MAC OS timing issue - RSP1A not found on first attemp , second ok ?

[aneitzel]

Hi all,

found a problem with SoapySDRplay on MAC. Have tested a complete fresh install of OS (Catalina 10.15.7) and all prereq + sdrplay and soapysdrplay via MAC PORTS.

Problem ==> After boot OS and check SDRplay hw with SoapySDRUtil -find, it dont find the RSP1A on first attemp. After rerun the same command it works! See below:

alpha@iMAC ~ % SoapySDRUtil -find
######################################################

Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library

######################################################

libusb: error [darwin_claim_interface] interface not found
No devices found!
alpha@iMAC ~ % SoapySDRUtil -find
######################################################

Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library

######################################################

Found device 0
driver = sdrplay
label = SDRplay Dev0 RSP1A 1807082793
serial = 18XXXXXXXX

---

Any idea whats wrong?

---

alpha@iMAC ~ % SoapySDRUtil --info
######################################################

Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library

######################################################

Lib Version: v0.8.1-unknown
API Version: v0.8.0
ABI Version: v0.8
Install root: /opt/local
Search path: /opt/local/lib/SoapySDR/modules0.8
Module found: /opt/local/lib/SoapySDR/modules0.8/libLMS7Support.so (20.10.0)
Module found: /opt/local/lib/SoapySDR/modules0.8/libsdrPlaySupport.so (0.3.0)
Available factories... lime, sdrplay
Available converters...

• CF32 -> [CF32, CS16, CS8, CU16, CU8]
• CS16 -> [CF32, CS16, CS8, CU16, CU8]
• CS32 -> [CS32]
• CS8 -> [CF32, CS16, CS8, CU16, CU8]
• CU16 -> [CF32, CS16, CS8]
• CU8 -> [CF32, CS16, CS8]
• F32 -> [F32, S16, S8, U16, U8]
• S16 -> [F32, S16, S8, U16, U8]
• S32 -> [S32]
• S8 -> [F32, S16, S8, U16, U8]
• U16 -> [F32, S16, S8]
• U8 -> [F32, S16, S8]
  alpha@iMAC ~ % SoapySDRUtil --probe=sdrplay
  ######################################################

Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library

######################################################

Probe device sdrplay

---

-- Device identification

driver=SDRplay
hardware=RSP1A
mir_sdr_api_version=2.130000
mir_sdr_hw_version=255
serial=180XXXXXXXXX

[fventuri]

@aneitzel - I don't have a Mac (just Linux and Windows here), but I would try to figure out why you are getting that message the first time:

libusb: error [darwin_claim_interface] interface not found
No devices found!

On Linux I would use the command lsusb before the first time to see the USB devices and interfaces seen by the kernel right after booting it; there's probably a similar command for MacOS that might help you further diagnose this issue.

Hope it helps,
Franco

[aneitzel]

on MAC there is lsbutils available via PORTS also, seems my USB RSP1A is recognized correctly after boot. This is what i got via lsusb:

alpha@iMAC ~ % lsusb
Bus 020 Device 010: ID 05ac:0250 Apple, Inc. Aluminium Keyboard (ISO)
Bus 020 Device 007: ID 1df7:3000 SDRplay RSP1a
Bus 020 Device 005: ID 05ac:8511 Apple, Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
Bus 020 Device 004: ID 05ac:1006 Apple, Inc. Hub in Aluminum Keyboard
Bus 020 Device 003: ID 08bb:2902 Texas Instruments PCM2902 Audio Codec

But i need to fire up one time a "SoapySDRUtil --find" to enable soapy and SDR software using it to find it.

From my point of view it seems to be a issue somethere between OS USB and soapy and or SDRplay code :-(
Any other user who run into the same?

[fventuri]

@aneitzel perhaps this is what is going on:

• right after the boot the RSP1A device is still in some sort of non-initialized mode
• the first time you run SoapySDRUtil, the SDRplay API downloads the proper firmware into the device and initializes the device correctly
• the second time you run SoapySDRUtil the USB RSP1A is fully initialized and it responds correctly to the USB requests

Since you have lsusb there, you can see the difference in the USB device configuration by running lsusb -v -d 1df7:3000, and looking at the line with bcdDevice; right after boot this is what I see here on Linux:

  bcdDevice            2.00

and after the first time I run SoapySDRUtil it becomes (your number might be different):

  bcdDevice            2.07

BTW I see you are still running an old version (2.13) of the SDRplay API - it is several years old, and I think it is no longer supported by SDRplay.
You may want to try the current version (3.07 for Linux and Mac); the SoapySDRPlay3 module is available here: https://github.com/pothosware/SoapySDRPlay3 and the build instructions are here: https://github.com/pothosware/SoapySDRPlay3/wiki (I am not sure if there are packages ready to install for Macs in homebrew or macports).

Franco