PiAware 3.x and Dump978

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

Does anyone have PiAware 3.x and Dump978 running? If so would you share how you did it. Remember not all of us are savvy Raspberry Pi/PiAware people, so simple is better. I have it running on the “old” PiAware, but i could not get Dump978 to “make” on 3.x.

Thanks in advance.

Not too Savvy…

2

I have it running on a few boxes.
What error message did you get?

3

Remember not very savvy…

pi@piaware:~$ git clone github.com/mutability/dump978
Cloning into ‘dump978’…
remote: Counting objects: 232, done.
remote: Total 232 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 232
Receiving objects: 100% (232/232), 162.29 KiB | 0 bytes/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (126/126), done.
Checking connectivity… done.
pi@piaware:~$ cd dump978
pi@piaware:~/dump978$ make
-bash: make: command not found

so…

pi@piaware:~/dump978$ sudo apt-get install make
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Suggested packages:
make-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
make
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 333 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1,047 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie/main make armhf 4.0-8.1 [333 kB]
Fetched 333 kB in 1s (284 kB/s)
debconf: delaying package configuration, since apt-utils is not installed
Selecting previously unselected package make.
(Reading database … 50014 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack …/make_4.0-8.1_armhf.deb …
Unpacking make (4.0-8.1) …
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.0.2-5) …
Setting up make (4.0-8.1) …
pi@piaware:~/dump978$ make
gcc -O2 -g -Wall -Werror -Ifec -c dump978.c -o dump978.o
make: gcc: Command not found
Makefile:9: recipe for target ‘dump978.o’ failed
make: *** [dump978.o] Error 127

4

try sudo apt-get install gcc

5

Slightly better: sudo apt-get install build-essential

6

Thanks, that worked!

Thanks again from the not so savvy.

7

I am confused about dump978. If you run it on the same pi as dump1090 with a different USB dongle and antenna, will the planes from both be displayed on the dump1090 web map? Can you run it on a separate pi, feed it to your dump1090 pi, and see the planes on one map? Thanks.

8

You can run dump978 on another pi and display it on a combined dump978 and dump1090 map.
Just send the output to the second device on port 30001.

Joe’s scripts (ADS-B Receiver ads-b-flight-tracking-f21/ads-b-receiver-project-setup-scripts-t36532.html ) will do the same thing on one device. They provide separate maps/pages for each.

The hard part is finding an antenna and filter(if required). FA made a dual band for a while but they are no longer available.
I have only been able to find an amp/filter from hab/nevis. airspy.us sell the 1090Mhz versions in the US but the 978Mhz have to be imported from the UK.
store.uputronics.com/index.php? … duct_id=87

DPD make a 978Mhz antenna but it is $150. ( I use their 1090Mhz antenna and it works really well)
dpdproductions.com/page_vhf_ … #978adsout

I am not 100% sure that 978 is fed into FA as the notes say it is formatted as ADS-R.
I get 10,000 to 35,000 hits per day in NYC using a temporary directional antenna. I expect more when I install the FA dual band antenna on the chimney soon.

9

So long as it ends up on port 30005 (with the setup you describe, feeding a dump1090 from dump978, that should happen) then it should get fed through, piaware 3.0 should understand ADS-R. piaware 3.1 understands it a bit better.

In a perfect world, piaware would know how to interpret the UAT messages directly, since some data gets lost in translation. Given infinite time perhaps :wink:

10

Checkout this part of the dump978 README pertaining to converting then sending the messages over to dump1090.
github.com/mutability/dump978#u … b-messages

11

I could be productive on a Saturday morning but I picked this instead. 8) I’ve got mixed results so far. I started by replacing dump1090-mutability with dump1090-fa so there was a bit of a learning curve. I installed a NooElec R820T2+ dongle on the same RPI3 as my FlightAware ProStick, connected to an old homemade spider antenna and briefly saw results.

rtl_sdr -f 978000000 -s 2083334 -g 48 -d 1 -
is consistently feeding me data, which is a positive sign

rtl_sdr -f 978000000 -s 2083334 -g 48 -d 1 - | ./dump978
and
rtl_sdr -f 978000000 -s 2083334 -g 48 -d 1 - | ./dump978 | ./uat2esnt
sporadically sent me data then stopped. I assume there must not be any planes around. I added a satellite dish amplifier and 54 MHz filter that used to work for dump1090 and I finally saw a couple of results again. Probably need to drop the gain but the 54 MHz filter should be giving me some attenuation.

It appeared that I had to enable port 30001 for the last part of the pipe with the netcat in /etc/dump1090-fa. I changed --net-ri-port 0 to --net-ri-port 30001

I didn’t get any errors when I went all in with the netcat, but I’m not sure I got any data either.
rtl_sdr -f 978000000 -s 2083334 -g 48 -d 1 - | ./dump978 | ./uat2esnt | nc -q1 localhost 30001

Couple of questions:
-Was the --net-ri-port 30001 the right thing to do? I assume we’re looking at a raw input
-Where is the dump1090-fa log file? I used to get dump1090-mutability log files in /var/log but I’m not seeing similar files for the -fa version.
-Assuming this actually works, how will I know I’m getting the 978 data on the map, other than looking at a log file.

