Hi all,
I am a newbie, so I’m sure this is a dumb question. I am trying to run piaware on Ubuntu for the first time. I’m getting an error from piaware:
piaware[1094]: no ADS-B data program seen listening on port 30005 for 48 seconds, next check in 60s
piaware[1094]: Login attempt with adept server at piaware.flightaware.com/1200 timed out
piaware[1094]: reconnecting in 49 seconds…
+++
How do I configure the login credentials used by piaware for my flightaware.com account?
Thanks, Curt
I’m seeing errors from piaware-status:
piaware is running with pid 2663.
faup1090 is not running
fa-mlat-client is not running
dump1090 is not running
no program appears to be listening for connections on port 30005.
faup1090 is NOT connected to the ADS-B receiver.
piaware is connected to FlightAware.
got ‘couldn’t open socket: connection refused’
dump1090 is NOT producing data on localhost:30005.
First you said Piaware is not installed, so I posted method to install Piaware
Now you edited your post and saying “No program listening on port 30005”
This is caused by either:
Please give these 3 commands and post output:
sudo systemctl status dump1090-fa -l
apt-cache policy dump1090-fa
rtl_test -t
.
For some reason, I’m unable to get copy-and-paste to work between my Ubuntu guest os and my mac. But in the process of trying to get that to work (which involved uninstalling and reinstalling open-vm-tools_desktop), and doing several reboots, now more things seem to be working. There is too much to retype by hand, so I will post screen shots.
Your dump1090-fa and RTL-SDR Dongle are ok and running perfectly well. Just check the output of dump1090-fa on Ubuntu’s browser at localhost/dump1090-fa/
To claim the new station, go to this page (you must be logged in to your account to claim):
PiAware - Claim and Link a Brand New PiAware Ground Station - FlightAware
That happens with me on VM on Windows.
I then find Local IP of guest OS Ubuntu by typing ifconfig
Once I get local IP of Ubuntu, I run PuTTY on windows and ssh to the Ubuntu at 192.168.0.31.
Since you are using Mac, you dont need putty. You open the Mac’s Terminal and type
ssh username@ip-of-ubuntu
(for example if I was using Mac, I will type ssh abcd@192.168.0.31 )
Once using Mac’s Terminal to give commands, you can copy-paste in normal way.
OMG!! Thanks for all the help!!!
Thanks for all your help!! Everything seems to be working now.
You might want to read this next, now that the software side is working:
Trimming a DVB-T whip antenna and giving it a base: Three Easy DIY Antennas for Beginners
If you have coax laying around the quick spider is the best antenna you can easily make at home: QUICK SPIDER - No Soldering, No Connector
Hi Guys, OK, now that I have everything working, please explain what I’m seeing on my “skyview”.
Now that I’ve managed to get this working with an el-cheapo RTL-SDR and short stock antenna sitting near my window running on a Linux VM on my Mac (as a demo exercise), what would be a good “package” to buy as a “turnkey” solution? What do you guys recommend for an easy-to-set-up RPi and piaware software? Ease of installation and set-up is what I’m looking for. Thanks in advance. I must say you guys are a very welcoming and supportive community!!
Thanks, Curt
If you managed to install it in a VM, then a real RPi will be no problem for you.
(There is a dedicated sd-card image from flightaware, so that’s basically the setup completed. You can activate ssh and chose network settings via config file on the boot partition of that sd-card)
Just get the standard RPi 3B+ and the original power supply and a mini sd-card.
There are also kits available but i haven’t tested them.
I’ve listed the stuff you need in another post:
(PlanePlotter to PiAware - #8 by wiedehopf)
Or where you asking for antenna / receiver also?
Thanks!! I was asking about both, actually. What do you recommend for antenna / receiver combinations? Something better than the NooElec R820T dongle that I have now.
The Flightaware antenna is very nice. (Amazon.com)
This is a more expensive antenna: ADS-B Vertical Outdoor Base Antenna (1090 MHz ES) | DPD Productions
(The flightaware antenna should suffice for most people, but it’s all a matter of taste and money i guess 
)
Flightaware also has a blue receiver with builtin LNA (Amazon.com)
It sometimes needs a filter in front to work better with strong mobile signals (Amazon.com)
I would personally use this LNA (New Product: RTL-SDR Blog 1090 MHz ADS-B LNA) together with their dongle (https://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/)
There is some setup involved activating the bias-t to feed the LNA, but again if you can use ssh, it’s not hard at all. (Getting the V3 Bias Tee to Activate on PiAware ADS-B Images)
If you want to go more expensive there is always an Airspy mini or a mode-s beast.
(In case of the airspy mini you could always get that later, it would work well with the rtl-sdr LNA)
Then you need some cabling, something like this to connect to the antenna: Amazon.com
Keeping the cable not too long is advisable but with the LNA you can just get a second stretch of cable (Amazon.com)
That should pretty much cover it.
For completeness i will mention there is also another LNA available (1090MHz ADS-B Filtered Preamp)
There is even more things listed on flightawares page on builiding a receiver: PiAware - build your own ADS-B ground station for integration with FlightAware - FlightAware
That page lists most of the stuff i just linked, be aware i just looked for the right parts not the best price when linking these parts.
Wow, thanks a lot for all the great info!! You guys are all a very helpful group!! I must say that the flightaware piaware software is absolutely amazing. And the fact that it’s open-source is really great also. I can believe there is an active and dedicated group of contributors.
Regarding cables this is a great overview by @abcd567 : For Beginners - Howto Connect FlightAware Antenna, Filter and Pro Stick - Connectors and Cables Required
So how do I get a free upgrade to a Flightaware “Enterprise” account? (I’m not sure what benefits this bestows, or even if this is all that important. I’m just curious.)
This should be a good read:
https://mailchi.mp/flightaware/ads-b-network-news-l3ktu01tdm
You reception might be too bad for MLAT right now. (you would be surprised how much cutting the whip antennas to length and/or placing them on a can helps)
Automatic, already happened probably.
Your rtlsdr dongle is producing unreliable mlat timing, enough that the server is marking it as unstable so you don’t end up participating in mlat. Generally this means you’re dropping USB data. Normal ADS-B reception will tolerate quite a lot of dropped data, which is why you can still see normal traffic, but multilateration is very sensitive to dropped data.
It seems quite common for VMs to drop USB data like this; you’ll probably have better performance on bare metal (be it a Pi or whatever)
