Post your PiAware setup

[struijs]

This is my setup. Feeding Flightaware, FR24, Planefinder and ADSBexchange.
EDIT: And feeding dutchradar.nl also.
EDIT 2: Changed antenna to original Flightaware antenna (huge positive difference)
EDIT 3: Changed to 1.80m long Ebay antenna. Again more planes/locations. (around 100 400Km far a day) Remind, my antenna is on a 2 floor apartment, 9meter high or so) Still climbing in Flightaware stats.
But this antenna is LONG…

https://s32.postimg.org/9lc5oniud/Outside.jpg

https://s32.postimg.org/temu7rpid/IMG_0837.jpg

https://s31.postimg.org/n2w1gnhkb/IMG_0835.jpg

Happy feeding,

Peter

[ameins]

I started feeding about 3 months ago and I quickly wanted a better antenna for my DVBT-Dongle. I decided to build this 4 element collinear, I found the instructions here on the board, seems to be one of the easier to build models. I plan to stick it into a PVC tube sometime in the future. This time I used a coax with a steel core (copper clad), because the full
copper core is q bit “softer” and therefore a lot more difficult to use for this type of antenna.

Two weeks ago I added an amplifier:

Axing SZU 14-00 DC-Blocker
Axing TZU 15-02 Power Inserter
Axing SVS 2-01 Amplifier

The antenna antenna is outside, the rest of the equipment plus the Raspberry Pi is inside. I use a standard coax window pass thru.

This equipment gives me a range of > 210 nm. Not perfect, but I’m really pleased with it. Without the amplifier I had about 1.200 planes a day, now I have 2.200.
Antenna:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13493733/ant.jpg
Amplifier:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13493733/amp.jpg
http://flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/ameins

[abcd567]

@ameins

I started feeding about 3 months ago and I quickly wanted a better antenna for my DVBT-Dongle. I decided to build this 4 element collinear, I found the instructions here on the board, seems to be one of the easier to build models. I plan to stick it into a PVC tube sometime in the future. This time I used a coax with a steel core (copper clad), because the full
copper core is q bit “softer” and therefore a lot more difficult to use for this type of antenna.
…

Looking at the photo you have posted, it seems that you are using this design: CoCo + Twin-Lead TL for impedance matching

Nov 4, 2014, Test Results CoCo #3: http://forum.planefinder.net/threads/ads-b-diy-antenna.23/page-18#post-1317

Nov 5, 2014, Dimension Drawing: http://forum.planefinder.net/threads/ads-b-diy-antenna.23/page-18#post-1319

[ameins]

Yes, that’s the one. Love the simple design and the ability to tweak the antenna after assembly. But I still need to make the antenna more weatherproof, during the last storm I probably had the rain produce a short circuit somewhere because the reception was way down for about 12 hours.

[Radiostationx]

@ameins
I see you are using the axing svs 2-01 amplifier.
I found that this model was a good performer also
http://forum.planefinder.net/threads/ads-b-diy-antenna.23/page-155#post-4738

[sjacket99]

Thought I would go back to my older setup. So I got it all hooked up. From left to right we have a Raspberry Pi B+, Raspberry Pi 2, Orange Pi PC, and Banana Pi Pro. All hooked up to different antennas. 2 of the Pi’s I have a amp and power inserter hooked up to it. All feeding data.

[Venz]

My primary setup at the moment:

• Raspberry Pi 3 with aluminium housing and 2,5A RPi power supply
• Flightaware Pro-Stick with RTL-SDR aluminium housing
• Flightaware 1090MHz filter
• 2m Aircell 7 Coax cable with Aircell SMA-connector + Aircell N-Connector.
• Flightaware 66cm ADS-B antenna

Current software: Piaware 3.0.4 feeding to Flightaware, Flightradar24, ADSB Exchange and Dutchradar.

I placed the Pro-Stick in an aluminium housing and added a heatsink, for cooling the stick and to temper RF interference.

