Dump1090-fa with HACKRF - how?

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

I am attempting to get a HACKRF working with flightaware and dump1090-fa using a fresh SD card install on R-Pi Bullseye.
I (re)built dump1090-fa to support HACKRF.
I have it configured to run manually with:
pi@piaware:~ $ dump1090-fa --device-type hackrf

and it spits out some data…

pi@piaware:/tmp/dump1090-fa/package-bullseye $ dump1090-fa --device-type hackrf
Wed Mar 30 17:57:34 2022 UTC dump1090-fa 7.2 starting up.
freq : 1090000000
lna_gain : 32
vga_gain : 50
samplerate : 2400000
ppm : 0
*5d407630690733;
CRC: 000000
RSSI: -17.3 dBFS
Score: 17 (DF11_ACQ_UNKNOWN)
Time: 1328643.50us
DF:11 AA:407630 IID:0 CA:5
All Call Reply (reliable)
ICAO Address: 407630 (Mode S / ADS-B)
Air/Ground: airborne

*20000b135d6225;
CRC: 407630
RSSI: -17.5 dBFS
Score: 12 (UNRELIABLE_KNOWN)
Time: 2257399.75us
DF:4 addr:407630 FS:0 DR:0 UM:0 AC:2835
Survelliance, Altitude Reply
ICAO Address: 407630 (Mode S / ADS-B)
Air/Ground: airborne?
Baro altitude: 16675 ft

*5d40763069073a;
CRC: 000009
RSSI: -17.4 dBFS
Score: 20 (DF11_IID_KNOWN)
Time: 2499103.67us
DF:11 AA:407630 IID:9 CA:5
All Call Reply
ICAO Address: 407630 (Mode S / ADS-B)
Air/Ground: airborne
…

PiAware/Skyaware doesn’t know it is running, so my question is, how to get dump1090-fa to run automatically and provide useful output?
I know it works with an RTLSDR dongle, but want to try to use my HACKRF.

Thanks in advance.

2

Not sure this is supported on the piaware image as dump1090-fa is configured using piaware-config.

If you start with a normal Raspbian image you can just change the configuration for the systemd service in /etc/default/dump1090-fa and restart the dump1090-fa systemd service.

1 Like
3

If looks like it is supported in the software

edit /etc/default/dump1090-fa
Maybe add
EXTRA_OPTIONS=" --device-type hackrf " to it.
Then restart dump1090fa

4

You should be able to just set

RECEIVER=hackrf

in /etc/default/dump1090-fa. Whatever you set RECEIVER to turns into a --device-type option.

1 Like
5

OK, I got my HackRF running with a clean package install and setting in /etc/default/dump1090-fa

RECEIVER=hackrf

and

EXTRA_OPTIONS=“–enable-amp --lna-gain 40 --vga-gain 62”

Changing --samplerate to anything other than 2400000 kills the output, but no errors in any of the logs.
Not specifying --samplerate is fine and defaults to 240000

Performance is not great ‘as is’ and a bog standard RTLSDR dongle outperforms it.

Time to sell it get an airspy mini perhaps :slight_smile:

Nigel

6

This is kinda expected because the demodulator expects 2.4MSPS input.

(supporting decimation & building demodulators for other sample rates is somewhere on the todo list, but you know how todo lists are…)

7

Yep, no worries and thanks for the steer.
Anyway, nothing lost, nothing gained - other than proving to myself the hackRF doesn’t quite cut it for ADSB reception.

Nigel

8

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.