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

Yes, i know. I rebuilt the device this morning because of other errors i caused on it.
If there’s something you want me to verify after a new RC, let me know.

Today i am expecting good traffic around my location

EDIT:
Close to my max possible range:

2.2-RC2 is available

  • modify -C algorithm
  • reduce sample truncation
  • due to this CPU will now again increase with -e as expected

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Ahh yes, very much so.

Before

Sep 04 00:02:58 pi4-tracker airspy_adsb[341]: CPU 37.3 %, target 88.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 23 -> 33
Sep 04 00:03:08 pi4-tracker airspy_adsb[341]: CPU 39.6 %, target 88.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 33 -> 43
Sep 04 00:03:18 pi4-tracker airspy_adsb[341]: CPU 39.5 %, target 88.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 43 -> 50

After

Sep 04 08:52:35 pi4-tracker airspy_adsb[11138]: airspy_adsb v2.2-RC2
Sep 04 08:52:35 pi4-tracker airspy_adsb[11138]: Listening for beast clients on port 47787
Sep 04 08:52:35 pi4-tracker airspy_adsb[11138]: Acquired Airspy device with serial 26A464DC28751693
Sep 04 08:52:35 pi4-tracker airspy_adsb[11138]: Decoding started at 20 MSPS
Sep 04 08:52:36 pi4-tracker airspy_adsb[11138]: Push client connected to localhost:30004 (beast)
Sep 04 08:52:45 pi4-tracker airspy_adsb[11138]: CPU 27.5 %, target 88.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 2 -> 8
Sep 04 08:52:55 pi4-tracker airspy_adsb[11138]: CPU 48.3 %, target 88.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 8 -> 13
Sep 04 08:53:05 pi4-tracker airspy_adsb[11138]: CPU 69.7 %, target 88.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 13 -> 15
Sep 04 08:53:15 pi4-tracker airspy_adsb[11138]: CPU 77.7 %, target 88.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 15 -> 16
Sep 04 08:53:25 pi4-tracker airspy_adsb[11138]: CPU 81.8 %, target 88.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 16 -> 17

Installed, working. I might need to lower the CPU a bit.


   CGroup: /system.slice/airspy_adsb.service
           └─5023 /usr/local/bin/airspy_adsb -v -t 60 -f 1 -w 5 -e 4 -E 30 -C 90 -l 47787:beast -c localhost:30004:beast -g 19 -m 12

Sep 04 10:01:19 Raspy airspy_adsb[5023]: airspy_adsb v2.2-RC2
Sep 04 10:01:19 Raspy airspy_adsb[5023]: Listening for beast clients on port 47787
Sep 04 10:01:19 Raspy airspy_adsb[5023]: Acquired Airspy device with serial xxx
Sep 04 10:01:19 Raspy airspy_adsb[5023]: Decoding started at 12 MSPS
Sep 04 10:01:20 Raspy airspy_adsb[5023]: Push client connected to localhost:30004 (beast)
Sep 04 10:01:29 Raspy airspy_adsb[5023]: CPU 31.7 %, target 90.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 4 -> 10
Sep 04 10:01:39 Raspy airspy_adsb[5023]: CPU 48.2 %, target 90.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 10 -> 15
Sep 04 10:01:49 Raspy airspy_adsb[5023]: CPU 68.1 %, target 90.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 15 -> 18
Sep 04 10:01:59 Raspy airspy_adsb[5023]: CPU 77.2 %, target 90.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 18 -> 20
Sep 04 10:02:09 Raspy airspy_adsb[5023]: CPU 82.1 %, target 90.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 20 -> 21

hi, how do you get this to run ?? Especially the top bit ? Thanks

Could you be more specific?

sudo systemctl status airspy_adsb
sudo journalctl -u airspy_adsb -ef
pgrep -a airspy
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'ADS-B ‘Tracks Seen’ sees to have taken a noticeable upturn with this new version. Out of the two nearest receivers, they’re both showing slightly smaller increases. Of course, looking by eye is always going to be a bit hit and miss :smiley:

My cpu is back up as expected. Performance of this version is also increased:

This was with -e 50:

bin -B wide
airspy_adsb v2.2-RC1
DF 0        :      4002
DF 4        :      6213
DF 5        :      1626
DF11        :     15688
DF16        :       262
DF17        :      6037
DF18        :         0
DF19        :         0
DF20        :      6230
DF21        :      2905
Total       :     42963
Max AC Count:       149
CPU time used: 6.271 s

My receiver ends up at e19 with 90% cpu target:

bin -B wide
airspy_adsb v2.2-RC2
DF 0        :      4147
DF 4        :      6321
DF 5        :      1662
DF11        :     16515
DF16        :       300
DF17        :      6155
DF18        :         0
DF19        :         0
DF20        :      6350
DF21        :      2993
Total       :     44443
Max AC Count:       160
CPU time used: 14.203 s

Pretty much how I’ve ended up, My actual CPU is a little lower than that but that’s where I’ve set the limit.

