Can we feed Flightaware using VRS on Windows computer?

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

I have tried to configure VRS (Virtual Radar Server) on my Windows Desktop to feed data to Flightaware without need of a data feeder. I followed example of Kinetics SBS3. Aparently it seems to succeed, but I am not sure. :confused:

Can any forum member, or Flightaware staff member, answer my following questions:
QUESTION 1: Is my VRS really feeding data to Flightaware?
QUESTION 2: If answer to above question is yes, then what is my station ID on Flightaware?

STEP 1:
Found SBS3 Configuration (IP address & Port number) from Flightaware site http://flightaware.com/adsb/sbs3/

To configure VRS’s Push Feed, I used settings highlighted pink:

STEP 2:
In VRS, configured “Rebroadcast Server” as push server

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1 Like
2

If you email Support I’m sure they can check your current feeds by eliminating those which are not from VRS?

I’m suggesting Support as they will want to check on MAC and IP addresses.

3

No. I tried awhile back, using the same process you did.

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@abcd567: So you would do it all on the Windows computer and eliminate the Pi? Interesting idea. I hope you get it working.

5

Hi jepolch!
Nice to see your post :slight_smile:

Yes, that is what I am trying to do: no rpi, only desktop & windows.

Since Flightaware do not provide windows version of their data feeder, Iam trying to make VRS do that job.

6

Good luck! If you get it working, post the specs and I’ll give it a shot, too.

7

As I mentioned above, VRS won’t do it. It’s already been kicked around on the VRS forum. You need either the FA software, or Planeplotter.

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@abcd567: FlightAware will give you a license for PlanePlotter so you can do as Me109 says and you won’t have to pay for PP. flightaware.com/planeplotter

9

Hi jepolch!
Thanks for suggestion.
Two years ago I did try planeplotter, but did not like it, particularly it’s graphic display, and quit it after few days trial.
I prefer VRS’s map display over planeplotter’s display. That is why I am trying to use VRS to feed Flightaware.

10

Pretty sure that’s not a supported way to try to get data in - it’s for real SBS-3’s.

Where is your data actually coming from? Can you feed it directly from there with piaware? Generally feeding at the point of capture is a better plan, regardless of what you then do to aggregate it for your own use.

11

Thanks Oliver for your valuable advise.

Right now I have 2 main systems which are feeding flightaware 24/7 (system 1 & 2 below). In addition I have setup a third system (#3 below) which is Windows based and I am experimenting to feed flightaware from it.

System 1: Coco antenna > short coax > dvb-t > RPi with dump1090 mutability & piaware data feeder.

System 2: Cantenna antenna > short coax > dvb-t > RPi with dump1090 mutability & piaware data feeder.

System 3: Cantenna antenna > amplifier > 50ft rg6 coax > dvb-t > Windows Desktop with RTL1090 and VRS.

12

If you have to stick with Windows then I think you’re limited to using Planeplotter to feed at the moment. You can always run that in parallel with VRS if you want…

Or - it’s massive overkill but you could run a debian VM hosted on the windows PC and run piaware there, feeding from rtl1090 over the virtualized network. piaware doesn’t support non-local feeds yet so you’d need to have a little netcat/socat tunnel or a --net-only dump1090 on the VM too.

13

Thanks Oliver for taking your time & providing valuable advise.

I did not know if VRS is capable to feed flightaware. It looked to me that VRS may possibly do the job. What I was trying was actually an experiment. I do not intend to feed data from the windows desktop as my normal setup.

For initial 1½ years, I did not have any RPi and was intermittently feeding data from my windows desktop, which I kept operating when needed for some other work, and shut it down when the other works finished (to reduce electricity bills + computer repair bills). During this period I fed dara to planefinder, fr24 & radarbox24 which had windows data feeder clients and did not need planeplotter. I did not feed data to flightaware during this initial period due to non avalability of their windows based data feeder client.

The very reason I installed RPi and switched data feeding from windows desktop to RPis is that I can leave these running 24/7 (very cost effective & power thrifty). It also gave me advantage of feeding flightaware using piaware data client.

Regards,
ab cd