Pironman not compatible with RTL software defined radio dongle

General
1

I find that RPi 4B running either 32 bit or 64 bit RPi OS with Pironman hardware connected crashes and reboots whenever a common RTL-SDR software defined radio dongle is plugged in to any of the USB ports on the RPi. If the RPi is actually up an running, it crashes immediately when the dongle is plugged in. If the dongle is plugged in when the RPi is booted, it crashes and reboots within a couple of minutes of starting up. If the SDR program (like cubicSDR) is started up, it starts normally then crashes within a few seconds. No error message is displayed. The RPi without the Pironman hardware attached does not have this problem, even when the Pironman Python software is running. I have tried various high quality power supplies and the problem is there so it is not the power supply. Without the RTL-SDR dongle, the Pironman operates normally. I have also tried different RTL dongles (all RTL2832 or 2838 based) and they all crash the Pironman.

I WOULD BE GRATEFUL FOR ANY IDEAS OR HELP.

2
  1. Close the pironman program, pironman -a off && pironman stop, connect the USB radio again, if the reboot still happens, please send us the pironman program logs to see if we can find the cause.
  2. Please send us the pironman program log to see if we can find the reason, log file path /opt/pironman/log
  3. Observe whether the red power indicator of the Raspberry Pi is off, if it is off, it may be caused by a power problem.
  4. Directly supply power to the Raspberry Pi’s power port to see if this happens again.
3

THANK YOU FOR YOUR REPLY!

The reboot still happens the same with the pironman Python software disabled per your instructions.

The reboot does not happen with the USB-C power connected directly to the Raspberry Pi power socket but the pironman does not function properly that way of course.

The reboot occurs randomly but within 5 minutes whenever the RTL-SDR dongle is plugged into any USB port and it occurs much more quickly when the actual SDR app (CubicSDR) is started up but the dongle works normally until the crash occurs and I can tune in frequencies etc for a few seconds. When the crash occurs, the hdmi screen just goes black - there are no messages.

Here are the logs of two consecutive startups. The crash/reboot is between the two.

------------------------23/07/18 14:09:50------------------------
pironman version: 1.6.2
username: pi
config_file: /home/pi/.config/pironman/config.txt

Kernel Version:
Linux playroom 6.1.21-v8+ #1642 SMP PREEMPT Mon Apr 3 17:24:16 BST 2023 aarch64 GNU/Linux

OS Version:
No LSB modules are available.
Description: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)

PCB info:
Revision : c03112
Model : Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.2

23/07/18 14:09:50,922 [DEBUG] power_key_pin : 16
23/07/18 14:09:50,922 [DEBUG] fan_pin : 6
23/07/18 14:09:50,922 [DEBUG] rgb_pin : 12
23/07/18 14:09:50,922 [DEBUG] update_frequency : 0.5
23/07/18 14:09:50,922 [DEBUG] temp_unit : C
23/07/18 14:09:50,922 [DEBUG] fan_temp : 65.0
23/07/18 14:09:50,923 [DEBUG] screen_always_on : True
23/07/18 14:09:50,923 [DEBUG] screen_off_time : 60
23/07/18 14:09:50,923 [DEBUG] rgb_switch: True
23/07/18 14:09:50,923 [DEBUG] rgb_blink_speed : 50
23/07/18 14:09:50,923 [DEBUG] rgb_pwm_freq : 1000
23/07/18 14:09:50,923 [DEBUG] rgb_color : 0a1aff
23/07/18 14:09:50,923 [DEBUG]

23/07/18 14:09:50,985 [DEBUG] rgb_show
23/07/18 14:09:50,985 [DEBUG] rgb_show: colorful

------------------------23/07/18 14:15:55------------------------
pironman version: 1.6.2
username: pi
config_file: /home/pi/.config/pironman/config.txt

Kernel Version:
Linux playroom 6.1.21-v8+ #1642 SMP PREEMPT Mon Apr 3 17:24:16 BST 2023 aarch64 GNU/Linux

OS Version:
No LSB modules are available.
Description: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)

PCB info:
Revision : c03112
Model : Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.2

23/07/18 14:15:55,525 [DEBUG] power_key_pin : 16
23/07/18 14:15:55,525 [DEBUG] fan_pin : 6
23/07/18 14:15:55,525 [DEBUG] rgb_pin : 12
23/07/18 14:15:55,525 [DEBUG] update_frequency : 0.5
23/07/18 14:15:55,525 [DEBUG] temp_unit : C
23/07/18 14:15:55,525 [DEBUG] fan_temp : 65.0
23/07/18 14:15:55,526 [DEBUG] screen_always_on : True
23/07/18 14:15:55,526 [DEBUG] screen_off_time : 60
23/07/18 14:15:55,526 [DEBUG] rgb_switch: True
23/07/18 14:15:55,526 [DEBUG] rgb_blink_speed : 50
23/07/18 14:15:55,526 [DEBUG] rgb_pwm_freq : 1000
23/07/18 14:15:55,526 [DEBUG] rgb_color : 0a1aff
23/07/18 14:15:55,526 [DEBUG]

23/07/18 14:15:55,586 [DEBUG] rgb_show
23/07/18 14:15:55,589 [DEBUG] rgb_show: colorful

4

Also, the RPi red light never flickers or goes off per your question. I am using a high quality genuine Apple USB-C 5 amp power supply.

5

The dongle used in these tests is a genuine RTL-SDR RTL2832U R828T2 manufactured by RTL-SDR.com. This is a very common and widely used product. I tried an unrelated dongle earlier and the same problem happened.

6

I am a fairly sophisticated user. I would guess this is some sort of hardware issue and is not related to the Pironman Python software.

7
  1. From your reply, you said that “when the USB-C power supply is directly connected to the Raspberry Pi’s power socket, no reboot occurs”, so this is caused by power supply problems, the pironman motherboard through the FPC cable, and then by the Raspberry Pi’s 5V pin to the Raspberry Pi’s power supply, which may correspond to some circumstances 1. you don’t use the power socket to supply power well
  2. Have you overclocked the Raspberry Pi, resulting in high power consumption?
  3. Change the usb cable.
8

I have tried another USB cable and I have tried connecting the RTL-SDR unit through a high quality powered USB hub, eliminating the possibility that it is a power loading issue.

The reboot/crash problem still occurs. There is some basic hardware incompatibility between my Pironman and the SDR dongle.

This is a significant problem unless my Pironman is unique in some way. These RTL-SDR dongles are a popular and common accessory. I think Pironman should obtain one of these $30.00 dongles and try it out themselves.

9

This problem goes away when you use two USB power cables as you suggested. Perhaps a more robust ribbon cable on your next model would fix this since the RTL-SDR doesn’t use all that much power.

THANK YOU!

10

Thank you very much for your feedback, we will follow up on this issue to make adjustments. Have a nice day at work!