PiAware 7 SD Card Image Released

[abcd567]

@estruble

What are the commands/routines I should use to remove FR24 and PlaneFinder from the system

Uninstall/purge

sudo apt-get purge fr24feed   

sudo dpkg --purge pfclient   

sudo reboot   

 

Check

sudo systemctl status fr24feed   

sudo systemctl status pfclient   

apt-cache policy fr24feed   

apt-cache policy pfclient   

 

[jaymot]

@estruble

What are the commands/routines I should use to remove FR24 and PlaneFinder from the system (or would I be better in building a new, clean image)?

Look at their websites and see if there are removal instructions. If not, reverse-engineer the installation instructions. For example if to install it they say to add a repository then do sudo apt install, then do a sudo apt remove then remove the repo. If none of that works check their support forums or ask there.

Or, since you’ve only recently installed PiAware 7 anyway, it would be just as easy to reburn the image to the SD card and start over, unless that would entail trips to several feeder locations to do.

As the problems that are happening have only cropped up since you burned PA 7 to the SD cards I’m wondering if you may have a bad burn? Highly possible if you used Etcher instead of the recommended tool in the instructions. Or if these feeders have been in existence for a long time maybe the SD cards are bad?

You’re using Pi power supplies, right? Not spare cell phone chargers?

[abcd567]

@obj

(It looks almost like you have intermittent very loud interference)

@LawrenceHill

Auto gain was introduced in version 6 so, if the problem might be caused by the auto gain feature , if you have local interference that is triggering it. If your previous version was Version 5 or older it would have been operating with a fixed gain.

@estruble rebuilt it with ver 7.1 after his 4 years old built crashed.

I feel @obj 's conclusion is that is what is happenning.

His old build was at default setting (--gain -10). With short bursts of strong interference, his receiver saturated, reception fell to low, but remained low only during the short duration of burst, and recovered to high when the short burst stopped. His overall number of aircraft per day remained high.

With adaptive gain control, when the short bust of interference starts, gain is set to zero, and stays at zero even when the burst is gone. It recovers only when next cycle of adaptive gain starts. This repeats everytime there is a burst. This results in longer duration of zero reception, and consequently lower number of aircraft per day compared to old non-adaptive install.

This is the reason I advised him to turn-off adaptive gain, so his current install becomes like his old install, but he seems to believe that the cause of reduced reception are FR24 and Planefinder feeders, and not the adaptive gain control triggered by short bursts of interference.

I also suggested him to install external filter but he thinks FA Pro Plus’s builtin filter should be enough.

Upon his request I have posted commands to purge both these feeders. He will now remove these two feeders and observe the performance for for next 24 hrs after removal of feeders. Let us wait and see the outcome.

[wiedehopf]

@estruble

As you can see, something isn’t right with the configuration. Maybe I should hose the other 2 feeders and see if that changes anything???

Set a fixed gain … it’s pretty clear autogain isn’t doing what it should.

[foxhunter]

@abcd567

Do you have a filter connected between Antenna and the Dongle?
If not, better connect one.

As it was working before i doubt that a missing filter now is the problem.
It can happen if new interferring stations are built around, but i think this is not his issue.

[abcd567]

@wiedehopf

Set a fixed gain … it’s pretty clear autogain isn’t doing what it should

 

That is what I have advised him.

 

@abcd567

Since the major change in software is addition of “Adaptive Gain Control”, first disable it, then monitor for 24 hrs. Afte that, you can enable adaptive gain control and again monitor for 24 hrs

sudo piaware-config adaptive-dynamic-range no  

sudo systemctl restart piaware   

sudo systemctl restart dump1090-fa   

NOTE: After disabling “adaptive gain control” by 1st command above, you must either reboot Pi or restart both piaware and dump1090-fa for the change to be implemented

After 10 minutes check logs

sudo journalctl -u dump1090-fa -n 10   

[jafrank]

I think that the point was that a filter might dampen the interference, which may allow autogain to work as it is supposed to.

That said, autogain routinely set my gain lower than the value that I had previously determined worked best for my location, and for several weeks my messages, aircraft, and distance measurements were 15%-20% lower than what I was used to. I turned off autogain and went back to the gain value that got me to ~5% strong messages, and everything came back in line.

[abcd567]

The unfortunate thing is that @estruble is very strongly convinced that since FR24 and Planefinder feeders are new things in current install (his old install did not have these), these have caused the reduction in performance. He wants to uninstall them and is pretty sure that this will restore his performance to original.

