the pdf manual - RDS Spy – Windows RDS Decoder
Contents
1. 14 7 2 Template Files 15 8 16 9 1 2 eiS 16 9 1 Super Pl DSC eee ee et 16 10 Frequently Asked Questions 17 11 S10 0 010 ea 19 12 ANMEXES oo Rn nto mentee eee cer a 20 12 1 RDS Spy Files Specification 20 12 2 Serial 20 123 RDS RBDS Group 22 12 4 Group Analyzer Plugin Description 24 12 5 List of Abbreviations 25 1 Installation Update 17 Download and run the installation exe file Select the setup language and finish the installation using Next button Run the RDS Spy and select the RDS source Arrange the workspace as required and save your settings using menu item File Save Workspace oe The RDS Spy can be installed more times on the same machine if each installation is placed in different subfolder for example C Program Files RDS2. 10 0 9 00211 0 13 Radin Ceskn 8 11 13 1 zl To create a report select the option File Create Report in the main menu and fill the file name desired Optionally you may be asked for the tuned frequency which is included in the report Logs can be saved automatically This is especially useful for logging occasional FM station reception The logging event occurs before any data reset for example before PI reset timeout reset application exit etc Note that if a folder is specified in the options it must be created manually Each report log may occupy a separate file or all reports 1005 may append into a single file 7 1 Simple Automated Logging Following instructions describe how to configure the RDS Spy in order to leave a single line in the report file for each station received 1 Configure highlighted General options 2 General P Playback Recording Reports B Logs Flat LCD saves bit of CPU time on slow machines Consider bad blocks as correct not recommended Reset ADS data on signal timeout 30 800 ms General High priority Save workspace on Exit Always on Top JV Enable Super PI Detector Reset RDS data on PI change When applicable use 44 1 kHz sample Signal timeout Sound card buffer size latency Enable the Reset on PI change For DX purposes enab
3. Detector Reset RDS data on change Reset RDS data on signal timeout Use 44 1 kHz sample rate Sound card buffer size latency Enable this option to assure gap less operation if some CPU esurient applications are running on the same PC Don t enable this option if some critical application is running on the same PC or if you use USB sound card Disabled by default Brings the main window above others Has no effect on plugin windows Turns off some graphical elements in order to provide faster operation on very slow machines Causes ignoring CRC mismatch on RDS blocks C and D Has no reason for common use thus leave disabled If disabled the user must save application settings manually File Save Workspace See section Detector in this manual Automatically reset all previous RDS data if new station is detected Automatically reset all RDS data if no signal 15 received for the time specified Some sound cards do not work correctly with sample rate below 44100 Hz The user may force the 44100 Hz sample rate using this option However enabling this option may consume a bit of CPU time on very slow machines Enabled by default The application does not receive data from sound card continuously but in blocks buffers Once the buffer is filled by audio data it is processed by the application all at once A bigger buffer ensures gap less operation however it increases the de
4. The RDS Spy provides complete DSP processing of the input signal including 57 kHz band pass filtering subcarrier synchronization and demodulation via Costas Loop equivalent structure RDS clock regeneration biphase symbol decoding and differential decoding of RDS data Thus the RDS Spy entirely removes a need of any external RDS processing circuit Note If your FM tuner does not provide MPX output and no such modification is possible use the audio line output instead Although typical FM tuner suppresses RDS signal on the audio output there are usually some RDS signal residues remaining so the RDS decoding is still possible Connect both audio channels right to right left to left Command Line Options Currently the application supports these command line options rdsspy exe filename Launches the RDS Spy and starts playing the file specified rdsspy exe ws workspacefilename Launches the RDS Spy using the settings stored in the workspace file specified rdsspy exe rec Launches the RDS Spy and starts recording Examples rdsspy exe c filel spy rdsspy exe D RDS Files 11 02 06 City FM spy rdsspy exe stream localhost 23 rdsspy exe ws myworkspace rsw rdsspy exe rec 5 RDS Spy Options To enter the Options dialogue window select Configure Options in the main menu 5 1 General High priority Always on top Flat LCD Consider bad blocks as correct Save workspace on exit Enable Super
