HOWTO: Airspy mini and Airspy R2: Piaware / dump1090-fa configuration

alleyoopie · September 8, 2019, 9:26am

Thank you for the information, I thought about trying it but I’m on day 28 of my Airspy setup and wouldn’t risk breaking the feed before I have a complete 30 day run just to see where I’ll end up in the global stats.

wiedehopf · September 8, 2019, 9:38am

Let’s rephrase it.

It’s compatible with everything dump1090-fa or a piaware sd-card install is compatible with.

csweeney05 · October 6, 2019, 2:24pm

Did you see there is a new airspy update?

“New airspy_adsb CLI decoder for Mode S frames. This version supports 24 MHz
MLAT, which can be useful for decoding overlapped frames in heavy traffic
areas. Builds for Windows (x86) and Linux (x86, x86_64, ARMHF) are
available.”

biekerc · October 6, 2019, 2:40pm

A slighty off topic-discussion has started here, maybe it’ll be moved here.

Apparently there is also a reduction in CPU usage, so it might be possible to run the mini on a Pi3B+ without lost samples, depending on your location (a/c, messages).

jonhawkes2030 · October 14, 2019, 12:46am

@wiedehopf,
I love your scripts (airspy and the graphs).
I replaced a 3B+ with a 4B and it took less than 5 minutes to install piaware/dump1090-fa and airspy support.

I installed skyview978 and the uat978 automatically appeared. I have to find a dongle (RTL or airspy) to use with it.

Now I just need to change one of my airspies to dump978 so I can shutdown some older 3B+'s

wiedehopf · October 14, 2019, 6:49am

I’m not sure using two Airspies on one RPi4 is gonnna work, but you can sure give it a try

jonhawkes2030 · October 14, 2019, 4:04pm

It did not take the serial number options “-s serialnumber” in /etc/default/airspy_adsb

Also had issues with getting bias-t working on the dump978 (as well as the serial number )with airspy. I have reverted to an old rtlsdr V1 or 2 that I had modified the hardware to run bias-t. I am impressed that the UAT stats came up right away.

wiedehopf · October 14, 2019, 4:13pm

Don’t think it’s a problem with the service.
If you add that -s serialnumber in the OPTIONS line, it shouwl work.

Probably the program itself doesn’t handle it properly.
Recently tried it, wouldn’t work for me either.

I’m pretty sure running dump978-fa and trying to run 20 MHz on the same RPi/Odroid won’t work.
USB gets overloaded.

jonhawkes2030 · October 14, 2019, 4:14pm

@mikkyo,
What were the exact settings that you used(airspy on dump978-fa)?
Also, have you enabled bias-t or set a specific airspy serial number?

mikkyo · October 15, 2019, 6:36am

Replace Fake Serial with yours

RECEIVER_OPTIONS="--sdr "driver=airspy,serial=0x0123456789ABCDEF" --sdr-gain 21 --format CS16H"

I have external power for all my LNAs, dongle biasT is too weak over the long cable runs, and heats them up.
I use everything from a usb power hub, a good 5V power supply, to a bias-t injector.

obj · October 15, 2019, 7:10am

Looks like you should be able to pass --sdr-device-settings biastee=true to dump978-fa.

github.com

pothosware/SoapyAirspy/blob/master/Settings.cpp#L384


      
          
              setArgs.push_back(biasOffsetArg);
          
              // bitpack
              SoapySDR::ArgInfo bitPackingArg;
              bitPackingArg.key = "bitpack";
              bitPackingArg.value = "false";
              bitPackingArg.name = "Bit Pack";
              bitPackingArg.description = "Enable packing 4 12-bit samples into 3 16-bit words for 25% less USB trafic.";
              bitPackingArg.type = SoapySDR::ArgInfo::BOOL;
          
              setArgs.push_back(bitPackingArg);
          
              return setArgs;
          }
          
          void SoapyAirspy::writeSetting(const std::string &key, const std::string &value)
          {
              if (key == "biastee") {
                  bool enable = (value == "true");
                  rfBias = enable;

jonhawkes2030 · October 17, 2019, 8:18pm

@mikkyo,
I think I missed the leading 0x
I’ll give it a try soon. I just upgraded the firmware on both devices. I was using 2016 firmware on both.
I am now using AirSpy NOS v1.0.0-rc10-3-g7120e77 2018-04-28

@obj,
Thanks for the info. I did try to find it in the code but missed the leading --sdr-device-setting part.

My new airspy is due tomorrow. I hope to have it running tomorrow night.

jonhawkes2030 · October 18, 2019, 7:41pm

My new airspy arrived today. I moved the R2 to dump1090 and am using the V0 or 1 for dump978-fa

Trying to get dump978 working with an airspy. A V1 rtl-sdr with hardware bias-t enabled was working with this antenna and amp setup.

jonha@odroid:~$ cat /etc/default/dump978-fa

# This is sourced by /usr/share/dump978-fa/start-dump978-fa as a
# shellscript fragment.

# If you are using a PiAware sdcard image, this config file is regenerated
# on boot based on the contents of piaware-config.txt; any changes made to this
# file will be lost.


