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[Allocator]

Many thanks indeed for all your advice here.  I've followed your excellent instructions on the other forum and I now have FlightAware, FlightRadar24 and Planefinder being fed from one Rpi.  I had a minor glitch trying to use Raspian Lite, but installing Raspian Stretch, and I followed your 'fixes' and it's all up and running - brilliant :)

All I need to do now is to figure out how to feed RadarBox24 too.  I'm sure you have instructions for that and I'll have a look around tomorrow.

Noted regarding the filter.  Fortunately the FlightAware Pro Plus is out of stock at the moment, so that prevented me from ordering anyway.  I wonder which filter you use.  I've seen the FlightAware filter and one from the Far East on eBay, but I need to do a bit more research.

Anyhow, thanks again for all your help.

[abcd567]

All I need to do now is to figure out how to feed RadarBox24 too.  I'm sure you have instructions for that and I'll have a look around tomorrow.

Go to this thread:
Bake A Pi
In any of the options (OPTION-1, OPTION-2, or OPTION-3), scroll down to:
(8) Install Radarbox24 data feeder

I wonder which filter you use.  I've seen the FlightAware filter and one from the Far East on eBay, but I need to do a bit more research.

I use Flightaware Filter  (US$14.95), mainly because it is cheaper compared to other filters available, and it solved my problem.
I have not tried any other filter, but others have reported using other costlier filters and getting better results.

[Allocator]

Thanks again, RadarBox24 Feeder setup using your guide and the one Rpi now feeding all 4 services and connected to my main antenna and the performance is excellent.

FlightAware filter on order so I'll look forward to seeing what effect this might have on reception.  Yes, we do have a cell phone mast about half a mile away and in line of sight and I get pager transmissions form that too, so hopefully the filter will help.

Without your instructions I would have struggled with this setup so I'm really pleased that you jumped in here and showed me just what was possible.

[abcd567]

Glad to know your Pi's are up and running with 4 feeders.

Hopefully filter will help, but this varies from location to location and setup to setup. You will only know after trying it.

Meanwhile another thing to play with is dongle's gain which can be set to values between 0 and 49.6. Two more settings used are "max" which sets gain value to 49.6, and -10 which switches dongle to AGC (automatic gain control) mode.


(1) The signal from Mobile/Pager is strong, reducing gain some times help to overcome their deafning effect.

(2) The signal from nearby planes is strong. For example if you live close to an airport, you will notice planes disappear from your map when these are very close to airport. When these are close, the signal is stronger than the upper threshold of the dongle, and rejected as garbage. Reducing gain in this case often helps.

(3)  Reducing gain to see nearby planes is not without a cost. The signals from far away planes near the maximum limit (say 200nm to 350 nm) are very weak, and reducing gain too much can result in these going below the lower threshold of dongle, and not detected/processed. You will loose these far away planes from map, and your maximum range will reduce.

Overall it is a compromise situation. You can try different gain values such as 50, 45, 40, 35, 30, 25 and at each setting leave the system running for a while and compare max range & plane count to decide which gain value suits you best.

[Allocator]

FlightAware ADS-B filer installed on my main Rpi receiver and performance has definitely improved.

There wasn't any 'wow' factor when I plugged it in, but watching the overall performance over a period of time, reception is more stable and range has increased particularly to the West, filling in my coverage chart nicely so I'm showing better all-round coverage.

Now to have a play with the gain settings.

[Allocator]

A question regarding the gain please.

I assumed that setting the gain in the dump-mutability configuration file would affect all 4 feeds as they were getting the data from dump1090, but a Google search suggests that each feeder has to be set individually?

[neroon79]

All feeders have the functionality to access the dongle SDR directly. In that case the gain has to be set up inside the feeder.
In your case and mine too, the feeders are configured to network listening mode and are listening to the dump1090 raw data output port. Setting up again in the feeders would make no sense, as the feeders are already getting decoded data received via dump1090, which has unique access to the dongle. In dump1090 the gain needs to be set to a value were you get the best result for long and short distance reception. The reason was already mentioned by abcd567.

Ingo

[Allocator]

Thanks Ingo, that all makes sense.

However, reading the guidance on the FlightAware site and using the FlightAware Pro stick, does this suggest that it's setting up the gain for the Pro stick itself, or is this just a PiAware configuration?

https://flightaware.com/adsb/prostick/setup/

[abcd567]

@Allocator

Irrespective of software interface used, it is the Tuner Chip of Dongle (DVB-T or Pro Stick) where gain is finally set.