5. RDS Spy Freeware RDS Decoder for Windows with Plugin Support Version 1 02 Table of Content 15 2 2 Hardware and Software Requirements 2 3 Date SOUNCS 3 3 1 Serial COM 3 3 2 Sound card Data and 4 3 3 Sound RDS 7 34 Sound Direct MPX RDS 8 4 Command Line Options 9 5 RDS Spy 10 51 10 52 Playback 11 11 54 REPONS eee ee ee ee ee acre ee eee eer er eT 11 6 Recording and Playing RDS Piles ccsiciciccsucsscccsccececsesseinsyecceimssuccesensesseeceueeencccals 12 61 File 12 60 2 essed ed ates aed 12 63 12 7 Creating Reports 8 13 7 1 Simple Automated LOGGING
6. 00100000 00111 11001 10101111 10100100 01000011 01010010 00111 00110 01190101 90100000 01100111 01100101 00111 11010 10010000 01001111 00100000 00110011 00111 11111 10101101 11001101 00100000 00100000 00111 11000 11101001 10101010 00100000 00100000 00111 11001 10010001 01101011 01000011 01010010 00111 11010 10101111 10100100 00100000 00110011 0 00111 00111 011 1100101 01110010 01100001 00111 11111 10010000 01001111 00100000 00100000 00111 11000 10101101 11001101 00100000 00100000 lt 9 None OA 0 00111 11001 11101001 10101010 01000011 01010010 OA O 00111 11010 10010001 01101011 00100000 00110011 DA 00111 11111 10101111 10100100 00100000 00100000 2 00111 01000 01100011 01100101 00101110 01010101 OA 0 00111 11000 10010000 01001111 00100000 00100000 DA 00111 10101101 11001101 01000011 01010010 Save oA 2A oA OA 98 98 OF 2h 108 OR 08 118 oA oA 128 o 2A OR OR 138 oA OR 2A 148 OA OA 158 OA OA OR OA OR m Of Note means corrupted block CRC mismatch Mask examples m Binary Mask Definition Show groups containing ye 0x0000 in block 4 7777777777777971 0000000000000000 0000077977779700 7777777777777977 Show first segments of 00110 272777777777777 1100110101000110 PS name groups 0A Show groups 3A containi
7. Spy and C Program Files RDS Spy 21 Additional plugins may be installed as described in the Plugin Administration chapter in this document Hardware and Software Requirements Minimum requirements e Pentium 166 MHz e 32 RAM e Screen resolution 800x600 256 colors e Windows 98 Some plugins may have individual hardware and software requirements Recommended configuration CPU 1 GHz 256 MB RAM Screen resolution 1366x768 32 bit colors Windows XP These basic skills may be required but are not discussed in this manual e Working with folders and files especially if Windows UAC is enabled e Recording audio via PC sound card only if using sound card source e Soldering and understanding cable wiring 3 RDS Data Sources Several RDS data sources are provided for live RDS decoding Serial COM Port The RDS Data and Clock signals must be converted using a simple circuit This ensures compatibility with all RS232 ports and USB to RS232 adapters Sound card Data and Clock The Data and Clock signals are fed to your sound card s recording line input Sound card RDS Encoder For any RDS encoder output data analysis The RDS encoder output is fed to the sound card through a simple half wave rectifier circuit Sound card Direct or RDS input The RDS signal is fed directly to the sound card input The sound card must support 192 kHz sampling rate for recording A
8. or anything in the software that makes decisions depending on how the RDS groups are going one after another So it may occur that some AF B lists contain AF pairs from another AF B lists if one of the frequencies matches to the tuning frequency One may say that it is clear from the group order where the list begins and ends and where another list starts so AF pair mixture can be avoided Yes that s almost true but only in case of excellent signal it does not apply in general The algorithm implemented in the software is made to give the same result regardless of the signal quality and number of groups lost In our opinion it s the only one correct algorithm although it is sometimes not visually perfect 11 Support The software is provided as is without warranty of any kind Please send us your suggestions or bug reports it will help us to improve the software Your feedback is important Visit the online forum Please note that we are not able to provide individual support and consultancy related to the software use or electronic circuit modifications Hope you ll have a success in the online forum Although the RDS Spy is provided as a freeware also for commercial use please always keep in mind these points e You may redistribute the application only with original documentation and a link to the original location rdsspy com e You may not reverse engineer decompile disassemble rent or lease this application or any part e T
9. 0 00 Received bits per second 1188 Received ones per second 482 Received zeros per second 708 Groups per second 11 4 Left channel Clock Right channel Data Eventual clipping overload has no effect on right functioning Close any other application accessing the sound card input before running the RDS Spy To make your life much easier there is a bit of intelligence implemented in the application The RDS decoding will still work if any combination of these conditions occurs e the Left and Right signal wires are exchanged e the Clock signal is not connected at all However in these cases the RDS Spy performance is not guaranteed If you see steps more than two voltage levels in the oscilloscope window it s probably caused by summing the Clock and Data signals into one channel the sound card input is mono or there s a short circuit inside some connector In this case disconnect the Clock signal and the decoding will work By default the application automatically configures the sound card as follows Sample rate 11025 Hz Resolution 16bit Mode Stereo The sound card source permits the user to select if data are valid at rising or falling edge of the clock signal Please remember that this option has no effect if you use RDS demodulator based on TDA7330 SAA6579 or similar Which clock transition positive or negative going clock the da
