Chris, my idea was/is to create a native GNU Radio module for the SDRplay RSPs, similar to what gr-uhd is for the USRPs.
The SoapySDR framework is good for many use cases, for instance when you want to be able to use the very same flowgraphs for different types of SDR hardware from different manufacturers. Unfortunately being a generic SDR interface it is not really able to capture the unique aspects of each SDR hardware. For instance the handling of gains and gain reductions in the SoapySDRPlay3 module tries to bridge the way the SDRplay API defines them with the way the SoaySDR specification expects them, and the overall user/developer experience is not that great. I also suspect that being able to output the I/Q samples directly in the GNU Radio 'work()' function should make streaming more efficient and less CPU intensive for the native gr-sdrplay3 OOT module, since only one set of intermediate buffers is used. I have never run full tests to validate if this is true, and if someone has done a comparison between the two approaches, I would be interested in hearing from them. As I was typing this message, another case where the gr-sdrplay3 OOT module might be preferable is when the GNU Radio Companion flowgraph needs to be able to set say the tuning frequency via a message port, or perhaps needs to know exactly at which sample the gain changed because of the AGC. I don't think it is possible to achieve something like this with the SoapySDR driver and gr-soapy, while gr-sdrplay3 supports both message ports and stream tags natively. Franco > On 10/26/2025 2:32 PM EDT Chris Vine <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Sun, 26 Oct 2025 12:14:53 -0400 (EDT) > Franco VENTURI <[email protected]> wrote: > > If you are planning to use the 'gr-sdrplay3' OOT module you can find > > some simple GNU Radio Companion flowgraphs here: > > https://github.com/fventuri/gr-sdrplay3/tree/main/examples > > > > Franco > > I've not tried gr-sdrplay. What is its advantage over using gr-soapy > with the SoapySDRPlay3 plugin (which I think you also maintain)? > > Chris
