I noticed that I’m running PiAware 9.0.1, which was released back in November 2023, well over a year ago. Is there no ongoing development for the app? While I’m not entirely sure what new features would be needed, the lack of any updates makes me wonder if active development has stopped or if there’s just nothing to add.
My original setup suffered a microSD card failure, and I left it inactive until about a month ago. I’ve since rebuilt the system using a Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB RAM. After some consideration, I decided to install Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm) instead of the PiAware image. My setup includes the Pro Stick® Plus and the AirNav RadarBox FlightStick UAT - 978 MHz USB Receiver, both paired with purpose-tuned outdoor antennas.
I followed the instructions for a “roll-your-own” PiAware install, setting up both ADS-B and UAT feeds. Initially, I encountered an issue where the system attempted to run ADS-B on the UAT tuner and vice versa. Thankfully, I figured out how to hard-code which tuner is used for each process, and it’s been running smoothly since.
In addition to PiAware, I’ve installed a few add-ons:
After experiencing the microSD card failure on my previous setup, I took steps to mitigate potential future issues. I’ve installed RonR-RPi-image-utils and configured a crontab to create a backup image file nightly. The Pi is set up to automatically mount a share on my NAS, so if the current card fails again, I can quickly burn the backup image to a new microSD card and resume operations without hassle.
Since the rebuild, I’ve been regularly checking for issues and decided to confirm whether I’m on the latest version of PiAware. As mentioned earlier, I find it odd that there haven’t been any updates or new features released in over a year. Is development on PiAware ongoing, or has it reached a point of completion?
Wow…I was thinking the same thing today. Since there is an opening now, I’ll ask a few questions. Hopefully a FlightAware representative will answer them:
Is FlightAware still ACTIVELY supporting the ADS-B feeder network?
Is FlightAware still ACTIVELY developing the ADS-B feeder network?
The OP mentioned PiAware, something that I mentioned earlier as well, but there is also the new SDR stick that was being developed and delayed for reasons beyond FlightAware’s control.
The first “sign”, to me at least, that things were going to change was the introduction of satellite ADS-B, followed by the supply chain issues caused by the other situation.
Where did you find 10.0-dev? I’ve gone to several different Github repositories and the latest any of the updates have been made says 2 years ago. I saw that there were several forks but upon viewing the forks, I could not see any that were taking on any expanded work.
Just because there is no update for a year doesn’t mean that something is stalled.
If the software works as expected and doesn’t require a significant improvement, i would leave it as it is too.
Piaware is just a piece of software which takes data from a running decoder and uploads it to Flightaware. Many are using the same decoder, but do not feed to FA, but many other sites.
Even dump1090-fa is not required, it works with other decoders like readsb as well. My Airsquitter does have a self-developed (by Jetvision) decoder in combination with a piece of hardware. Even this is used by Piaware, because the stream delivered to it works perfect.
Absolutely true! However, if things are left “unfinished” it may give the impression it stalled at best, or that it was abandoned at worst.
I’m referring for example to a PiAware 9 SD card image. Nothing, not even an announcement as to why not or when, unless I missed it.
Then there is the new stick. FlightAware cannot perform miracles, granted, but regular updates about where they stand with it or to say the project was shelved, would have been nice.
Well, software has this thing – it has to be updated regularly for some reason. Hardware doesn’t have that thing. Why? – because it’s much harder to update hardware.
So we are now presently at Bookworm (Debian 12), looking forward to Trixie (Debian 13). Will Trixie be any better than Bookworm ? Probably not. Was Bookworm better than Bullseye ? Not that I could tell. I’m referring to the Lite version of Debian here (non Desktop) which most people use on the RPi for ADS-B.
piaware itself is just to send data to FA.
why would it need major updates?
Or are you asking about the decoder (dump1090-fa) or the dump1090-fa webinterface displaying airplanes?
adsb.im has a download link to do a backup in case you’re interested in an appliance style image.
But it’s not focused around FA (can send data to FA of course), i’d question why your receiver should be?
The SD card image is a different topic as it contain a full underlying OS. But as far as i know it’s Debian and as long as the updates of the major OS are done, i wouldn’t be too concerned.
Normally more people should ask the question about the new hardware Flightaware “X” stick which is in development and still not released.
Isn’t the reasonably priced existing hardware working OK?
Even if one wants a better hardware, Airspy sdr, Vinnant and Jetvision Antennas, Times Microwave LMR 100, 195, 240 and 400 coax, and Cavity filters are available.
They are, but FA announced the development of a new stick. I don’t recall the details now, but it was going to be “better” than the current offerings. Other issues beyond FA’s control got in the way, fair enough, but where are they now with that?
Simple questions triggered by FA’s own announcements.
You can either use the full Flightaware Image for a Raspberry or you can simply run the installer of the package on top of your already existing Raspberry installation.
I still don’t see the PiAware 9 image. I only see the 8.2 image. This is the one I used initially and then upgraded to 9.0.1. But the question from the very beginning was, and still is, why no PiAware 9 image when there appears to be work on a PiAware 10 already?
Got it! This is all some of us are asking. What happened to the announced new hardware? There is no problem in saying the project was shelved, if that is what they are avoiding to say.
Again, simple questions that based on “past performance” will remain unanswered, their prerrogative, of course.
My early suspicion remains, the ADS-B feeder network is no longer a core part of the system.
For me personally, all that matters is to be able to continue monitoring the local air traffic, whether I feed a site or not is irrelevant.
By the way, FA is the only site I feed and the reason for that, as noted years ago, is/was the availability of an image and the simple TXT config file.
You gave the reason, why no 9.x image. The existing one can be upgraded easily. To avoid confusion they could simply rename it.
Possible. But FA and all the other sites would have a significant impact if they would lose the feeders like us. The remaining technologies would leave too much gaps.
But again my question: Why should something upgraded to a newer version if there is nothing spectacular? Just to avoid it is looking ‘stalled’
Minor changes doesn’t require a major version change.
As long as the system works as expected, why beeing concerned?
My new “development” was replacing the RPi3B+ with an RPi 2 Zero W last summer. Never been this stable since I started back in 2017. So stable that I forgot the password to access the system, glad I have it written down.
I went through 3 RPi3B+, countless power supplies. Even routers got replaced “in desperation”.
Not changing anything unless there is a major reason, either fault correction or a benefit.
