PiAware Standalone - No Wifi - As WAP?

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

I would like to set up a dedicated Pi Zero W for use when no wifi is available.

Below is my design intent. I have tried setting RPI0W as a WAP, then install PiAware, but the PiAware script keeps messing up the manual IP config I had created.

My core idea is when sitting near an airport, or while at the airport waiting for a connections, I want to display the SkyView dump1090 webpage and not bother to connect to FA and have a very simple setup. I do not want to mess with hotspots nor tethering.

  • Pi Zero W running on USB battery and SDR dongle. No hotspot or other wifi available. If public wifi is available, I do NOT want to mess with the wifi banner pages (“Press Y to agree to silly terms…” is a hassle on a headless RPi)

  • RPi0W is running PiAware dump1090-fa, as I really like the look of that webpage.

  • RPI0W is configured as a WAP and creates it’s own hotspot, but some not have any route out to the internet.

  • I use tablet to connect to RPI0W SSID and can see dump1090-fa Skyview page. I let RPI0W run all the time, and I connect with tablet whenever I have time or care to look at local ADSB traffic.

A simple solutions that help get me there:

  • Set up RPI0W as a WAP, set SSID

  • Manually install dump1090-fa.

  • Connect tablet to RPI0W SSID, then point tablet browser to Skyview page.

Issues with above:

  • Will buffer to FA fill up? A way to disable feeding FA?

  • How to install just dump1090-fa manually?

    .
    Or another method:

  • install PiAware 3.5.x image on RPi0W

  • Disable PiAware IP config scripts

  • Config RPI0W as a WAP with SSID, …

Any suggestions or help? Anyone done this before?

I hate to reinvent the same world, but have searched and not seen any similar setups. Please point me, if you know of one

Mike

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2

Hi,
you can install dump1090-fa only without piaware. But this will not work as you need a connection to open street map. I don’t know a simple way to use offline maps.

3

I am not so so worried about the maps, because I am usually near an airport and the relative positions will be enough. The maps would be nice, so I might try and copy the cached version from another piaware.

I does not look like I can use “sudo apt-get install dump1090-fa”.

To build just dump1090-fa it looks like I will need to use wget? I have tried what I think will work, but no joy.

Is this the right starting point?: GitHub - flightaware/dump1090: Dump1090 is a simple Mode S decoder for RTLSDR devices

Can you help with the syntax or manual install procedure?

TIA,
Mike

4

.
If you dont want to feed data to Flightaware, do NOT install Piaware.
Piaware itself is a data feeder only. It does NOT contain any map.

The SkyView map is by dump1090-fa.
Install dump1090-fa only. The commands are as follows:

Scroll right to see full length of first code line which is very long.

wget http://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/files/packages/pool/piaware/p/piaware-support/piaware-repository_3.5.3_all.deb    
sudo dpkg -i piaware-repository_3.5.3_all.deb
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dump1090-fa

sudo reboot

SCROLL THE CODE >>>> >>>> >>>>

5

The stratux project is designed to mimic a stratus device. It runs dump1090 (the decoder) and setups the wifi as a wifi hotspot instead of a client. So any cellphone can then connect to the hotspot and get realtime data.
http://stratux.me

The Stratux wifi output is Garmin ADSB messages. So i can work with cellphone apps like Avare or ForeFlight.

The other solution is to run dump1090-fa like abcd567 suggested.

6

THANK MUCH! I was not aware of this project and it is very close to what I want and looks very useful and interesting, regardless.

I did manage to get dump1090-fa to manually install, but had problems getting the Wifi AP configures. I might still go this way, as it is a nice clean setup.

Thanks Again,

mike

7

Just want to clarify. I just ordered a 7" touch display for my pi3 and my goal is to make a completely portable flight tracker without connecting to the internet. I just want the aircraft within range of my antenna displayed on the pi screen.

Thanks,

Blake

1 Like
8

Of course you can. You need to follow the Piaware install instructions but skipping the step where it says “sudo apt install piaware”.
As long as you use the rest of the instructions, you should have a dump1090 installation without piaware

Alternatively take a look at the readsb/tar1090 package provided by @wiedehopf

Automatic installation for readsb

This installs readsb (an alternative decoder) and the web interface you might know from globe.adsbexchange.com

This works completely offline if you ignore that the map is not loading.
dump1090-fa is not needed for it, readsb is a complete replacement

9

Seen an Android app that does something like that. Tuner connects to Android device via OTG connection.

Geoff