Pi B+ won't run MLAT client

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

Edited: It’s actually a B+, not a B.

I have two feeders, a Pi 2 and a Pi B+. Both are running the latest Piaware and dump1090-muta. The Pi 2 runs MLAT all day long. The Pi B starts the MLAT client, then it seems to just die. Nothing of use in the log. Any ideas why this is happening?


08/18/2015 17:27:21 Starting multilateration client: /usr/lib/fa-mlat-client/fa-mlat-client --input-connect localhost:30005 --results beast,connect,localhost:30004 --results basestation,listen,31003 --udp-transport 70.42.6.194:6951:3730466201
08/18/2015 17:27:21 got EOF from multilateration client
08/18/2015 17:28:21 Starting multilateration client: /usr/lib/fa-mlat-client/fa-mlat-client --input-connect localhost:30005 --results beast,connect,localhost:30004 --results basestation,listen,31003 --udp-transport 70.42.6.194:6951:3730466201
08/18/2015 17:28:21 got EOF from multilateration client

Apparently related, the Pi 2 has a much higher percentage of located tracks compared to the Pi B.

2

Try running the fa-mlat-client command line that it logs from a shell and see what it says.

3

No output on the command line, but this is from the log:


08/18/2015 21:32:21 Starting multilateration client: /usr/lib/fa-mlat-client/fa-mlat-client --input-connect localhost:30005 --results beast,connect,localhost:30004 --results basestation,listen,31003 --udp-transport 70.42.6.194:6951:3730466201
08/18/2015 21:32:22 got EOF from multilateration client
4

I think it was working until I ran this line to get VRS preview to show MLAT:


piaware-config -mlatResultsFormat "beast,connect,localhost:30004 basestation,listen,31003"

Edit: I ran the same command on the Pi 2 and everything works fine on the Pi and VRS.

5

Got it working. I reinstalled piaware_2.1-2, did ‘sudo apt-get update -fy’ and ‘service piaware restart’. Now the MLAT client is running.

Latest log entries:


08/18/2015 21:43:47 piaware version 2.1-2 is running, process ID 18780
08/18/2015 21:43:47 your system info is: Linux raspberrypi 3.18.11+ #781 PREEMPT Tue Apr 21 18:02:18 BST 2015 armv6l GNU/Linux
08/18/2015 21:43:47 connecting to FlightAware piaware.flightaware.com/1200
08/18/2015 21:43:48 FlightAware server SSL certificate validated
08/18/2015 21:43:48 encrypted session established with FlightAware
08/18/2015 21:43:48 autoUpdate in adept config is disabled, disallowing update
08/18/2015 21:43:48 manualUpdate in adept config is enabled, allowing update
08/18/2015 21:43:48 multilateration support enabled (use piaware-config to disable)
08/18/2015 21:43:48 ADS-B data program 'dump1090-mutab' is listening on port 30005, so far so good
08/18/2015 21:43:48 Starting faup1090: /usr/bin/faup1090 --net-bo-ipaddr localhost --net-bo-port 30005 --lat 36.177 --lon -79.144
08/18/2015 21:43:48 Started faup1090 (pid 18813) to connect to dump1090-mutab
08/18/2015 21:43:48 logged in to FlightAware as user jepolch
08/18/2015 21:43:49 multilateration support enabled (use piaware-config to disable)
08/18/2015 21:43:49 multilateration data requested, enabling mlat client
08/18/2015 21:43:49 Starting multilateration client: /usr/lib/fa-mlat-client/fa-mlat-client --input-connect localhost:30005 --results beast,connect,localhost:30004 --results basestation,listen,31003 --udp-transport 70.42.6.203:9871:623777066
08/18/2015 21:43:49 piaware received a message from dump1090-mutab!
08/18/2015 21:43:49 piaware has successfully sent several msgs to FlightAware!
08/18/2015 21:43:52 mlat(18815): fa-mlat-client 0.2.3 starting up
08/18/2015 21:43:52 mlat(18815): Using UDP transport to 70.42.6.203:9871
08/18/2015 21:43:52 mlat(18815): Listening for Basestation-format results connection on port 31003
08/18/2015 21:43:52 mlat(18815): Input connected to localhost:30005
08/18/2015 21:43:53 mlat(18815): Beast-format results connection with localhost:30004: connection established
08/18/2015 21:44:18 61 msgs recv'd from dump1090-mutab; 61 msgs sent to FlightAware
08/18/2015 21:44:47 server is sending alive messages; we will expect them
6

Good that it’s working. I’m not sure what went wrong. The current fa-mlat-client is not very good about reporting errors on startup (cxfreeze seems to swallow them for some reason) - that should be cleaned up for the next release.