If you are using Piaware SD card image:
piaware-config >> dump1090-fa >> sets gain of dongle's Tuner chip (R820T or R820T2)


If you are using Raspbian Jessie/Stretch image with Piaware add-on package:
dump1090 (fa or mutability) config file >> sets gain of dongle's Tuner chip (R820T or R820T2)

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo nano /etc/default/dump1090-mutability


# dump1090-mutability configuration file
# This is a POSIX shell fragment.
# You can edit this file directly, or use
# "dpkg-reconfigure dump1090-mutability"

# Set to "yes" to start dump1090 on boot.
START_DUMP1090="yes"

# User to run dump1090 as.
DUMP1090_USER="dump1090"

# Logfile to log to
LOGFILE="/var/log/dump1090-mutability.log"

#
# Receiver options
#

# RTLSDR device index or serial number to use
# If set to "none", dump1090 will be started in --net-only mode
DEVICE=""

# RTLSDR gain in dB.
# If set to "max" (the default) the maximum supported gain is used.
# If set to "agc", the tuner AGC is used to set the gain.
GAIN= 35


# RTLSDR frequency correction in PPM
PPM="0"

#
# Decoding options
#

# If yes, fixes messages with correctable CRC errors.
FIX_CRC="yes"


# If set, supplies a reference location for local position decoding.
LAT="43.xxxx"
LON="-79.xxxx"


# If set, provides the absolute maximum receiver range used to
# filter bad position reports, and to determine when local position
# decoding is safe to use. Specify this in nautical miles (NM).
MAX_RANGE="300"

#
# Networking options
#

# Port to listen on for raw (AVR-format) input connections. 0 disables.
RAW_INPUT_PORT="30001"

# Port to listen on for raw (AVR-format) output connections. 0 disables.
RAW_OUTPUT_PORT="30002"

# Port to listen on for SBS-format output connections. 0 disables.
SBS_OUTPUT_PORT="30003"

# Port to listen on for Beast-format input connections. 0 disables.
BEAST_INPUT_PORT="30004,30104"

# Port to listen on for Beast-format output connections. 0 disables.
BEAST_OUTPUT_PORT="30005"

# TCP heartbeat interval in seconds. 0 disables.
NET_HEARTBEAT="60"

# Minimum output buffer size per write, in bytes.
NET_OUTPUT_SIZE="500"

# Maximum buffering time before writing, in seconds.
NET_OUTPUT_INTERVAL="1"

# TCP buffer size, in bytes
NET_BUFFER="262144"

# Bind ports on a particular address. If unset, binds to all interfaces.
# This defaults to binding to localhost. If you need to allow remote
# connections, change this.
#NET_BIND_ADDRESS="127.0.0.1"

#
# Misc options
#

# Interval (in seconds) between logging stats to the logfile. 0 disables.
STATS_INTERVAL="3600"

# Path to write json state to (for use with an external webserver). Blank disables.
JSON_DIR="/run/dump1090-mutability"

# Interval between writing json state (in seconds). 0 disables.
JSON_INTERVAL="1"

# Accuracy of receiver location to write to json state, one of "exact" / "approximate" / "none"
JSON_LOCATION_ACCURACY="approximate"

# Set to yes to log all decoded messages
# This can get large fast!
LOG_DECODED_MESSAGES="no"

# Additional options that are passed to the Daemon.
EXTRA_ARGS=""

[Allocator]

Using Raspbian Stretch so it's the dump-mutability config file in my case.

Still experimenting, but interesting how the 3 different USB receivers respond to differing amounts of gain.

[abcd567]

@Allocator

I am pretty sure you already know this, but in unlikely case you dont, and also for anyone else reading this thread, I would like to tell following:

After changing the gain in file /etc/default/dump1090-mutability, and saving the file, the new value of gain will be implemented only when the dump1090 is restarted, either by rebooting the Pi, or by following command:

Code: [Select]

sudo systemctl restart dump1090-mutability

Note: If some one is using a Piaware SD card image (instead of Raspbian Jessie/Stretch image), and has adjusted gain by editing "/boot/piaware-config.txt" file or by issueing "sudo piaware-config rtlsdr-gain xx" command, the new gain value will take effect after either the Pi is rebooted, or following commands are issued

Code: [Select]

sudo systemctl restart piaware
sudo systemctl restart dump1090-fa


[Allocator]

Thanks for that.  I've been using slightly different restart instructions and I do see a change after the restart.

Code: [Select]

sudo nano /etc/default/dump1090-mutability
#after making changes, save file (Ctrl+o) and exit (Ctrl+x)

#restart dump1090-mutability
sudo /etc/init.d/dump1090-mutability restart

#alternative command to restart dump1090-mutability
sudo service dump1090-mutability restart

[abcd567]

Thanks for that.  I've been using slightly different restart instructions and I do see a change after the restart.

Code: [Select]

sudo nano /etc/default/dump1090-mutability
#after making changes, save file (Ctrl+o) and exit (Ctrl+x)

#restart dump1090-mutability
sudo /etc/init.d/dump1090-mutability restart

#alternative command to restart dump1090-mutability
sudo service dump1090-mutability restart

Yes, these are the commands continuing from the time of Raspbian Wheezy.

In Wheezy, the command systemctrl did not exist, and it was introduced in Jessie. Now all these 3 commands (init.d, service, and systemctl) are available in Jessie and Stretch.

When I created the following thread in Flightradar24 forum, Wheezy was the version still in common use. The command systemctl fails on Wheezy. That is why I have mentioned there only init.d and  service commands.


How to Install dump1090-mutability_1.15~dev on RPi

STEP (7): DUMP1090-MUTABILITY POST INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION

[neroon79]

Hi abcd567,

unfortunately the link in your last post is broken.

Thanks!

Ingo

[Allocator]

Try this one:

https://forum.flightradar24.com/threads/10232-How-to-Install-dump1090-mutability_1-15-dev-on-RPi