I have a PiAware receiver that has been running since 2014 and is using PiAware 3.5.0. It actually has been up for that entire time, the only reason why the feed hasn’t been up that long has been the loss of Internet connectivity.
Unfortunately I have lost the notes from a decade ago when this was setup. It is using a NooElec dongle (don’t remember which one) plus a multi-pole 1090 MHz filter. At the time I had made a number of edits to the dump1090-fa file to tweak receive performance.
It has worked so well I have not wanted to touch it - but its time to upgrade. Looking for suggestions / guidance with that effort.
The receiver is at a mountain top location colocated with a lot of TV, radio, cell and other transmitters. I probably need to keep the filter in-line. Should I continue to use the NooElec device, or invest in something else (newer / better technology)?
If I continue to use the NooElec device, are the parameters I edited with the v3 setup still valid with today’s PiAware 10?
If I go with a different device, in my high RF environment will I need to similarly have to experiment with tweaks to the RF settings?
For the rebuild I have a new RaspberryPi 5 (sure, maybe a bit overkill, but let’s see if that runs for 10+ years).
Not sure how I would provide a pointer to the site - its ID is 3981. (If I shouldn’t be sharing that info let me know and I’ll remove it from the post.)
pi@piaware /etc/default $ cat dump1090-fa
# dump1090-fa configuration
# This is read by the systemd service file as an environment file,
# and evaluated by some scripts as a POSIX shell fragment.
# If you are using a PiAware sdcard image, this config file is regenerated
# on boot based on the contents of piaware-config.txt; any changes made to this
# file will be lost.
RECEIVER_OPTIONS="--device-index 0 --gain -10 --ppm 0 --net-bo-port 30005"
DECODER_OPTIONS="--max-range 300"
NET_OPTIONS="--net --net-heartbeat 60 --net-ro-size 1000 --net-ro-interval 1 --n
et-ri-port 0 --net-ro-port 30002 --net-sbs-port 30003 --net-bi-port 30004,30104
--net-bo-port 30005"
JSON_OPTIONS="--json-location-accuracy 1"
If it has been working well with the current hardware I’d be inclined to keep the receiver until you have sufficient information to change it especially considering the adverse nature and remoteness of the site.
I run a site remotely and have set it up as follows:
Pi4 with the gui based os from RaspberryPi. Use the raspberry pi installer.
Enable Raspberry Pi Connect so that you can see the gui and log into the remote system and not only tweak things but see the planes and tracks etc as if sitting on the mountain top.
Instructions for installing flightaware software are here . Don’t forget to add you unique id.
Install @wiedehopf 's graphs1090 package as it will help you see what needs tweaking and what effect such tweaks change.
Many others on this forum will advise you to upgrade your receiver to a better one (read airspy) which uses significantly more cpu. A pi 5 choice now will seem like a good idea in such a busy hill top.
The config file format changed in PiAware 6.0 so no, not really.
However, looking at the config file you posted it looks like you were using the default values anyway. Somewhere along the way your changes appear to have been lost.
Probably best to start again.