What gain setting do you have to get e19 and 90% cpu?

Thanks

I’m running gain 14 and sample rate 20MHz.

It’s a Pi4, overclocked to 2GHz.

/edit - Sorry, I didn’t notice you addressed that to caius.

Think I’m using 15 at the moment. It doesn’t seem to make much difference to performance really. I’ve tried 20, but apart from moving the signal strength graph it didn’t seem to make any difference to messages.

Thanks. I’m getting e18 and 88% CPU but using a gain of 19.

RC2 now installed too and it seems my DF17 numbers are back to what they were (even maybe a bit better) than what they were with RC0. Also CPU is back to where it was with RC0. I will run full set of tests somewhere today otherwise tonight :wink: (if we are not on RC10 by then :D) (like the speed of dev btw, not a burn!!)

CGroup: /system.slice/airspy_adsb.service
└─13335 /usr/local/bin/airspy_adsb -v -t 60 -f 1 -w 5 -e 10 -E 35 -C 88 -B wide -l 47787:beast -c loc

Sep 04 09:15:10 raspberrypi airspy_adsb[13335]: Listening for beast clients on port 47787
Sep 04 09:15:10 raspberrypi airspy_adsb[13335]: Acquired Airspy device with serial B58069DC393F4513
Sep 04 09:15:10 raspberrypi airspy_adsb[13335]: Decoding started at 12 MSPS
Sep 04 09:15:11 raspberrypi airspy_adsb[13335]: Push client connected to localhost:30004 (beast)
Sep 04 09:15:20 raspberrypi airspy_adsb[13335]: CPU 47.9 %, target 88.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 10 → 14
Sep 04 09:15:30 raspberrypi airspy_adsb[13335]: CPU 63.5 %, target 88.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 14 → 17
Sep 04 09:15:40 raspberrypi airspy_adsb[13335]: CPU 72.6 %, target 88.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 17 → 19
Sep 04 09:15:49 raspberrypi airspy_adsb[13335]: CPU 77.7 %, target 88.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 19 → 21
Sep 04 09:16:09 raspberrypi airspy_adsb[13335]: CPU 82.4 %, target 88.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 21 → 22
Sep 04 09:29:16 raspberrypi airspy_adsb[13335]: CPU 82.5 %, target 88.0 %, adjusting preamble filter: 22 → 23

Posting this help ?? I’m happy to test stuff. Running an R2 on Pi4 with external antenna

You may be looking for this, if I understand well (how to get a sample and test different settings).

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Airspy mini @ 12 / RP4 Buster / B narrow (as it gives me the best results)

1 Like

Sorry, I am very new to this testing and settings :slight_smile: Learning all the time…
Testing -B narrow using this commandline: airspy_adsb -v -f 1 -w 5 -e 20 -m 12 -F /media/airspy_sample/sample.bin -B narrow
airspy_adsb v2.2-RC2
DF 0 : 3775
DF 4 : 9162
DF 5 : 2714
DF11 : 18106
DF16 : 259
DF17 : 6969
DF18 : 75
DF19 : 0
DF20 : 7305
DF21 : 2387
Total : 50752
Max AC Count: 177
CPU time used: 16.250 s

Testing -B wide using this commandline: airspy_adsb -v -f 1 -w 5 -e 20 -m 12 -F /media/airspy_sample/sample.bin -B wide
airspy_adsb v2.2-RC2
DF 0 : 3774
DF 4 : 9167
DF 5 : 2723
DF11 : 18071
DF16 : 257
DF17 : 6949
DF18 : 78
DF19 : 0
DF20 : 7274
DF21 : 2379
Total : 50672
Max AC Count: 176
CPU time used: 16.978 s

Done!

So If I am reading this right I should switch to -B narrow

Just upgraded…

Was running with -e 12 giving cpu of about 77%

After upgrade with same settings cpu pegged 100% and dropped samples without connecting. I’ve had to reduce to -e 10 to bring the the cpu back down to around 80%.

Might be worth warning people who don’t have -C set, that they may need to turn down -e with this release.

I’ve changed -e to 15 from the initial 4 without changing any other parameters.
This brought the CPU usage a little down. Is this as expected?

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