Fluctuating Positions

The only thing that stands out in the logs are the messages below. I see them in other days as well:

Aug 12 08:35:37 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: 726783 msgs recv’d from dump1090-fa (1299 in last 5m); 726783 msgs sent to FlightAw
Aug 12 08:32:11 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: faup1090(16620): handleFaupCommand(): Adjusting message rate to FlightAware by 3.00
Aug 12 08:32:11 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: adept server faup request received: faup_adjust_upload_rate
Aug 12 08:32:05 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: faup1090(16620): handleFaupCommand(): Adjusting message rate to FlightAware by 1.00
Aug 12 08:32:05 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: adept server faup request received: faup_adjust_upload_rate
Aug 12 08:30:38 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: faup1090(16620): handleFaupCommand(): Adjusting message rate to FlightAware by 3.00
Aug 12 08:30:38 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: adept server faup request received: faup_adjust_upload_rate
Aug 12 08:30:37 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: 725484 msgs recv’d from dump1090-fa (1580 in last 5m); 725484 msgs sent to FlightAw
Aug 12 08:30:31 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: faup1090(16620): handleFaupCommand(): Adjusting message rate to FlightAware by 1.00
Aug 12 08:30:31 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: adept server faup request received: faup_adjust_upload_rate
Aug 12 08:30:04 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: faup1090(16620): handleFaupCommand(): Adjusting message rate to FlightAware by 3.00
Aug 12 08:30:04 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: adept server faup request received: faup_adjust_upload_rate
Aug 12 08:29:58 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: faup1090(16620): handleFaupCommand(): Adjusting message rate to FlightAware by 1.00
Aug 12 08:29:58 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: adept server faup request received: faup_adjust_upload_rate
Aug 12 08:25:37 raspberrypi piaware[16590]: 723904 msgs recv’d from dump1090-fa (1582 in last 5m); 723904 msgs sent to FlightAw

It’s an indoor setup. I definitely agree that these issues could clear up if my antenna was outdoors.

You and me both. It’s the positions that fluctuate that have me scratching my head.

Just checked my logs, i cannot find any entries like these. Maybe that’s an issue?

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Yeah that’s not normal.
Probably an unstable internet or wifi connection.
Edit: Above is wrong, it’s completely normal when Skyaware Anywhere is being used.

@obj when does piaware do that, can you confirm?

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When SkyAware Anywhere is in use for that receiver - it increases the report rate to avoid slow updates of aircraft where usually we wouldn’t report them frequently.

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“Positions” on the site stats page is somewhat misleading. It’s really “data reports made to FlightAware”. The report rate depends on a lot of things that are out of your control - notably what the aircraft is doing (e.g. flying in a straight line at FL390 is not worth reporting frequently). If you’re also using skyaware anywhere (your logs imply you are) then the report rate gets artificially increased while it’s in use to improve the interactive experience there, which unfortunately also shows up on the stats page.

I’d rely more on your locally gathered statistics as they are unaffected by the reporting rate decisions that piaware makes.

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Just so I’m clear, when the rates increase, I am assuming that the number of positions also increase. Is that correct?

I usually leave SkyAware Anywhere running on my Pi receiver. It sounds like this is not recommended. Can I use a different computer on my network and leave Skyaware Anywhere running on that machine or will that also artificially increase the report rate?

Why wouldn’t you just use the local interface?

http://127.0.0.1/skyaware
That from the receiver i believe?

Otherwise … network IP from the network.

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To be honest, I thought it was the same thing. It is definitely not.

In any event, I’ll leave my Pi receiver alone and post here if there is a change in the behavior of the positions. If not, I’ll try a reinstall of the OS and Piaware.

Thanks everyone for all your responses! Very helpful!

There is no need to reinstall, the numbers on the FA stats just fluctuate when skyaware anywhere is used at all.
That’s just how it’s designed and i’m sure it’ll be reason for discussion again …

Just an update to this post. I haven’t used Skyaware Anywhere for a couple weeks now, and my positions have stabilized i.e. the slopes are not steep. Instead, I have been using Piaware Anywhere. Below is a older screenshot that shows the numbers begin to flatten out around 8/17 which is about the time I stopped using Skyaware Anywhere.

I, too, have struggled to understand the fluctuating stats I was seeing since I started this hobby a few months ago. Thanks to the OP for posing the question and others for the answer. I thought I was crazy thinking that logging in to SkyAware Anywhere seemed to trigger higher position reporting, but it turned out to be the case. Any reason why this cannot be fixed easily in a future release? Unreliable or misleading statistics are not useful to anyone.

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This variation in positions reported drove me crazy. I spent so much time looking at my internet settings, QoS settings, transfer rates of power-line adapters, software updates, software incompatibility etc. Fortunately I have a duplicated setup of Primary and Secondary receivers, so I was able to do comparative changes. I finally noticed in the log that as soon as I clicked on the ‘SkyAware Anywhere’ hyperlink, there was an entry ‘adept server faup request received: faup_adjust_upload_rate’. Then when you close the ‘SkyAware Anywhere’ tab, the entry ‘handleFaupCommand(): Adjusting message rate to FlightAware by 1.00x’ is seen, bringing the rate back from 3.00x to 1.00x. Well, at least I learned a lot along the way. I agree with dvsvejk, this functionality is misleading.

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Well done with your investigation. I also saw the log messages about increasing the message rate, but never made the connection they were related to SkyAware Anywhere being opened. I thought the FA servers were temporarily requesting more data to help in tracking.

I think you are correct in that the FA servers need a faster data feed when using SkyAware Anywhere, in order to reduce the latency and improve screen updating. I could be completely wrong, but I have a feeling that there’s a possibility of a 'time-out ’ function also, because if I leave the SkyAware Anywhere tab open for a long period of time, the message rate eventually drops. Refreshing the screen brings it back again. I could be wrong on this, but now I have an excuse for further testing and investigation to see if my assumption holds up.

If you are doing this, you als impact the stats in your profile, it’s significantly increasing the number of positions (almost double). There was already a discussion ongoing where the FA staff explained the root cause of this.

Thanks for your reply, Foxhunter. I’ve not seen any other postings on this subject, but I’m sure they exist. Maybe you could include a link or two.
What’s quite noticeable is on days when I run SkyAware Anywhere, the figures for FlightAware and FlightRadar24 are approximately the same. On days when I do not run SkyAware Anywhere, the FlightAware figures drop to around half of the FR24 figures. Perhaps they are not identically derived units, but the comparison is interesting.

This is one of the previous discussions:

Yeah, this is one of them. I am trying to find the other one where i replied.

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