My son and I were very excited about getting this started and prepared all the equipment and parts. Everything in the install instructions went well but at the end of the step encountered this startup screen. I tried two different wifi networks at home (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, with WPA2-PSK security setting.) Son not so happy the hours put together not resulting in success. What should I do?
It might be too weak wifi signal. I assume you have connected the wifi antenna and entered the right encryption password. Can you try to make a hotspot with your cellphone, and connect to that?
post the config.txt you used (after changing passwords to password and the like)
If you have a keyboard connected you could also check the logs.
press Alt+F2 and type journalctl and make another picture
@LA7DFA: Thank you for the tip! Didn’t think that was an issue because the wifi signal was strong. Nonetheless, I did it with mobile hotspot, and it cleared the wifi connection.
Now the only error I’m still getting is “error: Multilateraion is not enabled.”
@wiedehopf: config.txt is the default one I downloaded. The only thing I changed is the wifi name and password.
don’t worry about MLAT for the moment, try and access your feed page first and check that your feeder is associated with your account.
on that feed page you can input the correct location, then MLAT will be enabled too.
does the local skyview work already?
Regarding the wifi, which enclosure do you use, could be blocking wifi if it’s metal.
@wiedehopf: Thank you for your comments. I see that my feeder is associated with the account. I put the correct location and antennae height. MLAT is still not enabled but I’m waiting.
Accessing my 192.168.. or adding :8080 doesn’t give me the skyview yet. Maybe it takes a while before popping up?
Wifi enclosure is a clear plastic one. Using mobile hotspot is not a long-term solution, so I’m trying to figure out how I can improve the situation. Can’t move the location of the monitor (1st floor) or wifi router (2nd floor)
On your status page above the 2 green and 1 red box there is a link (or maybe now 3 green boxes if mlat is working).
That links take you to the local page.
Try rotating the pi to different orientations when you switch back to the 2.4 GHz network, that should go through walls better than 5 GHz.
Oh and the skyview won’t work now unless you are in the wifi your phone made
Oh it has to be in the same wifi network! Oh then I need to come up with the wifi solution first then. Thank you so much for your help. I will try different positions with 2.4 GHz.
Not in the same wifi network. Local network is fine.
But your phone creates it’s own local network and then connects that local network to the internet via it’s mobile data connection.
You can also move the wifi router a bit or tilt it if you are desperate haha
Ah I see. A different question: how do I make the monitor show the skyview instead of the startup lines/log?
@abcd567: thank you for jumping in! For the two laymen here, where do I put that line? Somewhere inside piaware-config file?
For that you need another sd-card image and manual install. Better use another computer to view it basically.
Also you want the raspberry near the antenna anyway which should be in the attic for a start.
The piaware sd card image has no graphical output installed if i remember correctly.
You would need that and then just view the webpage locally.
In the monitor connected directly to RPi, you cannot see the map, as Piaware is without Graphic User Interface (GUI)
However you can see the map on another computer (must be on the same WiFi as RPi).
Type following address in other computer’s browser to see the map:
http://IP-OF-PI/dump1090-fa/
The IP-OF-PI
will be something like 192.168.xx.yy
Thank you everyone for all the help. I have definitely benefited from all your expertise and my son is excited to see the planes flying over his head on the radar!
To FlightAware devs: To help people who are doing this for the first time, could you perhaps make some tweaks to that page as follows. Under the line PiAware feeder
have another line like:
Address of your feeder: http://$LAN_IP_OF_FEEDER
And then further down something like:
To view your PiAware feeder page, which includes a live Skyview map and a link to your statistics, please visit the web address shown above from another computer on your home network.
How old is your son? I bet he’s enjoying it! It is quite addictive, especially when you see the map and think “According to the map If I look up out the window right now there should be a plane… yup there it is!” and then you find a photo of what it looks like from its registration and you think “Yesterday that would have just been a tiny anonymous plane going over… now I know it’s got orange writing on it!”. Or you hear a helicopter and find out which organisation owns it. Or you see unlisted private jets going over and wonder who might be in them!
He is still in grade school, but it’s amazing how much he can grasp out of this experience.
Boeing is forecasting a need/shortage of over 250k pilots in the next 20 years.
This past time in grade school may turn into a career in the future.