10. DDD where AAAA is block 1 PI in hexadecimal BBBB is block 2 etc There may be space characters between any hexadecimal digits Bad blocks must be replaced by e Time information structure optional YYYY MM DD HH NN SS CC where can be any character centiseconds CC are optional Line example 2205 0548 A8BB 4631 2011 08 30 15 30 52 50 12 2 Serial Protocol Specification This section explains how to feed the RDS Spy directly from a customized external device For a device equipped with USB or RS232 interface it is better to use this interface also as the RDS data output rather than connecting it to the sound card The RDS Spy is able to read data that are provided via serial port implemented in hardware or realized by USB driver virtual COM port etc The software accepts two different protocols via serial port The first is the one with Clock and Data converter let s call it Bit protocol The second is the P75 P175 protocol Bit protocol Using this protocol all RDS data bits from RDS demodulator are translated into serial data bytes These bytes are sent using 19200 Bd no parity 1 stop bit Bit value Byte value 0 OxFO 1 OxFE Thus one bit of the original RDS data occupies one byte in the serial data The RDS Spy performs all data processing like block and group synchronization or CRC checking ASCII G protocol The device must perform all data processing like block and group synchroni
11. SCII G Protocol P75 P175 FM Analyzer Measuring device connected either via RS232 USB or Ethernet ASCII G Protocol P132 RDS Encoder RDS encoder with remote output monitoring feature connected either via RS232 USB or Ethernet No source The software provides playback features only 3 1 Serial COM Port Old DOS based RDS decoders use special pins of the RS232 port to feed the Clock and Data signals to the PC Today this solution has a few big disadvantages like compatibility problems with USB adapters and virtual machines higher CPU load or gaps in RDS reception when the PC is busy Following simple circuit converts the Clock and Data signals to valid ASCII characters on its TxD output These are received by the PC via RxD pin of the COM port as any other standard serial communication Note The 10n capacitors should be a plastic foil type 5 GND CLOCK DATA GND o 10K o TxD 2 lee GND 5 547 Pin configuration RDS demodulators Clock Data Ground 5V TDA7330 12 13 5 16 SAA6579T 16 2 11 12 SDA1000 10 11 1 SAA7579T 9 10 8 2 BU1922 16 2 11 12 LC72725K 16 2 11 12 The converter above can be powered either from the receiver s internal 5V path or using the power supply circuit as follows This circuit provides 5V directly from the same RS232 port the converter is connected to If the power s
12. emodulator IC However have found some clock and data signals inside the receiver Why RDS decoding does not work with RDS Spy using these signals There exist probably tens of different serial buses based on clock and data signals carrying various data The RDS serial bus based on continuous stream of 1187 5 bit s is not the only one bus type present in receivers Moreover this bus is not accessible on many new receivers as the RDS demodulation and decoding is made internally inside DSP unit RDS Spy cannot read other serial buses like 12 or SPI as these buses often does not carry the data required and use a communication speed of up to several MHz which exceeds capabilities of any sound card or serial port If MPX output is accessible an external RDS demodulator can be used to get RDS clock and data Why AF Method shows the same frequency pair in two different AF lists Why there are more AF pairs in some lists than indicated A This happens if there can be found two AF lists whose tuning base frequencies are equal to the frequencies in the AF pair affected For example AF pair 95 4 102 8 will be included in AF list with tuning frequency 95 4 and in AF list with tuning frequency 102 8 regardless of which AF list the pair was originally inserted to Although this may look like a bug it is an intention The software is made to strictly meet some key RDS standard rules especially the arbitrary group order There s no memory
