FA stats - no Daily Collection Graphs and Zero Mlat?

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

Hi all,

With my now very basic rig limping along, it is reporting very low volume through to FA…

NB - I’m assuming the lack of “Daily Collection Graphs” is down to the fact that it hasnt been a full 24hours yet.

flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/cy80rg

I’m a bit surprised to see zero MLAT reports. Could this imply that something’s wrong with the software setup on the Pi?
I havent actually touched the Pi or the software since it’s been off air though - just surprised it’s reporting absolutely nothing on MLAT - and no sign of the “MLAT Sync” red error at the top?

2

Mlat requires precise antenna location.
Have you entered the details into the FA website?
You should have 3 other local devices with which to triangulate mlat A/C.

Also, MLAT will not work if CPU is high or the correct ADS-B signals are not received. It uses certain ADS-B packets to work out accurate timing.
If it doesn’t see enough aircraft to get accurate timing, I think it won’t be able to do MLAT well.

You don’t seem to have great range. Is your location hilly? What kind of antenn are you using?I can receive aircraft 100NM miles away from an antenna 3’ off the ground(I do live in a really busy area for aircraft, 3 of the top 20 busiest airports in the country are within 12NM).

3

Yes, just spotted that and updated…

I know that was in there before… still, should work now :wink:

In the process of “Updating everything” remotely through FA, it’s been offline for a couple of months!

4

Rebooted and back up - ant location manually added.

Following log output - we’ll see if the msg count comes back up!

[2016-03-03 12:34 GMT] Starting multilateration client: /usr/lib/piaware/helpers/fa-mlat-client --input-connect localhost:30005 --results beast,connect,localhost:30104 --results ext_basestation,listen,30106 --results beast,connect,feed.adsbexchange.com:30005 --udp-transport 70.42.6.198:8259:3679351251
[2016-03-03 12:34 GMT] mlat(2400): fa-mlat-client 0.2.4 starting up
[2016-03-03 12:34 GMT] mlat(2400): Using UDP transport to 70.42.6.198:8259
[2016-03-03 12:34 GMT] mlat(2400): Listening for Extended Basestation-format results connection on port 30106
[2016-03-03 12:34 GMT] mlat(2400): Input connected to localhost:30005
[2016-03-03 12:34 GMT] mlat(2400): Beast-format results connection with localhost:30104: connection established
[2016-03-03 12:34 GMT] mlat(2400): Beast-format results connection with feed.adsbexchange.com:30005: connection established
[2016-03-03 12:35 GMT] 0 msgs recv’d from dump1090-mutab; 0 msgs sent to FlightAware

5

Yup…

[2016-03-03 12:40 GMT] 3 msgs recv’d from dump1090-mutab (3 in last 5m); 3 msgs sent to FlightAware

Was a bit concerned the “stock” piaware update may have over written the ports Mutability uses, but seems to be OK.

As I say, I’ve been out of the scene for a while…

As an aside, the “24 hour” stats have also updated… technically, it’s not been up 24hours yet… :wink: (I only switched it back on c17:00 last night)

6

MLAT still shows no sync…
No red alert bar, but will assume a “time based issue” and see if its still the case tonight…

[2016-03-03 13:04 GMT] mlat(2400): Receiver status: connected
[2016-03-03 13:04 GMT] mlat(2400): Server status: not synchronized with any nearby receivers
[2016-03-03 13:04 GMT] mlat(2400): Receiver: 0.2 msg/s received 0.0kB/s from receiver
[2016-03-03 13:04 GMT] mlat(2400): Server: 0.0 kB/s from server 0.0kB/s TCP to server 0.0kB/s UDP to server
[2016-03-03 13:04 GMT] mlat(2400): Aircraft: 0 of 1 Mode S, 0 of 0 ADS-B used
[2016-03-03 13:05 GMT] 83 msgs recv’d from dump1090-mutab (4 in last 5m); 83 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2016-03-03 13:10 GMT] 94 msgs recv’d from dump1090-mutab (11 in last 5m); 94 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2016-03-03 13:15 GMT] 103 msgs recv’d from dump1090-mutab (9 in last 5m); 103 msgs sent to FlightAware

7

The problem there is just that you’re seeing almost no traffic; you only have one aircraft visible at all, and it’s not ADS-B equipped.

mlat needs visible ADS-B aircraft to do synchronization with nearby receivers.

8

Thanks @Obj - yes, I understand. Makes sence when you know that / dawns on you :wink:

9

My current rig is a “temp” rig, made up of my old, original parts - while my new toys arrive for a rebuild / upgrade.

Checking the coax which I’d crimped BNC’s on to (using a cheap terminal crimper!), there was no continuity between the pins.

Cutting the ends off and re-doing, it looks like the dialectic has pulled out / away from the pin one end, ergo no connection.

Re-did the ends (making sure not to crush the coax) and jobs a good’ un, as my stats attest to.

Still running a small spider ant, no ant, straight into the dongle.

I know that faulty coax worked in the past, so not sure what happened there.

Of course, all stats (incl. mlat) reporting as expected :slight_smile:

flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/cy80rg

10

One query - if you look at my live stats on the link above, the MLAT reports in the “Hourly Collection Graphs” are very “peak-y”, i.e they seem to go up and down widly, rather than a smoother curve as I would expect (?). Also, the MLAT’s dont follow the trend of the ADSB reports…

Is this a feature of MLAT (i.e it’s working correctly), or does this imply some issue?