Thanks again.

12

If you are referring to the 49" antenna, there was a post here that it will be produced again. But is it really a dual band antenna or simply an antenna with a band wide enough to pick up both 978 MHz and 1090 MHz? I think it’s the latter. Those two frequencies are close enough together that an antenna tuned to something in the middle should pick up both.

13

I use two scripts

/usr/bin/rtl_sdr -f 978000000 -s 2083334 -g 35 - | /home/pi/adsb-receiver/build/dump978/dump978 | tee -a /var/log/dump978.log | /home/pi/adsb-receiver/build/dump978/uat2esnt | nc -q1 127.0.0.1 30001 &
This feeds dump978 into dump1090 and logs the flights. It doesn’t display anything on the dump978 tab of Joe’s scripts.

/usr/bin/rtl_sdr -f 978000000 -s 2083334 -g 35 - | /home/pi/adsb-receiver/build/dump978/dump978 | /home/pi/adsb-receiver/build/dump978/uat2json /var/www/html/dump978/data | /home/pi/adsb-receiver/build/dump978/uat2esnt | /bin/nc -q1 127.0.0.1 30001 &

This allows dump978 to display data and sends it to dump1090 for display and forwarding to Flightaware.
EDIT: I am no longer sure that these scripts work well. The data shows up on the dump978 page but doesn’t make it to port 30001.
Also, I have found that I need to restart the service a few times a day. It just stops working and gives no error messages.

Use a lower gain with the FA dongles unless you don’t need a filter.

I haven’t been able to get all three to work together (display on dump978, feed dump1090 and log).

14

Hey it’s me again, the noob…

Well, I know it is just me, but I’m not sure what is going on… I upgraded my “stuff” to the latest and greatest software, and here are my observations:

Qualifier, two radios 1090 & 978.

  1. The order of the USB ports swapped. d 0 → d 1 my 1090 radio turned into my 978. Swapped the USB ports to fix.
  2. I’m close enough to a UAT antenna to get TIS-B, and I do, but I do not seem to be able to see the school ships off of DTO, 15 miles away. They will show up for a few positions and the disappear… I could track them about 40 t0 50 miles away, alt dependent a few revs back.
  3. Nothing has changed hardware/antenna, and it is nice to see AAXXX at 40,000 feet and 400kts, but I wanted to see my buddies off of T67 with thier 978 radios…

Again I know I have screwed something up, but I don’t know what it is…

Again a nood, and thanks for all ya’ll do to make this stuff work!

15

Could you post what coax, amp, filter and Antenna you use?

I have to restart my dump978 every 6 hours. It seems to just stop working and a restart fixes it.
My main (attic located) unit running dump978 is an Odroid XU4. It sends the data to an RPI3 that does the stats graphing and feeds FlightAware. I did see similar issues with RPI3s running dump978.

I had great success with the Hab/Nevis amp (near the dongle) and the STD RTL-SDR V2 dongle(I had to solder the bias-t connection. V3 is a software switch).
I was using it on a directional antenna and moved it to the FA Dual band antenna (and mast mounted amp) last week. Unfortunately I broke the SMA connector on the amp and had ordered two more.
For some reason they are coming to NYC (from the UK) via LA.
December 7, 2016 , 1:59 pm Arrived at USPS Facility LOS ANGELES, CA 90009
December 6, 2016 , 4:25 pm Departed USPS Facility LOS ANGELES, CA 90052
December 6, 2016 , 5:35 am Arrived at USPS Facility LOS ANGELES, CA 90052
December 4, 2016 , 10:36 pm In Transit to Destination
December 3, 2016 , 10:36 am Arrived at USPS Facility FLUSHING, NY 11351

airspy.us doesn’t sell the 978 amp/filter. It is strange as UAT 978Mhz is only used in the USA.

This site has been dump978 only since November 13. You can see the traffic drop off when I messed it up last week.
I did get up to 1000 aircraft(best day was Nov 23) with the antenna pointed in my best direction (North West). The FA Dual band is a little higher than the directional antenna (maybe 3’) so should have a better range (I am really low. Ground level is only 30’ AMSL) and won’t be directional.

I decided it was easier to dedicate one RPI/site the dump978 and it has helped with trouble shooting. I enabled logging in dump1090 to get a better feel for the stats. Don’t do this if you also feed 1090 information as your file system will fill up quickly.

Feel free to post or PM me with any questions.

16

I’m using RG6, no amp, my RPI is mounted on the antenna mask, about 10 feet of RG6, and using a spider antenna 77mm for the 978MHz.

