I have a FlightAware FlightFeeder Pro (orange unit). I have two radios attached to it. One ADS-B (blue unit) and one UAT (orange unit) with band-pass filter. For the most part the setup works fine. Every once in a while, one or both of the radios will show disconnected. It just acts like they are not attached. If I simply reboot the FlightFeeder, it starts up and operates normally. I can find no pattern to it. I have had it go months without and issue. Other times, it’s only a few days. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Replace power supply.
For good measure, reimage a fresh sd-card.
If it doesn’t fix it, replace the SDRs.
If it doesn’t fix it, replace the pi.
I just reflashed to piaware 10.
I’m using the PSU that came with the FlightAware Pro kit.
I purchased everything from FlightAware back in January.
What PSU do you recommend?
I would assume you mean this kit FlightFeeder Pro - ADS-B Flight Tracker (PiAware) - 1090 MHz – FlightAware
Getting out my glasses and squinting it seems to be 2.5 amp at 5v. For a raspberry pi3 and two radios and the LCD it might be close to the limit but I would also assume that Flightware would test and size the power supply to match the max draw. Granted maybe they did not expect someone to plug in a 978 radio.
You might want to reach out to FlightAware and see if they run that config before. Another option to see if it is power supply related would be to unplug the 978 radio if it disconnects often enough (like every 24 hours or something) and see if the problems goes away after it is disconnected.
Lastly since you just reflash I would assume you have logged into the raspberrypi. After it locks up you can run the command
journalctl -n100
This will display the last 100 lines of the system log you are kinda looking for message like USB connection lost or unplugged, or maybe even low voltage warnings. That would confirm that it is a power issue. Now if I also recall with how the power is regulated to the usb ports on the PI3, it is 1.2 amps for USB and 1 amp for the raspberrypi itself or 2.2 amps. The power supply “should” be able to handle it.
That being said troubleshooting USB disconnects is kind like voodoo which is why wiedehopf recommended the flow most people should follow. So help me the number of times I have had a underpowered power supply.
I don’t like recommending a link to a power supply as the stuff on amazon seems to lie about its specs half the time. That being said GeeekPi 20W 5V 4A seems to have a lot of supply outside of just amazon and has the adapter to convert from USB type C to USB type B micro which the raspberrpi 3+ uses. Be sure any supply you get either is type usb B micro or has the USB type C to USB type B micro adapter.
Yes, that’s the kit.
I’ll shoot them an email and see what they say.
Perfect, this is exactly what I was looking for. I’ll run that command next time it happens.
Would upgrading to a newer pi help with the power distribution?
I think the radios are USB 2 so I’m guessing no.
I’ll look into that PSU.
Thank you all.
2.5 amp is the rating of the official Raspberry Pi power supply:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/micro-usb-power-supply/