What am I looking at?

As a new member I try to find answers in previous posts but often go down blind alleys looking for answers.
A short description - pinned - of the local page would be very helpful. Here are my questions:
When I go to my view live data page:

  1. I see a dump1090 listing on the right. Why do only some of these show on the map?
  2. If the msg count is increasing I assume I’m decoding stuff from the plane. Why are some of the fields empty?
  3. What exactly does the “seen” column represent? It changes but the Lat/Long doesn’t change or the plane does not display.
  4. Why when I click on a flight why doesn’t the map jump to or display the last know position?
    When I go to my feeder stats page:
  5. The map shows only me - and in the wrong position.
  6. What is the difference between Recent Flights with Positions and the Additional Recent Flights fed to FA? What actually gets fed to FA?
  7. Exactly what is tracklog? Is that local to me only?
  8. How do I get that radar like coverage display I see others posting? I’d like to see my coverage pattern as I improve my antenna.

I have a feeling there is a lot of information out there somewhere if I only knew where to look.

Finally, I saw a heated discussion in one post about site data collected. If you collect things like temperature wouldn’t it make sense to put it on the feeder statistics page?

Thanks in advance for any and all answers.
Lothar - K5LEH
Site 4120

Some of your questions are answered in this thread: http://discussions.flightaware.com/ads-b-flight-tracking-f21/help-needed-with-dump1090-web-output-t19546.html

I would also like to see answers to all your questions, even if it’s only a link to a “help” page. I’d think these things would be better documented on this site.

I’m fairly new here but I’ll take a swing:

  1. I see a dump1090 listing on the right. Why do only some of these show on the map?
  2. If the msg count is increasing I assume I’m decoding stuff from the plane. Why are some of the fields empty?

You’re likely seeing traffic that isn’t ADS-B but rather Mode-S and they don’t have all of the same fields, and with no location, they can’t be plotted.

  1. What exactly does the “seen” column represent? It changes but the Lat/Long doesn’t change or the plane does not display.

I believe that’s how long you’ve seen packets from that transmitter. I could be wrong on this one.

  1. Why when I click on a flight why doesn’t the map jump to or display the last know position?

I don’t think that’s a feature of the website running on your server.

When I go to my feeder stats page:

  1. The map shows only me - and in the wrong position.

Scroll down and find the link that says: Not the correct position? Click here to change. I believe the indicators on the map will only show your transmitters, so it would make sense that only yours shows up.

  1. What is the difference between Recent Flights with Positions and the Additional Recent Flights fed to FA? What actually gets fed to FA?

I think that’s flights that you’ve tracked but your transmitter didn’t get used in it’s tracklog.

  1. Exactly what is tracklog? Is that local to me only?

It will show you the track log that FA used, the fields that your transmitter uploaded will have your info on them (username and MAC address) and I believe it’s only local to you, so your neighbor can’t see what you uploaded but you can.

  1. How do I get that radar like coverage display I see others posting? I’d like to see my coverage pattern as I improve my antenna.

I think most people are running VirtualRadar http://www.virtualradarserver.co.uk/. I am running it as well.

Finally, I saw a heated discussion in one post about site data collected. If you collect things like temperature wouldn’t it make sense to put it on the feeder statistics page?

No clue, sorry.

Are you talking about range rings like I have on my display? These are changes you need to make in the dump1090 configuration files. If you installed the Piaware image on an SD card, the files can be found in /usr/share/dump1090/public_html/

Specifically, I made the following changes to config.js to show the range rings:

// – Site Settings ---------------------------------------
SiteShow = true; // true or false
// The Latitude and Longitude in decimal format
SiteLat = 36.176789;
SiteLon = -79.144443;

SiteCircles = true; // true or false (Only shown if SiteShow is true)
// In nautical miles or km (depending settings value ‘Metric’)
SiteCirclesDistances = new Array(9,25,50,100,150);

I’m just learning this stuff. I like to share what I’ve learned. I hope others will jump in and share with us newbies.

pi2dubya.ddns.net/

I don’t think dump1090 can generate the heat maps.

Here’s your dump1090 output:


Here’s my VirtualServer output (I restarted the server recently so it looks blotchy again but you get the idea):

jepolch I missed that link and it is a good one. rjankowski I appreciate the added info. Some of the explanation doesn’t make sense just yet but I’m sure it will in time.
The Virtual Server image is what I’m looking for. Is it installed on the Raspberry or on the machine looking at dump1090 output? Any installation tips are welcome.

My background is in data communications and LANs with very little unix experience. I guess I’ll just keep reading the links till everything clicks. My first order of business is to get a better antenna built. I just hung the one that came with the SDR stick out the window and it works - sort of. At least antenna building is something I’m good at LOL.

Thanks again to all - Lothar

I have it installed on a VM that I keep running for RDP access to my home network, so it’s always up (minus Windows updates). It just needs to have access to the PiAware server on a port or two, so if you’re having it traverse a firewall, it will need that allowance. Other than that, it’s pretty much plug and play once you load it and add the set up info (your location and PiAware IP, etc).

If you want remote access you’ll have to put in a NAT translation for it, but given your background, that probably is something you can already handle.

Are you talking about Virtual Radar Server?

Yes, I am running PiAware on a Pi, then the Virtual Radar Server on a Windows 7 VM which I can access from the internet. (I need to move it to a DMZ, but I’ve been busy).

Thanks for posting that. I’ve just done that on mine. I’m just bit south of you.

Anyone know how to change the web server port? I want it on 80.

FWIW Just found out about the Database Writer plugin for Virtual Radar Server. Dumps all observerd flights into a SQLite database and lets you run reports in the web gui (or analyze it offline).
/paul

Ooh. Something new to play with. :smiley:

  1. I see a dump1090 listing on the right. Why do only some of these show on the map?
  2. If the msg count is increasing I assume I’m decoding stuff from the plane. Why are some of the fields empty?
  3. What exactly does the “seen” column represent? It changes but the Lat/Long doesn’t change or the plane does not display.
  4. Why when I click on a flight why doesn’t the map jump to or display the last know position?
  1. Not all aircraft are broadcasting ADS-B positions (Mode S with ES). Some are broadcasting altitude info only (basic Mode S)
  2. See #1 - if it’s a ModeS target only you won’t get lat/long/speed/track
  3. Seen seems to indicate the # of seconds since the last received message. Once it reaches 60 then the target is removed from the display
  4. Not a feature of the basic web functionality.

HTH,

John.

For this add:


--net-http-port 80

to /etc/init.d/fadump1090.sh under PROG_ARGS.

The web server will then correctly operate on port 80.