Flightstick has several issues

[Kruesser]

Hello,

I'm using a Raspberry Pi with the  1090 MHz FlightStick and haven't had any issues with it since 2021-10-07. Last weekend I began having small periods of time where no data was being transferred. A small window of time where the station went offline (This seems to be a once a month occurrence I believe for automatic updates) however, this time it only displayed no data for several days before I finally caught it.

I have tried deleting and reloading RBfeeder on it to a certain degree of success. I'm back online but it no longer displays all the planes that are actually within my area.

The other issue that's still ongoing is the mlat is no longer active for my station.

Thought it would be helpful to someone to include this info.

Code: [Select]

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl status rbfeeder
● rbfeeder.service - RBFeeder Service
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/rbfeeder.service; enabled; vendor preset
   Active: active (running) since Sun 2022-04-10 08:56:22 EDT; 12min ago
 Main PID: 12910 (rbfeeder)
    Tasks: 13 (limit: 4915)
   CGroup: /system.slice/rbfeeder.service
           ├─12910 /usr/bin/rbfeeder
           └─12920 /usr/bin/dump1090-rb --write-json /dev/shm/ --net --quiet --

Apr 10 09:08:14 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:08:14]  Data sent:
Apr 10 09:08:14 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:08:14]  Data receiv
Apr 10 09:08:45 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:08:45]  ******** St
Apr 10 09:08:45 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:08:45]  Packets sen
Apr 10 09:08:45 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:08:45]  Data sent:
Apr 10 09:08:45 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:08:45]  Data receiv
Apr 10 09:09:16 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:09:16]  ******** St
Apr 10 09:09:16 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:09:16]  Packets sen
Apr 10 09:09:16 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:09:16]  Data sent:
Apr 10 09:09:16 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:09:16]  Data receiv
lines 1-19/19 (END)...skipping...
● rbfeeder.service - RBFeeder Service
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/rbfeeder.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sun 2022-04-10 08:56:22 EDT; 12min ago
 Main PID: 12910 (rbfeeder)
    Tasks: 13 (limit: 4915)
   CGroup: /system.slice/rbfeeder.service
           ├─12910 /usr/bin/rbfeeder
           └─12920 /usr/bin/dump1090-rb --write-json /dev/shm/ --net --quiet --mlat --forward-mlat --net-bo-port 30105 --modea

Apr 10 09:08:14 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:08:14]  Data sent: 841.4 KB
Apr 10 09:08:14 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:08:14]  Data received: 1.2 KB
Apr 10 09:08:45 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:08:45]  ******** Statistics updated every 30 seconds ********
Apr 10 09:08:45 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:08:45]  Packets sent in the last 30 seconds: 1273, Total packets s
Apr 10 09:08:45 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:08:45]  Data sent: 868.4 KB
Apr 10 09:08:45 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:08:45]  Data received: 1.2 KB
Apr 10 09:09:16 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:09:16]  ******** Statistics updated every 30 seconds ********
Apr 10 09:09:16 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:09:16]  Packets sent in the last 30 seconds: 1220, Total packets s
Apr 10 09:09:16 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:09:16]  Data sent: 893.2 KB
Apr 10 09:09:16 raspberrypi rbfeeder[12910]: [2022-04-10 09:09:16]  Data received: 1.2 KB


[abcd567]

@Kruesser
One main cause of failure you described is bad or failing power supply, resulting in low DC voltage.

Best is to use Official Raspberrypi power supply.

RPI Low Voltage Check

Code: [Select]

sudo dmesg --ctime | grep voltage

If above command gives no output, then Voltage is OK

.

[Kruesser]

I tried running that command and it didn't give me any messages.

I forgot that during the reinstall of rbfeeder and mlat I need to provide my station position on the website. Having done that mlat still will not become active.

I'm still having issues of having periods of time of no data.

[abcd567]

The possibilities are:
1. Voltage / Power supply issue (in your case ruled out as dmsg command gave no output)
2. Bad USB cable if you have used one to connect Flightstick to RPi.  In this case either replace USB cable OR remove cable and connect Flightsstick directly to Pi.
3. Bad USB port on RPi. Plug Flightstick in another USB port.
4. The Flightstick is dying

.

[Runway 31]

What is your station ID?

Alan