13. he data from the RDS encoder output without need of any RDS demodulator Sound card 1k 10k Output level gt 1 pp Schottky diode ROS Encoder The signal processed by this circuit should look like this By default the application automatically configures the sound card as follows Sample rate 22050 Hz Resolution 16bit Mode Stereo Notes e Suitable Schottky diodes are 1N5711 1N6263 BAT41 BAT48 855 etc Almost any type will apply e If MIC input is used instead of Line in a separation capacitor may required due to DC voltage on the MIC input used as the microphone power supply In this case connect the circuit output through a 10 uF capacitor e Unplug pilot tone or MPX signal from the encoder before use or make sure this signal is not internally fed to the encoder output 3 4 Sound card Direct or RDS input Note This option is applicable only if your sound card supports 192 kHz sampling rate for recording Most of sound cards do not provide this key facility Please follow the sound card s documentation or visit the online forum Choosing this option the entire connection becomes as simple as on the picture FM tuner or RDS encoder RDS signal eee 4 PC s sound card The application automatically configures the sound card as follows Sample rate 192 kHz Resolution 16bit Mode Stereo
14. he rdsspy exe sources are not available anywise e The author is not liable for any damages including but not limited to lost profits lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of the application or its documentation The application is protected by copyright laws trademark and international copyright treaties as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties Use of the application constitutes your acceptance of these terms and conditions and your agreement to abide by them Website and forum http www rdsspy com Email info rdsspy com 2013 Jan Kol Czech Republic 12 Annexes 12 1 RDS Spy Files Specification The RDS Spy can play any RDS content that meets following minimum specification Input options file or socket stream File Play File File Play Stream File name and extension not limited Content type ASCII text 8 bit Content structure one RDS group per one line Line delimiter CR LF for files CR LF LF CR or CR for sockets Line order top line in the file contains the oldest group and it s played first Line structure each line must start with RDS group Space characters are ignored If there s any other information in the rest of the line it is ignored Exception exists for time information which if present should be the last information on the line Lines that are shorter than 16 characters are ignored e RDS group structure AAAABBBBCCCCD
15. ions Properties and select Recording Then select the sound card input the cable is connected to This is usually marked as Line In or External source input Follow your sound card s user manual for more details Recording Control Options Help CD Player Microphone Line In Wave Out Mix Balance Balance Balance Balance gt gt YD Volume Volume Volume Volume C Select C Select C Select SoundMAX Digital Audio If you hear the data from the speakers unselect the Line input the Playback properties or simply mute the sound card In Vista Seven or later the sound system is different and a little bit confusing In these systems the user must select the input directly in the RDS Source dialog Adjusting of the input level is possible if you open the Mixer and configure appropriate input Input audio device Line In Microsoft Virtual Mach Line In Microsoft Virtual Mach Microphone Microsoft Virtual In case you cannot get the decoder working then select View Status Information and check how the signal looks like You should see something like this in the oscilloscope window ioixi Vae ____________ RDS Source Sound Card Format expected Clock and Data Sample rate 11025 Hz Received buffers per second 2 7 OK Buffer size 16384 kB Delay due to buffering 0 45 Peak signal level Left 0 dB OK Peak signal level Right 0 dB OK PLL balance
16. is usually unique for each station within a country Since the PI is transmitted frequently it can be used for the station identification although the station s signal is weak and other RDS services like PS are hard to decode The Super PI detector extends a possibility of reading under bad reception conditions DX Enabling this option the RDS Spy will try to get PI code using extremely sensitive statistics methods and continuous integration over a few seconds of time Once the group synchronization is found and PI is being received by a standard way the Super PI detector is deactivated After sync lost the Super PI detector is activated again The Super PI detector is unique in the fact that it can read the PI code although there are no correct blocks in the data being received It does not require group and block synchronization at all However it is not a miracle It gives best results on stable weak signals which start to be noisy on mono listening Note that it may give a spurious PI occasionally which is usually simple to recognize and it s replaced by the right after moment The output from the Super PI detector is also used for PI reset reports and logging It is however not possible to record the super PI as recording works with RDS groups i e only when synchronization is present If the Super PI detector is receiving a PI the signal timeout will not occur although the group counter is not counting 10 Frequen
