After months of building, testing and a LOT of late nights — PiLNK is ready for its closed beta and I’m looking for a handful of keen testers to kick things off!
For those who don’t know — PiLNK is an open source dashboard for your Raspberry Pi ADS-B setup. It combines live flight tracking with real ATC audio streaming, weather overlays, a 3D approach renderer and a whole lot more — all in one clean interface that runs locally on your Pi.
One thing I want to be clear about — PiLNK is NOT here to compete with FlightAware or replace PiAware. If anything it’s the opposite. PiLNK runs ALONGSIDE your existing FlightAware setup. You keep feeding data to FlightAware exactly as you do now — PiLNK just gives you a much richer local experience on top of what you already have. Think of it as a companion, not a replacement.
What you’ll need:
• A Raspberry Pi (3, 4 or 5)
• An ADS-B dongle (FlightAware Pro Stick or similar)
• A second RTL-SDR dongle for ATC audio (optional but awesome)
• About 15 minutes to install
One command install:
That’s literally it. The installer handles everything including an interactive map picker so you can drop a pin exactly on your house for accurate positioning.
Beta starts Thursday/Friday this week. Spots are limited.
If you’re interested drop a comment below or DM me and I’ll get you set up!
I usually run dump1090-fa and dump978-fa on a RPi-4 and the load is fairly light. Usual CPU temperature is 40 Deg C (passive cooling). I even at times add in dumpvdl2 (ACARS) with a small increase in temp. So I don’t think the addition of AM demodulation (airband voice) would be a significant load on the RPi. I guess we will find out shortly.
I just have generic systems at the moment. I would just buy whatever hardware you feel is ideal for your Beta and run that next to my current system. The current system seems to max out at 280 aircraft and 1200 messages/s. Be interesting to run a parallel setup to see what tweaks impact things.
I have about half that number of aircraft and a max of 1000 messages/s. This is on 1090 MHz. UAT 978 MHz is a lot less of course. Another question – does PiLNK include UAT 978 MHz?
Thanks for the interest, but no we’re not looking for developers specifically, just enthusiasts who enjoy tinkering with new things.
All we need is someone who’s willing take a little time to write down their observations on their experience. Positive or not. “Doesn’t work or it’s shit” aren’t particularly helpful.
If you’re interested go to pilnk.io and create an account.
Hey! Great numbers — sounds like you’ve got a solid setup!!
PiLNK currently focuses on 1090MHz ADS-B for flight tracking, so UAT 978MHz isn’t supported yet. That said, it’s absolutely on the roadmap — it’s just not in the current beta.
What PiLNK adds on top of your existing setup is the second RTL-SDR dongle tuned to the VHF airband (118-137MHz) for live ATC audio streaming — so you’re hearing the actual controllers talking to the aircraft you’re tracking on screen at the same time!! That’s the magic!!
Your message rate and aircraft count sound perfect for beta — PiLNK runs alongside your existing PiAware setup so nothing changes there!!
Actually it handles it really well!! The Pi 4 and 5 are surprisingly capable little machines!!
On my Pi 5 (8GB) running PiLNK with both dongles active, ATC audio streaming, live flight tracking and the web interface — CPU sits around 15-25% and RAM usage is well under 1GB. Plenty of headroom!!
The Pi 4 (4GB) runs it comfortably too — that’s actually our recommended minimum for the full experience with ATC audio!!
The key is having a good power supply — the official 27W USB-C for Pi 5 or the 15W for Pi 4. Underpowering is the most common cause of instability with multiple USB devices!!
If you’re already running PiAware you’re basically there already!!
Hey, thanks so much for your interest!!
Head over to pilnk.io and create an account — once we’re ready to kick off the beta I’ll send you your personal invite with everything you need to get started!!
Stay tuned — won’t be long!!
Thanks for the interest guys, it’s honestly appreciated. For those that have registered on the site head on to the forums and Say hi in the General discussions then we can really expand this topic indepth.
Hey!! Thanks for flagging that — really appreciate the patience!!
This is exactly what beta is for!! I’ve logged the issue and we’ll have it fixed very soon. In the meantime your account IS created in the system so once we push the fix you’ll be able to log straight in!!
Stay tuned!!
AJ
My FlightAware Flightfeeder "GPS - (G10), station site no. 89534 - HKMO. belongs to FlightAware Company. Am a Feeder so l don’t have Software access to it.
But l do feed LiveATC with a separate raspberry pi3 B+ with Noolec dongle… The Station is UP and running well
What you’ll need:
One command install:
Beta starts Thursday/Friday this week. Spots are limited.
