OK. Last cry for help for the moment (hopefully !). I know that there has been a lot written about this, and I think I’ve read it all, but just as I think I’ve got a handle on it, I read something else that confuses me again.
So, I currently have a feeder based on a Pi 3B that’s connected to my account, and fully operational. It has a full set of stats that go back as long as the current up time of around 6 months. I use these stats all the time to monitor the performance of the rig. I have now put together a new rig based on a Zero - W that is going to be put in a permanent high position a bit inaccessible. I’ve now got the rig running with good wifi performance that I’ve been able to monitor with help from the community last week. So I am now ready to install it. On my 3B rig, the unique system ID is the bottom line in the config file. At the moment, there is no same line in the Zero’s config file, so it’s not associated with any account. My first thought was to just put the same ID line into the Zero’s file and just let it ‘replace’ the 3B. Unplug one, and plug the other in. So first question, would that work ok ? A ‘seamless’ replacement, if you like.
Then a friend told me to just claim the new ID, and add it to my account, then they could actually both be on at the same time. So is it that easy ? Do I literally just claim the ID, and then somewhere tell PiAware that it now belongs to my account as well ? If I do that , will my current stats stay active, or will the new system get its own set of stats starting from nothing again, and my current stats and length of run disappear when I turn the original off ? I really don’t want that to happen. I want to see the current stats go up as the new system gets in its high position and starts feeding.
Also, I then read that with two feeders on the account, MLAT will no longer work ??
I don’t need two feeders to be active at the same time, so is my best option to just do the ‘seamless swap’ and never claim the new ID? Then everything carries on working as though nothing had happened other than the system having rebooted ? I can then just keep the original system as a ‘spare’ to again act as a seamless replacement in the event of the Zero system failing ?
Hope that all makes sense and isn’t just a bunch of nonsense …
Thanks in advance to any experts who properly understand this stuff …
Currently you have a running setup.
Transfering the feeder-id from the Pi3B to the Zero-w will retain your stats and you still have one feeder site.
The key can’t be active on both setups, it will start to alternate between the 2 setups every time they are reporting in and that will cause disconnects and then your stats will go down the drain and you will get a high error rate.
So add the feeder-id to the new Zero W and shut down the Pi 3B.
Second option is to claim a new feeder-id.
This will add a second site to your account and this will have its own stats and uptime.
For example, I have 1 account and 12 feeders connected to it.
So I have 12 stats and uptimes. ranging form 1960 days on the oldest and 100 days on the last added site.
So you can have multiple sites, provided that they all have their own reciever.
The antenna could be shared ( using a splitter towards the SDR) but that will also create an additonal loss in signal strength.
The old stats and new stats will exist alongside of each other.
MLAT will work fine as long als you have a SDR dongle on each setup. When using the same feeder-id on multiple set-ups it will fail due to timing issues and that renders it unreliable.
So both options are possible, seamless swapping over or getting a second site.
As long as you have two SDR dongles and they are capable of recieving the signals then that shouldn’t be a problem.
Perfect answers. Totally clear now, and exactly as I thought I understood it. I will copy the ID into the config file on the new rig’s card, and just switch the 3B off. That way, my stats will be preserved and I will be able to just carry on as I am now, and my account will never know that I have switched receivers.
The new rig says that it’s connected to FlightAware and waiting for me to claim the ID. On my stats page in the nearby receivers section, I see an ‘unclaimed’ user right on top of me. Is that likely the new rig ? It shows a few flights and positions, and came online at the right date and shows as active and checking in. I have it just idling on test to monitor its wifi performance from close to where its going to be installed, and I did have an antenna connected to it for a while to make sure that the Zero’s boot screen showed that it was connected to a receiver and receiving data. Will that disappear once I’ve told the Zero that it is now the 3B ?
Thanks again for your input. Much appreciated
Geoff
Thank you. Yes, that was a thought. At the moment, I have a card that has been created from a new burn of the 8.2 download with the config file edited to reflect the network SSID and password, but not yet the system ID which I will edit in just before I go ‘live’ with this one. So it will be a ‘clone’ in every aspect except how it was actually created. I have gone down this path so that I was able to test the new rig as I put it together, without taking the currently working one off the air.
Thanks for your input, and have a good weekend
Curious, you mention you have 12 feeders. Are these all at different venues or are they same venue but different location?
