Wow, this is the real deal. Added the FA Pro Stick + FA Filter and for the last hour, my aircraft seen has gone up 3-4x, messages received 4x, and range has increased 30nm. And this is before I’ve even mounted my antenna on the roof, I’m expecting things to skyrocket then.
A 1A USB power supply and the 50 ft cable I purchased are not a workable combination. I may try with a 2A power supply, but I’m currently using an extension power cable instead to locate the USB power supply close to the Raspberry Pi. I think I’ll do some more tweaking, including mounting the whole setup more securely tomorrow. My rig is not yet waterproof, so it’s staying in the attic, although that’s higher than it was, near the ceiling of the second floor.
As the guy sitting under the tree a long time ago taught us: The world is full of suffering. Suffering has a cause. There is a way out of suffering…
I offer you a way out of the suffering imposed by IR losses in cables. It involves spending money, and some cutting and splicing. That way is to put a buck/boost converter at the end of the long cable, right next to the device you’re powering.
If you are just running the SDR at the end of a USB cable, you only need a few hundred mA and this one will do:
pololu.com/product/2121
This $5 buck-boost converter delivers 5 VDC at up to 400 mA from a DC input ranging from 2.5 to 18 VDC. Note that the input current goes up as the input voltage goes down, but one of these will let you run your SDR out at the end of the cable. I use these with a lot of Arduino gadgets.
If you are running the whole Raspberry Pi + SDR system at the end of a cable, use this one:
pololu.com/product/2574
This $15 buck-boost converter delivers 5 VDC at up to 2 A from an input in the range of 3 to 32 VDC.
SUBTLE HINT: I put one of these on practically every Raspberry Pi system I have, with the +5 output wired directly to the +5 GPIO pin and GND. It provides protection against reverse voltage, under and over voltage, and lets me run systems from one or more LiPo cells, the supposedly 12 volt plug in a car (11 - 16 volts plus really ugly spikes), or even normal (crummy) USB cables and wall warts galore. If the source will deliver the needed current, my Pi has clean, stable +5 volts. Oh, and it has a disable pin that gives you a power switch that doesn’t have to handle all the operating current of the Pi, and doesn’t introduce contact bounce.
Oh, this isn’t an excuse to use crummy cables and bogus wall warts; if you want reliability, use the best you can, all the time and every time.
An alternate approach is to use POE (Power over Ethernet) gear, with a power injector at one end and a power tap with a 5 VDC output at your Pi.
bob k6rtm
But if I have to take power to the end of the cable anyway, why not just use an extension cord?
Someone did an experiment a while ago (might find it with a search) with a surprising result that 4 radials was better than some larger number (I don’t remember the larger number - I think 8 or 12).
It’s crazy how well this Pro Stick performs as you change your configuration.
I started out with this pro stick and the 4" or so long antenna that came with the original black RTL-SDR stick. With the pro stick and ADSB-Sharp, I was getting about 5-10 messages and typically about 5 aircraft being tracked during a busy time in the late afternoon during a weekday from my central New Mexico location.
I upgraded to the outdoor flightaware adsb antenna (1090 MHz, 6 dbi), put it on a post on my rooftop outside and my ADSB-Sharp messages increased to about 30 messages and about 15 aircraft tracked about the same time on a weekday late afternoon as when I did my rough stats of the shorter antenna.
I then immediately added the flightaware ADS-B filter after looking at approximate stats with the outdoor antenna. 5 mins later when I installed the filter, things went nuts! ADSB-Sharp messages ramped up to about 130 typical and my aircraft tracked exploded to 50. I’m now even seeing aircraft at cruising altitude over southern colorado, southeastern utah and eastern arizona airspace! The furthest tracking aircraft say about 185 nmi so the range is most definitely improved with the outdoor antenna/filter in areas where I’m not blocked by mountains.
i guess the next step is piaware so I can do MLAT with other folks here in central new mexico. Most aircraft in the list are just altitude reporting (and, sadly, most Southwest aircraft with Southwest being the major carrier in the area) so MLAT will be useful to go from being able to currently plot positions of about 15-20 aircraft to likely plotting almost all 50 typical aircraft.
Am I the only one that hasn’t seen an increase?
Looking at the output, the “other” has decrease from 167 to 29 (day/day) Friday to Friday’s 184 down to 29 … ??
Range is the same, and the total’s are down from yesterday (changed at 11am yesterday) and down from last Friday as well.
Have only a short 3’ cable between the Spider and the AMP/Filter/Flightaware Dongle so nothing has changed in the setup as the new dongle plugged right into the filter.
Guess I was just expecting to see gains.
If you are using it with an amp then you may need to reduce the gain. You may be over driving it. It made a huge difference on my setup ( I use it without an amp). I have to turn my gain down to 39/40 for better results.
I am using an amp and I will try to eliminate it and see what happens.
Thanks.
Hello everyone,
after seeing numerous setup variations i am going to buy the new stick pro, sma filter and flightaware antenna from amazon.de but i am still very puzzled which adapters / cables i need.
It would be great help if someone could explain that to me.
Thanks
The Dongle(Female SMA) and filter are SMA(Male SMA to the Dongle. Female SMA to the coax cable). You will need a male SMA connector/adapter for the cable that connects to the filter.
Be careful not to confuse it with SMA-RP male or F-type. They look similar but are not the same.
(1) Filter will couple directly to Pro Stick. No adapter or cable needed there.
(2) From Filter to Antenna , you will need a cable with Filter end having SMA-Male connector, and Antenna end having N-Male connector.
Three different cables are shown below which meet this requirement. You have to choose cable length according to distance between antenna and the Pro-Stick.
(1) 6 inch RG316 coaxial cable - SMA male to N male
(2) 5 meters, RG58 coaxial cable pigtail - SMA male to N male
(3) 10 ft LMR195 coaxial cable - SMA Male to N Male
Be careful not to order RP-SMA Male.
SMA Male has a pin. RP-SMA Male has a hole.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7625/26802820521_5fd1bae4c0_o.jpg
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abcd567,
Thank you very much! 
Hello
I use new stick pro, sma filter .
What are your setting.
For me , Gain in max
ppm 35 ( f4gmu.blogspot.fr/2015/02/sdr-ca … r.html?m=1)
Thanks
Please see this post:
http://discussions.flightaware.com/post193399.html#p193399
.
Hello
Thanks and the setting ppm ?
Thanks
I’ve been running a dongle and PlanePlotter feeding FlightAware for awhile now. This week I swapped the dongle out for a Pro Stick and FA filter which improved my range right away. But what really woke things up was when I added a Pi running Piaware. Positions have skyrocketed and range has increased. I am a total newbie when it comes to the Pi. This is my first one (purchased a starter kit from that big river company on the internet) and I just followed the directions here on FA. Very impressed with the results. I am using the Bulgarian ADS-B antenna mounted on the roof, connected with RG-6. The Pro Stick is the real deal and I highly recommend it.
Laura
San Diego, CA
I have a direct TV power inserter… Should this be eliminated as well?
I’ll have access to the system tomorrow and wanted to what it takes to make this new dongle work at it’s best.
I had the same power inserter and had to remove it. The new dongle was driven into saturation with it. The FA dongle already has an amp inside so you don’t need an external one. And without an external amp you don’t need to power anything.
Thanks, I’ll remove it and see what happens… Still have the original filter that I was using and the #'s in crease a small amount but at the same time the people reporting around me #'s have increase as well so I don’t think the new Dongle is showing a measurable difference as of yet.