In my case I’m using a Flight Aware ProStick Plus dongle and the pre-built FA image. I installed Python and ran the gain optimisation scripts and the ADS-B performance stuff to get the stats but apart from those, it’s a stock image.
The ONLY difference between the two setups, the Zero W and the Pi3 is that with the Zero W, I have a very short USB cable between the Pi and the receiver. The aerial is screwed straight into the receiver.
I’ve just put the Zero W back in the setup again, this time using a different USB cable and it’s exactly the same.
PSU in each case is an official Raspberry Pi PSU which came with a Pi3 starter kit.
that is very strange that you both see so much less traffic when using the zero!?! that’s why i yesterday again tested the zero on the newly installed splitter - and within 2 minutes the mlat-sync was up and instantly every single aircraft that my pi2 was receiving showed up in the zero too …
no idea at the moment what the reason could be
p.s. @keithma did you try a standard dongle too (as they suck less power than the fa with builtin lna)?
p.p.s. i would run a test with a fresh raspbian image and then install dump1090-mutability + piaware
p.p.p.s. could you both post a picture of the zero (with dongle/cables etc.) while running in your setup
Yes, the first time I tried this with the Zero W, I had an old NooElec dongle - Same results.
I’m happy to do a fresh build with nothing on but I’ve not built one from scratch like that before, is there a simple guide I can follow somewhere please?
It’s tricky to take pictures in my loft due to the lack of light but I’ve taken the receiver down.
Two pictures here, one shows the aerial, receiver and dongle and the other is a close up.
Note that when I changed from the Zero W to the Pi3, all I did was disconnect the USB pigtail and connect the Pi3 straight to the receiver.
I’m pretty sure this isn’t a power issue. Surely a Zero can’t be drawing more current than a Pi3? I’ve tried different PSUs anyway. Also, the other receiver in the loft which is running very well is using a boggo RPi PSU. See my stats pages for details.
if i didn’t forgot something this should be the way to setup a feeder on your own. download raspbian lite (jessie or stretch from Raspberry Pi OS – Raspberry Pi istall the image Raspberry Pi Documentation - Getting Started put an empty file named ‘ssh’ into root of boot and if wifi is used an wpa_supplicant.conf too.
passwd
sudo raspi-config
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install build-essential debhelper librtlsdr-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev pkg-config tcl8.5-dev autoconf python3-dev python-virtualenv libz-dev git tclx8.4 tcllib tcl-tls itcl3 lighttpd
mkdir dump1090-mutability
cd dump1090-mutability/
git clone https://github.com/mutability/dump1090.git
cd dump1090/
dpkg-buildpackage -b
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i dump1090-mutability_1.15~dev_armhf.deb
cd ~
(sudo wget -O /etc/udev/rules.d/rtl-sdr.rules "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/osmocom/rtl-sdr/master/rtl-sdr.rules" only needed for raspbian stretch)
git clone https://github.com/flightaware/dump1090.git
sudo cp -r dump1090/public_html /usr/share/dump1090-mutability/public_html
cd /usr/share/dump1090-mutability
sudo mv html original-html
sudo mv public_html html
cd html
sudo mv index.html gmap.html
sudo dpkg-reconfigure dump1090-mutability
sudo lighty-enable-mod dump1090
sudo service lighttpd force-reload
sudo shutdown -r now
wget http://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/files/packages/pool/piaware/p/piaware-support/piaware-repository_3.5.1_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i piaware-repository_3.5.1_all.deb
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install piaware
sudo piaware-config allow-auto-updates yes
sudo piaware-config allow-manual-updates yes
sudo piaware-config feeder-id PLACE_YOUR_FEEDER_ID_HERE
Ok, please don’t judge me for how bad this looks! Making this look pretty was my next step after getting the zero up n running. I’m back running the RPi3 now so I’ve just put the zero next to it for a picture. (And yes, I was so desperate I even tried the old 3.5" floppy case and an old choke I found on a USB cable! )
oh man - i was not aware that there is already a howto :)))
anyways - your pictures look the same way i did install the zero - the second micro-usp port you used to power the zero with the rp3 original power-supply as far as i remember?
haha - but the picture shows exactly what i was doing with my zero! you use a good power-supply, the same kind of ultra-short usb cable to connect the dongle - so anything should be fine!
i really have no idea what could cause this ‘failure’ at your both sites. that’s why i yesterday again connected my zero and run it against the pi2 with the results i posted above
very very strange - that i get perfect results while you both doing the same get awful results …
p.s. and some months ago i ran my pi3 against the pi2 and there was zero difference too
p.p.s. did you try the zero with and without homemade tupper-box?
Yep. The zero has the OEM pi power supply connected to it. I have been running the RPi3 just using a phone charger without problems so I have left it like that for the time being. I tried both with the zero.
I didn’t, no. I did leave the lid off and dangled the pi as far away from everything as possible. I can’t easily plug antenna cable directly into the dongle as the dongle has a PAL connection and I’ve used f-type everywhere else.
what exacly do you both get with: cat /proc/cpuinfo
that’s mine:
pi@RaspPiZero:~ $ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
model name : ARMv6-compatible processor rev 7 (v6l)
BogoMIPS : 697.95
Features : half thumb fastmult vfp edsp java tls
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant : 0x0
CPU part : 0xb76
CPU revision : 7
Hardware : BCM2835
Revision : 9000c1
Serial : 000000009015d1xx
so this is my last idea i have to offer. i now download the actual 3.5.1 fa-image flash it to an sd-card and test whether my zero gets the same results as in my test above - but this time using the standard flightaware image.
pi@zeropi:~ $ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
model name : ARMv6-compatible processor rev 7 (v6l)
BogoMIPS : 697.95
Features : half thumb fastmult vfp edsp java tls
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant : 0x0
CPU part : 0xb76
CPU revision : 7
Hardware : BCM2835
Revision : 9000c1
Serial : 00000000a241cxxx
)
