Before You Start

You should check certain configurations before you launch a RF survey:

1. Make sure rsync is configured correctly if you are not writing IQ data directly to network storage.
2. Ensure that the SDR is plugged into one of the RPi’s (blue) USB 3 ports.
3. Make sure all alert systems are configured properly.
4. Check if the antenna is connected to the correct SDR port.

1. Data Storage

Open /home/pi/rf_survey/Streamer.py and check which location self.path = under def __init__ is pointing towards. If the given location is /home/pi/sync, data will be written to the RPi’s local storage and rsync needs to be enabled to pass data from the RPi to the remote server. You must request data server credentials for the RPi by contacting the server admin. The CU PASS data server is seti-400.colorado.edu and is managed by [email protected]. When the RPi’s individual server credentials are made available, you will import the RPi’s ssh keys to the data server and then test ssh access by ssh’ing to the data server from the RPi. Finally, add the RPi’s server credentials username to the rsync.sh file.

ssh-copy-id [rpi-server-creds]@seti-400.colorado.edu
ssh [rpi-server-creds]@seti-400.colorado.edu
nano ~/rsync.sh

2. SDR connection

To test access to the SDR execute uhd_find_devices in a terminal. The output should show the SDR’s serial number.

<aside> 💡 An error from uhd_find_devices can mean that the SDR is not connected or that it is currently in use as uhd_find_devices can’t connect to the SDR while it is collecting data.

</aside>

3. Alert Systems

Open crontab -e in a terminal and verify the following entries:

Then check /etc/rc.local and make sure it contains the following lines:

4. Antenna Connection

Streamer.py requires that the antenna is connected to the port labeled ‘RX2’. Before starting a survey, make sure that the antenna (or cable) is connected to this port. Do not disconnected or connect an antenna while the SDR is collected data or transmitting, it could potentially damage the hardware.