How to Install and Configure Piaware 5.0 SD card image - Quickstart Guide

On the screen. I restarted them both at the same time and the 3.6.3 screen shows 29/32 and the 3.0.7.0 shows 17/21.

Then either the splitter is not symmetrical or the dongles are not equal.

This should show you the actual gain used on startup:

journalctl -u dump1090-fa | grep starting -A5

3.7 is the bottom screen

How do you clean format a microsd card so I can install 3.7.0.1 to it?

I have a microsd card that I used in a backup system for piaware. I purchased a second RPi, a microsd card, put piaware 3.6.x or some version on it, tested it, then put it in storage in case my current system got fried by lightning or otherwise failed.

I have a 978 antenna now and want to give it a spin with 3.7.0.1.

I assume the answer in windows 10 is to put the microsd card in my machine, bring up file explorer, right click format, format FAT, etc.
Windows 10 reports 128MB instead of 16GB so I assume this is not a correct answer to clean formatting this microsd card in preparation for trying 3.7.0.1.

It looks like Etcher is simply a write image to disk so it’s not clear to me if it will wipe out the microsd card, format it, then write out the 3.7.0.1 image disk to the microsd card properly and I’m sure you don’t want me just simply using etcher to write over the existing piaware 3.6.x on that card.

Any free utility for Windows 10 will do a complete microsd format in preparation for using etcher to burn the image?

Thanks. Robert

Writing an image file to an sd-card (with Etcher or similar tools) might only overwrite the first 2GB of the sd-card.

But the rest of the sd-card is viewed as “not used” and will be overwritten when the space is required/ the filesystem expanded.

No need to format anything, just writing the image with a tool like Etcher is sufficient.

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I swapped dongles and nothing changed. I had already swapped ports and jumper cables.

Also, 978 is working fine. It compares closely to Stratux.

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Check the command anyway there is probably a different gain set.

What’s the isolation on your splitter? rtlsdr dongles are really noisy.

Formatting is not necessary. Writing an image using Etcher or Win32DiskImager will overwrite the existing data.

However in case you still want to format microSD card, do not use Windows builtin format function. It will show & format only the boot partition which is few Mb only. Instead use microSD card formatter from SD Association.

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They were both AGC. I forgot to mention that. One thing odd that I noticed, that I needed to use sudo on the 3.6.3 pi. Also, the rssi readings for aircraft that appear on both screens are fairly close to each other, within a dB.

pi@piawarea:~ $ journalctl -u dump1090-fa | grep starting -A5
Apr 26 14:47:37 piawarea dump1090-fa[464]: Fri Apr 26 14:47:37 2019 UTC dump1090-fa 3.6.3 starting up.
Apr 26 14:47:37 piawarea dump1090-fa[464]: rtlsdr: using device #0: Generic RTL2832U (Realtek, RTL2832U, SN 00001090)
Apr 26 14:47:37 piawarea dump1090-fa[464]: Detached kernel driver
Apr 26 14:47:38 piawarea dump1090-fa[464]: Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Apr 26 14:47:38 piawarea dump1090-fa[464]: rtlsdr: enabling tuner AGC

pi@piaware3701beta:~ $ journalctl -u dump1090-fa | grep starting -A5
Apr 26 07:17:09 piaware3701beta dump1090-fa[466]: Fri Apr 26 07:17:09 2019 PDT dump1090-fa 3.7.0.1 starting up.
Apr 26 07:17:09 piaware3701beta dump1090-fa[466]: rtlsdr: using device #1: Generic RTL2832U (Realtek, RTL2832U, SN 00001090)
Apr 26 07:17:10 piaware3701beta dump1090-fa[466]: Detached kernel driver
Apr 26 07:17:10 piaware3701beta dump1090-fa[466]: Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Apr 26 07:17:10 piaware3701beta dump1090-fa[466]: rtlsdr: enabling tuner AGC

I also swapped USB ports in case it was a bottleneck issue.

Yeah please see what obj wrote.

Can you swap the sd-cards and leave everything else the same?

I really doubt that it’s the dump1090-fa version.

Much more likely just some noise interaction of the two RPi with their power supplies and the splitter.

You could also try switching the power supplies.
Now that i think about it it could also be the dongle for 978 MHz starving the second dongle of power.
Or coupling over noise via the air, lots of things are possible.

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Now emabarrased! I split my lower 1090 antenna. The 3.6.3 radio I ws looking at was connected directky to my 1090 on my tall mast. The 3.7.0 1090 was connected to my lower 1090 antenna. Now they match perfectly. Normally having multiple receivers is helpful. This time, it caused confusion. I appologize for taking your time.

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It’s the puzzle i’m looking for!

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How can I downgrade to 3.6.3?
3.7.0.1 was my first installation. My system has to restart every few hours since Flightaware doesn’t get any data, but Skyview is looking good.
I don’t like to create a new image, I want to keep my other installations on this card and my settings.

Well it’s not meant to be downgraded, so you might have to do just that.

You can try the following though:

sudo apt remove piaware
sudo apt install piaware

Not sure though if it will work, creating a new image is the recommended way to downgrade.

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Thanks wiedehopf.
So far so good. Nothing lost. No reboots in the last ten hours. I have to observe it further.
The Flightaware web site shows now version 3.6.3 as feeder type, while the Skyview site still shows 3.7.0.1. Maybe it’s just a cosmetic issue.

You can use the same commands with dump1090-fa if you want to change that version.
Because the version displayed in SkyView is the dump1090-fa version.

But the dump1090-fa changes are minor and i don’t know of any errors, so no reason to change.

My problem was discussed here: Announcing PiAware 3! (Latest version: 3.8.0) - #968 by wiedehopf But just seen, you are in the loop.