How-to Serialize Dongles for ES1090 + UAT978

abcd567 · August 30, 2019, 8:44pm

sudo systemctl stop piaware
sudo systemctl stop dump1090-fa
sudo systemctl stop dump978-fa

rtl_test -t -d 00000978
rtl_test -t -d 00001090

wiedehopf · August 30, 2019, 8:47pm

I think you should read this howto: How to Install and Configure Piaware 5.0 SD card image - Quickstart Guide

This error when running rtl_test is always due to some program using it still running.
dump1090-fa and dump978-fa get restarted by piaware, so you need to stop that as well.
Also when you reboot the services obviously start up again.

abcd567 · August 30, 2019, 8:55pm

Yes, you have to tell piaware the serial numbers, as shown in quote below from QuickStat Guide (you should read the guide in full).

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

sudo piaware-config uat-receiver-type sdr 
sudo piaware-config rtlsdr-device-index 00001090  
sudo piaware-config uat-sdr-device driver=rtlsdr,serial=00000978  

# Reboot Pi to implement configuration settings 
sudo reboot

rsmath · August 31, 2019, 8:22pm

I started from section 5 (serialize dongles) of the Quickstart 3.7.1 guide since the SD card already has 3.7.1 on it and I don’t need to set up ssh and wi-fi, etc. on the installation and I’m still having problems.

The “Configure UAT 978” commands did not give any error when the commands were issued and I rebooted.

The dump978-fa status then gave:

pi@piaware:~$ sudo systemctl status dump978-fa
● dump978-fa.service
Loaded: not-found (Reason: No such file or directory)
Active: inactive (dead)

I temporary stopped dump1090 and dump978 and ran a test on the 978 dongle and the dongle appears fine:

pi@piaware:~$ rtl_test -t
Found 1 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2838UFA, SN: 00000978

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Supported gain values (29): 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.7 3.7 7.7 8.7 12.5 14.4 15.7 16.6 19.7 20.7 22.9 25.4 28.0 29.7 32.8 33.8 36.4 37.2 38.6 40.2 42.1 43.4 43.9 44.5 48.0 49.6
Sampling at 2048000 S/s.
No E4000 tuner found, aborting.

==========

I am thinking about doing the whole quickstart guide from the beginning – thinking something funky happened in the upgrade from 3.6.3. to 3.7.1 causing dump978-fa issues – so I might leave my main piB3 running 1090 only and take my backup pi3B/backup SD card and wipe the sd card and write 3.7.1 on it and play with that until hopefully I get 978 working and eventually both dongles working on the same pi3B.

I may edit this file later with the troubleshooting section log results if I still can’t figure it out with more playing with it.

wiedehopf · August 31, 2019, 8:55pm

New image is probably best. But you can try just installing dump978-fa, i’m not sure it’s automatically installed on update.

sudo apt install dump978-fa

rsmath · September 1, 2019, 1:53am

I did a clean install of 3.7.1 on another card and went through the 3.7.1 quickstart guide in its entirety.

I’m not getting 978 issues about error 404 pulling up the 978 map or missing file or directories when doing a status check, but I am getting the “978 UAT Radio” status box being yellow. It says UAT receiver is running but no data seen, so I don’t know if the usb claim thing I’m still getting testing the dongles (even with disabling both dumps to test) is the reason why or if it’s just because there may not be a lot of close 978 traffic tonight.

My next step is probably to read the 350 replies to the 3.7.1 quickstart guide thread in case what I’m seeing has been reported in that thread and I get some other things to try, or post there since I think I"m getting into stuff that’s beyond serializing the dongles now.

abcd567 · September 1, 2019, 3:20am

@rsmath

sudo systemctl stop piaware dump1090-fa dump978-fa  

rtl_test -t -d 0 

rtl_test -t -d 1 

sudo systemctl restart dump1090-fa dump978-fa piaware

rsmath · September 1, 2019, 3:54am

Here are the results of the rtl_test commands instructed and they appear to me to be normal results. Am I supposed to be redo the “Configure UAT 978” using 0 and 1 in place of the serial numbers of the respective dongles as shown in the quickstart guide or keep it using serial numbers 00001090 and 00000978?