[abcd567]

@jafrank

I think that the point was that a filter might dampen the interference, which may allow autogain to work as it is supposed to.

Yes, you are right. That is exactly why I suggested adding an external filter to ProStickPlus.

 

[foxhunter]

@jafrank

I think that the point was that a filter might dampen the interference, which may allow autogain to work as it is supposed to.

Yeah, but in this case the fixed gain should bring the functionality back. That only is not necessarily a reason for adding a filter just to bring autogain to work

[abcd567]

@foxhunter

the fixed gain should bring the functionality back. That only is not necessarily a reason for adding a filter just to bring autogain to work

 

Even with fixed gain, during bursts of very loud noise, the receiver will saturate and during that period reception will be very low. Adding a filter will dampen this loud interference and daily plane count/messages will improve.

Also, no scan has been done to determine any persistent interference which may also be present there (please see below). Adding a filter will most likely improve reception even with a fixed gain.

 

@estruble

Regarding interference, this receiver is on a mountain top in a radio site. While this particular site doesn’t have any 900MHz equipment, I not sure what is in the county radio site 1/4mile away. Although the county doesn’t use any 900MHz frequencies, other government agencies might also be in there. Could also be poor CATV / Internet equipment which also goes through the site.

 

[foxhunter]

@abcd567

Even with fixed gain, during bursts of very loud noise, the receiver will saturate and during that period reception will be very low. Adding a filter will dampen this loud interference and daily plane count/messages will improve.

Again, if it worked with the previous release it should work also with the current release.

I know how a filter works and which benefits they give, but that is not the topic for this case. We need to fix the root cause, not the symptom

[abcd567]

@foxhunter

but that is not the topic for this case. We need to fix the root cause, not the symptom

My suggestion to add a filter was not for removing the symptom.

I have suggested two-fold action as follows:

(1) BASIC SOLUTION: Disable Adaptive Gain Control to solve problem of gain setting becoming zero or very low due to loud burst of noise, and then staying at low gain setting for a considerable time after the burst has died. After disabling adaptive gain, it will start working like his previous install with previous release.

(2) FURTHER IMPROVEMENT: Add a filter, which will not only dampen the loud bursts of noise, but will also filter any other persistent RF noise at that site which the OP has said to be a “Radio Site” with many different RF installations. This will most likely make performance even better than his previous install’s performance. The cost of filter is not much, and this is worth trying.

[gavin323]

I currently have the dynamic range on after runnging sudo systemctl status dump1090-fa it only ever goes between 58.6 and 49.6

Feb 06 12:40:24 piaware dump1090-fa[456]: adaptive: changing gain from 58.6dB (step 29) to 49.6dB (step 28) because: probing dynamic range gain lower bound
Feb 06 12:40:24 piaware dump1090-fa[456]: rtlsdr: tuner gain set to 49.6 dB (gain step 28)
Feb 06 12:40:34 piaware dump1090-fa[456]: adaptive: available dynamic range (37.4dB) >= required dynamic range (30.0dB), stopping downwards scan here
Feb 06 13:40:34 piaware dump1090-fa[456]: adaptive: start periodic scan for acceptable dynamic range at increased gain
Feb 06 13:40:34 piaware dump1090-fa[456]: adaptive: changing gain from 49.6dB (step 28) to 58.6dB (step 29) because: periodic re-probing of dynamic range gain >
Feb 06 13:40:34 piaware dump1090-fa[456]: rtlsdr: tuner gain set to about 58.6 dB (gain step 29) (tuner AGC enabled)
Feb 06 13:40:44 piaware dump1090-fa[456]: adaptive: available dynamic range (27.2dB) < required dynamic range (30.0dB), switching to downward scan
Feb 06 13:40:44 piaware dump1090-fa[456]: adaptive: changing gain from 58.6dB (step 29) to 49.6dB (step 28) because: probing dynamic range gain lower bound
Feb 06 13:40:44 piaware dump1090-fa[456]: rtlsdr: tuner gain set to 49.6 dB (gain step 28)
Feb 06 13:40:54 piaware dump1090-fa[456]: adaptive: available dynamic range (37.4dB) >= required dynamic range (30.0dB), stopping downwards scan here
~

Is it worth changing my gain to maintain 49.6 all the time or leave it as it is?

[foxhunter]

@abcd567

I have suggested two-fold action as follows:

Sorry, that was not clear to me after 153 replies

[abcd567]

@gavin323

Is it worth changing my gain to maintain 49.6 all the time or leave it as it is?

