Qthid Funcube Dongle Controller Files

1. INTRODUCTION

Qthid is a Funcube Dongle control application with Qt user interface.
It is an evolution of the qthid002 package by Howard Long G6LVB.

The Funcube Dongle (http://www.funcubedongle.com/) is a small software
defined radio receiver for 64 MHz - 1.7 GHz. It fits into a computer's
USB port and uses USB audio to transfer complex I/Q data to SDR applications.
The control API for setting frequency, gain, filter, etc. uses the USB HID
standard, thus the Funcube Dongle does not require any specific hardware
drivers as long as the host operating system supports USB audio and HID.

Qthid uses the HIDAPI cross platform library by Signal 11 Software 
(http://www.signal11.us/oss/hidapi/). All the required files are bundled
with qthid and no installation of the library is required.

The current version 3.1 implements the full API available with the 18f
firmware. It should cover all the functionality provided by the "fully
functional windows frontend". Note that the majority of this full API is
only available since firmware 18f and qthid 3 will not work with earlier
firmware. The application will simply fail to detect the FCD with earlier
firmwares.

You can use qthid 2.2 to upgrade your firmware to 18f or later.


2. INSTALLATION AND USAGE

2.1 Linux

If you are using Debian testing or Ubuntu, you can install the
qthid-fcd-controller package. This should set everything up and you can
skip the rest of this section.

Otherwise you can use the precompiled binaries (32 or 64 bit) but you need
the Qt runtime libraries installed. On Ubuntu these are called libqtcore4
and libqtgui4 and their dependencies. You can simply install everything Qt
version 4 (not version 3!). Qt 4.7 has been tested, Qt 4.6 will probably
also work.

In order to use the Funcube Dongle as regular user, you need to create an
udev rule. An example funcube-dongle.rules file is included with the package
and you can simply copy that into the /lib/udev/rules.d/ directory.
  
Hint: open a terminal and type:
sudo cp funcube-dongle.rules /lib/udev/rules.d/funcube-dongle.rules

Qthid should now detect your FCD when you plug it in.


2.2 Mac OS X (10.6+)

The Mac OS X bundle contains all the necessary Qt libraries and no additional
installation or configuration is required. Unlike Linux, the Funcube Dongle will
just work.


2.3 Windows

The windows package is self containing and does not require and Qt libs to be
installed separately. It is known to work on Windows XP, Vista and 7.


2.4 Building from source

- Install Qt Creator 2.0.1 or newer and Qt SDK 4.7. On recent linux it is normally
  sufficient to select Qt Creator and the required Qt libraries will be installed as
  dependencies. On Mac and Windows you need to download the full Qt SDK. On Windows
  you also need the MS Windows SDK.
- On linux you also need to install the libudev-dev package using the package manager
  (the name may be different depending on distribution but it should have libudev and
  dev int he name).
- Open the qthid.pro file in Qt Creator. It will say something about setting up a target;
  say OK or Finish or Done (depends on version and OS).
- You can now build and execute the project.

If you want to try the latest experimental code you can check it out from Github:
https://github.com/csete/qthid


3. License

Qthid is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.


The frequency controller widget was taken from Cutesdr by Moe Wheatley,
released under the following "Simplified BSD License":

Copyright 2010 Moe Wheatley. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

   1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

   2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
      and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY Moe Wheatley ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
IN NO EVENT SHALL Moe Wheatley OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT,
INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

The views and conclusions contained in the software and documentation are
those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing official
policies, either expressed or implied, of Moe Wheatley.