pi@piaware:~ $ rtl_test -t -d 0

Found 2 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2832U, SN: 00001090
1: Realtek, RTL2838UFA, SN: 00000978

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U
Detached kernel driver
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Supported gain values (29): 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.7 3.7 7.7 8.7 12.5 14.4 15.7 16.6 19.7 20.7 22.9 25.4 28.0 29.7 32.8 33.8 36.4 37.2 38.6 40.2 42.1 43.4 43.9 44.5 48.0 49.6
[R82XX] PLL not locked!
Sampling at 2048000 S/s.
No E4000 tuner found, aborting.
Reattached kernel driver

pi@piaware:~ $ rtl_test -t -d 1

Found 2 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2832U, SN: 00001090
1: Realtek, RTL2838UFA, SN: 00000978

Using device 1: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Detached kernel driver
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Supported gain values (29): 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.7 3.7 7.7 8.7 12.5 14.4 15.7 16.6 19.7 20.7 22.9 25.4 28.0 29.7 32.8 33.8 36.4 37.2 38.6 40.2 42.1 43.4 43.9 44.5 48.0 49.6
[R82XX] PLL not locked!
Sampling at 2048000 S/s.
No E4000 tuner found, aborting.
Reattached kernel driver

pi@piaware:~ $ sudo systemctl restart dump1090-fa dump978-fa piaware

abcd567 · September 1, 2019, 4:46am

@rsmath

Both dongles are OK.
What is the output of following commands?

sudo systemctl status dump1090-fa
sudo systemctl status dump978-fa

Problem may be in antenna, antenna cable, or connector.

Noted that the 00000978 has FA in it’s name (RTL2838UFA), indicating it is FlightAware prostick. If it is blue one (prostick plus), it has a 1090 mhz filter inside. Although it is healthy, It will not work properly on 978 mhz due to the integral filter.

abcd567 · September 1, 2019, 5:06am

Do NOT redo serial numbers. Leave these at 00001090 and 00000978

Each dongle has now 2 numbers: device (0 or 1) and serial (00001090 or 00000978).

The configs of dump1090-fa and dump978-fa are done using serial number, and NOT device number.

scroll right to see seria numbers

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

6 - Configure UAT 978

sudo piaware-config uat-receiver-type sdr
sudo piaware-config rtlsdr-device-index 00001090
sudo piaware-config uat-sdr-device driver=rtlsdr,serial=00000978

# Reboot Pi to implement configuration settings
sudo reboot

rsmath · September 1, 2019, 5:10am

I’m using a blue dongle with Flightaware’s logo on it for the 1090 and an orange dongle with Flightaware’s logo on it for 978 as I think I came across something about what you said when doing research for what gear I would need for 978 reception.

On your suggestion, I’ll check my connections or try a piece of wire for an temporary test antenna to see if it is antenna or coax that might be the issue.

Here’s the output from the status dumps:

pi@piaware:~ $ 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: active (running) since Sun 2019-09-01 03:47:09 UTC; 1h 11min ago
Docs: PiAware - ADS-B and MLAT Receiver - FlightAware
Main PID: 9217 (dump1090-fa)
CGroup: /system.slice/dump1090-fa.service
└─9217 /usr/bin/dump1090-fa --net-bo-port 30005 --fix --device-index 00001090 --gain -10 --ppm 0 --max-

Sep 01 03:47:09 piaware systemd[1]: Started dump1090 ADS-B receiver (FlightAware customization).
Sep 01 03:47:09 piaware dump1090-fa[9217]: Sun Sep 1 03:47:09 2019 UTC dump1090-fa 3.7.1 starting up.
Sep 01 03:47:09 piaware dump1090-fa[9217]: rtlsdr: using device #0: Generic RTL2832U (Realtek, RTL2832U, SN 000010
Sep 01 03:47:10 piaware dump1090-fa[9217]: Detached kernel driver
Sep 01 03:47:10 piaware dump1090-fa[9217]: Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Sep 01 03:47:10 piaware dump1090-fa[9217]: rtlsdr: enabling tuner AGC

pi@piaware:~ $ sudo systemctl status dump978-fa

● dump978-fa.service - dump978 ADS-B UAT receiver
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/dump978-fa.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sun 2019-09-01 03:46:38 UTC; 1h 13min ago
Docs: PiAware - ADS-B and MLAT Receiver - FlightAware
Main PID: 9038 (dump978-fa)
CGroup: /system.slice/dump978-fa.service
└─9038 /usr/bin/dump978-fa --sdr driver=rtlsdr,serial=00000978 --raw-port 30978 --json-port 30979