I had some temperature issues with my RPi, so I added heatsinks and placed it in an aluminium housing (also for RF protection). For active cooling, a fan is installed, but disabled at the moment due to noise issues. (Next project will be to active the fan as soon as the temperatures get to high). The powercord is supplied with Ferrite chokes, again to temper RF interference.

The complete set is placed at the attic. The coax cable is used as a feed through the roof, as the antenna is placed outside, on top of the roof at 10m above ground level.

My secondary receiver is for backup and trial purposes. But most of the time it’s feeding too.

Hardware:

• Raspberry Pi 3 with 2A power supply
• RTL-SDR V2 dongle with aluminium housing (and heatsink)
• LNA4All Low Noise Amplifier
• LNA4All 1090MHz filter
• short Coax run with 2 SMA connector
• Homebrew 8-legged spider antenna

Running the Piaware 3.0.4 software at this moment.

Secondary receiver in top of the attic

RTL-SDR dongle with heatsink

The spider antenna is mounted inside on top of the attic

The home brewed 8-legged Spider antenna

[nyau]

Location: (Site 21200 - https://flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/nyau) North of KATL (USA)
Antenna: 1090MHz ADS-B Antenna - 66cm / 26in
Filter: ADS-B 1090MHz Band-pass SMA Filter from FlightAware
Dongle: NooElec NESDR Mini 2 USB RTL-SDR
Raspberry Pi3, MLAT enabled.

Entire setup is indoor in the Attic.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-w5dkf00NI5A/VesLneJ-JkI/AAAAAAABQgs/Xxs6-Ns9fsc/s640-Ic42/IMG_8968.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6jfU0Df4qJc/VesLuhBxMPI/AAAAAAABQgs/myovPAQ_R5s/s640-Ic42/IMG_8969.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5luTspQWqbk/VesLwwCOf7I/AAAAAAABQgs/HD4HGaf_-2c/s640-Ic42/IMG_8970.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6gRnyK_az6I/VesLy0lIxBI/AAAAAAABQgs/EE5DvmfR7p0/s640-Ic42/IMG_8971.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ah5rlsIv4y4/VesL1D0B2xI/AAAAAAABQgs/6vWvh9olL-o/s640-Ic42/IMG_8972.JPG

[breeves002]

My setup is a Pi3 on wifi in a box on my office roof. Using the flightaware dongle and filter. I have a custom piece of hardware I repurposed to be the solar battery charger. It has a USB interface for a cell modem so I can make this box go anywhere if I want. As of now I’m feeding Flightaware and FR24.

The antenna was a 915mhz antenna I modified for 1090mhz. Cut the elements and changed the inductor and cap out. I have a network analyzer so I can see the frequency of the antenna.

I want to get a pole to get the antenna up even higher. I still need to fix the cable so it isn’t hanging. The box has to be on the ground to get wifi signal. I need to hook up an outdoor AP anyways. I need to get a smaller solar panel and mount it also. I’m adding heatsinks to the Pi today.

Here are a few images. I included my old box with built in antenna setup in there too. The new one is cleaner. I also included the smith chart and log mag views of the antenna on the network analyzer.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160901/e008e81049084486ef02a96a74db7fb4.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160901/c89f09de76a6ad1d4ca81f6adcb67d45.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160901/334a47b3d1a37266578150243eed2962.jpg
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160901/353bfe6632b9ac9ae39805d0c9888232.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160901/f3ef7d10147b41ac784115285868b1d0.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160901/8d44d9d6fdce5c252d1375a919277cab.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160901/96dcc729938933389bad24c284297642.jpg

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Iemand91]

I had some Raspberry Pi’s (version 1, model B) laying around when I found out you could build a cheap ADS-B receiver with it.
So I bought some cheapo DVB-T from Ebay in March this year and since then this project is a constant process.

But this is pretty much the end setup.

