Hello,
I’ve had this Piaware setup running for a while now, apparently three years since needing a new dongle.
A few times lately, it has run for a day or two after a reboot, then I get yet another email about it having an outage. To watch, I have shut down the services, but run dump1090 manually, and it’s currently fine. I’ll see what is left when it dies again, but am suspecting the dongle again.
Having bought a couple dongles for this thing over the years, is there a better alternative that won’t keep dying? Or should I just wait to see what pops up in stderr?
What dongles are you using?
Most commonly, this is due to a PSU in its death throes.
Try a new PSU and see if things improve.
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Just the regular one with filter from FlightAware, for this. There is one I was messing around with for Zigbee, maybe I’ll pull that off for the time being.
If it’s just a bit too much for this PSU, perhaps it will continue to limp along.
I have to agree with GeckoVN above. Power supplies are a weak link in many systems. They have to contend with the power surges and fluctuating voltages, and are built for low cost, with reliability a distant second or third place. If for some reason, the system needs to draw extra power for a CPU intensive run, the power supply voltage can drop while supplying the extra current. That voltage drop causes the system to fail.
This happens to all of us at some point. The regular Pi supplied power supplies may cost a bit more, and their reliability is solid. CanaKit has good ones too. A spare power supply is a good thing to keep around. Best wishes.
Gene
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Thanks all. I’m using whatever power supply I’d bought with this Rpi4, so probably was either Rpi-specific or CanaKit as it happens. I moved the other, unrelated dongle off, so will see if it’s stable like this for the next while. (Been behaving so far today)
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When I had a power problem a couple years ago, I bit the bullet and bought one of the USB voltage and current monitor devices to see what was happening. The Pi’s like 5.1 volts, and complain if the power gets low, around 4.8 volts. Yup, that was my problem. A different power device made a huge difference. DuckDuckGo search for “USB volt amp meter tester”.
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I have a couple of these meters and they are not created equal.
The first I bought added significant voltage drop that even at 5.1V at the PSU, the dongle would sometimes have issues.
When I realised current wasn’t an interesting parameter, I just plug the meter into one of the Pi’s (unused) USB sockets and it gives me the voltage the dongle is seeing (on another port) without creating further complications.
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Do you have a recommendation for a good one of these ?
Thanks
The best one I have is made by UNI-T, but since I bought that one (some years ago), the USB-C capable meters have become available and are probably better.
Yeah, I would like to measure the total current draw from the PSU. So it would be in-line on the USB-C power input port.
Yeah, understand.
Mine are all USB-A (m&f), so not helpful to you.
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On any meter, to measure current, the meter uses an internal resistor and measures the VOLTAGE DROP across the resistor. And that is the cause of the low voltage on the meter output. Great idea measuring voltage on an unused USB port. I will definitely keep that in mind next time.
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Cool, ordered one of those to try. Went for the one with both connections.
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Ok, so they are offering 3 variations of the product: USB-A only, USB-C only, and USB-A/USB-C combined. Each one is $3.42. Wonder what the accuracy of these devices are. Probably not great considering the price.
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Yeah, figured the risk was low enough to at least give it a go.
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Yup! Roughly $10 CAD, but the prices were roughly the same regardless.
That may well not work with USB C devices.
From the description of one of the USB C meters I looked at :
Additional Notes
Please note that under normal circumstances the meter will not power on without a device connected (host, charger, accessory, etc) at both ends. If the meter turns on when only connected at one end, the attached device is “VBUS hot” which is against USB-C specifications.
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