How to setup on a Lan or USB connection

Vk5adeVk5ade
edited May 2020 in General Chat
Hi group,
I have been running my KiwiSDR for some time with great success on the home network OK.
I now have a need from time to time to take the KiwiSDR away portable in the caravan.
I can not find much info on how to set up a Lan or USB direct to the KiwiSDR from my PC.
I have had a quick look on the instructions and on the net but could not find much info.
Could somebody please advise.
Regards

Stuart

Comments

  • PowernumptyPowernumpty
    Personally I'd get a tiny ethernet router (E.G. RB931-2nD) that way you can still use the laptop, internet and leave everything on automatic.
    That router can be powered from USB.

    It is of course possible to set the laptop and Kiwi for manual networking but it's just that bit more difficult and needs to be reset afterwards.
    73 Stu
  • Vk5adeVk5ade
    Hi,
    Yep that was another way I was going to do it I have a spare one of these TP Link MR3020.
    https://www.tp-link.com/au/home-networking/3g-4g-router/tl-mr3020/
    I think this will be OK.
    73
    Stuart
  • PowernumptyPowernumpty
    I've used the more basic TL-WR720 types and they work very well.
    It will be a bit more tricky than a simple three/four port router as all I was thinking was connect WAN to an ethernet lead if you have one (or need internet) and Kiwi/Laptop on the wired LAN ports.
    If internet exists via the router, my.kiwisdr.com works.

    On the one you have it (I assume) would be Kiwi on TP-Link Ethernet, "bridged" to the site WiFi, laptop on site wifi.
    Depends on what you want to do at the same time on the laptop.
    You could have the TP-link hand out addresses but that would be of most use if the 4G side is to the internet otherwise it just locks the laptop to local use only.

    I bought a N300 Mango for similar use but haven't actually got round to using it (was also for USB-Here).
    73 Stu
  • cathalferriscathalferris
    edited May 2020
    I've had success in networking over USB, specifically with my BeagleboneAI and second Kiwi - but I think that the same procedure would apply without changes to the normal Beaglebone as supplied as standard with KiwiSDR kits.

    I've connected the BBAI+Kiwi to my NUC with a USB3.1 C-C cable, I've got a "Remote NDIS compatible device" showing in Device manager on the NUC, on which I've statically assigned 192.168.7.1 and netmask of 255.255.255.0 and no gateway, no DNS.
    The Beaglebone Debian Linux setup should have a network-on-USB device with assigned 192.168.7.2 also with netmask 255.255.255.0 and no gateway or DNS assigned.

    I have no problems getting to the Kiwi interface on http://192.168.7.2:8073 and I can also ssh to the Debian instance without issue - I've found it exceptionally useful to have this side channel operating for when I was troubleshooting the wireless connectivity of the device (connman was a useful thing, if a bit of a pig to figure out).

    If I was using the Kiwi when on holiday and not needing anything else to connect to the Kiwi, I'd do something similar about USB connectivity - with the bonus that this network connection should not interfere with the vast majority of people's ordinary network (ethernet/wireless/bluetooth/etc) connections, as nothing else should route on the USB network device.

    One thing to note is the ensure that the USB connection is completed only after the 5v connection is available to the Kiwi itself, and before the OS boots on the Kiwi. There were stability issues for me unless I took care of that. May be related to the NUC actually providing the power to the Kiwi over USB-C in my instance, I don't think that the USB-micro can provide enough electrons to power the Kiwi+Beaglebone. As long as there's a good 5v supply in addition to the USB connection, things should work well.
  • WA2ZKDWA2ZKD
    I have 4 Kiwi in my "Cluster" and have thought about connecting them in pairs. USB-USB per pait, and ethernet from one of them.
  • cathalferriscathalferris
    ^you'd have fun with that networking setup to be able to access the usb-connected without logging in locally to the ethernet-connected Kiwi. Certainly possible, but nowhere near as clean as a USB hub with 4 ports, each going to the usb on each kiwi, though for that one you'd have to change the default usb network device address spaces on three of the Kiwis. You'd end up with e.g. 192.168.7.2 192.168.8.2, 192.168.9.2 and 192.168.10.2 to be able to connect to them all without chaining ssh connections.
  • WA2ZKDWA2ZKD
    that must be why I thought of it but haven't tried too hard yet :-)
  • cathalferriscathalferris
    After some time working in the enterprise-level computing environments, I've come to *really* like proper out-of-band access to things, and it's *really* cool to have that on the Kiwi.
  • PowernumptyPowernumpty
    On the "over usb" thing maybe a data only, no power, USB lead would save having to power it up in any order.
  • cathalferriscathalferris
    Agreed. A no-power USB cable would also reduce one avenue of possible RFI into the Kiwi as well, though I've not had much problem from that particular route.
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