RPI 4, Pi OS x32 bullseye lite, Dump1090-FA, FA Pro Stick Plus no more data with a 2nd SDR dongle

AISAirspotterDE · January 18, 2024, 6:24pm

Hello, my name is Stephan,

I come from Lower Saxony in Germany. I hope I’m doing everything right with my first post.

So far, I have always been able to solve all my problems bit by bit myself but not this time, I am facing a problem and unfortunately the support is not helping me.

The summary: I provide ADS-B data for 8 different networks. I have a Raspberry Pi 4 with Pi OS x32, bullseye lite. I had tried Bookworm x64 but had problems with the service provider, Planefinder. The stick I use for this is the FlightAware Pro Stick Plus, Dump1090-FA.

Now comes the issue with the support, as I also use AirNav Radarbox, I came across the advertisement of their subsidiary, ShipXplorer. I bought their AIS dongle and that’s when the problems started.

According to their description, parallel operation works: Coverage Network - ShipXplorer - Global Vessel Tracking Intelligence | Live Vessel Tracker and Port Status but as soon as I carry out the steps from 1a onwards, all my feeders stop working.

I get the following message back at point 1e:

feederadmin@adsbfeederpios:~ $ rtl_eeprom -d 0 -p AIS -s 00000060
Found 1 device(s):
  0:  Generic RTL2832U OEM

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
usb_claim_interface error -6
Failed to open rtlsdr device #0.

The error message I got with 1C was similar but unfortunately I had forgotten to write it down.

Found 2 device(s):
  0:  Generic RTL2832U
  1:  Generic RTL2832U OEM

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U
Detached kernel driver
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner

Current configuration:
__________________________________________
Vendor ID:              0x0bda
Product ID:             0x2832
Manufacturer:           Realtek
Product:                RTL2832U
Serial number:          00001000
Serial number enabled:  yes
IR endpoint enabled:    no
Remote wakeup enabled:  no
__________________________________________

New configuration:
__________________________________________
Vendor ID:              0x0bda
Product ID:             0x2832
Manufacturer:           Realtek
Product:                ADSB
Serial number:          00000010
Serial number enabled:  yes
IR endpoint enabled:    no
Remote wakeup enabled:  no
__________________________________________
Write new configuration to device [y/n]?

I then click no, because the configuration already seems to be there.

Found 2 device(s):
  0:  Generic RTL2832U
  1:  Generic RTL2832U OEM

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U
Detached kernel driver
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner

Current configuration:
__________________________________________
Vendor ID:              0x0bda
Product ID:             0x2832
Manufacturer:           Realtek
Product:                RTL2832U
Serial number:          00001000
Serial number enabled:  yes
IR endpoint enabled:    no
Remote wakeup enabled:  no
__________________________________________

New configuration:
__________________________________________
Vendor ID:              0x0bda
Product ID:             0x2832
Manufacturer:           Realtek
Product:                AIS
Serial number:          00000060
Serial number enabled:  yes
IR endpoint enabled:    no
Remote wakeup enabled:  no

When I look at the configurations, the assignments of both sticks seem to correspond to the instructions. But as soon as both sticks are plugged into the Raspberry, ADS-B no longer works.

Basically, the SDR stick from ShipXplorer works. I was able to install it on a second Raspberry with the same OS version without any problems.

I have not analyzed further, as I unfortunately only have rudimentary Linux knowledge.

Greetings Stephan

kmm0000 · January 18, 2024, 7:49pm

Did you update dump1090-fa to use S/N 00000010?

sudo nano /etc/default/dump1090-fa
RECEIVER_SERIAL=00000010

fhmiii · January 18, 2024, 8:09pm

For multiple SDR dongles (e.g. here in the US we have ADS-B and UAT), the dongles have to be serialized. I’ll bet the same is true for adding the ShipXplorer dongle.

@abcd567 has a tutorial on how to serialize dongles for UAT.

tomvdhorst · January 18, 2024, 8:50pm

They are both SDR dongles so they both have to have an unique serial and the config file of the application has to point to the correct dongle type and serial indeed. Just giving them a serial is only part of the solution

rickined1 · January 18, 2024, 10:44pm

as @tomvdhorst knows, I learned this the hard way.

So, like @fhmiii said, serialize the dongles. You can use @abcd567 instructions for 1090 ADSB/978 UAT but substitute the AIS for the 978 UAT.

And then point dump10909-fa to the 1090 dongle.

You’ll have to figure out the steps though on how to point the AIS feeder to the AIS dongle…

But since AIS works, you may just need to figure out what the 1090 dongle is and then just change that in the 1090 config file, then restart dump1090-fa service and you’ll be good to go.

rickined1 · January 18, 2024, 10:45pm

here’s @abcd567 tutorial for running both 1090 and AIS on the same pi.

abcd567 · January 18, 2024, 11:15pm

(1) Serialize dongles as follows:

AIS-dongle: 8-digit serial number 00000162
Dump1090 dongle: 8-digit serial number 00001090

(2) To install AIS-atcher, copy-paste following bash script in Termnal / PuTTY, and press Enter key:

sudo bash -c "$(wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/abcd567a/install-aiscatcher/master/install-aiscatcher.sh)"

AIS-Catcher default config file:

sudo nano /usr/share/aiscatcher/aiscatcher.conf

Defauslt ontents of file aiscatcher.conf:

 -d 00000162
 -v 10
 -M DT
 -gr TUNER 38.6 RTLAGC off
 -s 2304k
 -p 3
 -o 4
 -u 127.0.0.1 10110
 -N 8383
 -N PLUGIN_DIR /usr/share/aiscatcher/my-plugins

in above config file, you can add additional lines for AIS tracking sites as follows:
(Replace xxxxx by the port number allocated by monitoring site when you register there)

 -u hub.shipxplorer.com xxxxx
 -u data.aishub.net xxxx
 -u ais.fleetmon.com xxxxx
 -u ais.vesselfinder.com xxxx
 -u 5.9.207.224 xxxxx
 -u 54.204.25.151 xxxx

(3) See Web interface in your Browser at following address:

IP-of-Pi:8383

(4) For how to set PPM and gain, please see this page:

https://github.com/abcd567a/install-aiscatcher

AISAirspotterDE · January 21, 2024, 7:29pm

Hello everyone,

and thank you very much for the data you have provided.

After looking at the information I posted myself, again, and looking at the various information posted here, I tried the kmm0000 step. But that did not work. Because despite the command rtl_eeprom -d 0 -p ADSB -s 00000010 the SN is at 000001000. Thanks to the information and the command rtl_test -t I was able to see that the SN had not changed. It had remained at SN: 00001000. I then entered this in /etc/default/dump1090-fa and restarted it. After that, all my feeders were working again, as was AIS. I’ll see about everything else.

I will have a look at the topic of AIS-atcher.