Dump978-fa Not retrieving any data

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

Team,

I’m quite confused here. I got the new 978 Antenna yesterday and I cloned the dev branch from GitHub and build it successfully, I suppose :slight_smile: as per the instructions in the readme.

$ sudo apt-get install
build-essential
deb-helper
dh-systemd
libboost-system-dev
libboost-program-options-dev
libboost-regex-dev
libboost-filesystem-dev
libsoapysdr-dev

$ dpkg-buildpackage -b
$ sudo dpkg -i …/dump978-fa_.deb …/skyview978_.deb

once this was completed, the service was successfully started, yet I couldn’t open find the data nor I was open to reach any webpage http://

$ sudo systemctl status dump978-fa
● dump978-fa.service - dump978 ADS-B UAT receiver
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/dump978-fa.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2019-04-06 16:20:38 PDT; 5min ago
Docs: PiAware - ADS-B and MLAT Receiver - FlightAware
Main PID: 2711 (dump978-fa)
CGroup: /system.slice/dump978-fa.service
└─2711 /usr/bin/dump978-fa --sdr driver=rtlsdr --format CS8 --raw-port 30978 --json-port 30979

Apr 06 16:20:38 raspberrypi dump978-fa[2711]: json-port: listening for connections on 0.0.0.0:30979
Apr 06 16:20:38 raspberrypi dump978-fa[2711]: json-port: listening for connections on [::]:30979
Apr 06 16:20:39 raspberrypi dump978-fa[2711]: linux; GNU C++ version 6.2.0 20161010; Boost_106100; UHD_003.009.005-0-unknown
Apr 06 16:20:39 raspberrypi dump978-fa[2711]: Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Apr 06 16:20:39 raspberrypi dump978-fa[2711]: Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Apr 06 16:20:39 raspberrypi dump978-fa[2711]: Exact sample rate is: 2083333.135571 Hz
Apr 06 16:20:40 raspberrypi dump978-fa[2711]: [R82XX] PLL not locked!
Apr 06 16:20:40 raspberrypi dump978-fa[2711]: SoapySDR: using maximum manual gain 49.6 dB
Apr 06 16:20:40 raspberrypi dump978-fa[2711]: SoapySDR: INFO: Using format CS8.
Apr 06 16:20:41 raspberrypi dump978-fa[2711]: [::]:30978: accepted a connection from [::1]:60102

so, I stoped the service and check if I can get the data thru an interactive mode similarly to dump1090.

$ dump1090-fa --interactive

Hex Mode Sqwk Flight Alt Spd Hdg Lat Long RSSI Msgs Ti |
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
A61B4E S ASA682 10725 47.222 -121.760 -22.0 447 22
A55AED S 4601 8950 -21.8 49 1
…
…
…
.

for 978 Mhz, I ran the following command with no luck to get any data for hours.

$ /usr/bin/dump978-fa --sdr driver=rtlsdr --format CS8

linux; GNU C++ version 6.2.0 20161010; Boost_106100; UHD_003.009.005-0-unknown

Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Exact sample rate is: 2083333.135571 Hz
[R82XX] PLL not locked!
SoapySDR: using maximum manual gain 49.6 dB
SoapySDR: INFO: Using format CS8.

2

I would check your antenna connections and keep waiting. In our area there’s not much UAT yet. I got a Pi running Friday morning and up until just before dinner tonight (Saturday) I had logged 8 aircraft on my 978 system.

3

Please try the sdcard image. Or read the dump978 --help output; you need to provide some options to tell dump978 what to do with the data (listen on a network port, write to stdout, etc)

4

This URL with the IP replaced for your RPi doesn’t show anything?

http://192.168.2.55/skyview978/

5

Just a thought… Using the FA antenna connected to the orange FA dongle, I had to adjust the gain way down to get reliable reception (can’t remember exactly, and I’m not in front if it right now, but I set the gain somewhere in the neighborhood of 24-30). At the default max gain I basically received nothing, and when I dropped it just a little, I got a lot of garbage. When I dropped it way on down, then I started getting good data.

1 Like
6

I found my sweet spot for gain on my pro stick is 25 and I see aircraft out to 60 miles, not a lot of aircraft but a few. I am surprised to see dual mode aircraft running both 1090 and 978.

7

Thank you @cwesley and @glennblum for your feedback. i will try and let you know.