Inside on the window sill:

• Raspberry Pi 3 (my old Pi couldn’t handle it anymore)
• DVB-T stick
• MCX-F pigtail
• This piece of white flat coaxial cable to go between the window and window frame.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8508/29415609844_116b865fa5_c.jpg
ADS-B RPi3 PiAware 3 by Iemand91, on Flickr

This window is in the outside wall seen on the bottom right of this photo. About 17 meters of Hirschmann KOKA 9 TS coaxial cable goes up the roof, between the tiles and the isolation.
The cable goes right up and then to the right towards the antenna.
According to Hirschmann’s specifications this length would give me a loss of about 1.25 dB (correct me if I’m wrong )
This loss is without the flat piece of coax of course.

I’ve mounted the FA-antenna on a piece of PVC pipe we had laying around. That pipe is bolted to this piece of metal that’s normally used to mounting solar panels. I bent the part with hole so the antenna is vertical.
This metal thing is screwed to the laths. The bottom of the antenna is at about 7 meters above ground.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8542/29749362000_757d877c1c_c.jpg
FlightAware antenna by Iemand91, on Flickr

Then some stats.
Before I used the current white piece of flat coax I used this piece of flat coax from China. The results from that are under ‘copper’ flat coax. Since I got the new piece of white flat coax I use the white coax.
Just to test what results I would get without either piece of flat coax; I placed an F-F adapter instead so I wouldn’t have the loss of the flat coax.
(So setup would be: Raspberry 3 → DVB-T stick → MCX-F pigtail → F(female)-F(female) adapter - KOKA 9 TS - F-N adapter - antenna)

I did that test twice; once on September 28 and at this very moment. As you would expect; results are much better without the flat coax.
You can see those results in the graphs below. (in the graphs below it’s called ‘no flat coax’)

But as there is no way of getting the KOKA 9 TS cable directly to the Raspberry; I will have to use a flat coax anyway.
When I first connected the white piece of flat coax; results where much better than the old ‘copper’ flat coax.
But when I connected it again (afther the first test with the F-F adapter) results were worse; about equal to the ‘copper’ flat coax.
Really disappointed now…

EDIT: well, weirdly enough; when I reconnected the flat coax this afternoon (to close the window for the night) results are better then before.
It’s now at about the level of the first time I connected it.

https://c6.staticflickr.com/6/5677/29416558453_aee972ddbb_b.jpg
FlightAware stats by Iemand91, on Flickr
https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5005/29749345020_2e5edb2599_k.jpg
ADS-B stats aantekeningen by Iemand91, on Flickr

Range with the F-F adapter. Personally I hoped it would be a bit better reading other people’s stories about their setup.
I’ve read stories of people in the Netherlands reaching Denmark for example.
But then again; The Netherlands is filled to the brim with feeders so a better range wouldn’t make much of a difference for the community, just for personal fun.

https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8082/29959895971_9bda7f2c7e_c.jpg
FA antenna Planefinder range directly by Iemand91, on Flickr
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7549/29416561073_dfa960878f_c.jpg
ADS-B range rings directly by Iemand91, on Flickr

Range with the white flat coax (my normal setup):

https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8751/30043636955_31a4f03154_c.jpg
FA antenna Planefinder range through flat coax by Iemand91, on Flickr
https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5662/30010479546_7653004941_c.jpg
ADS-B range rings through flat coax by Iemand91, on Flickr

I really want to get the FA Pro Stick but it’s out of stock in Europe. I could order it from Ebay or so, but shipping costs make it quite expensive. So I have the patience to wait for it to become in stock in Europe again.
I’m currently feeding to FlightAware, Flightradar24 and Planefinder.

[Obadiah3244]

[ETSI4]

Yesterday i put my DIY CoCo into a Fiberglass tube and mount it a final place…

here the new Fiberglass tube CoCo

and now at roof

connected with FA 1090 filter on a Piaware device with 8$ DVB-T dongle

Best Regards

Volker

[Drift8058]

Chris, thats a very nice trumpet you’ve got going on there!

