How to adjust gain on piaware v 9.0.1

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

I recently installed graphs1090 and I want to see how adjusting my gain might affect my number of messages and planes tracked. When I try to follow the instructions here for the Debian Package add-on of flight aware (I’m running Raspbian 11 bullseye):

I don’t see RECEIVER_OPTIONS, but instead see a file that says “this is sourced by /usr/share/dump1090-fa/start-dump1090-fa as a shellscript fragment”, followed by options for setting ADAPTIVE_DYNAMIC_RANGE, ADAPTIVE_MIN_GAIN, ADAPTIVE_MAX_GAIN, etc.

Could anyone please provide me with some guidance on the best way to do this?

2

You are following a several years old guide (pre version 6). There have been some changes since then.

(1) Please issue following command to open config file:

sudo nano /etc/default/dump1090-fa

(2) Slowly scroll down the file, till you see following code:

# Initial receiver gain, in dB. If adaptive gain is enabled (see below) the actual gain
# may change over time
RECEIVER_GAIN=60

# Adjust gain to try to achieve optimal dynamic range / noise floor?
ADAPTIVE_DYNAMIC_RANGE=yes
# Target dynamic range in dB (leave blank to autoselect based on SDR type)
ADAPTIVE_DYNAMIC_RANGE_TARGET=
# Reduce gain when loud message bursts from nearby aircraft are seen?
ADAPTIVE_BURST=no
# Gain range to allow when changing gain, in dB (empty = no limit)
ADAPTIVE_MIN_GAIN=
ADAPTIVE_MAX_GAIN=

(3) To adjust gain to your desired value, replace 60 by your desired value of gain (for example 42) in following line:

RECEIVER_GAIN=60

(4) Also change yes to no in following line:

ADAPTIVE_DYNAMIC_RANGE=yes

(5) Save file, then restart dump1090-fa to implement the changes you have made as above:

sudo systemctl restart dump1090-fa

 

1 Like
3

Thank you so much, that worked!

4

Tried this method, but after rebooting dump1090-fa the dump10-90-fa file shows again max gain at 60 and adaptative as “yes”. The changes are restored to the initial settings.

5

Did you save the file /etc/default/dump1090-fa after editing the settings?

To save file, press Ctrl and O keys togather, then to close file press Ctrl and X keys togather.

6

piaware image?
Then you need to use the piaware-config command to make configuration changes.

7

For piaware SD card image:

sudo piaware-config adaptive-dynamic-range yes

sudo piaware-config adaptive-burst yes

sudo reboot

 

When these commands are issued, these settings are saved in file /boot/piaware-config.txt.

Rebooting writes these settings to file /etc/default/dump1090-fa also, and dump1090-fa uses this update setting after reboot.

 

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8

Is this adifferent approach to adjusting the gain value? How does it differs?

I had dinamicrange=yes and adaptativebusrt=no, I made the change to adaptativeburst=yes and my message rate dropped significantly,

9

Short answer is yes.
If you have adaptive gain set then the system will automatically change the gain for you. The gain setting will just be the starting point.
It is possible to limit the range.
Full details are in the documentation here: