Sorry for the poorly worded question as I was running out the door. I just ordered a T620 off ebay and will have it this week. As I’m running 2 Pi’s (one for FA, one for LiveATC feed), the power usage should be the same or lower with only one device to maintain for both.
What is the current recommended OS for headless operation?
Currently I’m running Dietpi, that is an Debian 11 based OS. Debian 12 is not fully compatible with flightaware at the moment.
Successfully installed DietPi to the HP T620 (64g SSD and 4G memory, $35 shipped with power cord). Running PiAware (dump1090/978) and feeding FlightAware and FlightRadar24 from @abcd567 scripts.
Also was able to successfully compile RTLSDR-Airband and feed ATC audio to LiveATC.
All dongles serialized so no collision issues. Last item is to move my NOAA audio feed to the T620 and I will have eliminated 3 rPi’s.
If you live near sea, river, or a lake, you may install AIS receiver also on Thin Client.
I’m too far off of Lake Michigan to pick anything up. I’ve tried in the past.
So after working without any issues for about 10 days my ADS-B tracking has stopped, I see no airplanes at all. I have rebooted. I see:
rk3318-box> sudo systemctl status dump1090-fa
dump1090-fa.service - dump1090 ADS-B receiver (FlightAware customization)
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/dump1090-fa.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: activating (auto-restart) (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2023-06-27 17:21:48 EDT; 18s ago
Docs: https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/
Process: 4456 ExecStart=/usr/share/dump1090-fa/start-dump1090-fa --write-json /run/dump1090-fa (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 4456 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
CPU: 56ms
lsusb does not show any device:
rk3318-box> lsusb
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
I wonder if my new RTL-SDR dongle could have gone bad this fast (< 2 week). I plugged it into my Dell ubuntu 22.04 laptop and device at least shows on lsusb:
(venv) ragnar> lsusb
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 8087:0029 Intel Corp. AX200 Bluetooth
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1bcf:28c4 Sunplus Innovation Technology Inc. Integrated_Webcam_HD
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0a5c:5842 Broadcom Corp. 58200
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0bda:2838 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL2838 DVB-T
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Any hints welcome. I even removed and reinstalled dump1090-fa but it has not helped.
I prev. had issue where only one of two USB ports would work for me, the USB 2.0 port. In my enthusiasm at getting things to work I never tracked down why USB 3.0 port was not seeing the RTL-SDR dongle, may be I should have. I thought my USB port(s) are not working now, but if I connect a logictech mouse to it it shows:
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:c016 Logitech, Inc. Optical Wheel Mouse
So I am not sure what to conclude.
Try this:
sudo apt install --reinstall libusb-1.0-0-dev
sudo apt install --reinstall librtlsdr-dev
sudo reboot
After reboot, unplug, then replug the dongle, and check status:
lsusb
sudo systemctl status dump1090-fa
Before I saw your msg I had a friend w/ similar set up suggest I do
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
After this I rebooted and my devices are working properly!!
rk3318-box> lsusb
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:c016 Logitech, Inc. Optical Wheel Mouse
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:2838 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL2838 DVB-T
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
I am back on the air. Next time, if I have these issues I will try your two --reinstall steps. Thanks.
So after I had done a “sudo apt full-upgrade” and rebooted my piaware ran for about 4 hours and then it stopped working. lsusb showed no devices.
At this point I tried your 2 suggested --reinstall commands and rebooted, and then unplugged and plugged back the dongle. Still, it was not recognized. As a 2nd test I did:
rk3318-box> sudo apt full-upgrade
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree… Done
Reading state information… Done
Calculating upgrade… Done
The following packages have been kept back:
ubuntu-drivers-common
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
And again observed the msg about “ubuntu-drivers-common”. I then rebooted and this time I see:
rk3318-box> lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:2838 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL2838 DVB-T
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
And I see airplanes again! I don’t know what is going on exactly. I have noticed that my RTL-SDR-V3 dongle runs quite hot, one can touch it but not wish to touch it for > 2-3-4 seconds. Is is customary for it to run this hot? And could heat be my issue?
About 10 minute later: The dongle was no longer showing on “lsusb” and naturally I stopped receiving any ADS-B messages.
What is your hardware setup? Do you use LNA?
There is a possibility that your V3 has “biast on”, and there is a DC short in antenna. This will cause excessive DC current to flow through V3 and make it very hot and ultimately fail.