I am in UK and for a while had one also running at a friend’s home in California, no elaborate set up, just Pi Zeros with an antenna sitting on a tin can by a window. Used to manage the remote device via ssh.
Mght have known it wouldn’t be that easy … So today, I finished off the card by adding in the ID line to the config file. Swapped the antenna from the 3B rig to the Zero - W rig, switched the 3B rig off and powered the Zero rig on. Everything went as expected. It booted and connected to my existing account and started feeding data. MLAT synced so all good. Except when I came to look at the SkyAware Anywhere map page. I still seem to be tracking a similar amount of aircraft to what I was with the 3B rig, but the message rate is down from hundreds per second, to like FOUR per second. It’s the exact same SDR dongle type as I have in the 3B rig. Same antenna in the same position for now. I’ve tried powering the Zero from a completely independent USB battery pack in case the little switch mode regulator I am using to produce the Pi Supply from a 12 volt line supply, was kicking up a load of noise, but still exactly the same. Any thoughts ? Anybody ?
Where are you looking at the SkyAware map as opposed to the SkyAware Anywhere map ? I’m sure that the one I am looking at is the one that I normally look at as I have it in a permanently open tab, and I am usually showing a message rate of hundreds, sometimes over a k when it’s busy
they are all at the same location. The building I live in has some dead corners in regard to reception to I have to work around that with multiple stations.
Some of them are aimed at long range reception, others are short range.
Living near the approach of EHAM and a Medevac station nearby gives sometimes very strong signals that potentially could makes my recievers deaf to long range signals.
Also I have some test equipment among the 12, consisting of different types of hardware ( Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi, HP Thin Client), different forms of SDR recievers (Flightaware, RTL-SDR, Radarbox) filterd or unfiltered and finally different types of antenna (FA, Vinnant in 3 variations and 2 stock antennas). That way I can assist if someone has a kind of setup and needs help.
It also enables me to keep up with the different possibilities and operating systems. I run Raspberry Pi OS, Armbian and Debian 11 at the moment.
Aaaarrrggghhh ! Aaarrrggghhhh !
And then Aaaaargghhh again !!
How am I so stupid today ? So I put the new rig on and of course, it has a different IP address from the 3B.
So I reset the various places that need the IP address, but completely forget that the PiAware map page that I’ve been looking at for months, is a local one. So somehow, I managed to get the global one up in its place, and that of course is the answer. I have since put the 3B back on and gotten the same useless result, and wondered why. I’ve just set that back to local, and everything is back to normal. So I’m now about to rush back to the new Zero rig and put it back on !
Thanks all, and thanks for bearing with my dumb-a**ed questions …
Well, the Zero rig is now the one that’s feeding data, and the message count looks right again, so that’s a result. Of course, typically, it’s been very quiet in the air in my neck of the woods today, so hard to say if it;s all working the same as the 3B rig was, but I will keep an eye on the stats over the next few days, and I will soon know. If all is ok, hopefully it will all move to its final dwelling place one evening this coming week - if it ever stops raining, that is … The antenna will be up at around 35 feet and in the clear, so that should improve its view to the south considerably.
On today’s dopey efforts on my part, in my defence (a little bit at least), I would say that I am a hardware engineer by trade, so designing and putting this stuff together is a breeze. It’s the software angle that I find hard work. I tend to write down everything that’s needed for stuff like this, because I know I will have forgotten it in two weeks time - that’s not helped by getting old.
I’ve got it all written down now, so hopefully sholdn’t be a problem in the future.
Many thanks to everyone for their help. Much appreciated
I am around 14 miles from London, Heathrow, also close, aircraft wise, to Luton, Stanstead, Gatwick, London City and Northolt as well as a local airfield 4 miles away. Think I could pick up aircraft with just a wire dangling out of my window.
Meant to mention; as you have 12 feeders I guess you are pretty advanced with your knowledge but I have learnt in life not to assume too much so, just in case you are not aware.
Appreciate you say all 12 devices are at same location and are positioned and set up to optimise range and dead spots, are you aware all these devices can be fed into Virtual Radar Server and then viewed on a map either individually or combined into one feed?
Virtual Radar Server is free software and works on Windows and Linux (Not sure about mac).
Yep I’m aware of that, I just use Sky Anywhere to combine the 12 together. Skyaware Anywhere is runnng permanently on a seperate NUC workstation that I can acces when I want it look at the live picture.
you usually only make this mistake once 