So I was recently wondering if it is possible to collect ADS-B data from a RTL-SDR dongle that is not connected to your pi and would be using a wireless connection? I am thinking about this is I have a 50 foot tree in my front yard that I can easily climb and could possibly place an antenna, dongle, some sort of battery and some type of tech that can send information to my pi (there is a WIFI connection in the tree as it is quite close to my house) I am also wondering if the Wi-Fi signals would interrupt the antenna even if they are a few feet apart. Thanks!
How should the dongle transmit data? It is completely dead if not powered from USB. And there is also no WiFi transmission unit in the sticks.
The “tech” you are looking for is most likely a Raspberry Zero W which is the minimum requirement for getting it running. The combo can run via a battery pack until the battery is empty and need to be recharged. How long depends on the power the combination is consuming over the day.
Ok, I did not know that the zero had enough power to run this! I might have one in storage now that I think of it, Thanks!
The Zero works for a RTL-SDR except the Airspy. For this it’s not powerful enough
At the risk of being called pedantic, a Pi Zero won’t work as a feeder.
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I wrote “Zero” in general for the hardware family as the cheapest option. For sure it requires minimum a Zero 2 W
I’d recommend not running piaware or other aggregator stuff on the zero but rather transfer the beast data to another machine.
Take a look at --net-connector https://github.com/wiedehopf/adsb-scripts/wiki/Automatic-installation-for-readsb
Makes it simple to pull or push the beast data.
Or you could run adsb.im and pull the data from the zero pretty easily.
I’m not sure what dump1090-fa state is in regards to the pi zero and CPU usage, i’m pretty sure there was some change that negatively affected it?
Think that has been improved but it still needs a command line option.
readsb should automatically detect that it’s only one core and not use as much CPU.
@foxhunter you can run on an original pi zero w, it doesn’t have to be the pi zero 2 W
but the pi zero 2 w can run both decoders much easier plus you can install some aggregator stuff.
i’d still not recommend it for multiple aggregators, with these low power devices it’s better to just get the beast data and run the aggregators on some other box which can be pretty much anything.
(and also not run graphs1090)
You pretty much could run some more stuff on the pi zero 2 W but it’s more stable if you don’t in regards to MLAT. On the original pi zero W you just run out of CPU.
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Very good suggestion, i didn’t think about on first hand. But i was running exactly that solution for a certain time. A virtual machine took the data from the receiver and feeded it to the sites.
That is what I wanted to do in my original post as I enjoy making programs that use the data which while not impossible to do on a pi zero, it is more cubersum.
You do not need programming. Simply run a different dump1090 (or readsb which is the better one) in network mode and select the Pi “in the tree” as source.
What I meant is its easier to do stuff with the data if it is being sent to my main pi rather then directly from the zero, Also for a wireless connection do I need a zero w or pi zero 2 w
Sure. I had a fair idea what you meant, but “Pi Zero” is a particular device and if you are making recomendations for what someone should (could) use, it helps to be specific to avoid being mistaken for recommending something that won’t work.
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Yes. It should be a Zero with a “W” which stands for Wireless. The others are without and not helpful at all for his particular case.
Not sure what you mean. Bringing readsb (or dump1090) in net mode is exactly what you want to achieve.
Do all of this but also place a Pi in a suitable enclosure up the tree and power it with Power over Ethernet (PoE).
A PoE splitter at the Pi to power both the Pi and the dongle (and an LNA if required), and a run of Ethernet down the tree to a PoE injector. The PoE injector needs to be near a power outlet.
You can the connect the Pi in the tree to your network over the Ethernet cable if appropriate or just use Ethernet for power and still use WiFi for your data.
A PiZero 2W in the tree would provide sufficient horsepower but does not have a built-in Ethernet socket. Pi3B or better would be more appropriate.
An injector like this with microUSB or USB-C depending on your Pi
and an injector like this.
This is the solution I use for the Pis I have in the roof space and a coax to the external antenna.
S.
Edit:
I use Raspberry Connect to control the remote by with SSH or Screen Sharing
I think he wants to avoid long cabling across the yard and the tree. That’s why he asked for some sort of battery.
However the battery need to be recharged. This might be the most challening part, depending on the power consumption of the device. Climbing the tree twice every few days would be required.
A solar panel charge might be possible, but it requires additional equipment as well.
And for remote controlling the device SSH should be sufficient. I would not run a GUI on a Zero W. For access from remote, solutions like Zerotier would help.
"The technology of wireless power transmission can eliminate the use of the wires and batteries, thereby increasing the mobility, convenience, and safety of an electronic device for all users. "
Climbing a 50 foot tree regularly may improve his fitness but does not increasing the mobility, convenience, and safety of an electronic device for all users
If using a cable is possible then PoE elimintes all the problems of long USB cables and coax cable losses.
I run Raspberry Pi OS 64 bit on all my Pis including PiZero 2W. This allows both SSH and GUI access to the Pi both on the LAN and in Remote Locations with no firewall fiddling. It is built into the operating system of the Pi and does not require a client. It just runs in a browser on the PC or Android phone or tablet. (sorry no infornation about Apple). It lets me remotely see the screens for Skyaware, Graphs1090, Tar1090 etc. I was using VNC until the free Raspberry licence was withdrawn and then I used Teamviewer but it is a bit resource heavy even when idle.
Zerotier works fully transparent without any firewall fiddling. It simply adds an additional network interface where all devices are communicating with each other.
This include full access to all services including any GUI. For two linux devices with remote X sessions Teamviewer or VNC is normally not required.
OK, THIS is an aspect worth to consider 
. My wife already tells me every day that i am not moving myself enough. My problem is more where to find a tree close to my location
You are going to throw her out of a tree?
Harsh but effective.
lol but thanks! Yes the objective is to reduce the amount of cables going up the tree and maybe reduce the ratio of trips up the tree to trips to the hospital (but maybe it reduces trips to the gym 0_o), is there a power bank that can last about a week or is that just not a thing (practically). If needed I can probably run a cable up the tree however I would rather not.