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Author Topic: RTL-SDR for x86 32bit  (Read 1519 times)

Offline FoxxOTG

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RTL-SDR for x86 32bit
« on: August 11, 2020, 10:32:10 AM »
Greetings,

I am an avid amatuer radio entheusiast and have been very fond of the various Software Defined Radios that have been available for quite some time. Originally used as DVB-T Tuners for watching broadcast TV on your PC, these SDR Devices can also be used to essentially turn your PC into a Radio Scanner with some very interesting features. Part of the RTL-SDR environment for linux is an rtl_tcp pipe, allowing you to use an embedded device such as a Raspberry Pi or Netbook to create a TCP tunnel and stream the I/Q data to a PC with more horsepower to do all the heavy work and signal processing.

I noticed there is a TCE for the Raspberry Pi on TC v6 ARM. I am trying to use a Wyse Cx0 Thin Client which sports a Via C7 1Ghz 32bit CPU, 128MB Disk on Module, and 512MB SO-DIMM. I am able to upgrade the DoM to 1-2GB, and max the RAM at 2GB. I have Tiny Core 11 running beautifully. However I have noticed there is no TCE build of the rtl_sdr package for legacy x86. More information about the RTL-SDR can be found here https://github.com/osmocom/rtl-sdr

I have chronic linux noobitus. It is beyond my skill set to compile rtl_sdr into a working TCE despite my best efforts. I would humbly like to ask if someone within the community would be willing to compile a TCE of rtl_sdr for Tiny Core 11? I could "just buy a raspberry pi" but plan to put this in a dusty old shack in my back yard that is often hit with unpleasant bugs and humid weather. I feel the Wyse Cx0 would better suit the environment, plus I am always re-using my R'Pi for other projects, since I have more of a head for hardware hacking, it's much more suitable for my various zany projects. The Wyse CX0 has some limitations which make it unfun for hobby use, but for an rtl_tcp server it would be perfect.

You can find more information about the Wyse Cx0 here: https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/wyse/cx0/

I appreciate all of the work and effort that has gone into Tiny Core, It has been my go-to distro for my older hardware, including 400Mhz Internet Appliances from the mid 2000s - redefining the term "obsolete" by bringing them back to life and viably functional.