# dump978-fa won't automatically start unless ENABLED=yes
ENABLED=yes
#RECEIVER_OPTIONS="--sdr driver=rtlsdr "
RECEIVER_OPTIONS="--sdr driver=airspy --sdr-auto-gain --sdr-device-settings biastee=true --format CS16H"
#RECEIVER_OPTIONS="--sdr driver=airspy,serial=0x03A464C837173967 --sdr-device-settings biastee=true --format CS16H"
DECODER_OPTIONS=""
NET_OPTIONS="--raw-port 30978 --json-port 30979"

I tried manual gain and entering the serial number. no luck.

dump978-fa is running

jonha@odroid:~$ sudo systemctl status dump978-fa.service
● dump978-fa.service - dump978 ADS-B UAT receiver
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/dump978-fa.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Fri 2019-10-18 15:30:11 EDT; 7min ago
     Docs: https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/
 Main PID: 4007 (dump978-fa)
   CGroup: /system.slice/dump978-fa.service
           └─4007 /usr/bin/dump978-fa --sdr driver=airspy --sdr-auto-gain --sdr-device-settings biastee=true --format CS16H --raw-port 30978 --json

Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid systemd[1]: Started dump978 ADS-B UAT receiver.
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: raw-port: listening for connections on 0.0.0.0:30978
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: raw-port: listening for connections on [::]:30978
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: json-port: listening for connections on 0.0.0.0:30979
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: json-port: listening for connections on [::]:30979
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: SoapySDR: using automatic gain
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: SoapySDR: using device setting biastee=true
Oct 18 15:30:41 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: [::]:30978: accepted a connection from [::1]:58976
Oct 18 15:34:31 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: [::]:30978: accepted a connection from [::1]:59024
jonha@odroid:~$

Do I need to change anything in piaware-config?

Any ideas?

wiedehopf · October 18, 2019, 7:46pm

Can you open your own thread for this?

On the topic itself, as always the log is needed.
systemctl status is kinda useless as it often cuts off the actual problem.

sudo journalctl --no-pager -u dump978-fa

Maybe don’t try automatic gain but use a fixed value.

jonhawkes2030 · October 18, 2019, 8:02pm

It was killing the CPU on my odroid-XU4.
I moved it to my Odroid-N2. Just me an hour or two to set it ip

I already tried to use a manual gain setting. I tried 20,30,40 and max

Journal

jonha@odroid:~$ sudo journalctl --no-pager -u dump978-fa
-- Logs begin at Fri 2019-10-18 15:27:46 EDT, end at Fri 2019-10-18 15:59:19 EDT. --
Oct 18 15:27:49 odroid systemd[1]: Started dump978 ADS-B UAT receiver.
Oct 18 15:27:49 odroid dump978-fa[726]: raw-port: listening for connections on 0.0.0.0:30978
Oct 18 15:27:49 odroid dump978-fa[726]: raw-port: listening for connections on [::]:30978
Oct 18 15:27:49 odroid dump978-fa[726]: json-port: listening for connections on 0.0.0.0:30979
Oct 18 15:27:49 odroid dump978-fa[726]: json-port: listening for connections on [::]:30979
Oct 18 15:27:49 odroid dump978-fa[726]: SoapySDR: using automatic gain
Oct 18 15:27:49 odroid dump978-fa[726]: SoapySDR: using device setting biastee=true
Oct 18 15:27:49 odroid dump978-fa[726]: [::]:30978: accepted a connection from [::1]:58936
Oct 18 15:30:06 odroid dump978-fa[726]: Caught signal 15, exiting
Oct 18 15:30:06 odroid systemd[1]: Stopping dump978 ADS-B UAT receiver...
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid dump978-fa[726]: Abnormal exit
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid systemd[1]: dump978-fa.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid systemd[1]: Stopped dump978 ADS-B UAT receiver.
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid systemd[1]: dump978-fa.service: Unit entered failed state.
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid systemd[1]: dump978-fa.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid systemd[1]: Started dump978 ADS-B UAT receiver.
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: raw-port: listening for connections on 0.0.0.0:30978
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: raw-port: listening for connections on [::]:30978
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: json-port: listening for connections on 0.0.0.0:30979
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: json-port: listening for connections on [::]:30979
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: SoapySDR: using automatic gain
Oct 18 15:30:11 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: SoapySDR: using device setting biastee=true
Oct 18 15:30:41 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: [::]:30978: accepted a connection from [::1]:58976
Oct 18 15:34:31 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: [::]:30978: accepted a connection from [::1]:59024
Oct 18 15:51:30 odroid dump978-fa[4007]: [::1]:58976: connection closed

wiedehopf · October 18, 2019, 8:07pm

Airspy is 0 to 21 as for gain settings.

Try 15.

Seems to be working, but it’s hard to know if the bias-t isn’t working or there is just no traffic.

Nitr0 · October 18, 2019, 8:10pm

I’d be curious to watch this when it’s stuffed into it’s own 'Airspy / Dump978 configuration" thread as well. I also have an R2 on it’s way and not that I’ll be wasting the Mini on UAT, I’ll still want to know how to do it - just because. I’m sure there are others as well. I’ve never used dump978-fa, only the original dump978, so don’t even know how to add it to begin with.

jonhawkes2030 · October 18, 2019, 8:13pm

I did try no setting. will try 15 soon.

I have plenty of traffic. I live in NYC

These are my stats for the last 6 hours (using rtl-sdr).

wiedehopf · October 18, 2019, 8:35pm

Well only 5 of those aircraft are UAT, the rest is just TIS-B noise.

And if they all decide it’s two windy or something, then you’ll have nothing to receive.
Let’s see if gain 15 is any better.
Which amplifier are you using, the uputronics i assume?

Nitr0 · October 18, 2019, 11:44pm

Still doing it old-skool - that’s not my dedicated UAT antenna/setup either. It’s an old antenna I had laying around pumping signals through a splitter into separate radios. I basically stepped away from this for a couple years and recently came back. Whats the advantage in making the change to the FA offering and what have I missed?

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HOWTO: Airspy mini and Airspy R2: Piaware / dump1090-fa configuration

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