Hi, this is my 1st post here. I’m Hans, ULM pilot, living in France. I try to get my head around the Piaware system for in flight. AFAIK, the piaware sets up its own WiFi AP, for other devices to connect. That means, navigation tablets w/out own GSM access are loosing the connection to the internet, which is not acceptable for me. Isn’t there a possibility that the Piaware RPI connects to a mobile Hotspot as participant of a WiFi network, where also the tablet would be connected?
RGDS
hk
Welcome to Flight Aware hk. We’re glad you’ve joined us!
I’m trying to understand a couple of things:
- Did you mean to say that you’re using the PiAware while flying on an aircraft?
- Are you asking if PiAware sets itself up as an Access Point (AP), and that causes problems with other devices connecting to your network?
As far as (1), I’m not sure how that would work unless your aircraft is equipped with WiFi. It certainly won’t work with MLAT! That’s an interesting idea, though. Personally I’d use the FlightAware app for that purpose.
As far as (2), the default configuration for a PiAware is to join a wireless network as a device. You change its SSID and password to connect to the network in the piaware-config.txt. Unless I missed something in the documentation, it shouldn’t be setting itself up as an Access Point (AP)!
There are some applications that can set up Raspberry Pis as APs, but they’re not very effective at it.
Anyway, your RPi WiFi connection should not interfere with other devices connecting to WiFi unless your wireless network has a maximum number of devices that can attach (for example, many phones and mobile hotspots can create a wireless network but are limited to 4 or 8 devices at once). If you’re having a problem with other devices connecting to WiFi while your RPi is attached, there may be a configuration problem with your router or AP.
Hi Hans, Welcome to the community. Maybe to clarify. PiAware consists of the SDR receiver plugged into an RPI. The RPI is a Wi-Fi client by default. Thus it by default connects to an access point (the SSID and password being part of the config) and that access point of course could be a mobile hotspot. A tablet can also connect to that access point. Does that help or did I misinterpret your question?
Yes!
Its not that its causing problems w/ other devices. Just imagine the following: I use an Android tablet w/ Skydemon and my mobile as WiFi Hotspot to enable the tablet receiving information from the internet to update Skydemon in flight. Now if I had to connect the tablet to the RPI WiFi AP in order to get traffic info into the tablet (Skydemon) I would loose the connection to the internet, because the RPI cannot supply internet and traffic info at the same time, and the mobile Hotspot is out of the loop! I was therefore looking for a configuration, where the mobile would work as a common WiFi hotspot, where all other devices would connect to, and the RPI would feed his info into this “local flying WiFi network” to everyone who’s listening on that port in this network. This would imply that the RPI has to broadcast or unicast his messages into an network, rather than having a p2p connection with is 1andonly consumer.
Sorry, but my 1st objective is, receiving ASDB info from ACFTs around me and feeding it w/ GDL90 into Skydemon, and “I don’t mind” feeding it in parallel -even in flight- into FlightAware Servers. However, I was using a local @home installation w/ dump1090 and VirtualRadar and I have no probs to make this now available on the ground for FlightAware, especially because around me in SW-France, there is a large Gap.
RGDS
hk
Ah. Now I understand the configuration of your network!
Unfortunately, I’m not the one to help you with this.
Yes, but being connected as client to a local WiFi Hotspot, does this mean that the GDL90 traffic info can flow into my tablet connected to the same WiFi, or is this just to provide traffic information to the FlightAware Servers via the internet??
I know that there are many here who’ve set up their RPi to feed multiple sites as well as local databases. I was just reading a post by @foxhunter where he has a local SQLite database receiving data in addition to feeding multiple sites, and he mentioned LAN-connected databases. I’m sure it can be done. I’m just not experienced enough with flight feeders yet to do it!
Maybe I’m confusing FlighAware, PiAware, PilotAware… As I said, I’m just trying to understand the System
How my setup looks like:
Main feeder is an AirSquitter (Jetvision).
From there data is streamed to a Raspberry Pi in the same network, running readsb (dump1090 alternative) in network mode. This is required to get the flight data into a database as the python script reads the aircraft.json file provided by readsb.
The script writes to a local SQLite database on the same device.
But if you have another network attached storage with NFS etc. enabled you can simply mount that network storage on the Raspberry and put the db there.
For the script it doesn’t matter, as long as you set the location properly in it.
If your phone is able to act as an hotspot then you can have Sky demon and the raspberry pi connecting to it.
The wi-fi antenna on the raspberry Pi it self isn’t very strong so you might want to use an external wi-fi dongle.
Can it be done, I think so but I wouldn’t use it in flight.
That being said, ( I’m a pilot as well, PPL EASA license) I wouldn’t trust to much on a Raspberry Pi Flightaware reciever in flight.
The flightaware instance relies on a postion as well to show you the map based on GPS coordinates.
Since you are moving through the air this is tricky ( MLAT aircraft won’t be detected and lots of GA is MLAT traffic).
The information recieved will try to plot the locations of the incoming aircraft relative to your postion in the set-up.
That position is static and not dynamicly updated during flight.
So imagine you are leaving from Bordeaux to Marseille, all the way in flight the system wil think you are still in Bordeaux as long as the postion isn’t updated. It will show the aircraft relative towards your postion in Bordeaux.
I’d reccomend a solution like this one
https://foreflight.com/products/portable-ads-b-receivers/
But then again everybody can make their own choices
Well say exactly what hardware / software you’re asking about then.
Yes you can configure the piaware image (if that’s what you’re using) to join an existing wifi.
That’s the most common configuration actually.
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Thank-you all, but I’m in the wrong movie here. I definitely confused PiAware w/ PilotAware, thinking it would be the same device and belong to FlightAware, which is not the case, as I finally understand NOW. Thanks for your patience!
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Glad we’ve cleared it up!
Meanwhile, consider joining us ground-based ADS-B feeders! The more the merrier (and the better the data)!
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May also want to look at Stratux (stratux.me) which is the DIY equivalent for inflight stuff.
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A portable PiAware unit I experiment with connects to a mobile phone hotspot. I then connect a netpad to the same hotspot, this enables the netpad to view the live data received by the Piaware device and of course, as it is connected to the internet it is also able to send data to FlightAware.
Geoff
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