When something goes wrong
KaikuSDR says what happened in plain words, and offers what to do about it. What you may meet:
| What the app says | What to do |
|---|---|
| A receiver lost its connection to rtl_tcp | Check that the dongle is plugged in and that rtl_tcp is running for it on that port (see Your receiver), then press Try again. |
| An Airspy, HackRF, bladeRF or Fobos SDR is not plugged in / is being used by another program | Plug it in, or close the other program, then Try again. |
| An Airspy needs libairspy, a HackRF needs libhackrf, a bladeRF needs libbladeRF, a Fobos SDR needs libfobos | Install it (brew install airspy, brew install hackrf or brew install libbladerf on a Mac; libfobos from RigExpert), then Try again. |
| A bladeRF has no FPGA image loaded | Install Nuand's bladeRF software and FPGA image, or set the bladeRF to load its image by itself, then Try again. |
| Recording has stopped: nothing can be saved in a folder | The folder may be on a drive that was unplugged, or the app may not be allowed to write there. Choose another folder, then switch recording on again. |
| Recording has stopped: the recordings folder has reached its limit | Make room, or raise the limit in the recording settings, then switch recording on again. |
| On Windows: Speech detection and speech to text need Microsoft's Visual C++ runtime; so does the RTL-SDR Blog's rtl_tcp.exe | Press Download from Microsoft in that notice (or search Microsoft's website for "Visual C++ Redistributable" and take the x64 one). Open the downloaded file and install it; Windows asks for permission. Then close KaikuSDR and start it again. The demo, and receivers other than RTL-SDR dongles, work without it; "somebody is talking", speech to text and rtl_tcp.exe wait for it. |
| On Windows: rtl_tcp.exe … Windows cannot start it | rtl_tcp.exe was found, but Windows refuses to start it because a file it needs is missing. With the Visual C++ runtime missing, that is the runtime: install it as above. Otherwise unpack the whole Release.zip again, keeping every file beside rtl_tcp.exe. Then press Look again (or Try again). |
| Something went wrong in this window (in KaikuSDR's own window) / on this page (in a browser) | Scanning and recording carry on. In the window, press Try again; if that does not help, close KaikuSDR and start it again. In a browser, Reload the page. |
| The connection to KaikuSDR was lost | The page tries again by itself. In KaikuSDR's own window, if it says it lost touch with this window, press Try again, or close KaikuSDR and start it again. In a browser, if KaikuSDR was closed or started again, Reload the page. |
| KaikuSDR closed unexpectedly the last time it ran / Something went wrong on the page a moment ago | A report of what happened was written down. Send the report to the developer so that a later version fixes it (you see the whole text first), or Copy the report for whoever helps you. Nothing is sent until you press Send. |
Sending a report
When something is wrong that the notices do not mend, or a receiver KaikuSDR has never been tried with does not work, send a report: Report this problem beside Try again on a receiver's notice, or Report a problem in Help › When something goes wrong and in Settings › About. A dialog opens:
- What happened? Your own words: what you were doing, and what you expected. The most useful line in the report.
- See what will be sent shows the whole text, exactly as it goes: the version, this computer, the error, your receivers' models, settings and figures, the devices seen on USB, and the last lines of the app's log. Never your name, your channels, your recordings or what was heard.
- Send sends it to the developer, once. The dialog then shows the report's number; quote it if you write to support about the same thing. Copy instead puts the same text on the clipboard. Nothing is sent until you press Send.
Every report is kept in the app's folder (Reports), sent or not. If the developer's server cannot be reached, the dialog says
so and the report stays for another try.
If you need help, the app's log files are in the app's folder (on a Mac, ~/Library/Application Support/KaikuSDR/Logs), a file a
day for the last week.