RTL-SDR Dongle

[moka]

Thanks guys, I've stopped RTL1090 and it is working fine now.
Thanks for your help!

[tarbat]

ANRB Software needs exclusive access to the RTL SDR dongle. If RTL1090 or dump1090 is already running, ANRB.exe won't detect the dongle.

Which seems a silly design.  I want to be able use my SDR dongle to feed ANRB and Planeplotter at the same time, with a raw feed going to Planeplotter for multilateration.  In fact, my current setup has to leave ANRB completely out of the loop, with the SDR dongle feeding DUMP1090. I can then get Planeplotter to MLAT non-ADS/B aircraft, and display everything in Virtual Radar Server, combining ADS/B, non-ADS/B, and MLAT'ed aircraft all in one display.  Now, that's what ANRB should do!

[Runway 31]

I ask this as someone with no idea on the technical issues.

Don't other tracking services have the same issue and if so is there a way round the problem for example isnt this the same with the FR24 feeder??

Can Planeplotter be set up to feed Airnav using it in the way you have it set up?

What did Airnav say to your suggestion?

Alan

[tarbat]

Most applications can get data in various formats, and DUMP1090 can provide multiple outputs in these different formats.  As to what Airnav have said to the suggestion - "Please confirm both of these are applications to get data from dongles and that output data in a specific format. If that is the case can you send me examples of data coming from them? OK on port 30003, that is also interesting."

My follow-up reply:
"DUMP1090 outputs data on three ports/formats.  If you made ANRB.exe able to get data from port 30003 in standard Basestation format, as your RB24DataSharer.exe program already does, then that would work great.  If you could also handle a Beast type output on port 30005 then that would also enable access to all the RAW data coming from the dongle in ANRB.exe.
        --net-ro-port <port>     TCP raw output listen port (default: 30002)
        --net-sbs-port <port>    TCP BaseStation output listen port (default: 30003)
        --net-bo-port <port>     TCP Beast output listen port (default: 30005)"

So, I'm hopeful that Airnav see the sense of this suggestion.  And no, Planeplotter can't feed ANRB, as ANRB can only connect directly to a receiver.  By not accepting other inputs, Airnav are limiting their market for people to use the ANRB software, and so limiting the number of people feeding the RB24 network.

[Runway 31]

Thanks hopefully they will follow up your suggestion.  I wondered if Planeplotter could feed through their Options/Sharing set up but I suppose they would need the 30003 output to do that with the dongle.

I just reread again and other feeders don't have problem with Dump1090.

Thanks again

Alan

[neroon79]

Hi Alan,
 
dump1090 is working with the RB24 feeding tool, as this tool redistributes the data that dump1090.exe provides on port 30003. ANRB V6.00.000 can not be feeded with any type of data provided by dump1090.exe (raw data, base station data, or mode-s beast compatible data) but is able to directly connect to the dongle. The dump1090 problem is only valid for users, who (like Chris and me) want to use their RTL-SDR dongle to feed ANRB software and pp/fr24 feeding tools at the same time.
As ANRB software does use port30003 for data output too, it might be sensible to make the listening ports user selectable. I needed to change the basestation output port to 30033 to avoid problems with running ANRB software on same PC. Thankfully the tool that I wanted to feed with base station data allowed user customized port settings.

Ingo

[Runway 31]

Many thanks for that information Ingo.  Hopefully Airnav will take the information and advice from you and Chris into account when further developing V6 in to the fully fledged version.

Alan

[GreekSpy2001]

Having read through this thread I thought I would try out a micro dongle to compare with my original hardware.  Following Tarbat's recommendation I paid a bit extra for a R820T2 based dongle.  Bought this from Amazon

NooElec NESDR Mini 2 USB RTL-SDR & ADS-B Receiver Set, RTL2832U & R820T2  alonf with a BNC to MCX drop cable. 

Just plugged it in and installed the ZADIG driver and restatred the Airnav v6 software and its up and running.  Will run for a few days and compared the number of flights logged over a number of 24hr periods.  Normally I have been between 3200 and 3800 with the original hardware.

Graham

[neroon79]

Hi Graham could you please check the Ground speed column in MyFlights list of V6 Software running with your SDR dongle and tell me how the readings are? Stable values or a 0kt display interrupted with short displays of correct ground speed?

Many thanks ahead.

Ingo

[GreekSpy2001]

Ingo

The GS field is switching between 0 and the correct speed. 

HTH

Graham

[neroon79]

Yes, as it confirms, that this is general bug in V6 software which has to be fixed in future releases of V6 software.

Ingo

[tarbat]

Yes, remember, v6 is a beta. Problems reported to Airnav Dev:

Squawk is broken - 5 character codes don't look valid.

GS is broken - constantly changing between a valid or invalid value and zero.  May be caused by the GS number switching between different aircraft.  Just seen the same GS (453) appear against 2 aircraft at the same time, and then switched to 2 different aircraft.

Seeing Flight IDs containing ????????

Intermittent fault - sometimes starting ANRB it hangs at "Detecting Hardware".

In Preferences there’s no longer a tick box to “Filter garbled Flight IDs & Squawks”.

The end user needs a way to adjust the AGC ON/OFF, and adjust the gain.  Generally a gain of around 48 is recommended, but that may vary in different locations.

Need a way to adjust the PPM setting in the dongle.  I need to use PPM = 54 to get the frequency of 1090 spot-on.

What is UDP port 7009 being used for in v6 – I see it listed as a LISTENING PORT in Resource Monitor.

Consider making v6 work with the output from DUMP1090 and RTL1090, to appeal to the most number of users.  Allowing a port 30003 input to ANRBv6 would be helpful, again to attract the most users.

[neroon79]

Hi Chris,

I reported the most of your list too.

One is missing in your list:  If precess hardware flights is disabled and enabled again some airframes aren't shown on the map although position data is available. Sometimes they appear on the map after several minutes and they don't (re)appear at all.

There are even more issues, if operated with RBCS.

In Preferences there’s no longer a tick box to “Filter garbled Flight IDs & Squawks”. -->
I ran V6 for about two days with RB1 and had almost the same number (difference <=100 /with a total 4000+) of flights as in V5.00.072 running with a second box at the same antenna. All other settings identical. Maybe “Filter garbled Flight IDs & Squawks” isn't user selectable in V6 anymore, but is still implemented and working in the background.

About UDP port 7009: If this port is blocked, V6 doesn't find RBCS hardware anymore. So I guess the port is used for communication with and/or for listening to RBCS hardware. I've set up a custom switchable firewall rule to have an easy way to get access to RB1 (classic Hardware) while using V6 software.

Giving user access to AGC and PPM settings may overstrain the user with average PC/Software usage capabilities. E.G. how did you get the value of 54 for the PPM error correction parameter? (Mine is 37, Gain: works best at 42)

I aggree, that it would be great, if V6 would work with output of dump1090 or RTL1090. For me it would be necessary to be able to change the output/listening port  from 30003 to e.g. 30033. Or if port 30003 is used as listening port for V6 Software, the output on port 30003 of V6 software has to be switched to another port or has to be disabled.

Ingo

[tarbat]

Agree with your point about configurable port numbers.  30003 is overused already.  For example, my PP2TCP program, which takes MLAT'ed aircraft from Planeplotter and outputs in 30003 format is configurable for any port number.  I use 30303 to feed into VRS.


Also agree about configuring AGC and PPM, ANRB needs sensible default values.  I used SDR# and a known reference frequency to determine the PPM for my dongle.

[andrewarles]

Hi Chris,

Are you running your dongle through your Silex ?

Andrew