Dump1090 Not receiving anything??? Help!

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

New to Raspberry Pi/linux/ads-b, etc. Built a PiAware as a gift for my father. I am trying to track down the root cause of dump1090 not detecting anything at all.

-I am connected up to a NooElec R820T tuner with the included antenna (I know, not optimal, but temporary).

-I have dump1090 and PiAware installed on a basic Raspbian system

Piaware-Status:

dump1090 is running.
faup1090 is not running.
piaware is running.
dump1090 is listening for connections on port 30005.
dump1090 is listening for connections on port 10001.
piaware is connected to port 10001.
piaware is connected to FlightAware.
dump1090 is NOT producing data on port 30005.
dump1090 is NOT producing data on port 10001.

piaware.out:

06/23/2015 01:49:47 0 msgs recv’d from dump1090 (0 in last 5m); 0 msgs sent to FlightAware
06/23/2015 01:54:17 seconds since last message or startup (1705) less than threshold for action (3600), waiting…
06/23/2015 01:54:17 dump1090 is listening for connections on FA-style port 10001
06/23/2015 01:54:47 0 msgs recv’d from dump1090 (0 in last 5m); 0 msgs sent to FlightAware
06/23/2015 01:59:17 seconds since last message or startup (2005) less than threshold for action (3600), waiting…
06/23/2015 01:59:17 dump1090 is listening for connections on FA-style port 10001
06/23/2015 01:59:47 0 msgs recv’d from dump1090 (0 in last 5m); 0 msgs sent to FlightAware
06/23/2015 02:04:17 seconds since last message or startup (2305) less than threshold for action (3600), waiting…
06/23/2015 02:04:17 dump1090 is listening for connections on FA-style port 10001
06/23/2015 02:04:47 0 msgs recv’d from dump1090 (0 in last 5m); 0 msgs sent to FlightAware

Dump1090 --Interactive has shown 0 records for hours. During a brief period this afternoon I was able to get 1-2 records at a time for a little while, but nothing was ever reported to FA

I live in an apt building on the 40th floor, in an area that is directly beneath the rrival vector for LGA (Rwy 22) and it’s typical to see (from my window, in line-of-sight of the antenna) ~40 aircraft passing within 1 mile of me and between 1500-2500ft above, and all JFK approach traffic (would estimate that is about 10 miles away) is in line-of-sight. Antenna is in a corner window facing both airports.

Based on the fact that I can visually see all of these aircraft, as can the antenna, I am wondering if anyone might have suggestions for what I can do (short of a new dongle/antenna for the time being) to ensure everything is configured correctly (and verify that it is a funky dongle or antenna)?

And please bear in mind that the last time I typed anything into a “Terminal” was the day before we got our computer with windows 95 on it…

Thanks in advance

2

Either you have a very well shielded window (!), or you have an antenna problem or deaf dongle, or the gain on dump1090 is too low.

How are you starting dump1090?

3

The gain on Dump1090 is set to the default setting, and showing as 49.70 which I actually thought was high based on what some other people have reported.

I haven’t done anything to start Dump1090, was assuming that that was managed by Piaware, is this incorrect?

I assumed when I checked the status on Piaware and it stated Dump1090 is running/listening, that meant everything was OK on that end. Is there something else I need to do?

4

That all sounds OK. So it’s probably a problem with the dongle or antenna.