Sep 01 03:46:40 piaware dump978-fa[9038]: Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Sep 01 03:46:40 piaware dump978-fa[9038]: Reattached kernel driver
Sep 01 03:46:41 piaware dump978-fa[9038]: Detached kernel driver
Sep 01 03:46:41 piaware dump978-fa[9038]: Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Sep 01 03:46:41 piaware dump978-fa[9038]: Exact sample rate is: 2083333.135571 Hz
Sep 01 03:46:41 piaware dump978-fa[9038]: [R82XX] PLL not locked!
Sep 01 03:46:41 piaware dump978-fa[9038]: SoapySDR: using maximum manual gain 49.6 dB
Sep 01 03:46:41 piaware dump978-fa[9038]: SoapySDR: using stream setting buffsize=262144
Sep 01 03:46:42 piaware dump978-fa[9038]: [::]:30978: accepted a connection from [::1]:34604
Sep 01 03:46:44 piaware dump978-fa[9038]: [::]:30978: accepted a connection from [::1]:34606

abcd567 · September 1, 2019, 5:13am

@rsmath

All (both dumps & both dongles) seem OK.
You either currently have low UAT traffic, or have a bad antenna/cable/connection.

Run status commands again after say 15 minutes.

sudo systemctl status piaware

sudo systemctl status dump978-fa

sudo systemctl status dump1090-fa

wiedehopf · September 1, 2019, 5:59am

Adjust the gain for UAT to 35, that generally gives better results with the Orange FA dongle.
(If you have an uputronics 978 MHz LNA as well you’ll need to change the gain to 15)

The radio turning yellow for UAT is normal if no UAT planes are around.

abcd567 · September 1, 2019, 6:36pm

@rsmath
Your problem is most likely due to very low/occassional UAT traffic. I had same problem as UAT traffic here in Toronto is occassional.
.

wiedehopf · September 1, 2019, 6:41pm

@rsmath

Generally it’s quite problematic to use two dongles on the same Pi.
The quality/voltage of the power supply becomes very important to ensure both dongles are supplied with sufficient voltage.

What Pi / powersupply are you using?
The RPi Official power supply is recommended, especially for using two dongles.

abcd567 · September 1, 2019, 7:19pm

No, it is not, at least for me.
I have a RPi model 2, with non-official power supply from ebay/seller from China. It worked ok for about 2months for piaware 3.7.1 sd card image with 2 dongles and both dump1090 & dump978 enabled.

End of July, my other Pi (Orangepi pc) died. To restore my stations, I wrote Raspbian Buster, then installed two stations on same surviving RPi. It is working flawlessly since last one month.

It has following adsb software running 24/7:

dump1090-mutability
dump1090-mutability2
piaware
piaware2
fr24feed
fr24feed2
pfclient
pfclient2
adsbexchange
adsbexchange2
rbfeeder
opensky-network
RadarVirtuel
Graphs by @wiedehopf

Later addition:
I am using following 2 dongles for 2 instances of dump1090-mutability:

Flightaware ProStick (orange) with integral lna + FA light blue filter + indoor PCB antenna
Radar Box’s FlightStick (green) with integral filter & lna + indoor optimized mag-mount whip on cookie can.

rsmath · September 1, 2019, 7:32pm

All is good this afternoon. Around 1pm, the UAT 978 Radio button was no longer yellow but green. I opened the 978 map and saw 2 aircraft flying into Santa Fe airport (40 miles and behind a mountain from me). That proved to me dongle and antenna were all fine and that there is just a lot less 978 traffic than I would have expected for my area (not traffic numbers of large major airports but not that of a rural airport either).