Not sure what changed but I was able to see some UAT traffic up at KDTO, verified with my Stratux box, maybe I need to look at my antenna… It is strange I could get TIS-B but not the UAT aircraft. Going to check my antenna when it warms up…

17

Jon,

A question, if you don’t mind. Had you ever tried to see what you receive on the DPD ADSBOut antenna, on 978 mhz? I’m just curious if you pick up signals from it.

I’m nowhere near a big city, quite a ways in the boonies in fact. From my location, with the DPD 1090 antenna in the attic (no filter/ amp), I’m not seeing a single hit on 978 mhz.

Just wondering if I should ever expect tosee anything useful on 978 mhz, or atleast enough to justify putting up something dedicated for it. I figured I should hear something on 978 mhz, on my 1090 antenna, if there is anything out there to be heard.

Mike

18

I think my issue with UAT is port 30001 is not open. I’m just a hack and do not know how to open it. I have disconnected my UAT radio antenna, and can see the TIS-B traffic, I’m guessing on the 1090 radio?? I will see if I can find the command to open port 30001, but can someone verify port 30001 needs to be open for dump978 to send information to dump1090, and if it needs to be open how to fix it permanently.

Again thanks,

tcp 0 0 :30104 : LISTEN
tcp 0 0 :http-alt : LISTEN
tcp 0 0 :http : LISTEN
tcp 0 0 :30002 : LISTEN
tcp 0 0 :30003 : LISTEN
tcp 0 0 :30004 : LISTEN
tcp 0 0 :30005 : LISTEN
tcp 0 0 :ssh : LISTEN
tcp 2012 0 localhost:55874 localhost:30005 ESTABLISHED
tcp 0 0 piaware:36952 hullo.hou.flightaw:1200 ESTABLISHED
tcp 0 0 piaware:http-alt larry-Precision-M:49620 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 piaware:http-alt larry-Precision-M:49618 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 localhost:55880 localhost:30005 ESTABLISHED
tcp 0 0 localhost:30104 localhost:37004 ESTABLISHED
tcp 0 0 localhost:37004 localhost:30104 ESTABLISHED
tcp 12 1006 localhost:30005 localhost:55874 ESTABLISHED
tcp 0 0 piaware:http-alt larry-Precision-M:49614 TIME_WAIT
tcp 0 0 piaware:http-alt larry-Precision-M:49616 TIME_WAIT
tcp 12 0 localhost:30005 localhost:55880 ESTABLISHED
tcp 0 0 piaware:ssh larry-Precision-M:47196 ESTABLISHED
tcp6 0 0 ::]:30104 ::]: LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 ::]:30105 ::]: LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 ::]:30106 ::]: LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 ::]:http ::]: LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 ::]:30002 ::]: LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 ::]:30003 ::]: LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 ::]:30004 ::]: LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 ::]:30005 ::]: LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 ::]:ssh ::]:* LISTEN
udp 0 0 piaware:ntp :
udp 0 0 localhost:ntp :
udp 0 0 :ntp :
udp 0 0 :24483 :
udp 0 0 :49660 :
udp 0 0 :bootpc :
udp6 0 0 2602:306:c495:a2b0::ntp ::]:
udp6 0 0 fe80::ba27:ebff:fe4:ntp ::]:
udp6 0 0 ::1:ntp ::]:
udp6 0 0 ::]:ntp ::]:
udp6 0 0 ::]:12459 ::]:*

19

Hi Mike,

I just went into the attic and connected the 1090 DPD antenna to an RTL-SDR dongle running dump978 (full gain. coax is 35’ LMR400UF, no amp).
I have saw two aircraft in the first few minutes and 250+ position reports(dump wise not FA wise).
A third aircraft(N391D, a C150 of all things) came up at 24NM away and 2500’ for a short time.
then N348D PA-28-181 2200’ climbing to 3700’ (20NM miles away. Probably out of KCDW or KMMU) 1000 messages before I lost it.
Got a dozen aircraft from a TIS-B activation (KEWR and KLGA)

It is really just a wire at these frequencies.

I came across a 1090Mhz antenna that is less expensive than the DPD one
airspy.us/
Price: $US59.95 + taxes and shipping
High Gain ADSB Base Station Antenna
Covers ADSB frequencies (1090 MHz)
Omni-Directional Colinear design (6 element)
Calculated 7.5 dB gain (dBd, not dBi)
White radome. N connector for durability.
Length: 39" (including connector)
Includes mounting hardware

STD FA Antenna is 26"
Dual band Fa Antenna is 49"
So the above antenna is somewhere in between (but for 1090 Mhz only and they don’t make/sell the FA Dual band antenna any more)
(the DPD antenna is 59")

20

You, you need 30001 open as that is the port dump978 sends info to.
It should be in
/etc/default/dump1090-mutability or
/etc/default/dump1090-fa (I think. I don’t run dump1090-fa yet)