The RPI5 should have plenty of CPU to cater for the airspy and possibly enough USB throughput to handle an airspy for dump1090 and an rtl-sdr for dump978 (My RPI4 cannot do this, at the moment).
Really, that’s surprising. I have an RPI4 and was thinking of getting an airspy mini for dump1090. Don’t think I would get an RPI5 because of the fan requirement.
The CPU issue is only running both airspy and and rtl-sdr for dump978. I run an airspy on an RPI4 Jon Hawkes ADS-B Feeder Statistics - FlightAware The antenna is inside my attic so it doesn’t have the greatest range(and I am only 30ft AMSL). You will need a pre-amp with the airspy. It is deaf at1090Mhz without it.
I do have a couple of Odroids that I want to get running again to be able to have both running on a single device.
I added dump978-fa with an rtl-sdr dongle a couple of weeks ago. It didn’t seem to increase the load on the RPI4 much. Course, I have a pretty poor 978 MHz antenna and am probably only receiving about 1/3 the aircraft that I should be receiving.
The issue with the RPI4 is when an airpsy is used with an rtl-sdr on the same device. The USB bus can be overwhelmed. Two rtl-sdrs may not have that issue.
Actually, I also have a third device on the USB bus – a WiFi adapter. Seems to all work.
Planning on a visit to Microcenter to pick up a Pi 5, they were showing Oct 23, now they are showing Nov 3.
Been watching to see when the 5 comes available and seems deliveries might have slipped? The blurbs I saw on vendor sites all said late October so not actually late yet I suppose. Sparkfun allows preorders but charges at the time you place the order so you become a bit captive, but it’s what I did. It will just arrive whenever they get stock.
@jimMerk2 - About the fan requirement, they say you don’t need one and it throttles to keep temps in check like previous Pi’s. Don’t yet know how much it might throttle in actual use though. Apparently the power draw/heat per instruction is lower than previous Pi’s so under identical workloads it might run cooler. I have my ADS-B Pi 3 equipped with a modified fan hat that keeps temps nice even though the Pi is mounted high on a wall in my garage. I put fans on all the Pi’s I use just as a matter of course but use more reliable Noctua fans. But you might be fine without a fan since the 5 is more efficient. Getting hands on one will reveal a lot.
Even a Pi3 is fine with 2 rtl-sdr dongles. My Pi3 only shows about 25% CPU use with both 1090 and 978. Now, my Pi Zero W? It huffs and puffs with only 1 antenna.
Picked up a 5 4gb Friday at Microcenter as I saw they had a few in stock, glad I did as they were gone by Saturday.
1 Like
How are you liking the 5? Did you need anything special to power it?
It’s running well.
I used the Official 27W PSU.
Using it with an Airpy Mini, average CPU is ~24% with sample rate 20 and preamble filter 60.
It’s running at 60 degrees installed in the attic (it’s winter) so I hope the active cooler copes with the summer temps.
For temp comparison my Pi 3b+ with a heatsink and fan is is running 22 degrees and only hit 55 in July.