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SDRangel server

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srcejon edited this page Sep 4, 2023 · 36 revisions

Introduction

Starting with version 4 (v4.0.0) it is a fully implemented feature with support of nearly all plugins:

  • Channel Rx: AM, BFM, DSD, NFM, SSB, WFM demodulators and UDP sink.
  • Channel Tx: AM, ATV, NFM, SSB, WFM modulators and UDP source.
  • Sample sources: Airspy, AirspyHF, BladeRF, FCDPro, FCDPro+, File source, HackRF, LimeSDR, Perseus, PlutoSDR, RTL-SDR, SDRPlay, Test source (that's all of them)
  • Sample sinks: BladeRF, File sink, HackRF, LimeSDR, PlutoSDR, (that's all of them also)

The most graphical plugins: Channel analyzer and ATV related demods are not part of the deal but they are also very unlikely to be useful in a server. However for DATV support could be added in the future with a proper implementation of TS communication.

It is implemented as a new binary sdrangelsrv that is similar to sdrangel but does not fire up a GUI. This server mode binary has therefore no dependency on Qt Widgets nor OpenGL. Since it has no GUI its control is left entirely up to the web REST API interface. It also uses a different set of plugins with their GUI parts removed. These are placed in the lib/pluginssrv directory.

The main motivations are:

  • open to third party development for custom detached GUI implementation thanks to the REST API.
  • be able to run SDRangel on hardware without graphics (server).
  • be used in sophisticated remote transponders or repeaters in a headless server configuration.
  • possibility to use Docker technology to host SDRangel server instances in a distributed environment.

This is distributed only in Linux packages. A Docker image exists for ARM 64 bit devices (see next).

Hardware requirements

Most users will want to run the server variant on ARM based SBCs like the Raspberry Pi. It is recommended to use armv8 class devices with 4 A53 cores or better clocked at 1.2 GHz or more. It is recommended to use a armv8 (aka aarch64) O/S. It has been successfully tested on the following devices:

Server and client deployment with Docker images - recommended way

armv8 images are available (thus for ARM 64 bit based devices) at Docker Hub:

You can also build your image after cloning the SDRangel Docker Github repository: https://github.com/f4exb/sdrangel-docker following instructions from the different readme's

To start the server and the client you may use the run.sh script available in the compose folder: https://github.com/f4exb/sdrangel-docker/tree/master/compose With default options you can launch the server and client with the command: ./run.sh -f server16 -c sdrangel

Controlling the process with supervisor - obsolete way

Supervisor is a Python package that makes it very easy to manage processes using a simple web interface. Docker way is preferred but this section is kept in case Docker cannot be used for some good reason. "I don't like Docker" and variants are not good reasons.

Program control via REST API

You can use any program that can make HTTP requests like a Python script with the request package.

  • The scriptsapi folder contain some scripts for common use cases. In particular the configure.py script is useful to automate SDRangel instance configuration.
  • You may also check some other examples of API based scripts here

You can also use the SDRangelcli web browser based UI.

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