Announcing the release of PiAware 6

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
61

Ver 6.0 - Comments at start of file /etc/default/dump1090-fa

The SD card image comment says that the config file will be over-written on reboot, that means any user made changes will be lost at reboot.

However there is no such restriction in the package install.

SD card image

# Generated automatically by /usr/lib/piaware-support/generate-receiver-config 
# This file will be overwritten on reboot. 
ENABLED=yes
... ... ...
... ... ...

 

Package install

# dump1090-fa configuration
# This is sourced by /usr/share/dump1090-fa/start-dump1090-fa as a
# shellscript fragment. 
# dump1090-fa won't automatically start unless ENABLED=yes

ENABLED=yes
... ... ...
... ... ...
62

So you are saying if we follow these instruction we cannot enable the highly promoted adaptive gain?

63

The “burst” adaptive gain mode seems to be temporary? It says it will be overwritten on reboot.
GNU nano 2.7.4 File: /etc/default/dump1090-fa

Generated automatically by /usr/lib/piaware-support/generate-receiver-config

This file will be overwritten on reboot.

ENABLED=yes
CONFIG_STYLE=6
RECEIVER=rtlsdr
RECEIVER_SERIAL=0
RECEIVER_GAIN=60
ADAPTIVE_DYNAMIC_RANGE=yes
ADAPTIVE_DYNAMIC_RANGE_TARGET=
ADAPTIVE_BURST=yes
ADAPTIVE_MIN_GAIN=
ADAPTIVE_MAX_GAIN=
SLOW_CPU=auto
WISDOM=
[ Read 26 lines ]
^G Get Help ^O Write Out ^W

64

Can you please pin-point on the page you have linked, the exact steps / parameters / commands to setup Adaptive gain?

1 Like
65

My Pi3 is not seeing any Aircraft. So, yes it 's broken. See Log.

[2021-09-04 12:32 AEST] restarting piaware. hopefully i’ll be right back…
[2021-09-04 12:32 AEST] run-apt-get(22866): piaware-release is already the newest version.
[2021-09-04 12:32 AEST] update request complete
[2021-09-04 12:32 AEST] upgrade of piaware-release seemed to go OK
[2021-09-04 12:32 AEST] multilateration data no longer required, disabling mlat client
[2021-09-04 12:32 AEST] piaware (process 5641) is exiting…
[2021-09-04 12:32 AEST] attempting to restart piaware using ‘systemctl --no-block try-restart piaware.service < /dev/null’…
[2021-09-04 12:32 AEST] logged in to FlightAware as user Alaware
[2021-09-04 12:32 AEST] my feeder ID is xxxxxxxxxx
[2021-09-04 12:32 AEST] multilateration data requested
[2021-09-04 12:32 AEST] site statistics URL: https://flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/Alaware#stats-72619
[2021-09-04 12:32 AEST] 0 msgs recv’d from dump1090; 0 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2021-09-04 12:33 AEST] no ADS-B data program is serving on port 30005, not starting multilateration client yet
[2021-09-04 12:34 AEST] no ADS-B data program seen listening on port 30005 for 123 seconds, next check in 60s
[2021-09-04 12:34 AEST] no ADS-B data program is serving on port 30005, not starting multilateration client yet
[2021-09-04 12:35 AEST] no ADS-B data program seen listening on port 30005 for 183 seconds, next check in 60s
[2021-09-04 12:36 AEST] no ADS-B data program seen listening on port 30005 for 243 seconds, next check in 60s
[2021-09-04 12:36 AEST] no ADS-B data program is serving on port 30005, not starting multilateration client yet

I’m headless but have SSH and I’m not good with linax so all of your help is required.
Thanks in advance.

66

If you follow those instructions for a new install, adaptive gain is enabled by default.

Instructions on how to change the default, for both existing and new installs, are linked in the initial announcement post (follow the github “for more details” link)

1 Like
67

Try ‘sudo nano /boot/piaware-config.txt’ without the quotes.

