the
dongle. This isn't really a serious problem, but is something to be
aware of. But DON'T install the DVB-T TV software!

Most of the new dongles have a infrared detector built-in and this
causes two drivers to be loaded when you plug in the dongle. So first
you have to be sure you are trying to update the correct device, then
you need to make sure you update the RTL2838 side of the dongle, not
the IR port. PAY ATTENTION TO THE USB DEVICE ID CODES WHEN YOU RUN
ZADIG!!!  Once you have the correct driver updated, you can go into
the OS and tell it to disable the driver for the IR port.

For the most part this should give you enough info to successfully
install the RTL-USB drivers and get SDRsharp running on your computer.
Read all the various web pages for RTL-TCP and SDRsharp before you try
to install anything. My experience is that you need at least a 2GHz
CPU to run well. A 1.6GHz Atom processor was not fast enough. If you
get it running on anything slower than 2GHz, you're just lucky..... I
also recommend at least 1GB of RAM for anyone running WinXP, probably
8GB for Win7 and later.... I have 2GB in all my WinXP boxes and it
does help them run everything better.

What I consider to be one of the nicest features of SDRsharp is that
it uses config files in its own directory and DOES NOT muck about with
the registry. Every time I upgrade SDRsharp, I first create a sub
directory and copy all my current working files to that backup
directory. If the new version fails or I have any trouble, I can
change to the backup directory and run the program from there. This
makes it very simple to back away from a failed upgrade. I currently
have 10 old versions of SDRsharp going back to Christmas 2012 and they
all work with my Nov 2012 version of zadig for WinXP.

Good luck!

73, Doug Reed, N0NAS.