How to install the "STEMlab SDR transceiver" app on your HAMlab



The software comes as a ZIP file, upon extracting it you get a folder with name stemlab_sdr_transceiver_hpsdr and the following contents

Contents of stemlab folder

It is a good idea to modify the text files (shell scripts) start.sh and stop.sh.
When starting the SDR application, one should first kill any running sdr transceiver apps that may be still there. Furthermore, specific for HAMlab, set/reset the GPIO relays to "SDR" mode. Note that in HAMlab, RedPitaya In/Out can be either routed to the front BNC connectors (for using the device as an oscilloscope, for example) or to the PA/filter module (for using is as an SDR), and this must be done before starting the SDR app.

Therefore, this is how the file start.sh that works on my HAMlab looks like:

killall sdr-transceiver-hpsdr
hamrf -s
gpiorelay -s
/opt/redpitaya/www/apps/stemlab_sdr_transceiver_hpsdr/sdr-transceiver-hpsdr &

Here, the first three lines are simply copied from stop.sh, so starting the SDR app first resets
everything to a defined state. The file stop.sh reads:

killall sdr-transceiver-hpsdr
hamrf -i
gpiorelay -i
In the distributed (STEMlab) version, there is only the last line present in start.sh and the first line in stop.sh. The hamrf and gpiorelay commands are only used on a HAMlab (not STEMlab), since HAMlab has a relay board which switches the RedPitaya between "oscilloscope" and "SDR" mode. For a STEMlab, you hard-wire the impedance converters and the PA/filter board to the inputs and outputs of the RedPitaya and need no software switching.

Note: This relates to the version of sdr-transceiver-hpsdr from March 15, 2018 (this date can be found in the file sdr-app.version in the folder). Later versions require five arguments to the program, in this case the original file start.sh reads

/opt/redpitaya/www/apps/stemlab_sdr_transceiver_hpsdr/sdr-transceiver-hpsdr 1 2 2 1 2 &

In this case (of course), this must not be changed, just put the three lines with killall, hamrf, and gpiorelay in front.


After changing "start.sh" and "stop.sh", the whole folder must go somehow to the RedPitaya.
There are two possibilities:

A. Installing directly on the RedPitaya using ssh and scp (Mac, Linux) or putty (Windows)


Log on as root on the RedPitaya. Note that my RedPitaya is configured for a fixed IP address that is 192.168.1.100. So if working from MacOS or LINUX, the command is

   ssh root@192.168.1.100

Under Windows, there is a "putty" command to do the same but I have no instructions for this. As password, use "root". Once you are on the red-pitay, simply issue the command rw and then you can leave the RedPitay. Here is a screen dump how I did it:

MacOS% ssh root@192.168.1.100
root@192.168.1.100's password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.4.0-xilinx armv7l)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage
##############################################################################
# Red Pitaya GNU/Linux Ecosystem
# Version: 0.97
# Build: 6
# Branch: hamlabab
# Commit: 71c701f93c8bc9b103f72f7a0ba3413c01078e53
# U-Boot: ""
# Linux Kernel: ""
# Pro Applications: +5ee3db375e521fb260b3a3646d9c5b5e5c2a45ff Applications (v0.96-RC3-155-g5ee3db3)
##############################################################################
Last login: Mon Apr 23 14:35:03 2018 from 192.168.1.51
root@rp-f0521b:~# rw
root@rp-f0521b:~# exit
logout
Connection to 192.168.1.100 closed.
[MacChef:~] chwu%


The rw command simply makes the directory in which we have to place the software writable. It is simply an abbreviation for
the command

mount -o rw,remount /opt/redpitaya

which means that the filesystem (which by default is mounted read-only) is re-mounted with read-write permissions. But it is certainly very convenient that you only have to type rw.

When you are back on your Macintosh or LINUX system, you go where the folder stemlab_sdr_transceiver_hpsdr resides and copy it to the RedPitaya:

scp -r stemlab_sdr_transceiver_hpsdr root@192.168.1.100:/opt/redpitaya/www/apps

This also works under Windows if you use putty.


B. Installing the software directly on the RedPitaya SD card

As an alternative, you can withdraw the SD card from the RedPitaya, put it into an SD card reader and mount this "disk".
On this disk at root level, there is a www folder that contains an apps folder. You have to copy your folder with name stemlab_sdr_transceiver_hpsdr
into this apps folder. Then you can un-mount the SD card and re-insert it into your RedPitaya.


In both cases:


To check whether installation was successful: connect to your HAMlab via a browser. You now should see both the old
hamlab_sdr and the new stemlab_sdr app:

Screen after successfull install

So if you start the SDR application "by hand" from a browser, make sure to click the icon in the second row (STEMlab SDR transceiver) rather than the icon in the top row (HAMlab SDR transceiver). If you use piHPSDR, the app can be started from withih piHPSDR, this program makes STEMlab the default if both are available. If you use PowerSDR or any other software which starts the app automatically but you cannot control which one, it is best to remove the hamlab_sdr_transceiver_hpsdr directory from the RedPitaya SD card.

DL1YCF, August 2018.