PiAware Receiver Quits Working

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

I have a PiAware system running Ver 8.2 with both 1090 and 978 receivers. Everything works fine for a while. After about 8 or so hours, the system quits working. Here is an excerpt from the log file near the time the system quits:

[2023-10-03 23:24 CDT] 29353 msgs recv’d from dump1090-fa (102 in last 5m); 29331 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2023-10-03 23:24 CDT] 73 msgs recv’d from dump978-fa (0 in last 5m); 72 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2023-10-03 23:29 CDT] 29421 msgs recv’d from dump1090-fa (68 in last 5m); 29399 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2023-10-03 23:29 CDT] 73 msgs recv’d from dump978-fa (0 in last 5m); 72 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2023-10-03 23:34 CDT] mlat-client(622): Server: 0.0 kB/s from server 0.0kB/s TCP to server 0.2kB/s UDP to server
[2023-10-03 23:34 CDT] mlat-client(622): Server status: clock unstable
[2023-10-03 23:34 CDT] mlat-client(622): Aircraft: 2 of 2 Mode S, 4 of 4 ADS-B used
[2023-10-03 23:34 CDT] mlat-client(622): Receiver status: connected
[2023-10-03 23:34 CDT] mlat-client(622): Receiver: 24.6 msg/s received 14.1 msg/s processed (57%)
[2023-10-03 23:34 CDT] 29488 msgs recv’d from dump1090-fa (67 in last 5m); 29466 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2023-10-03 23:34 CDT] 73 msgs recv’d from dump978-fa (0 in last 5m); 72 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2023-10-03 23:39 CDT] 73 msgs recv’d from dump978-fa (0 in last 5m); 72 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2023-10-03 23:39 CDT] 29529 msgs recv’d from dump1090-fa (41 in last 5m); 29507 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2023-10-03 23:44 CDT] 29542 msgs recv’d from dump1090-fa (13 in last 5m); 29520 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2023-10-03 23:44 CDT] 73 msgs recv’d from dump978-fa (0 in last 5m); 72 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2023-10-03 23:48 CDT] no new messages received in 3887 seconds, it might just be that there haven’t been any aircraft nearby but I’m going to try to restart everything, just in case…
[2023-10-03 23:48 CDT] attempting to restart dump978-fa using ‘systemctl --no-block try-restart dump978-fa.service < /dev/null’…
[2023-10-03 23:48 CDT] faup978 exited with SIG SIGHUP
[2023-10-03 23:48 CDT] dump978 restart appears to have been successful
[2023-10-03 23:48 CDT] Starting faup978: /usr/lib/piaware/helpers/faup978 --connect localhost:30978
[2023-10-03 23:48 CDT] ADS-B data program ‘dump978-fa’ is listening on port 30978, so far so good
[2023-10-03 23:48 CDT] Started faup978 (pid 4159) to connect to dump978-fa
[2023-10-03 23:48 CDT] faup978(4159): Connecting to localhost:30978
[2023-10-03 23:48 CDT] faup978(4159): Connected to [::1]:30978
[2023-10-03 23:49 CDT] mlat-client(622): Out-of-order timestamps: 1
[2023-10-03 23:49 CDT] mlat-client(622): Receiver: 4.3 msg/s received 2.8 msg/s processed (66%)
[2023-10-03 23:49 CDT] mlat-client(622): Server: 0.0 kB/s from server 0.0kB/s TCP to server 0.0kB/s UDP to server
[2023-10-03 23:49 CDT] mlat-client(622): Server status: clock unstable
[2023-10-03 23:49 CDT] 29552 msgs recv’d from dump1090-fa (10 in last 5m); 29530 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2023-10-03 23:49 CDT] mlat-client(622): Receiver status: connected
[2023-10-03 23:49 CDT] mlat-client(622): Aircraft: 0 of 0 Mode S, 1 of 1 ADS-B used
[2023-10-03 23:49 CDT] 74 msgs recv’d from dump978-fa (1 in last 5m); 73 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] mlat-client(622): Lost connection to localhost:30005
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] faup1090 exited normally
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] lost connection to dump1090-fa via faup1090
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] mlat-client(622): Beast-format results connection with ::1:30104: connection lost
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] reconnecting to dump1090-fa
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] mlat-client(622): Reconnecting in 30.0 seconds
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] no ADS-B data program seen listening on port 30005 for 2 seconds, next check in 60s
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] faup978 exited normally
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] reconnecting to dump978-fa
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] faup978(4159): Connection failed: End of file
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] lost connection to dump978-fa via faup978
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] no ADS-B data program seen listening on port 30978 for 1 seconds, next check in 60s
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] mlat-client(622): Reconnecting in 0.5 seconds
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] mlat-client(622): Beast-format results connection with 127.0.0.1:30104: [Errno 111] Connection refused
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] mlat-client(622): Connection to localhost:30005 lost: [Errno 111] Connection refused
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] mlat-client(622): Connection to localhost:30005 lost: [Errno 111] Connection refused
[2023-10-03 23:52 CDT] mlat-client(622): Reconnecting in 30.0 seconds
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] mlat-client(622): Beast-format results connection with ::1:30104: connection established
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] mlat-client(622): Input format changed to BEAST, 12MHz clock
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] Starting faup1090: /usr/lib/piaware/helpers/faup1090 --net-bo-ipaddr localhost --net-bo-port 30005 --stdout --lat 45.537 --lon -92.428
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] ADS-B data program ‘dump1090-fa’ is listening on port 30005, so far so good
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] mlat-client(622): Input connected to localhost:30005
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] Started faup1090 (pid 4219) to connect to dump1090-fa
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] will reconnect to dump1090-fa in 30 seconds
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] mlat-client(622): Lost connection to localhost:30005
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] mlat-client(622): Reconnecting in 30.0 seconds
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] lost connection to dump1090-fa via faup1090
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] mlat-client(622): Beast-format results connection with ::1:30104: connection lost
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] faup1090 exited normally
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] no ADS-B data program seen listening on port 30978 for 62 seconds, next check in 60s
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] no ADS-B data program seen listening on port 30005 for 31 seconds, next check in 60s
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] mlat-client(622): Beast-format results connection with 127.0.0.1:30104: [Errno 111] Connection refused
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] mlat-client(622): Reconnecting in 0.5 seconds
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] mlat-client(622): Connection to localhost:30005 lost: [Errno 111] Connection refused
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] mlat-client(622): Connection to localhost:30005 lost: [Errno 111] Connection refused
[2023-10-03 23:53 CDT] mlat-client(622): Reconnecting in 30.0 seconds
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] 74 msgs recv’d from dump978-fa (0 in last 5m); 73 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] 29569 msgs recv’d from dump1090-fa (17 in last 5m); 29547 msgs sent to FlightAware
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] mlat-client(622): Beast-format results connection with ::1:30104: connection established
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] mlat-client(622): Input format changed to BEAST, 12MHz clock
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] mlat-client(622): Input connected to localhost:30005
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] no ADS-B data program seen listening on port 30978 for 122 seconds, next check in 60s
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] mlat-client(622): Lost connection to localhost:30005
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] mlat-client(622): Reconnecting in 30.0 seconds
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] mlat-client(622): Beast-format results connection with ::1:30104: connection lost
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] no ADS-B data program seen listening on port 30005 for 91 seconds, next check in 60s
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] mlat-client(622): Connection to localhost:30005 lost: [Errno 111] Connection refused
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] mlat-client(622): Reconnecting in 0.5 seconds
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] mlat-client(622): Beast-format results connection with 127.0.0.1:30104: [Errno 111] Connection refused
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] mlat-client(622): Reconnecting in 30.0 seconds
[2023-10-03 23:54 CDT] mlat-client(622): Connection to localhost:30005 lost: [Errno 111] Connection refused