I’m amazed about 978! Normally I lose planes into Santa Fe on 1090 because of the mountain (so I never get to see more than part of their descent). I was able to track both planes through descent and landing and lost them halfway down the runway after ground contact!

To answer other posts, my power supply is CanaKit 5V 2.5A Raspberry Pi 3 Power Supply / Adapter / Charger (UL Listed) so not the official one but I think just as capable as the official one due to supporting 2.5A of any Pi needs (the Pi3B and the two dongles I’ve plugged into the USB port).

I am not using a LNA but I’m using the Flightaware external filter that says it’s good for both 978 and 1090, so my chain is the Flightaware 978 antenna, then RG-6 coax to the Flightaware external (metal cylinder with connectors on both ends) filter then to orange Flightaware dongle plugged into my Pi3B.

I’ll still mess with gain using 35 as suggested. I remember how when I first started 1090, it improved my results to tweak the gain using aircraft stats from one of the postings on this forum about a method to try using data to find a sweet spot. 978 is going to be much harder right now to find a sweet spot as I don’t have a lot of data points to play with unless traffic really gets busy during a weekday.

Thanks for all the help and I hope this discussion from the last couple of days may help others!

abcd567 · September 1, 2019, 7:41pm

If any one is interested to run two-in-one RPi:

github.com

abcd567a/two-receivers/blob/master/README.md

# 1 Pi 2 RECEIVERS 

## Installs two independent piaware receivers on one RPi </br>

## Please do NOT use a microSD card which already has dump1090-mutability or dump1090-fa installed. 
## This script requires a fresh 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS image written to microSD card. The script will itself install dump1090 (mutability or flightwaware, whichever you choose). </br>

### (1) Write Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit) to microSD card, enable SSH, enable WiFi (if needed), Power-up </br>
### (2) Serialize dongles as follows </br>
(a) Plug-in both DVB-T dongles into RPi </br></br>
(b) Issue following command to install serialization software: </br>
`sudo apt install rtl-sdr` </br></br>
(c) Issue following commands. Say yes when asked for confirmation to chang serial number. </br></br>
To serialize first dongle: </br>
`rtl_eeprom -d 0 -s 101` </br></br>
To serialize second dongle: </br>
`rtl_eeprom -d 1 -s 202` </br>

**IMPORTANT:** After completing above commands, unplug and then replug both dongles. </br>
### (3) Run the following  bash command: </br>

This file has been truncated. show original

wiedehopf · September 2, 2019, 12:08am

Well, that doesn’t mean that it’s not problematic.
You are aware of all the power issues and using two dongles makes that happen more often.

Glad it’s working. Your stats for 1090 seem to have dropped quite a bit, but that’s probably just temporary from the installation.
Do you have the graphs installed, they should show any change quite easily (GitHub - wiedehopf/graphs1090: Graphs for readsb / dump1090-fa / dump1090 (based on dump1090-tools by mutability))
They also show for example how many 978 planes are TIS-B.

tgmct · April 23, 2020, 1:12pm

Who was the brain trust that coded dump978-fa ??? Why is the syntax different than dump1090-fa ??? It seems that piaware-config does nothing after piaware is installed. If I had not run into this post, I would still be banging my head against the desk. IT SHOULD NOT BE THIS DIFFICULT TO CONFIGURE TWO RADIOS !!!

Topic		Replies	Views
How to Change Serial Number of Dongle - ADSB 1090 + UAT 978 Dongles Plugged Into Same Pi ADS-B Flight Tracking	4	8831	January 3, 2021
Dump 1090 and vdl2 ADS-B Flight Tracking	4	1090	November 29, 2018
Help with serializing dongles on Ubuntu 22.04.3LTS - computer can't find 978 - Update: I solved my own problem so I'm leaving this here as a fix for when I break it again ADS-B Flight Tracking	13	286	January 18, 2024
Specifically assigning SDR (not just by device #) ADS-B Flight Tracking	8	3813	July 18, 2017
Multiple SDRs with FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking	5	920	January 26, 2024

How-to Serialize Dongles for ES1090 + UAT978

Related Topics