jks

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jks
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  • Save money on another Kiwi or tell a friend [KiwiSDR sometimes on drop.com for $100 off MSRP]

    jksjks
    If you're interested in getting a Kiwi at a substantial discount then make sure you've hit the "requested" button on the drop.com site (https://drop.com/buy/seeed-kiwisdr-kit?mode=guest_open) [registration required]. "Requested" is an expression of interest, not a commitment.

    It's been 3 months since the last drop ended and they used to occur back-to-back pretty much. There are plenty of Kiwis available after a recent factory build, so that's not the issue.
    ChrisSmolinski

  • BeagleBone AI

    jksjks
    The Kiwi is starting to function using a BBAI in place of the BBG/BBB. Lots of issues still, but in principle it works.

    Turns out the US $125 price from Mouser and others is $100 MSRP plus the current $25 US China tariff. So for example you can get it from UK Farnell for £80/$100 (but then +VAT if delivered in EU). Seeed's Shenzhen-based website sells it for $125 which I find both amusing and sad. The AI is built by Embest, a, you guessed it, Shenzhen company. Go figure.

    The thing is a beast. If you don't use some significant forced-air cooling it goes into thermal shutdown pretty quickly. It will also shutdown when your power supply can't deliver enough current! (5V 3A max)

    Compile times for Kiwi codebase: (clang compiler, "make -j n" used) 
    BBAI    Debian 9.11    1m50s (3x faster)    TI AM5729 ARM Cortex-A15, 2 cores, 1.5 GHz
BBB/G   Debian 8.5     6m10s                TI AM3359 ARM Cortex-A8,  1 core,  1.0 GHz
    PowernumptyWA2ZKDLX1DQ

  • Feature request - receiver info on status page [trial in v1.334]

    jksjks
    Okay, there is a trial of this in today's v1.334, e.g. "kiwi:8073/users" Only responds to connections from the local network.
    Response is JSON with a couple of the fields URI encoded. This mostly because it already existed as a protocol with the Kiwi Javascript and I've been trying to move everything to JSON anyway.

    Example: 
    [{"i":0,"n":"ZL%2fKF6VO","g":"Tauranga,%20New%20Zealand","f":518000,"m":"cw","z":11,"t":"0:00:15","rt":0,"rs":"0:00:00","e":"","a":"192.168.1.2"},{"i":1},{"i":2},{"i":3}]
    So a JSON array with as many objects as there are rx channels. Many of the fields can be an empty string value if there is no info.
    • i: channel index
    • n: name/callsign field, URI encoded
    • g: geolocation, URI encoded
    • f: freq Hz
    • m: mode
    • z: zoom level 0-14
    • t: connect time h:mm:ss
    • rt: time remaining type: 0 = no limit, 1 = inactivity limit will expire first, 2 = /24 hr limit will expire first
    • rs: time remaining h:mm:ss (inactivity or /24 hr)
    • e: extension in use
    • a: user's ip address (as you would see on admin status tab)
    PowernumptyHB9TMCrz3dvp

  • Electrosense: RTL-SDR based crowd sourced spectrum monitoring DC to 6GHz

    jksjks
    Happy to see this. Greater appreciation and interest in distributed SDR applications is needed. So much that can be done..
    https://www.rtl-sdr.com/electrosense-rtl-sdr-based-crowd-sourced-spectrum-monitoring-with-a-dc-to-6-ghz-rtl-sdr-up-downconverter
    Powernumpty

  • Update Problem [fixed in v1.332]

    jksjks
    Yes, there seems to be a different bug in older versions of the antenna switch extension that prevents rebuilds.
    To update and rebuild follow these instructions: 
    cdp
mst    [stop Kiwi server]
m git    [make sure Kiwi software is updated]
cd
rm -rf extensions    [remove old extensions build directory]
cd ~/KiwiSDR-antenna-switch-extension
gup    [update ant switch from github]
bash ant-switch-extension-installer    [rebuild ant switch and Kiwi software]
[Kiwi server should now be running]
    I was able to do this from an old (March 2018) version of the antenna switch without any problems.
    IZ3EAW