TheOrc.devOregon Radio Company LLC · Springfield, OR

lsusb | grep -i m5stack

Built on M5Stack

This all started with M5Stack hardware. When the Tab5 came out, an ESP32-P4 with a 5-inch touchscreen and a USB host port in one handheld case, I saw a portable SDR you could hold in your hand: plug an RTL-SDR dongle in and watch the spectrum, no PC. That became OrcSDR. Then the Dial became OrcDial, a knob for it. The rest of the radio work on this site grew out of those two.

Here's the M5Stack gear my projects are built on, what each piece does, and what I've actually tested on it.

the hardware

An M5Stack Tab5 on my desk running OrcSDR's Home screen: an FM spectrum and waterfall around 103.7 MHz with tuning controls below

M5Stack Tab5

ESP32-P4 · 5" 1280×720 touch · USB-A host · runs OrcSDR

The receiver. OrcSDR runs on the Tab5 and does everything on the device: it drives an RTL-SDR dongle on the USB-A port through my own driver (esp-rtl-sdr), runs the DSP on the P4, draws the spectrum and waterfall on the 720p screen and plays the audio. FM, AM, shortwave, ADS-B, FT8, P25, LoRa and more, no PC involved.

Tab5 at M5StackOrcSDRinstall OrcSDR

The M5Stack Tab5 Keyboard: a 70-key grey keyboard with coloured modifier keys (product image by M5Stack)

M5Stack Tab5 Keyboard

70 keys · I2C on Ext.Port1 · used with OrcSDR

Snaps onto the Tab5 and gives OrcSDR real keys. OrcSDR has its own driver for it. Arrow keys tune: left and right by one step, up and down by ten. On FM, AM and shortwave, typing digits starts a frequency entry; M mutes, +/− set the volume and Space starts or holds a scan where the dashboard has one. Tab walks a focus ring around the controls and Enter taps them; Esc goes back Home. It also types Wi-Fi passwords and other text fields.

Tab5 Keyboard at M5StackOrcSDR

An M5Stack Dial running OrcDial, showing FM broadcast 96.100 MHz with a 1000 kHz step, next to a Tab5 showing the matching spectrum

M5Stack Dial

ESP32-S3 (StampS3) · round touch screen + encoder · runs OrcDial

The remote. OrcDial turns the Dial into a tuning knob and dashboard companion for OrcSDR on the Tab5. It pairs with the Tab5 over encrypted ESP-NOW, follows whichever dashboard is open and tunes with the encoder, and the round screen shows the frequency and step. The Tab5 works fine without it, but a real knob is hard to give up once you've used one.

Dial at M5StackDial v1.1OrcDialinstall OrcDial

I built OrcDial on the original Dial. The current model is the Dial v1.1, which I haven't tested yet.

built and tested on

  • tested Tab5 + four RTL-SDR dongles. OrcSDR is fully tested on the Tab5 with the RTL-SDR Blog V3c, V4 and V4L and the Nooelec NESDR SMArt v5. Details per dongle are in the dongle guide and the receiver table.
  • tested Dial paired with the Tab5. First-time pairing, reconnecting on its own after restarts, following the Tab5's dashboards, and FM tuning from the knob with the Tab5 acknowledging each change. The browser installer has been used to flash a real Dial.
  • tested Tab5 Keyboard on the Tab5. Text entry, arrow-key navigation with Enter, and number entry for frequencies, checked on the device.

That's what I've verified myself. Anything not listed here hasn't been tested yet; the OrcSDR and OrcDial release notes list the limits.

thanks

Thanks to M5Stack for building hardware that makes projects like these possible. The Tab5 is what made a full touchscreen SDR on an ESP32-P4 possible for me.

M5Stack folks, and anyone else who wants to work together: erik@theorc.dev.

Erik Elfstrom · Oregon Radio Company LLC · Springfield, Oregon. M5Stack, Tab5 and Dial are M5Stack's names. Tab5 and Dial photos are my own. Keyboard image: M5Stack. Product links go to M5Stack's store and aren't affiliate links.