Installing Pro Stick - Now no data

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

Apologies if this is covered elsewhere but I searched and couldn’t locate anything.

I was absolutely thrilled to receive my new Pro Stick today - THANKS Flightaware !!.. Being eager I of course took out my current SDR_RTL Dongle swapped the antenna over, put in the new Pro Stick, restarted my Pi (running on a Raspberry Pi 3 with a 5amp Power) and awaited my awesome new range.

Only problem is I’ve got nothing.

Data Feed: nothing happening - last feed was 2 hours ago (on my old dongle)
Feeder Check in: is Live

I’ve also tried restarting Dump 1090, Piaware and reinstalling everything. All have not helped

Am I missing some vital step in using the new stick ? Would not having decreased the gain yet (not using a filter) cause this ? I would have assumed at least some data would get through even if on standard gain?

Many thanks !!

2

Check your antenna connection, in particular that you are not using any RP-SMA connectors.

3

:wink: Yep checked that and, its definitely a SMA connection on the antenna I’m using…

Interestingly I just checked and after close to 3 hours it did finally start transmitting data, but very adhoc and still has significant gaps in time last data transmitted…

eg: as of NOW: Data Feed: Live - 13 minutes ago
Feeder Check-in: Live - less than a minute ago

4

I’ve reimaged the new 3.xxx piaware onto a new card and tried that and still no luck… What I’m struggling with is if it’s the pro stick or my Pi3 which is only 2 weeks old

5

With a piaware 3 image:

What does the status page (ip-of-your-pi/) say? Anything except mlat not green? Mouse over the indicators for some more detail.

Check the logs in /var/log/syslog and /var/log/piaware.log

Try “sudo systemctl status dump1090-fa”

6

Radio and Mlat are orange the other two green. As for the mouse over the orange radio says connected to receiver but no recent data seen. My pro stick only arrived this morning (still very very greatfull Flightaware!! , I’m still waiting for the antenna so in meantime just using extendable stock standard one that came with my sdr rtl dongle- is that relevant to the issue ?

7

OK so it does sound like a RF problem rather than a problem on the digital side of the dongle - the dongle is running OK but you are just not seeing any significant signal.

It’s possible the dongle has internal damage to the RF path but the more likely explanation is a problem on the antenna side. Check the connections again? Try swapping back to your old dongle and see if it still works? If you have a subtle problem with the antenna then physically handling it may be enough to fix or break it.

8

Ok thanks I will try that and see how we go- I’m new to Pi so just as query is there anything I could be testing or trying on Windows to help diagnose the issue ? I’m just a little nervous as I have just ordered a fairly costly length of Lmr400 to wire this all up with in the weekend (assuming NZ Post deliver the Flightaware Antenna tomorrow)

If the above tests fail am I facing a dead pro stick ?

9

Ok so reinstalled old rtl sdr dongle this morning and immediately I’m up and running again. This to me means one of two things

  1. Pro Stick is dead (well in terms of receiving Rf)
  2. Pro stick is for some reason not liking that stock budget antenna.

So… Here’s my dilemma… Do I go ahead and pay for the expensive Lmr400 coax in hope connecting new antenna to the pro stick will fix it ?

If not what’s the process for getting a replacement ?

Thanks again for tips help and great service

10

Hello! I’m disappointed to hear that you are having trouble with the ProStick.

The process for getting a replacement is slightly different depending upon where you purchased the item. If you send an email to adsbsupport@flightaware.com with that information we can help put that information into your hands.

11

Compare the connector at end of cable of your rtl sdr extendable antenna with following photo to make sure it is SMA-male.

407×670 70.1 KB

12

As far as I can tell both visually and based on specs ( it’s the one sold by rtl-sdr.com) it’s a sma not the reverse polarity one. That said are there ever Rp sma with the tightening nut that goes on the dongle ?

13

RP-SMA nut fits perfectly well on Pro Stick’s SMA female terminal.

The problem is that due to missing center pin in RP-SMA Male, the center wire connection is broken, and the Pro Stick does not get the RF signal from the antenna.

Check that there is a center pin on SMA male conector of Antenna cable.

14

Am I correct in thinking the label in that picture is incorrect ? Male vs female … Anyway in regards to mine it definitely has a pin in the centre … My brand new Flightaware Antenna arrived this morning and so hopefully the lmr400 cable that’s currently being put together with male N and male SMA will pretty much show where the issue lies

15

[quote=“Preanz”]

The pictures are correct.

https://www.campbellsci.com/blog/ins-outs-rf-connectors

16

So update:

Amazing Flightaware Antenna installed and up and running with massive increase in data, messages, range etc… BUT yep not on the prostick. It only receives data ad hoc and when it does it’s very very little ( like one or two messages) and at very close range. So I’m back using the old RtlSdr

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I’ll await the arrival of the replacement stick and hope that fixes it :-/

Thanks to Flightaware as well- if your antenna is this good on a standard dongle i really can’t wait to get a working pro stick

17

Hi all,

The loss of RF on swapping to the prostick is what we have found to be the prostick threaded body is a bit too long and needs to be carefully filed down a bit at a time until connection is made, basically the long threaded body is stopping the centre pin touching the centre receiver pin cup in the prostick, we have also found on many of our members is if you fit the flightaware filter as well, it works just fine, not sure if this is a design fault or done on purpose so you have to use the filter aswell.

flat file does the trick