Howdy all - Just got a Pi4 setup with an off-the-shelf RTL-SDR (orange stick coming next week) and wanted to do some testing. This Pi4 I’m also using as an OctoPrint server.
I’ve got everything up and running except dump978-fa.service restarts every 30 seconds or so. From the logs:
Jul 02 20:41:39 octopi dump978-fa[3297]: Message source reports error: TIMEOUT
Jul 02 20:41:39 octopi dump978-fa[3297]: Abnormal exit
Jul 02 20:41:39 octopi systemd[1]: dump978-fa.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jul 02 20:41:39 octopi systemd[1]: dump978-fa.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
Jul 02 20:42:09 octopi systemd[1]: dump978-fa.service: Service RestartSec=30s expired, scheduling restart.
Jul 02 20:42:09 octopi systemd[1]: dump978-fa.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 52.
Jul 02 20:42:09 octopi systemd[1]: Stopped dump978 ADS-B UAT receiver.
Jul 02 20:42:09 octopi systemd[1]: Started dump978 ADS-B UAT receiver.
Jul 02 20:42:09 octopi dump978-fa[3318]: raw-port: listening for connections on 0.0.0.0:30978
Jul 02 20:42:09 octopi dump978-fa[3318]: raw-port: listening for connections on [::]:30978
Jul 02 20:42:09 octopi dump978-fa[3318]: json-port: listening for connections on 0.0.0.0:30979
Jul 02 20:42:09 octopi dump978-fa[3318]: json-port: listening for connections on [::]:30979
Jul 02 20:42:09 octopi dump978-fa[3318]: usb_claim_interface error -6
Jul 02 20:42:09 octopi dump978-fa[3318]: usb_claim_interface error -6
I’ve looked through a few topics here about this, and I see a few things…
Undervolt as a potential issue (I have a single undervoltage error in my dmesg from an hour ago, I’ve since increased the supply to 5.2V instead of 5.05V before)
People running old/wrong versions (i just installed dump978-fa 3.8.1 from package manager)
People with bad configs (my piaware-config reports only the auto-updates and manual-updates to yes)
Allowed voltage is 5.0V ±5%, so between 4.75V and 5.25V. Low-voltage circuitry will detect if supply voltage drops below 4.63V and generate a kernel log entry.
Do you have a snapshot of the voltage message?
Underpowering the unit might have corrupted your SD card, try reformatting and reinstalling 3.8.1?
You can use a single RPi for both, but setup is a bit more involved than using separate RPi’s.
Can you provide additional log details after the “usb_claim_interface error -6” message? This is often caused by the standard Linux driver trying to load in addition to PiAware software, which causes contention for the USB port. You can fix this by blacklisting the conflicting driver from loading, but I’d need to see more of the log.
Assuming you have OctoPi 0.17.0? So are you booting that on your RPi for your print server, and then running PiAware? A bit confused on how you’re running both OctoPi and PiAware.
@wmccouch and just saw your note about needing twin dongles for both 978 and 1090. That answers my question, I didn’t see that captured on any of the documentation on flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/build. I guess the freqs are far enough apart that it’s obvious a single dongle can’t spread it. Will install second dongle as tomorrow’s project!
Yep, running OctoPi 0.17, then manually installed the piaware, dump1090-fa, and dump978-fa packages. Had to tweak lighttpd to bind to port 81 (octopi runs on port 80) and then had to move SkyAware to run on port 8081 (mjpeg streaming on OctoPrint runs on 8080).
Separate antennas are available optimized for 1090 and 978 (the FlightAware antennas are generally considered very good) - requiring their own cable runs between antenna and SDR dongle.
thanks. I’m planning to run these off a discone antenna I have mounted already for local scanner/trunking monitoring, and I’ve got a multicoupler (Cross Country Wireless HF/VHF/UHF Multicoupler) inbound that should let me split the single antenna feedline into a couple disparate uses without the substantial/usual losses associated with splitters.
I’m sure you know, but I’d underscore that discone antennas are very wideband, so you’ll have to look at filters between the multicoupler and each of the SDR dongles (1090 and 978), otherwise you’ll overload the front end.
Also, if you plan to use that single antenna to feed a trunk monitor, a 1090 SDR, and a 978 SDR via the multicoupler, it might be necessary to have amps on each of the 1090 and 978 feeds. So it would be multicoupler–amp–filter—SDR dongle.
Yep, the goal of the discone is for the wideband support. I’ve got a half-dozen or so SDRs around here and it’ll be handy to have a way to put them into use quickly. Filters will be interesting to experiment with for sure. The multicoupler has an LNA integrated with it to offset the power losses caused by the splitting. It’ll be a fun experiment
My wife isn’t thrilled with the ham radio antennas on the house, so adding dedicated antennas for each of my SDR projects is a non-starter. A single discone though should be fine!
The trunking I’m monitoring is on a Uniden HomePatrol-II unit, no ability to upstream from it. I think there are plenty of other sites that do monitor specific trunkgroups, but I wanted to be able to customize which tactical groups I pay attention to rather than just monitoring dispatch and Fire Tactical, which I’ve found streams for online in the past. Sometimes it’s handy to hear the parks department or the utilities department!
I volunteer with our municipal emcomm group so it’s handy to be able to tune in and passively monitor while leaving the “official” trunking handheld on the charger until I need it for official purposes.
Neat! I’m all about hosing feeders for all sorts of info. I have a weather station and my FA 1090/978 setup - I am waiting to join the Blitzortung lightning detection network (Lightning & Thunderstorms - World Map) and I want to set up a feeder for local fire/emergency/ems radio one of these days.