This started happening a couple of days ago. Any suggestions on what the problem is?

2

After the receiver quits working, if I reboot the receiver from the FlightAware Statistics page, the receiver goes thru a reboot, but I still don’t see any traffic. If I power cycle the receiver, it starts working again.

3

What does the normal logging around the failures tell you ?
Piaware logging shows multiple attempts to reconnect but it keeps losing it’s connection.

Questions:

  • Are there any other unexpected messages in the logging ?
  • Are the dongles connected properly ?
  • Are the connectors of the antennas connected thightly ?
  • You are using the SD card image, how old is the SD card ?
  • This might be caused by the SD card nearing the end of its lifetime, did you try a different or new card to see if the problem persists?
4

For clairification, is your pi connected by ethernet or wifi?

5

Your log detail makes me suspect that your local network connectivity is in question. There are a lot of mlat-client failures.

6

I am using a Raspberry Pi Zero W with a wifi connection. I have a powered USB hub connected to the Raspberry Pi, with the two ADS-B dongles connected to the hub.

The problem is not a network connectivity issue. I am running pings from my laptop to the Pi continuously, and the pings never get interrupted.

The problem seems to be related to the Raspberry Pi loosing its connection to the ADS-B dongle.

7

I think your Rasbery Pi Zero is having issue with the powerdraw from 2 dongles at the same time.
Even when connected to a powered USB hub the bus itself might be struggling to keep up.
The number of messages could be to much for the USB bus since it is quite limited on that device.
If you connect just one dongle, does that make the situation better ?

8

Probably so with the Pi Zero in the game. Also, if you mismatch 2.0 white with 3.0 blue USB connections, it will struggle and disconnect and reconnect the associated devices.

9

A couple of days ago, I moved my wifi router next to the PiAware receiver (1-2 ft distant). That appears to be when I started having problems. Today I moved the router about 6’ away from the PiAware receiver. I haven’t had any problems since.

10

Sounds like the Pi Zero became overwhelmed by the strength of the wifi signal at close quarters. That’s a new twist.

11

Try swapping the PSU - they often go soft with age and cause this type of dropouts.

12

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