17. k 3 so this block cannot carry any other information when version B of the group is used Group types Group type Binary coding RDS services 0A 00000 TA MS DI AF PS 0B 00001 TA MS DI PS 1A 00010 ECC LIC PIN 1B 00011 PIN 2A 00100 RT 2B 00101 RT 3A 00110 AID for ODA 3B 00111 ODA 4A 01000 CT 4B 01001 ODA 5A 01010 TDC or ODA 5B 01011 TDC or ODA 6A 01100 IH or ODA 6B 01101 IH or ODA 7A 01110 RP or ODA 7B 01111 ODA 8A 10000 TMC or ODA 8B 10001 ODA 9A 10010 EWS or ODA 9B 10011 ODA 10A 10100 PTYN 10B 10101 ODA 11A 10110 ODA 11B 10111 ODA 12A 11000 ODA 12B 11001 ODA 13A 11010 ERP or ODA 13B 11011 ODA 14A 11100 EON 14B 11101 EON 15A 11110 not defined 15B 11111 TA MS DI 12 4 Group Analyzer Plugin Description grpconts dll Time hh mm ss Block 1 to 4 HEX Group type TP PTY BIN Block 2 lt 4 0 gt BIN Block 3 to 4 DEC Block 3 to 4 BIN Block 3 to 4 ASCII Grou Analyzer a ee 00111 110190 11181001 10101010 00100000 00110011 Show Groups 00111 11111 10010001 01101011 00100000 00100000 00111 11000 10101111 10100100 00100000 00100000 00111 00101 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110110 00111 11001 10010000 01001111 01000011 01010010 00111 11010 10101101 11001101 00100000 00110011 00111 11111 11101001 10101010 00100000 00100000 00111 11000 10010001 01101011 00100000
18. lay between signal input and display of decoded data Increase the buffer size if RDS decoding gets erratic when doing other tasks on the computer Applies to sound card input only 5 2 Playback Enable seeking and show total group count Socket streams synchronize 5 3 Recording Stop recording on change Start recording of another file on change Stop recording on signal timeout Default path and file name Add date and time Enable time machine 5 4 Reports Default path and file name Always confirm frequency Shows seeking bar when playing a RDS file Requires processing of the file before play so it may cause a delay on very long RDS files Check uncheck this option if playing from a socket source is not continuous Automatically stops recording if new station is detected Automatically starts recording of another file if new station is detected Automatically stops recording if no signal is received for the time specified Default path and file name of the recording file that is used to avoid entering the file name manually for each recording file See the section Recording for more information Allows playing the file with original date and time information associated with each group Valid for spy files only If enabled the application will start recording the RDS data just before the REC button is pushed Useful for recording also the data part preceding the point of interes
19. le also the Super detector 2 Configure the Log options g General Playback Recording 59 Reports Logs Path and filename D RADS Spy Log date txt Dynamic tags date pi ps J Append don t overwrite Save logs automatically Meteor Scatter mode Template Find Edit Fill a file name the logging will occur to Optionally use the date tag Enable saving the logs automatically and appending 2613 08 11 181 21 28 81 25 Outstanding R REGION 6 2013 08 11 20 01 25 20 81 28 2A2A Outstanding VYSOCINA 6 2013 08 11 26 61 36 26 61 32 203 Good 2613 08 11 20 01 32 20 01 38 2205 Outstanding F1 93 4 0 2013 08 11 20 61 38 26 61 42 232F Outstanding R ZURNAL 6 2013 08 11 26 61 43 26 61 45 2235 Excellent FAJN 29 Receiving time PI relevance PS the log data Select appropriate template file For a single line logging fill single srt Tune some stations one by another The log file will look like this Line added by Super PI detector No BER I Best BER 7 2 Template Files The user may customize the report content by selecting appropriate template file in the options The template file srt may be edited in any plain text editor such as Notepad When done save the template file under another name but keeping the srt extension All dynamic tags are delimited by in
20. nary address values have their most significant bit MSB transmitted first The data transmission is fully synchronous and there are no gaps between the groups or blocks The basic data rate of the system is 1187 5 bit s Thus transmission of one group takes about 87 6 ms and about 11 4 groups are transmitted per one second One group 104 bits 87 6 ms Block 1 Block 2 Block 3 Block 4 Checkword Checkword Checkword Checkword gt offset offset offset D offset A Group type Group version A B TP General RDS group format Basic principles and rules e The services which are to be repeated most frequently and for which a short acquisition time is required PI TP PTY in general occupy the same fixed positions within every group e There is no fixed rhythm of repetition of the various types of group there is ample flexibility to interleave the various kinds of message to suit the needs of the users at any given time e The first four bits of the second block of every group are allocated to a four bit code which specifies the application of the group group type Groups are referred to as types to 15 e For each type 0 to 15 two versions can be defined The version is specified by the fifth bit of block 2 0 version A 1 version B e For all groups of version B the PI is inserted also in bloc
