Command or utility to identify dongle brand or type?

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

Is there any command or utility that can be used to identify the brand or type of dongle that is connected?
Have seen a topic about setting a serial number. Is there anything specific that can identify the different flavors of FA dongles - yellow, blue or other brands? This might be useful if you have more than one setup or could use suggestion for range of gain values to try.

2

No, they’re not distinguishable in software.

2 Likes
3

Ah OK…thanks obj.

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

4

Although exact brand is often obscured as some manufacturers do not register their own idVendor and idProduct, you may be able to distinguish between different product groups with lsusb. For example, on my PiAware

$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 0bda:2832 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL2832U DVB-T
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp. SMSC9512/9514 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp. SMC9514 Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

In the above, the RTL2832U DVB-T is the FlightAware blue dongle, with vendor ID 0bda and product ID 2832. You can look them up to get some idea. (rtl-sdr/rtl-sdr.rules at master · pavels/rtl-sdr · GitHub contains summary info about some IDs used by multiple products. 0bda:2832 is marked as original RTL2832U, likely “borrowed” by many vendors/products.) lsusb -v can reveal more details about the device, e.g.,

$ lsusb -vd 0bda:2832

Bus 001 Device 046: ID 0bda:2832 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL2832U DVB-T
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass            0 
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  idVendor           0x0bda Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
  idProduct          0x2832 RTL2832U DVB-T
  bcdDevice            1.00
  iManufacturer           1 Realtek
  iProduct                2 RTL2832U
  iSerial                 3 00001000
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength       0x0019
    bNumInterfaces          1
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          4 USB2.0-Bulk&Iso
    bmAttributes         0x80
      (Bus Powered)
    MaxPower              500mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           1
      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class
      bInterfaceSubClass    255 Vendor Specific Subclass
      bInterfaceProtocol    255 Vendor Specific Protocol
      iInterface              5 Bulk-In, Interface
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               0
Device Qualifier (for other device speed):
  bLength                10
  bDescriptorType         6
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass            0 
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  bNumConfigurations      2
can't get debug descriptor: Resource temporarily unavailable
Device Status:     0x0000
  (Bus Powered)
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