PiAware: Fine for 4+ yrs and now it's not

If you have a spare microSD card, burn latest Piaware image, swap old card by newly burnt one and see if it works. This will show if the problem is in Pi’s software or somewhere else.

P.S.

  1. Do not forget to create a blank file named ssh (or ssh.txt) in /boot folder of newly burnt microSD card while the card is still plugged in the card reader of your Windows computer. This is ecessary to enable SSH.

  2. You have to copy Unique Identifier from your Flightaware stats page and give following command after boot
    sudo piaware-config feeder-id xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

    Where xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx is Unique-id you copied from your flightaware page.

Got similar problem last year. Twice. It turned out that the problem was in degraded microSD card in both cases (both were the same brand). If all was OK for 4 years it is time to expect problems with the card. Try to swap it

Not eager to do that, but the SD Card issue is seeming more logical at this point. Stay tuned…

I used to think the same way about re-imaging the SD card. But it literally takes minutes. If you follow the steps mentioned (empty SSH file at root, and feeder id ‘transfer’), it’s painless.

I would add the SSID and password, if you plan on using Wi-Fi.

Well, I don’t think it is my SD Card. Here is what I did and why I think that…

Opened a brand new SD Card and copied the image backup that I had made in DEC2017 (about 4 months ago).

Put the newly imaged SD Card into the PI. It booted fine. Exact same symptoms. Since PiAware was working great in DEC2017 off the copied image and I put that image onto a new SD Card. Nothing, IMO, points to a bad SD Card.

I really feel is has ‘something’ to do with this ./dump1090 message.

dot-slash-dump1090-screenshot

I would except this command to load a text table of flights being tracked. As a reminder, I see the planes being tracked on the live link map web display (http://192.168.1.2:8080 in my case) just fine.

Again, really do appreciate all the help.

.
As it is now clear that the problem is not caused by bad microSD card, the other most likely reason is OUTDATED image.

Try one of the following 2 options on the NEW microSD card which you burned with backup image:

  1. Upgrade current Wheezy to Jessie and Piaware to 3.5.3 by method given here:
    Upgrading from Wheezy to Jessie

OR

  1. Download latest Piaware image from here and write to the NEW microSD card.
    Web page: PiAware - build your own ADS-B ground station for integration with FlightAware - FlightAware
    Direct download link: PiAware - ADS-B and MLAT Receiver - FlightAware

    (Do Not forget to add file ssh in /boot folder while card is still in card reader of Windows computer, add your feeder-id immediately after first boot, and configure WiFi in file piaware-config.txt in /boot folder, if you are using WiFi instead of Wired Ethernet).
    .

.
You have to first STOP the current instance of dump1090.
Use one of the 3 commands below depending on version of dump1090 you are using,
If you are not sure of version of dump1090, issue all the three commands.

sudo service dump1090 stop
sudo service dump1090-fa stop
sudo service dump1090-mutability stop

.
Now test :

cd dump1090/
./dump1090

.
P.S.
After test, restart dump1090
Use one of the 3 commands below depending on version of dump1090 you are using,
If you are not sure of version of dump1090, issue all the three commands.

sudo service dump1090 restart
sudo service dump1090-fa restart
sudo service dump1090-mutability restart

OKay… I’m moving to jessie. Which seems like it may take awhile. Stay tuned and thx!

Ok… “cat /etc/os-release" tells me I’m on jessie now. (that took awhile…)

Did all the other house cleaning as well. Rebooted and I gotta run. Hopefully I will see planes logged soon, but I’m not hopeful. If this doesn’t work I ?think? FA has a PiAware image somewhere and I will just load that.

Once again, stay tuned and THX!

And the result of shipping bits to and fro all across the interwebs is:
FAIL.

I think there FA have a drop dead simple imagine for PiAware. If that is true, do I get a new feeder ID or can I use my old one?

Piaware image download page:

Piaware image download link:

After burning the image to microSD card, and while the microSD card is still plugged into yiur computer, open the microSD card in file explorer, and create a file named ssh (or ssh.txt). This is necessary to enable SSH.

With a fresh install, by default Flightaware assigns a new feeder ID, but you can use your old feeder ID if you want.

OK… Here’s where we are. I downloaded and installed the new piaware img (thx). I can click on “view live data” and I see a fancier plot of the planes than I used to have. So, the Rx side is still working. But, take a look at the screen shot. I am still not connecting to FA to send my data.

Possible a router problem on my end? I am direct connect; not WiFi connected for this RasPI.

Still-no-joy-in-mudville-NEW-PIAWARE-IMG-running

Can your run the command “ping piaware.flightaware.com”?
It should report that the ping either got through or not.

You can also try other sites like “ping google.com” or something.

Pings passed. See screen shot:

pings_passd

How strange. I don’t know of anyone having port 1200 blocked.

Ping only checks if a ping packet gets through to the server.
The actual data packets are TCP to port 1200.

You can try to connect to the server with telnet.

telnet piaware.flightaware.com 1200

you might need to install the program with

sudo apt-get install telnet

If you get a prompt you are connected.
If you don’t get a prompt then something is blocking port 1200.

I have seen other ports being blocked but 1200 has been fairly open. You would need to either check your router settings for outgoing TCP ports OR ask your ISP if outgoing TCP port 1200 packets are blocked.

Some secured networks (corporate networks and schools) will block all packets not on specific ports.

David:

Thx for the guidance. OK… I’m on a home network and I am my own IT Manager (for better or worse).

The “telnet piaware.flightaware.com 1200” returns “Trying…” for a few minutes then “tries” some more.

I guess that tells up PORT 1200 is blocked? I have a new’ish Sagemcom F@st 5260 router(issues by Time Warner) and I have to say the firewall setting is different than what I am used to seeing. I have opened a few PORTS in my day, but maybe not Telnet. See the screenshot below. Two things: It does not let me select 1200 and should what should the accept/reject pull down be set to?

Yelnet_router_screenshot

I tried telnet to
piaware.flightaware.com 1200
using web tool and it succeded.
https://www.adminkit.net/telnet.aspx

I also tried terminal App in Android, and it also succeeded.

1. Web tool with free WiFi in a restsurant

.

2. Web tool with mobile phone’s data network

3. Terminal App Termux on Android phone.

I pass the TELNET to port 1200 with the web tool. This makes things even more confusing. It means my router is not blocking, but the PiAware PI is not ‘getting out’. Grrrrrr. I’m getting frustrated,

Screen_Shot_of_good_1200port_telnet

@ironjungle
If you have a wired network connection to Pi, un-plug the network wire at both ends and re-plug. Then reboot Pi.

If this does not solve your problem, try another network wire.

It looks like desperation is setting in. :slight_smile:

I have network wires o’plenty so I opened a brand new one that hasn’t seen electrons since it left the factory and rebooted the PI. SSH’d into it and ran the telnet command to PORT 1200.

And… no change. TELNET is stuck at “Trying…”.

This is a real head scratcher for me. First off because the PI set up stopped sending to FA after 4 years. Then I have the same problem (basically) after loading a fresh PiAware dedicated image.

I’m still open to any ideas, but I am considering fire.

OK. The plot thickens. I decided to take a break from this FA project and play ham radio.

I now have noticed that any website that includes a PORT number is off limits to my internet connection. This includes my RasPI VPN setup.

For example, I am not able to goto http://w5cqu.homeip.net:8100/ on my PC while connected to my Time Warner internet connection. However, if I connect my PC to the internet via a hotspot connection on my phone all is well. Sounds like my beef is with Time Warner?