Problem with dump1090-fa 3.8.0 and Pi Zero W?

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

Been using Piaware on a Pi Zero W with a Prostick blue for the last 2 years with no issues. I check it every couple of days or weeks at the local:8080 webpage. A couple of days ago the message I got was:

" Problem fetching data from dump1090.
AJAX call failed (timeout: timeout). Maybe dump1090 is no longer running?
The displayed map data will be out of date."

I also could not connect to the device through VNC as per usual. Cycling the power did not help and ssh would not connect. Seemed dead… until the Prostick was disconnected, and then the Pi came to life; I could see it connect though VNC, etc.

The whole setup was working on the old raspian Jessie and thought perhaps dump1090 was not working with that OS, so I pulled the SD, formatted, tested it(OK), flashed Buster lite, and reinstalled Piaware and dump1090-fa. Pi booted fine, but when you plug in the Prostick and dump1090-fa fires up, the Pi crashes. No ping, no ssh, nada.

I tested the Prostick on a PC with rtl1090 and it was receiving data. I tried three other power supplies for the Pi up to 2.5 amp but the result is the same; with the Prostick attached the Pi is unresponsive. Unplug the Prostick and the Pi comes to life.

I did watch the running processes on the Pi with the ‘top’ command when I plugged in the Prostick. The cpu load is very low, but plug in the dongle and dump1090-fa starts using more and more cpu(which is expected), up to about 40%, and then the Pi stops responding (ssh disconnects). Its was normal to see about 50% cpu usage when connected by VNC.

Any ideas to resolve this? Thank you.

2

See if anything appears in syslog as you plug it in. Use the command below with the stuck unplugged, press Enter a couple of times to create a couple of blank lines to aid visually, and then plug it in.

$ tail -f /var/log/syslog

After plugging in the stick check for any under-voltage instances with this command. If it reports throttled=0x0 then you’re good in terms of power.

$ vcgencmd get_throttled

From what you’ve described it’s as if the stick itself is failing. I don’t know if they have a lifespan but I’ve not heard of it. Could it be the adapter to the Pi’s micro USB, or the Pi’s micro USB port itself, which is having the problem? Or are you using a USB hub which could be where the problem lies?

3

Did you check via systemctl if dump1090 is running or not? Could be simply an issue with the webserver.

4

Well …

… either all power supplies were low on voltage

… or the ProStick is dead.

Your choice what you buy :wink:
Hard to say what’s more likely to be the issue.

I suppose it could also be that the Pi Zero W USB chip isn’t working correctly anymore.
Hard to say.

5

Seeing two errors:

“rbfeeder[411]: getaddrinfo: Temporary failure in name resolution”

and after unplugging and plugging back in

“No data received from the SDR for a long time, it may have wedged”

6

Also, I was getting another notification: “ipv6nd_sendadvertisement:” No buffer space available.

Took a shot and disabled ipv6, reset the Pi, rebooted the router. Seems to be working for now.