Need help with PiAware

Ill be back on tommorow. Thanks for your help input so far.

I have 2 Raspbery Pi, 3B and 3B+.

So I got a refund for the dongle from amazon, do you know of any dongles working with dump1090 from amazon.co.uk? Maybe around the 10-15 pound range? Needs to be an MCX connector as I had already ordered a mcx to f connector earlier.

i guess nooelec want to be sdr compatible as they advertise for that.

But do yourself a favor and get yourself one with SMA connection and metal housing:
(less noise and just better design i believe)
(https://www.amazon.co.uk/NooElec-NESDR-Smart-Aluminium-R820T2-based/dp/B01HA642SW)

Adapters are cheap
(https://www.amazon.co.uk/SODIAL-coaxial-adapter-female-silver/dp/B078CQ67PS)

At that price it would just be best to go with the flightaware stick. Idont really need the aluminum casing as the dongIe will just be in one place. I think Ill buy this:

you should get this one. I have bought 3 so far from this seller, it works perfectly. This seller ships really fast if you choose AliExpress Standard Shipping, less then 2 weeks

The reason why I am choosing one off of amazon is because I have a gift card

The flightaware stick is 30 pounds plus shipping on amazon uk but maybe there is a better shop for that in the UK.

It’s not just an aluminium housing.
It has USB noise suppression and a better oscillator.

The difference is 4 pounds i believe? Whatever have fun :slight_smile: For planes close by it shouldn’t be a problem anyway.

What i still dont get is why the current DVB t dongle i have does not work with piaware or flight radar. Why would it track aircraft for a short time then stop?

It doesn’t work with dump1090.
Please be precise in your wording.

I’m not sure why it does not.

I already speculated that the dongle needs to be initialized by the driver so that’s why it doesn’t work at all when you blacklist the driver.
But maybe dump1090 does not handle detaching that kernel driver well. (which rtl_test and rtl_adsb manage fine)

If you still have the dongle you can try this:

sudo systemctl disable piaware
sudo systemctl disable dump1090-fa
sudo reboot

sudo rmmod dvb_usb_rtl28xxu
sudo rmmod rtl2832
sudo systemctl start dump1090-fa
sudo journalctl -u dump1090-fa -n50 --no-pager

Then check the local map and syslog output.

Local map showed two aircraft for half a minute or so, then the “age” started to increase due to no more updates.

pi@piaware:~ $ sudo journalctl -u dump1090-fa -n50 --no-pager
-- Logs begin at Fri 2018-11-23 17:25:04 UTC, end at Fri 2018-11-23 17:27:55 UTC. --
Nov 23 17:26:07 piaware systemd[1]: Started dump1090 ADS-B receiver (FlightAware customization).
Nov 23 17:26:07 piaware dump1090-fa[788]: Fri Nov 23 17:26:07 2018 UTC  dump1090-fa 3.6.3 starting up.
Nov 23 17:26:07 piaware dump1090-fa[788]: rtlsdr: using device #0: Generic RTL2832U OEM (Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN 00000001)
Nov 23 17:26:07 piaware dump1090-fa[788]: Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Nov 23 17:26:08 piaware dump1090-fa[788]: rtlsdr: enabling tuner AGC
Nov 23 17:26:52 piaware dump1090-fa[788]: Fri Nov 23 17:26:52 2018 UTC  No data received from the SDR for a long time, it may have wedged
Nov 23 17:27:52 piaware dump1090-fa[788]: Fri Nov 23 17:27:52 2018 UTC  No data received from the SDR for a long time, it may have wedged

How much better would the flightaware pro stick be compared to the nooelec dongle i posted above?

Just curious have you tried setting the gain to a fixed value?

sudo systemctl enable piaware
sudo systemctl enable dump1090-fa
sudo piaware-config rtlsdr-gain 49
sudo reboot

Much better usually. Especially if the antenna is indoors.
The blue one is still better though because of the filter.

But if you only want to look at local flights < 100km it does not matter probably.

I had not set a gain value earlier. I used you instructions, but still getting the same problems.

If it was faulty, maybe some component overheated or just stopped working properly or reliably…

Using rtl_adsb overnight:

pi@RaspberryPi:~ $ rtl_adsb
Found 1 device(s):
  0:  Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Detached kernel driver
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Tuner gain set to automatic.
Tuned to 1090000000 Hz.
Exact sample rate is: 2000000.052982 Hz
Sampling at 2000000 S/s.
*8d4c8a6e99457e146804a0ab0db7;
*d74f82ed2dd42e5850c82a505edb;
*a8001082ea49a12fa00c008a9346;
*a00006959135231a21fc7d84f602;
*a0000695bb79b718bf8df2211c5b;
^CSignal caught, exiting!

User cancel, exiting...
rtlsdr_demod_write_reg failed with -4
rtlsdr_demod_read_reg failed with -4
r82xx_write: i2c wr failed=-4 reg=06 len=1
rtlsdr_demod_write_reg failed with -4
rtlsdr_demod_read_reg failed with -4
rtlsdr_write_reg failed with -4
Reattaching kernel driver failed!

i thin we’ve established it doesn’t work.

but good to know it also doesn’t work with rtl_adsb :slight_smile:

Now are you gonna continue posting in this thread or finally wait for the new dongle to arrive?

Ill wait :wink:just wanted to see if i could get it to work. Now I have no idea what to do with it. I have got a refund from the company, but it doesnt seem they want a return.

Have you tried your Dongle on a Laptop/Desktop? May be it can work with these due to their integral power supply being better filtered, better regulated, and heavier in capacity. No harm in trying.

Here is the “How-to” for using the Dongle with Windows Laptop/Desktop.

How-to Install Pro Stick & DVB-T on Windows

.

EDIT:
Edited title of above thread and added DVB-T in it