@chrisjohnston50

[Obadiah3244]

@Drift8058

Chris, thats a very nice trumpet you’ve got going on there!

$1.45 at Home Depot

homedepot.com/p/FloTool-Extr … /205152532

[jcinnb]

A lot of great work on this thread.

Just so new or “un-handy” guys don’t get discouraged, here are a couple of my homemade antenna. I hope to get to roof this week, so i will be 35 feet higher. Right now operating in R&D mode, on my covered front porch. House blocks out from South to West. In the 270 degrees that are rather open regard to structures, but, still behind trees for most of the arc.

Here is my ugly, soldered 8 leg spider. I did this about day two into the hobby. Needless to say, I have no training in soldering, but it worked pretty good. In fact, using the test set up, it out performed the Flight Aware store bought antenna.

Don’t laugh too hard:

I just took it off to test another (The 8th leg is there, just well hidden):

Here is my 8 legged spider, freebie. This is just stripped cable, inserted in insulation. Only been up for a couple of hours, but I seen no significant change from the welded spider. And it is essentially free!

Many thanks to ABCD567 and all of you for the many instructional posts!

[Satmax]

Hello!

I’ve been following this thread for awhile, and I decided to build a station too. I’m never happy with my setup. It first started with the USB dongle, Pi, filter and a “cantenna” balancing on top of an old Linksys wi-fi antenna.

I wanted more range so I built a better antenna from RG6 cable and another can.

I wanted something to house all my bits and pieces in so I got a project box from Radio Shack.

Still not happy, I finally bought the FA antenna, giving me better range.

Today, I bought a bunch of PVC pipe and built a portable antenna mast and I’m now reaching over 200+ nm.

Does the upgrading ever stop?!?

This is the Radio Shack project box. Still an ongoing project. Next is to install a bulkhead micro B USB connector so I don’t have to feed the cord through a hole in the box.
https://s13.postimg.org/b1yqkrgyv/IMG_1159.jpg

Here’s the box closed. I photoshopped a label together - KTUL is my closest airport. The red button shuts down the OS so I can remove power for servicing.
https://s13.postimg.org/genkyw4vb/IMG_1160.jpg

This is the finished setup, around 2 meters tall.
https://s13.postimg.org/5t3pmvyjr/IMG_1161.jpg

I built the PVC mast because this is my mother’s home and I don’t want to install this stuff in the attic so I thought of making a portable PVC mast that is easy to break down (not glued together) is very sturdy (1 1/4" PVC is hefty) and I can take it anywhere, just need power and wi-fi.

Thanks for looking!

Josh

[GeorgLichtblau]

Perfect Camouflage IF IT IS RED NEVER TOUCH THIS! IF IT IS RED AND THERE IS A V32.bis MODEM WITH NO LIGHTS DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT LOOKING AT IT. YOU WILL SURELY DIE SLOW. I love it to be a IT worker.

https://s22.postimg.org/5kze8gmo1/rittal1.jpg

https://s22.postimg.org/7qtp2yq4h/rittal2.jpg

[ETSI4]

finalize my winter-setup today…

http://image.prntscr.com/image/12885ba02d304b26b2ca2a77690b17be.jpg

[sjacket99]

Here is my newest setup of a ADS-B site. I have a homemade 8 legged spider antenna connected to a Raspberry Pi B+. "Soon will be a 2 or 3. Just ordered my FlightAware prostick for it. The antenna is only a few feet of the ground. But it does work.

Here is the YouTube URL to my setup.

youtu.be/MXuM3tmKho8

[abcd567]

@sjacket99

Here is my newest setup of a ADS-B site. I have a homemade 8 legged spider antenna connected to a Raspberry Pi B+. "Soon will be a 2 or 3. Just ordered my FlightAware prostick for it. The antenna is only a few feet of the ground. But it does work.

Here is the YouTube URL to my setup.

youtu.be/MXuM3tmKho8

Looks great. Well done!