Having been, before retirement, a professional real-time softy, I have kept
computers
out of the shack, not wishing to have a busman's holiday.

Now, I'm prepared to make the change, but in the true spirit of _REAL_
amateur radio to do everything myself.

My question is, what sound card drivers are used for the PC end of the
various softrock, SDRs, etc?

Is it via a .NET component, or perhaps the age-old DirectX approach?

On 03/02/2016 16:11, gareth wrote:
Having been, before retirement, a professional real-time softy, I have kept
computers
out of the shack, not wishing to have a busman's holiday.

Now, I'm prepared to make the change, but in the true spirit of _REAL_
amateur radio to do everything myself.

My question is, what sound card drivers are used for the PC end of the
various softrock, SDRs, etc?

Is it via a .NET component, or perhaps the age-old DirectX approach?

Your question is a little vague so I have have tried to cover all
interpretations.

I am assuming here that you are only referring to windows PCs as there
are windows only libraries. The simple answer is however the
manufacturer writes the driver, given the sheer number of sound cards
out there and the vast number of SDR devices then there is no single
approach to drivers. Most I have come across are written in C or C++ or
some other fully compilable language as opposed to a bytecode compilable
framework such as .net or java - although I do like Java it is a
nightmare if you want to address the hardware directly. Java prefers
that you address an abstraction layer rather than the hardware. Very
occasionally I have seen drivers written in machine code especially
where efficiency, timing and speed is paramount. Machine code coders can
command a very high price for their black magic coding.

As an ex professional softy I am sure that you realise that DirectX is
not a driver, it is a library of APIs for handling graphical and sound
transactions even when you get down to the low-level sound interaction
such as Directsound ultimately Directsound is an interface between the
user software and the sound/graphics card driver. Given the market
demand, most driver writers that want a wide uptake of their products
will create standard interface hooks for the common A/V libraries such
as .net or directX but as for specifics you would be more precise in
your question.

I have written drivers in C and C++ mostly for linux but also windows
where standard drivers were not available. It is a daunting prospect at
first but USB control is actually quite straightforward in most cases.

In a nutshell the process is:
Enumerate the USB devices (in linux this is as simple as a console
command "lsusb").
Locate the USB device usually by manufacturer and type ID.
Interrogate the configuration to find how many interfaces, endpoints and
types (direction of data flow)
Enumerate the interface(s)
Claim the interface(s)
Enumerate the endpoint(s)
Open a communication pipe for synchronous or asynchronous communication
And/or set up events for an interrupt driven comms or use Control comms

Then you have a mass of data that you need to parse and data mine. That
is a difficult bit. I have written a driver for a TV dongle but once I
had the data I was lost. Processing of the data is a lot more specialist
art that I could handle.

In linux it is a little easier to write and install a driver, windows is
a little more restrictive and some flavours on set ups of windows demand
certificates before installation

I am currently writing USB drivers for a Playstation Buzz controller to
turn a raspberry pi into a 16 buzzer quiz machine (complete with QI
style silly buzzer noises). These drivers are being written in python
utilizing the pyUSB libraries. The data transferred in this case is,
thankfully, little more than 6 bytes that needs simple bitwise masking
to find out which button(s) has been pressed. I can just about handle 6
bytes.

Hope that helps

AndyW

AndyW wrote:
snip

Hope that helps


Sadly, I doubt he understood any of it.

--
STC // M0TEY // twitter.com/ukradioamateur

In message , Stephen Thomas Cole
writes
AndyW wrote:
snip

Hope that helps


Sadly, I doubt he understood any of it.

I certainly didn't!
--
Ian

Ian Jackson wrote:
In message , Stephen Thomas Cole
writes
AndyW wrote:
snip

Hope that helps


Sadly, I doubt he understood any of it.

I certainly didn't!

You don't claim to be a software expert, though!

--
STC // M0TEY // twitter.com/ukradioamateur

"Ian Jackson" wrote in message
...
In message , Stephen Thomas Cole
writes
AndyW wrote:
snip
Hope that helps
Sadly, I doubt he understood any of it.
I certainly didn't!