I have the standard H96 set top box and the RTL-SDR V3 dongle as shown in picture. Overnight I had left it disconnected from the computer and this morning it was of course cool to touch. I plugged it in, was immediately recognized and started to report airplanes. I pulled it out till I figure out out the possible short.
What is LNA?
I purchased this on amazon and antenna came with it. And what is “biast on”, something I can set?
Bias Tee is the capability of injecting voltage into the coax in order to power a device, typically an amplifier (LNA) located between the dongle and antenna.
LNA = Low Noise Amplifier. It is connected between antenna and the dongle. Please see diagram below
biast = A device to feed dc power on cable to the LNA. It can be an external device, or in case of V3 it is built into the V3 and is turned “on” or “off” by user installing biast software in RPi, and setting it on or off.
Disconnect antenna from V3 dongle, and plugin the dongle into TV box H96 and leave it running. Touch the V3 every few minutes to see if it has become excessive hot or not. If it becime very hot with antenna disconnected, the problem is in the V3. If V3 remans just warm, then there is a short in antenns or anttenna cable.
I tested w/ dongle plugged in and no atenna connected. It started slowly by over 10-14 minutes it hot fairly warm/hot. I think it was not quite as hot as when it also had antenna input and was processing. I had 1 more day of return eligibility so I am returing the device and have asked for a replacement.
Thanks for all the help, i hope to be back in air in a few days.
My replacement RTL-SDR V3 dongle came and I tested with it.
Alas the new dongle also starts to slowly and steadily get warmer and gets hot. I have not left it off overnight due to fear of damaging the device.
Should I try to find a way to measure temperature of the dongle (feels hot to touch, but I don’t have a number)?
I had previously confirmed that dongle gets warm even if no antenna input, the new dongle not tested in that manner.
Could my issue be that my H96Max box has some internal h/w issue that causes:
Could a different distribution of Linux be worth a try if it is some USB driver issue?
What is the impedance of that antenna you have there in the window?
Do you have a short USB extender cable to use between this dongle and this unit? I know nothing of this TV box, but assume it has no fan/cooling? The heat from the box can be transferred to the already warm dongle if directly connected. Having some separation may help.
I do not know the antenna’s impedance. This is the antenna that came with the RTL-SDR V3 package. The “manual” has just 3 lines of information (about 25+ different languages), it says:
On their blog there is this info:
V.1. and V.2. of our dongles included a bias tee which could manually be enabled by opening the case and soldering two pads on the PCB together. V.3. introduces a 4.5V bias tee that can be toggled entirely in software. The bias tee can continuously pull up to 180 mA of current.
WARNING: Before using the bias tee please ensure that you understand that you should not use this option when the dongle is connected directly to a DC short circuited antenna unless you are using an LNA. Although the bias tee circuit is dual protected against accidental shorts with a thermal self-resetting fuse and overcurrent protection on the LDO, short circuiting the bias tee for an extended period of time (days) could damage the LDO or fuse permanently. Only use it while connected to an actual powered device, like an LNA, active antenna or the SpyVerter.
To make things clearer: DC Short Antenna → LNA → Coax → V3(bias tee on) is absolutely fine. What’s not good and makes no sense anyway is DC Short Antenna → Coax → V3(bias tee on). DC Short Antenna → Coax → V3(bias tee off) is fine.
Note that the legacy DVB-T TV drivers will activate the bias tee by default. On Linux ensure that you have properly blacklisted the DVB-T drivers. More info on how to blacklist on the Linux section on the quickstart guide.
I wonder if this “Bias tee” is ‘on’ for my setup and is drawing the extra current and heating up my dongle enough to make it stop working? I did follow the instructions on rtl-sdr.com and downloaded and built “rtl_biast” and issued:
rk3318-box> sudo ./rtl_biast -b 0
Found 1 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001
Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
usb_claim_interface error -6
I don’t know what to make of the “error -6” message.
Did you stop the piaware program prior to giving the command ?
Error -6 indicates the dongle is in use by another program
I was alerted of this by a friend as well. Thanks.
sudo systemctl stop dump1090-fa
sudo systemctl stop piaware
and then
rk3318-box> sudo ./rtl_biast -b 0
Found 1 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001
Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Detached kernel driver
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Reattached kernel driver
worked fine.
Now I will let my dongle run and see if it return to pattern of going offline and when cooled and reattached starting to work again. Hopefully I won’t damage my dongle, it seems that they can get hot and have some (resetting) self protection, but it appears permanent damage may be possible, I don’t know enough to know.
