This setup is enough to qualify for a free subscription. It works with Ethernet or WiFi, and - while not great - is actually surprisingly good sitting in a window. Here at my place from, sitting in my window, it gets me about 50% of the planes that I get with the fully tricked out antenna on my roof.
If bought from Aliexpress, cost before taxes / duty / shipping is about $55 and that includes a power supply and a case for the SBC (Orange Pi Zero 3 in the example).
For me it was $59.47 shipped to the US.
Putting it together and installing the software is definitely âbeginner level easyâ - I have a video that walks you through it.
If youâd rather go with a Raspberry Pi 4 it gets a little more expensive (youâre likely approaching $100), thereâs a video explaining that scenario as well. Iâm curious how much the ultra cheap setup costs when shipped to other places - of course Europe, but especially the âoff the beaten pathâ places where itâs harder to get stuff.
Also - is there an even cheaper setup that qualifies as âfast enough, simple software stack, and comes with a case so itâs not completely uglyâ?
It might be cheaper on Aliexpress, but the delivery time might be longer.
If you are in Europe, shipping might be fine (get three of them and shipping is for free )
Thatâs cool. Definitely a nice price point for Europe.
The Orange Pi Zero 3 itâs quite a bit faster and has twice the memory. My biggest issues with the RPi Zero 2 are (a) mechanical: connecting an SDR with an antenna cable to that little micro USB port seems like a great way to break things (and yes, an adapter cable can help) and (b) power distribution: the RPi Zero 2 appears to struggle to provide stable power to an SDR with integrated LNA. Of course a powered USB hub solves that, but now we are back to cost.
So I think you are absolutely right, this is another great way to start. I think the Orange Pi Zero 3 is better overall, but if you already have an RPi Zero 2 or donât want to deal with AliExpress, thatâs a great alternative.
Shouldnât be necessary, only if you are in an area with heavy traffic.
And once it is set up, you normally do not need to move the device around, so pretty few risk of damaging something.
I am currently running two devices
Main receiver is a Jetvision AirSquitter (the successor of Radarcape) - this is based on an Orange PI but a hardware decoder on top of it. A device which you wonât that often on private use because itâs heavily priced meanwhile.
Second one is a Raspi 4 with an Airspy Stick. This stick with LNA wonât work on a Zero device because the CPU is not powerful enough. It runs on a Pi3, but uses almost all CPU.
I agree to a point. The RPi Zero 2W will work fine unless you want to feed a lot of the commercial aggregators - thatâs when you run out of memory. But for feeding FlightAware and a couple of the others itâs plenty, and for most use cases itâs fast enough.
The reason why I usually mention the mechanical issues is because I managed to break two of them before I learned to be extra careful⌠the Berrybase pack that you link above does have the OTA cable which really helps. I started out with an OTA adapter (so no cable, just a female A with a micro B on the other side) - and that was a bad plan.
Finally, you are spot on about the Airspy comment. The CPU of the RPi Zero 2 is essentially the same as the RPi 3, but clocked about a third lower. And that means the Airspy is simply too much for the RPi Zero 2. But then again, if you are willing to spend a hundred dollars (not sure what the price point is in Germany, but I bet itâs higher than that) on an Airspy mini, then the $35 for an RPi 4b should be within your budget â especially as the Airspy mini pretty much requires an LNA to really benefit from its capabilities.
the Airspy Mini is currently on the market in Germany and neighbor countries for 140+ Euros. Getting a filtered LNA plus a high quality antenna cable and you go easily over 200 Euros. An Airspy is almost deaf without LNA which filters to the 1090 MHz
I have it currently working with the smallest of the Pi4 with 1GB which is good enough.
As far as i know @keithma is also using one and his reception is awesome with +400 aircraft on some days at the same time.
Not sure what device his Airspy is connected to. But maybe he might reply here. Also his antenna is a beast.
I really like my Airsquitter. Even more expensive than the Airspy combination with similar performance, but the device is well maintained to also work in rough environment for months/years. They are usually selling their devices to professionals who need it (e.g. smaller airports or as secondary radar).
I havenât figured out how to create a âlistâ of items on Aliexpress
Iâll add the current links to my YouTube video (because these links age extremely quickly and here on FA you canât edit older posts).
I searched Aliexpress just now, and found this one. It has various bundles (options 1 to 9) with RAM options 1GB, 2GB, & 4GB. However there is no PSU provided. I scrolled down, and found itâs âSpecificationsâ tab which says:
Power Source 5V 3A Type-C
So you will have to purchase PSU searately. If you have a spare PSU for Raspberry Pi 4, it will be OK for Orange Pi Zero 3.
Thanks, Iâve actually gone with that bare board by itself - Like I said, itâs not for a feeder or anything like that, I just want one to experiment with something else.
I ordered one from a different seller, because the shop here did not ship to my address, like the ones linked on the official Orange Pi website.
It arrived today, and I immediately noticed that the RAM chip was different (ok, maybe a different supplier), but it had no markings like Orange Pi or hdmi etc, all the gpio were black, apparently a different wlan/bt chip. The overall layout however, looks completely similar to the pictures on the official website.
Is this because it is âopen source hardwareâ, so anybody can build it, or is it just a knock off?
I mean, it works with the adsb.im for the the orange pi 3 zero, and the system also says it is a one.
That doesnât sound like anything that Iâve seen.
The OPi Zero 3 is not actually open source hardware.
Obviously cloning of successful boards happens, but yeah - thatâs weird.
Do you have a picture of the board?
When you log into the board, what do you get when you run
oh, maybe I didnât read what you said well enough. Under System â Support Info it lists Orange Pi Zero 3 for âBoardâ (thatâs essentially the output of the above command)
Edit 2: Just for the sake of completion, two things to look out for in order to help identify its a genuine Xunlong product (although this could be faked as well, of course)
That board looks similar at first glance, but comparing it to an actual OPi Zero 3 it shows significant differences. Many more discrete parts, different routing of the top layer of the PCB, slightly different spacing between the parts.
This looks like it might be an early prototype - or maybe indeed a knockoff board.
An image search doesnât appear to bring up any alternative candidates.
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