I can well see from Ian's post that the usual infantile whingers
and abusers have responded, and that is only to be expected
given their emotional ages, and so the cesspit against which
they rail continues to be fed with their own effluent.

The _REAL radio amateur understands the innards of his rig
down to the last rheophore, whereas the CBer-masquerading-as-a-radio-amateur
fails to understand even the difference between sideband and sidetone.

The arrival of the general purpose computer opened up the possibility
to _REAL_ radio amateurs of doing their own programming, but, sadly,
although the computer is to be found in many shacks, the programs therein
have largely been of the Cheque book (CB) variety, making even the
traditional _REAL_ radio amateur indistinguishable from the
CBer-masquerading-as-a-radio-amateur for large parts of his shack.


I'm eager to work in the area; anybody out there with relevant experience?


(For myself, I understand the operation of computers right from the Drude
model of conduction right up to database applications whether relational,
or hierarchical, etc. I have worked in machine code, assembler, and numerous
HLLs, some of them interpreted; developed device drivers under RSX-11, and
so am well placed to pick up quickly the threads in a particular area of
which
I yet have no experience)

"gareth" wrote in message
...
"Ian Jackson" wrote in message
...
In message , Stephen Thomas Cole
writes
AndyW wrote:
snip
Hope that helps
Sadly, I doubt he understood any of it.
I certainly didn't!

I can well see from Ian's post that the usual infantile whingers
and abusers have responded, and that is only to be expected
given their emotional ages, and so the cesspit against which
they rail continues to be fed with their own effluent.

The _REAL radio amateur understands the innards of his rig
down to the last rheophore, whereas the
CBer-masquerading-as-a-radio-amateur
fails to understand even the difference between sideband and sidetone.

The arrival of the general purpose computer opened up the possibility
to _REAL_ radio amateurs of doing their own programming, but, sadly,
although the computer is to be found in many shacks, the programs therein
have largely been of the Cheque book (CB) variety, making even the
traditional _REAL_ radio amateur indistinguishable from the
CBer-masquerading-as-a-radio-amateur for large parts of his shack.


I'm eager to work in the area; anybody out there with relevant experience?


(For myself, I understand the operation of computers right from the Drude
model of conduction right up to database applications whether relational,
or hierarchical, etc. I have worked in machine code, assembler, and
numerous
HLLs, some of them interpreted; developed device drivers under RSX-11, and
so am well placed to pick up quickly the threads in a particular area of
which
I yet have no experience)




bloody professional

"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
...
"gareth" wrote in message
...
"Ian Jackson" wrote in message
...
In message , Stephen Thomas Cole
writes
AndyW wrote:
snip
Hope that helps
Sadly, I doubt he understood any of it.
I certainly didn't!
I can well see from Ian's post that the usual infantile whingers
and abusers have responded, and that is only to be expected
given their emotional ages, and so the cesspit against which
they rail continues to be fed with their own effluent.
The _REAL radio amateur understands the innards of his rig
down to the last rheophore, whereas the
CBer-masquerading-as-a-radio-amateur
fails to understand even the difference between sideband and sidetone.
The arrival of the general purpose computer opened up the possibility
to _REAL_ radio amateurs of doing their own programming, but, sadly,
although the computer is to be found in many shacks, the programs therein
have largely been of the Cheque book (CB) variety, making even the
traditional _REAL_ radio amateur indistinguishable from the
CBer-masquerading-as-a-radio-amateur for large parts of his shack.
I'm eager to work in the area; anybody out there with relevant
experience?
(For myself, I understand the operation of computers right from the Drude
model of conduction right up to database applications whether relational,
or hierarchical, etc. I have worked in machine code, assembler, and
numerous
HLLs, some of them interpreted; developed device drivers under RSX-11,
and
so am well placed to pick up quickly the threads in a particular area of
which
I yet have no experience)
bloody professional


10-4 gud buddy!

"gareth" wrote in message
...
"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
...
bloody professional
10-4 gud buddy!

But Jim, you're a professional engineer and by all accounts, a very good
one.

And, unlike M3OSN, you're a civil engineer.

AndyW wrote in
:

snipped for brevity


Hope that helps


It probably did, but don't hold your breath waiting for a gentlemanly
expression of thanks.