Or ‘cd /boot’ followed by ‘sudo nano piaware-config.txt’

A long time unix user, I prefer vi over nano.

68

“vi has two modes: ‘beep repeatedly’ and ‘break everything’”
now if you’ll excuse me, I need to add some more ram to keep emacs happy

3 Likes
69

If you have the rtlsdr-ppm option set in piaware-config.txt, can you try removing or commenting out that option and try again?

70

I was able to perform an upgrade to my SD image by clicking on the gear icon on my flightaware page stats page and selecting “Upgrade and restart PiAware” and using send. It pretty much just worked. After I confirmed all was working I edited the file /boot/piaware-config.txt file and noticed a new line at the bottom that said

adaptive-dynamic-range no # updated by fa_piaware_config

and changed it to yes. Sorry I don’t recall if I had to systemctl to restart dump1090-fa.service or not.

I also have another spare Pi with the LCD image that I was using to test a new cable and antenna which is not claimed as I plan to move the radio and everything else over to my primary PiAware box. I did a command line upgrade and it just worked! Rebooted and I now see the new LCD screen showing the color coded icons for radio, piaware, mlat (red), connection plus cpu temp, load,etc. Very nice.

1 Like
71

Thanks but runnning the scripts has made no difference - I still seem to be running version 5.0.

I’m guessing that a clean install is needed.

Graham

72

You are using a Piaware image, correct?

Not sure if there the upgrade differs from package installs

73

Yes, it likely won’t do anything on the new config format.
New installs for autoain for dump1090-fa 6.0 are blocked as i haven’t had time to update it to work with the new config file format. Don’t expect an update either … not a priority for me.
Still works on piaware sd-cards as it’s a different process anyhow.

74

Hi,
Trying upgrade from piaware 5.1 to 6.0, I did the same (sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade piaware

sudo apt-get upgrade dump1090-fa) but, after a while (it took so long time), when finished, I rebooted. But, I’m still with piaware 5.1.

75

FA staff and Prog. Nil issues with ver 6.0. Can’t wait to get my FA RPI4 with ver 6 up onto the mast to compare it with one of my Airspy’s. I note in your descriptive introduction to the version, you state it is “currently” for 1090 rtl sdr dongles only. No doubt, in the future, it might be available for other types of receivers like airspy with the necessary adaptions to accommodate the different scopes of signal strength traits like the broader range of the airspy etc. Any sort of a time frame for such expansion of your PiAware 6 with adaptive gain to these other models? I am thinking there would be a lot of FA feeders that might not be into tweaking their rigs as others, including myself, on this site, that will appreciate the adaptive gain feature but might be using something more than an SDR dongle.

76

Probably in the next version, I’d guess.

77

Thanks,
was able to change adaptive from no to yes. Save it, restart dump 1090 and now the json page shows.

Now the question would be do I see more planes :slight_smile:
Thanks again,
Grey

{“all”:25,“single_message”:0,“unreliable”:0},“messages”:4802,“messages_by_df”:[994,0,0,0,461,51,0,0,0,0,0,1472,0,0,0,0,16,1798,2,0,7,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],“adaptive”:{“gain_db”:49.6,“dynamic_range_limit_db”:49.6,“gain_changes”:1,“loud_undecoded”:0,“loud_decoded”:0,“noise_dbfs”:-37.5,“gain_seconds”:[[49.6,51],[58.6,9]]}

78

As far as I know.

I’ve done a clean install & all seems to be running OK now, although I haven’t been able to ssh to it to check - my Mac has decided it doesn’t like the Pi’s host key! :confounded:

Graham

79

Not sure about a Mac, but that runs on a Linux device if accessing a Raspberry for the first time after install. Replace the IP with yours

ssh-keygen -f "/home/xxx/.ssh/known_hosts" -R "192.168.xxx.xxx"

That command removes the stored key. Otherwise it complains about a not matching key

80

Thanks - that solved the problem