Help! No aircraft suddenly

FlightAware General
1

Hello,

All of a sudden I see no aircraft on my feed. I did try restarting but that did not help. I don’t see any errors in the log file either. Not sure where else to check. Would appreciate any tips.

Jul 20 17:23:25 piaware piaware[2962]: ADS-B data program 'dump1090-fa' is listening on port 30005, so far so good
Jul 20 17:23:25 piaware piaware[2962]: Starting faup1090: /usr/lib/piaware/helpers/faup1090 --net-bo-ipaddr localhost --net-bo-port 30005 --stdout --lat 43.788 --lon -121.485
Jul 20 17:23:25 piaware piaware[2962]: Started faup1090 (pid 3525) to connect to dump1090-fa
Jul 20 17:23:54 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Input connected to localhost:30005
Jul 20 17:23:54 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Input format changed to BEAST, 12MHz clock
Jul 20 17:23:54 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Beast-format results connection with 127.0.0.1:30104: connection established
Jul 20 17:27:11 piaware piaware[2962]: 0 msgs recv'd from dump1090-fa (0 in last 5m); 0 msgs sent to FlightAware
Jul 20 17:31:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Receiver status: connected
Jul 20 17:31:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Server status:   not synchronized with any nearby receivers
Jul 20 17:31:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Receiver:    0.0 msg/s received        0.0 msg/s processed (0%)
Jul 20 17:31:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Server:      0.0 kB/s from server    0.0kB/s TCP to server     0.0kB/s UDP to server
Jul 20 17:31:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Aircraft: 0 of 0 Mode S, 0 of 0 ADS-B used
Jul 20 17:32:11 piaware piaware[2962]: 0 msgs recv'd from dump1090-fa (0 in last 5m); 0 msgs sent to FlightAware
Jul 20 17:37:11 piaware piaware[2962]: 0 msgs recv'd from dump1090-fa (0 in last 5m); 0 msgs sent to FlightAware
Jul 20 17:42:11 piaware piaware[2962]: 0 msgs recv'd from dump1090-fa (0 in last 5m); 0 msgs sent to FlightAware
Jul 20 17:46:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Receiver status: connected
Jul 20 17:46:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Server status:   not synchronized with any nearby receivers
Jul 20 17:46:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Receiver:    0.0 msg/s received        0.0 msg/s processed (0%)
Jul 20 17:46:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Server:      0.0 kB/s from server    0.0kB/s TCP to server     0.0kB/s UDP to server
Jul 20 17:46:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Aircraft: 0 of 0 Mode S, 0 of 0 ADS-B used
Jul 20 17:47:11 piaware piaware[2962]: 0 msgs recv'd from dump1090-fa (0 in last 5m); 0 msgs sent to FlightAware
Jul 20 17:52:11 piaware piaware[2962]: 0 msgs recv'd from dump1090-fa (0 in last 5m); 0 msgs sent to FlightAware
Jul 20 17:57:11 piaware piaware[2962]: 0 msgs recv'd from dump1090-fa (0 in last 5m); 0 msgs sent to FlightAware
Jul 20 18:01:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Receiver status: connected
Jul 20 18:01:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Server status:   not synchronized with any nearby receivers
Jul 20 18:01:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Receiver:    0.0 msg/s received        0.0 msg/s processed (6%)
Jul 20 18:01:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Server:      0.0 kB/s from server    0.0kB/s TCP to server     0.0kB/s UDP to server
Jul 20 18:01:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Aircraft: 0 of 0 Mode S, 0 of 0 ADS-B used
Jul 20 18:01:41 piaware piaware[2962]: mlat-client(2991): Out-of-order timestamps: 2
Jul 20 18:02:11 piaware piaware[2962]: 0 msgs recv'd from dump1090-fa (0 in last 5m); 0 msgs sent to FlightAware
Jul 20 18:07:11 piaware piaware[2962]: 0 msgs recv'd from dump1090-fa (0 in last 5m); 0 msgs sent to FlightAware

image
image1546×660 213 KB

2

Please edit your post, select all of the log entry text, and click the </> button to format it as code so it’s readable.

2 Likes
3

maybe you should check if the cables are still correctly attached ? Seems that your software is running fine but recieving is an issue.

4

Also, if you have a separate LNA, remove it. It may have died and become an open circuit. A coax connector that’s loose is more likely though. That’s the very first thing I would check if this happened to me. Next, I would check my antenna.

5

Thank you. I have checked the cables, and even switched USB ports and power supplies. Still the problem persists. FA support haven’t been much help other than those suggestions. I don’t have an LNA.

How to I check the antenna? And would it have just suddenly died for some reason?

6

If you disconnect the cabling at the dongle and insert a paperclip into the dongle , do you recieve aircraft then ?
If so then the problem in in your cables or antenna and you will only find out if you eleminate the components one by one.
If no aircraft are recieved then you might ( after checking all other components) have an issue with the dongle.
It will be some detective work to find out which part is causing the problem.

2 Likes
7

After the antenna suggestion (paperclip didn’t work) I decided to switch to a newer RTL adapter that I had which has a different antenna connector (long story as to why I was using the old one). After switching the radio, cable and antenna, it’s working again. Still not sure about the sudden failure but the radio dying seems more likely than a suddenly bad antenna.

1 Like
8

Good to hear you are up and running again. I also have a spare set on the ready in case of a hardware failure. I guess your reciever failed indeed.

9

Probably the RTL-SDR was not recognized by the device.

I had this one day as well. No aircraft, maps working.
But checking dump1090 gave me the information that no RTL-SDR was detected. That was also the reason why piaware did not report any aircraft or messages.

Unplugged the stick, connected it again and then reboot.
For me it never worked to plug it in without a reboot afterwards.

10

I have this issue as well, but for me, just a reboot seems to do the trick. You can watch my stats die over time to finally nothing. I’m seeing this trend now. After a reboot - I get lots of planes… then slowly dies over time. I’m about to reboot it again today to see if my theory is correct about the reboot… and I’ll see if I get more stats afterwards.

11

That behaviour is fairly typical of a failing PSU.
Try another USB supply and see if there is any improvement.

1 Like