RX-888 USB3 problems

[sm6fhz]

Hi.

Maybe someone with solid knowledge about USB3 drivers and HW can give me a hint about how I should proceed with my investigation and hopefully solving of the below described problem.

I had my RX-888 open in order to get +5V from the USB connector pins on the board (to power a small fan) by soldering a thin lead to the +5V and ground pins. When I started it again SDRC could not find the RX-888 and started behaving.
I had traffic flowing erratically but then SDRC crashed. Win10 does find the Cypress FX3 device but it disappears from Win10 when SDRC crashes. In that moment Win10 also gives an error message that an unknown USB device has been detected.

Cypress Control Center finds the RX-888 at first but it disappears there as well after the SDRC crashes. See attached screenshot. Cypress Control Center also finds the LIME and that maybe can be used as a comparison.

SDRC also leaves a "Please wait" error dump (screenshot enclosed, file too big to attach at this stage, can do later if will be of any help). It complains about the RX-666 DLL-file. Same in both Win7 and Win10. SDRC crashes by merely searching for a RX-666/RX-888.

The SDRC Server also crashes when searching for RX-666/RX-888.

SDRC does not crash when the RX-888 is attached to a USB2 port, it starts but it stutters a lot of cause.

I am afraid that it is a HW fault but hopes that it may be a FW fault that can be reprogrammed

Would be thankful for help in solving this.

73 / Ingolf, SM6FHZ

[sm6fhz]

More attachements / Ingolf

[fventuri]

Ingolf,
you may want to see if using a different software like HDSDR makes any difference (I wrote some instructions about install HDSDR and the RX888 software here: https://groups.io/g/NextGenSDRs/topic/r ... r/77275146).

If it works under a different software, it is good sign that the HW is probably OK.

The firmware is actually that little 112kB file called 'rx888.img', and it gets loaded anew every time you restart the SDR, so it's probably not that.

Hope this helps.

73, Franco - K4VZ

[LWood]

Could the fan be drawing enough current to be giving the problem? Maybe try to disconnect the fan and see if it works properly then.

[sm6fhz]

Hi Lwood.
Thanks for the hint but the fan is not connected yet. I did not get that far. I only connected the wires to measure the voltage when I ran into this. The wires were removed but no change.
I had the fan connected to another USB-port but wanted a more robust and compact installation with only one USB-connection.
73 / Ingolf, SM6FHZ

[AG4F-David]

Is the USB3 port directly connected to the motherboard? have you tried another USB3 port? Cypress USB3-based SDRs are known to require a lot of current and, generally, a USB3 port to themselves (i.e. not through a hub or shared with other devices). Also, not all USB3 ports perform the same. When I first started using USB3 SDRs, I went through almost 10 different USB3 cards (it was an older PC that did not have native USB3 ports on the motherboard) before finding one that worked well. Many motherboard USB3 implementations simply won't work with very high bandwidth streaming devices. Here's an example of one that works well: Note that on this example, each USB3 port has its own controller. You may have better luck with a card like this than with a motherboard based USB3 port.

[sm6fhz]

Hi David.
Thanks for the hint.
Yes, I have tried to connect to other USB3 ports and also to USB2 ports as well. It does not crash on a USB2 port but stutters of cause, as I wrote above.
It worked on the USB3 port on my Laptop before I tried to "modify" for taking +5V from the USB3 so something happened then, I guess.
73 / Ingolf, SM6FHZ

[sm6fhz]

Dear Franco.

Thank you for your advice.
I have now tried with HDSDR. It took some time to understand how to set it up and find the proper dll-files. I finally got the time to sit down with it and finish the trial.
The RX-888 starts with HDSDR in an win7 environment BUT stops / hangs after ~5 seconds. It starts with 32 MHz BW (default in HDSDR?).
It can be restarted by unpower / power up the RX-888 and the show repeats.

I have also tried with the latest SDRC version (3.0.26-2020-10-28-2143).
In a win7 environment the RX-888 does the same as with HDSDR, runs for a few seconds then hangs. No crash! Just hangs. Can be restarted and the show repeats.
In an win10 environment SDRC crashes with a "Please wait" message when trying to find the RX-888 first hand and points at the RX888.dll file.
Would the full big crash log-file be of any help? If so, where to put it?

Still puzzeled. Any further ideas? Defect HW?

73 / Ingolf, SM6FHZ

[fventuri]

Ingolf,
I see from your other post here (viewtopic.php?p=2258) that you already tried the new version of the ExtIO.dll that Justin posted yesterday. I wonder if that made a difference at all.
If it didn't, then the fact that three different ways of trying to connect to the RX888 all fail in a very similar way, seems to indicate that it might be a HW problem.

I just took a quick look at the pictures of the RX888 that Guy Atkins posted on the SWLIng post (https://i0.wp.com/swling.com/blog/wp-co ... erior2.jpg), and I don't think the UART for the FX3 (the chip with the name CYUSB3014) is accessible on that board (but you may want to double check on yours); if it were, you might be able to connect to it and see the debug messages from the firmware.

Also since I work mostly on Linux, I don't really know how to read the crash-log and understand what it means.

Franco

[sm6fhz]

Hi Franco.
Thanks for your answer.
No, I have not yet tried the latest dll from Justin. I can do that as well.
Regarding connecting to to the CYUSB3014 I get the impression that it can be done via the Cypress USB Control Center (screenshots in posts above). However, I do not have the knowledge to use it in that way.
Do you know how to do that? If so, I am open to instructions on how to proceed.
BTW, I have a CYUSB3014 chip on it's way to me. Will try exchanging it, if possible and everything else fails.
73 / Ingolf, SM6FHZ