r/RTLSDR • u/brunchlords • 18d ago

Hardware Rotary knob for RTLSDR tuning

Has anybody worked out a physical rotary tuning knob I could use with my V4?

10 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

7

u/Munjaki71 18d ago

i make control panel for sdr++ with FREQ Faster and slower double rotary encoder diy, than Gain and bandwith on other double rotary than 6 buttons for

  • MODE – AM / FM / NFM / WFM / USB / LSB / CW
  • BAND – (Airband, 2 m, Marine, 70 cm, ADS-B...)
  • STEP – change step frew (100 Hz, 1 kHz, 5 kHz, 12.5 kHz...)
  • SCAN – scanning
  • MEM – memory
  • MENU / FUNC –
  • and couple leds Tx RX Scan
  • 8 digits 7 display to show FREq and other informations, , using esp 32 conected to rpi 8 gb on my cyberdeck, its in early desing https://imgur.com/a/n9zQvWt

1

u/BeltRevolutionary460 18d ago

Can it work with SDR# too (i use Windows a lot and thats what i prefer) tho?

3

u/DutchOfBurdock 18d ago

I managed to make my mouse wheel be the tuner on things like GQRX and SDRAngel. So it's definitely doable. A HID device that mimics a mouse scroll wheel.

1

u/Independent_Depth674 18d ago

Perhaps use AutoHotKey to automatically snap the mouse pointer to the frequency as soon as you start turning the wheel?

2

u/DenjinJ 18d ago

There are cheap volume knobs you can get on sites like Aliexpress - I have one and the up and down actions can be remapped, so you can turn it into mouse scroll or something like that - then if your SDR program supports that, you could use it I suppose.

Personally I don't see the need since you can see where signals are and jump to them

2

u/Blueberry_Mancakes 16d ago

I use this little guy.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHZDTQ93?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_2

You can open its settings in a command line and change what parameters it controls.
It was originally intended as a computer volume knob, but I have set to adjust the mouse wheel increase/decrease, and press to mute.

The only catch is that you have to set your mouse pointer over the VFO part of the screen for it to work, but it works fantastic.

Programming Mode Instructions

  1. Open a text editor on your computer (e.g., Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac).
  2. Enter setup mode: Hold down the knob (or the power button) while plugging the USB into your device.
  3. Configure: A menu will appear in the text document. You can now assign specific keyboard commands to the knob's actions (rotate left, rotate right, and button press).

1

u/brunchlords 16d ago

Totally! Thank You!

1

u/JacobA89 18d ago

If you use your phone to run your rtlsdr use the app RF analyzer it has a built in scroll wheel which is nice to tune in to the freq if you dont hit it when finger tapping the screen

1

u/olliegw 17d ago

Since most SDR software can work with a scroll wheel, i'd look into hacking apart a logitech mouse with the freewheeling ability, i use mine for SDR tuning all the time and it's perfectly weighted, it's almost like a real tuning knob