Mine also maintains 49.6, and I just left it like that

 

pi@orangepipc:~$ sudo journalctl -u dump1090-fa -n 15 

-- Journal begins at Mon 2021-11-08 04:54:52 EST, ends at Sun 2022-02-06 09:12:06 EST. --
Feb 06 06:22:24 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: adaptive: available dynamic range (33.4dB) >= required dynamic range (30.0dB), stopping downwards scan h>
Feb 06 07:22:24 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: adaptive: start periodic scan for acceptable dynamic range at increased gain
Feb 06 07:22:24 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: adaptive: changing gain from 49.6dB (step 28) to 58.6dB (step 29) because: periodic re-probing of dynami>
Feb 06 07:22:24 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: rtlsdr: tuner gain set to about 58.6 dB (gain step 29) (tuner AGC enabled)
Feb 06 07:22:34 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: adaptive: available dynamic range (23.8dB) < required dynamic range (30.0dB), switching to downward scan
Feb 06 07:22:34 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: adaptive: changing gain from 58.6dB (step 29) to 49.6dB (step 28) because: probing dynamic range gain lo>
Feb 06 07:22:34 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: rtlsdr: tuner gain set to 49.6 dB (gain step 28)
Feb 06 07:22:44 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: adaptive: available dynamic range (33.6dB) >= required dynamic range (30.0dB), stopping downwards scan h>
Feb 06 08:22:44 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: adaptive: start periodic scan for acceptable dynamic range at increased gain
Feb 06 08:22:44 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: adaptive: changing gain from 49.6dB (step 28) to 58.6dB (step 29) because: periodic re-probing of dynami>
Feb 06 08:22:44 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: rtlsdr: tuner gain set to about 58.6 dB (gain step 29) (tuner AGC enabled)
Feb 06 08:22:54 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: adaptive: available dynamic range (25.2dB) < required dynamic range (30.0dB), switching to downward scan
Feb 06 08:22:54 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: adaptive: changing gain from 58.6dB (step 29) to 49.6dB (step 28) because: probing dynamic range gain lo>
Feb 06 08:22:54 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: rtlsdr: tuner gain set to 49.6 dB (gain step 28)
Feb 06 08:23:04 orangepipc dump1090-fa[1378]: adaptive: available dynamic range (35.2dB) >= required dynamic range (30.0dB), stopping downwards scan h>
pi@orangepipc:~$

 

[foxhunter]

@gavin323

Is it worth changing my gain to maintain 49.6 all the time or leave it as it is?

It’s a try and error
On my second device gain 49.6 is a bit too high. I reduced it step by step and monitored where i started losing range. Currently it is set at 42.1 which is a good value for my indoor receiver.

It really depends. A good option to check is using graphs1090 and there the messages > -3dBFS

[estruble]

Day 6…

So, I was in the process of putting together a full breakdown of the receiver failure. But, It was brought to my attention that there is a GMRS receiver that is run off a combiner system that has gone crazy in the last couple of days. So, before I can tweak the settings I need to make sure that what ever is happening down at 465MHz isn’t extending up to 1090 MHz.

Tomorrow I’m planning to hook up a spectrum analyzer at the site and see what type of noise if being generated and from what. Because if I look at my reception report on the FlightAware web site, it’s all over the place.

So, thank you to everyone that has responded to me with suggestions on adjusting the gain and configuring the receivers for this site. Before I make any additional adjustments, I am going to troubleshoot the 465MHz problem to see if that might be the root of the problem.

Again, many thanks to all the responded to me…

Eric

[mikeschumann]

I just tried updating my piAware system to this latest release. I am running on a Raspberry Pi Zero W.

Before the update everything was running fine. I used the latest version of Etcher to load the image onto my SD card. Everything seemed to work fine, but at the end Etcher gave me an error that the flash had failed. I tired this a 2nd time with the same result.

Ignoring the error, I went ahead and manually configured my wifi network and feeder-id in the config file. I then booted up my piAware system. I was able to connect to the local piAware web page. Here’s a screen shot:

As you can see, the map location is wrong, there are no aircraft visible, and the version is unknown.

I went to myADSB page on flightaware.com. My piAware system is talking to flightaware. I tried updating the software and restarting my feeder, which seemed to work, but didn’t fix the problem.

HELP!

[mikeschumann]

Problem Solved! The problem was a result of using Etcher to Flash the SD card on my Windows 10 laptop. When I used the Raspberry Pi Imager instead, everything worked correctly!