21. ng OxCD46 block 4 12 5 List of Abbreviations AF ASCII BER BIN CR CRC DC DEC DSP FM HEX LF MIC MPX PC PI PLL PS PTY RBDS RDS RF UAC USB Alternative Frequencies American Standard Code for Information Interchange Block Error Rate Binary number Carriage Return character 0x0D Cyclic Redundancy Check Direct Current Decimal number Digital Signal Processing Frequency Modulation Hexadecimal number Line Feed character Ox0A Microphone Multiplex stereo RDS Personal Computer Program Identification code Phase Locked Loop Program Service name Program Type code Radio Broadcast Data System Radio Data System Radio Frequency User Account Control Universal Serial Bus
22. ressing the button with three dots next to the REC button In this case the file name will appear on the LCD Start recording by pressing the REC button 6 3 Playback To play the RDS file choose menu item File Play File or click on the PLAY button or simply move the file from the Total Commander or similar file manager to the RDS Spy main window During the playback you may adjust the playback speed or pause the playback using the track bar on the left If appropriate feature is enabled in Options you may move to any position in the file using the seeking bar After the file reaches its end you may return to live decoding by pressing the Reset button Creating Reports and Logs BEJE The application provides two independent text file outputs for decoded RDS data Their typical purpose is creating reports or logs respectively Both features are user configurable through items Configure Options Reports or Logs RDS Spy Report Freeware Windows RDS Decoder http www rdsspy com 4 Created 2016 12 62 20 22 28 Listening since 2616 12 62 28 21 58 BER 0 Progra a 210E BBC TP 1 TA 6 M S 1 E2 LIC 66 DI 7 PIN 6 88 88 PTY News News 1 PTYN Local Time UTC Time Radiotext RT A G 16 00 8 0011 00 13 00 Radio Cesko 8 00 11 00213 00 16 00 1_
23. t That feature is enabled due to internal circular buffer remembering last RDS groups Default path and file name of the report file that is used to avoid entering the file name manually for each report See the section Creating Reports for more information Shows a frequency confirmation window each time the report is written Since the RDS Spy usually don t know the frequency of the station that does not apply for P75 P175 the user must enter the frequency manually in order to show it in the report 6 Recording and Playing RDS Files 6 1 File Types The RDS Spy supports two types of RDS files for recording and playback RDS Spy files spy and RRDS files smp The user may decide for any of them RDS Spy file RDS Spy file lt RADS file lt Following table summarizes the file type characteristics RDS Spy files spy RRDS files smp Data representation ASCII text Binary File size 1 minute 14 31 11 Stores checkwords No Yes e Ensuring compatibility with older and still great May include time DOS software RRDS Benefits information for each and RDSS e A bit faster on very slow e May include additional machines information 6 2 Recording Before recording a RDS file check the Recording folder and file name in Options You may also assign the file name manually before each new recording by p
24. ta change occurs in depends on the lock conditions and it s arbitrary In special cases the input signal may require polarity inversion This may occur for example when using optocouplers playing from wave file or using specific sound card For this purpose the Invert option is provided This option must be selected manually Please note that choosing this source the PC is unable to decode RDS directly from the demodulated audio signal There must be an RDS demodulator present inside the receiver or connected externally that provides the Clock and Data signals required Note Some sound cards do not work correctly with sample rate below 44100 Hz The user may force the 44100 Hz sample rate using appropriate check box in Options General However enabling this option may consume a bit of CPU time on very slow machines Important note If your sound card provides advanced functions like noise reduction automatic gain control echo cancellation digital preamplifier or similar they must be turned off 3 3 Sound card RDS Encoder RDS Encoder is a device that puts the RDS signal on air on the transmitter site The RDS Spy allows analyzing the RDS data and adjusting all RDS services before final installation of the encoder The 57 kHz subcarrier generated by the RDS encoder cannot be directly processed by most of sound cards However a simple half wave rectifier can provide this possibility and gives a way how to analyze t
