SDRPlay lost SDR#-support ?

[eckrot]

Hi,

today a new SDR# version was released which does not support extIO.dll plugins anymore. I asked for that, but they support only HW of their partners. My Question is: will SDRPlay such a partner, or did we loose SDR# as SDRPlay software? That would be a pity, since SDRConsole implementation is still erroneous, HDSDR is not maintained anymore and Studio 1 is not free of charge.
What's your strategy to keep support for SDRPlay HW on different SDR software packages alive?

Eckhard

[CaptainNemo]

Hi,

today a new SDR# version was released which does not support extIO.dll plugins anymore
...
What's your strategy to keep support for SDRPlay HW on different SDR software packages alive?

Eckhard

Eckhard was the first to post this question... thank you Eckhard!

I suppose a lot of people is looking forward for the answer.

[g1hbe]

This is a pity, as I find SDR# very good and the SDRPlay works well with it. Present users will be able to continue using it as long as they don't try to update, but nyone who buys an SDRPlay and tries to download and use SDR# with it will be disappointed.
Youssef seems a bit prickly about having competitors for his own AirSpy hardware and some of his comments on some of the well-known forums have been rather dubious. Still, that's where ego gets you.**
I wonder if the guys at SDRPlay have considered writing their own dedicated software? This could be heavily tweaked and customised to get the very best from the hardware.

**Sorry if I have been a bit blunt, but this kind of petulant behaviour always gets my goat.

[jon]

We are aware that the latest version of SDR# no longer supports an EXTIO file so we are taking a look at the best way to support customers who like the features of SDR#. It's disappointing that Aispy have chosen to limit the choice of hardware for SDR#, but we respect the fact that it’s their software and it is entirely their prerogative to provide support (or otherwise) for whatever hardware they want – we remain committed to supporting as many open third party software packages as possible. Jon (SDRplay marketing)

[DaveB]

There are two sides to the story - and whilst I have noticed how 'prickly' some of the SDR# team can be they have given good reasons for having to make the change - Windows 10 not supporting .NET 3.5 - so blame Microsoft. I quote from a post on their forum

Moving to .NET 4.6 imposes many restrictions to our code so we have to live with our native interface, which is wide open. We have had long discussions in this same list about the tricky ExtIO implementation in C# and how it breaks so often every time we change something. We have also discussed the possibility of removing it completely and encouraged people to adopt the native interface instead.
Incidentally, Kinetics developed a native SDR# driver for their hardware and it's still working fine.
AFAIK, SDR Play already have a native SDR# driver so it shouldn't pose any problem.

Now we all know that SDR play does use the ExtIO but I was one of the early adopters of the RSP and if I remember correctly v1.0 of the driver for SDR# didn't use the ExtIO - it came up as SDRPlay in the list of devices. So did it go through the native interface?

At the moment it is a case of copying the current SDR# installation you have to ensure you can restore it if something goes wrong. In the longer term - more work for the SRPlay team no doubt.

David

[Slick36]

Maybe the answer is to start a new Windows software project that supports SDRPlay. It can be open sourced and SDRPlay could endorse and support a non-forked version.

As a .NET software engineer, I volunteer my services. Most of my experience is in web applications, not much in desktop apps. I suppose I could learn ...

[NN4F]

I think you're right david, i'm sure it didn't always use the extio file? perhaps tech support will confirm, trying to find an old install, i always installed sdr# into a new folder each time.... searching now...

[NN4F]

You were right David, V1328, used the native interface rather than the extio format....

so seems it's been used before

Paul - NN4F

[NN4F]

OK I got it working from an old 1.5 driver, the native support works ok, just needs to be updated, not sure who wrote these files, either sdrplay or the sdr# team, but it does work, version i have is the 1.5 build 0319

Paul - NN4F

[jon]

Thanks Paul and others, and just to update newcomers, here's the latest update...

As most of you will now be aware, the decision to move to net framework 4.6 means that SDR sharp no longer supports the ExtIO interface used by the RSP. Whilst the authors of SDR sharp also sell a competing hardware product, we acknowledge that their software remains an excellent and highly popular SDR package for a wide range of hardware platforms and we fully respect their right to develop this software however they see fit.
The decision to move to the ExtIO interface in the first place was driven by changes made to the SDR sharp native interface without our prior knowledge which resulted in us losing some key functionality. Because SDRplay is perceived to be aimed at the same target market as the Airspy, the authors of SDR Sharp do not consider our platform to be a part of their ‘friends’ programme and so we cannot reasonably expect to get advanced warning of these changes. As a consequence, we felt that the ExtIO interface was the best way to go as it was also used by other hardware devices. However for the reasons described above, this option is no longer available to us.
As a consequence, we fully intend to continue to develop plugins to provide compatibility with the RSP and will do so by means other than the ExtIO interface. We expect to have a basic solution available very shortly with a more fully feature solution to follow in the near future.

Jon (SDRplay marketing)