25. the template These tags are replaced by appropriate value in the report For example a template line TA 5 is replaced by 1 in the report To get the list of all dynamic tags use the menu item View Decoder Data or open the default template supplied with the application Please note that some fields in the report may stay empty if appropriate plugin is not installed Note The template may be a HTML file as well If lt HTML gt and lt HTML gt tags are found in the template file all dynamic content is HTML encoded as follows lt changed to amp lt gt changed to 91 amp changed to amp amp Other characters without change 8 Plugin Administration Plugins are located in the folder named plugins For example if the main application is installed to C Program Files RDS Spy the plugins are placed in C Program Files RDS Spy plugins Any plugin placed in this folder is automatically active To deactivate the plugin delete it from this folder or move it to another folder The application searches for installed plugins at stat up You can show the plugin using the menu item View You can configure the plugin using the menu item Configure Tip If you need to run more instances of the same plugin copy it to the plugin folder more times using different file names for example grpconts1 dll grpconts2 dll etc Each instance will use own settings 9 Special Options 9 1 Super PI Detector The PI
26. tly Asked Questions Q I can t find Line in input on my notebook There s MIC input only which is A Can decode RDS using this hardware Yes you can still decode RDS using the sound card if its sample rate frequency is accurate enough Due to software defined PLL the application is able to synchronize also using the edges of the Data signal in the Clock channel Try this connection Clock 4k7 Data o _ ___ 0 0 Gnd In the sound card configuration switch off all features like MIC boost 20 dB gain echo cancellation compressor etc Some sound cards may require separation capacitor due to high DC voltage on the MIC input used as the microphone power supply In this case place 10 uF capacitor in series with the resistor I m getting although the receiver is switched off the station tuned does not use RDS How is that possible Nothing doing This is a characteristic of the RDS system combined with high PI detection sensitivity From time to time the PI valid block 1 can be found repeatedly in almost any signal The probability is extremely low in random signal typically noisy reception However it s more frequent in signals that do not contain any RDS information but also are not really random It can be noted that specific combinations of equipment and conditions generate repeatedly the same spurious PI codes My new radio receiver does not contain any of the RDS d
27. upply voltage provided by the port is too weak especially when using some laptops or USB to RS232 converters an external power adaptor can be connected 5 o Out output 78L05 In GND z Wiring summary Converter wire TxD GND DSR CTS T TTL DSR 4 4 7 8 to 20 V GND PC port pin 2 5 4 7 3 2 Sound card Data and Clock If your PC is not equipped with any RS232 port or if you do not want to solder the converter above you can simply plug the Data and Clock signals to a stereo input of the sound card The application ensures excellent compatibility with almost any sound card using software defined PLL numerically controlled oscillator NCO and edge detector Optional external power In basic configuration the Data is connected to right channel and Clock is connected to left channel The Ground must always be connected DATA f 4 GND GLOCK It s recommended to insert 1k resistor to each the Data and Clock signal path rather than connect them directly This may help to suppress RF interference caused by digital signal edges protect your sound card and improve frequency characteristics Do not use longer cable than it s required for the connection 2x 1k Clock ___ L Data _ 1 0 Gnd 0 Gnd In the audio device control double click on tray icon go to Opt
28. zation and CRC checking It sends the groups in ASCII representation in this form G 13 10 AAAABBBBCCCCDDDD 13 10 13 10 where AAAA is PI BBBB is block 2 etc No CRC or offsets are included Bad blocks must be recognized in the device and replaced by For example G AAAABBBB DDDD etc Completely bad groups can be simply omitted There s no need to send the groups continuously The data are sent on 19200 Bd no parity 1 stop bit or via TCP IP sockets A special group RESET will have the same effect as clicking on the Reset button in the application A special group EXIT will have the same effect as clicking on the Close button in the application In addition the RDS Spy sends initialization commands on start up D R F 75 175 SETSPY 250 lt CR gt P132 Especially the command R be used by the device to activate the RDS group sending If this is not required the initialization commands should be ignored 12 3 RDS RBDS Group Format Following information is provided for better understanding to the RDS principles and the user defined group coding The largest element in the RDS coding structure is called a group consisting of 104 bits The group comprises 4 blocks of 26 bits each Each block comprises an information word and a checkword Each information word comprises 16 bits Each checkword comprises 10 bits All information words checkwords binary numbers or bi
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search