Getting more receivers - 360Radar group

[Kevin W]

Hi All

This is probably directed at Keith really, but if I post it here then the community can also help

I have been chatting to Philip Lee at 360Radar, he runs a community (https://www.facebook.com/groups/701885719892641/) that has 400+ ADSB receivers, mainly on Pi's, spread across the UK (https://mlat-server.co.uk/coverage/), mainly with the aim of filling in the Military gaps left by FlightRadar24 etc.

His users broadly follow the install instructions here (https://radar.lowflyingwales.co.uk/), which takes a vanilla Raspbian image, adds the SDR setup and then adds the MLAT client setup.

It should (famous last words) be relatively easy to get some of his users to follow the OGN installation instructions here (http://wiki.glidernet.org/wiki:raspberry-pi-installation), followed by the PilotAware installation instructions here (http://pilotaware.lode.co.uk/downloads/OGN/README.upgrade) to add both OGN and PilotAware functionality to their devices. 

The only addition to those instructions would be due to having two SDR dongles you need to tell the two RTLSDR programs to use the different dongles.  Info for example here (http://wiki.glidernet.org/multiple-receivers-configuration-on-raspi).

I can confirm that having OGN, PilotAware & ADSB, uploading to OGN, FR24 and 360Radar does indeed work, and I have been running like that for a couple of weeks (although only 1 decent antenna for P3I and Flarm at the moment, so I get good reception of one or the other, but not both, will be solved soon).

Philip is happy for us to talk to him more, but is cautious - if we break things he will get the support workload

Maybe the starting point is a post on the 360 group (with Phil's permission) asking if a few more technical users would be happy to work through it with us?

Obviously cost wise for the users it is a Bridge, a Dongle for OGN, a PilotAware Antenna and a Flarm Antenna.

(BTW, I have shown that the PilotAware antenna, the rubber duck, 10cm above the ridge line of the house gives darn good reception on Flarm without using the 9db Flarm antenna - http://flarmrange.onglide.com/?#EGBKE,max,d30,52.3227_-0.7062,9,#00990000:#009900ff,

I'm not sure what deal Keith is doing on Bridges and a couple of antennas

Anyway, enough rambling, thoughts?  Gotchas?

Cheers
Kev

[Kevin W]

P.S. Just speaking to Phil again after writing this up - he would be happy to test it out and write up a combined set of instructions to go on the 360Radar site if he could get a PilotAware Bridge and aerial, he is in SE Wales.

[Ian Melville]

That would be an interesting development, will await response fromPAW team with interest.

[bnmont]

Sounds an excellent idea if it can be set up to work reliably.

[Admin]

I think this idea sounds great.
I think that it is simply a case of following Guy Glovers instructions for an upgrade to an existing OGN

if there is anything missing I can help.

One of the things we are looking at doing is providing an SBS1 output feed, this means you can connect
VirtualRadar, and will see the PilotAware and OGN traffic provided, so if you add this to what you are proposing
I presume you will get PilotAware, OGN, ADS-B

Thx
Lee

[Kevin W]

Thanks all, a few further thoughts then:

Are we able to get a bridge and an aerial to Philip for him to test out and write a set of instructions he is happy to give to his users?

Have we overcome the Pi3 limitations we used to have? (I assume it was Bluetooth stealing the hardware Uart issues, but we can solve those with pi3-disable-bt overlay now can't we?)

Re following the 'instructions for an upgrade to an existing OGN' - unfortunately a bit more complicated, as they will have 2 dongles, perhaps with the same serial number to sort out which to use for what.

As an aside, what are your plans Lee for the 'Tower Traffic Screen' view from the OGN-Pilotaware type device?  The 360 Radar devices will already have the additional 1090 dongle for ADSB, so would be good to show that data on screen too?

Cheers
Kev

[exfirepro]

Hi Kev,

A very interesting development. I have been thinking for quite a while now about the need for twin SDR receivers to allow installation of OGN-R stations at airfields without losing PilotAware's 1090 receive functionality and have discussed this with Lee previously. I have known for some time that this is feasible, but unfortunately I am just a beginner in the 'Linux League', so need to rely on others such as Lee to do the needful or at the very least point me in the right direction and be there to help when I get things wrong.

More and more I am finding that airfields (including my own) are happy to install OGN-R, but want to be able to use it to drive a 'big screen' so they can follow the position / progress of local aircraft, which makes achievement of such a system all the more desirable.

Regards

Peter

[Kevin W]

Twin SDR - yes, and working here using the guidance link I posted above.

'Big screen' Tower Radar inc ADSB - a +1 from me.  I have an open conversation with Sywell waiting to be had, but feel like I need to be able to make it worth their while, and without the radar screen they dont benefit...

Cheers
Kev

[exfirepro]

Twin SDR - yes, and working here using the guidance link I posted above.

'Big screen' Tower Radar inc ADSB - a +1 from me.  I have an open conversation with Sywell waiting to be had, but feel like I need to be able to make it worth their while, and without the radar screen they dont benefit...

Cheers
Kev

My point exactly.....   I will try some more experiments over the weekend once the wind gets up again 

Regards

Peter

[Paul_Sengupta]

One thing, what's the requirement for the power of Pi? Pi 1 B+? Pi 2? Pi 3?

I think the Pi 1 B+ is a bit maxed out as it is with just the OGN without adding ADS-B?

[JCurtis]

You can always do a direct 5v feed in via the GPIO headers and sidestep the poly fuse on the normal input - naturally you would need the ensure that feed also has some suitable protection just in case....

[Kevin W]

One thing, what's the requirement for the power of Pi? Pi 1 B+? Pi 2? Pi 3?

I think the Pi 1 B+ is a bit maxed out as it is with just the OGN without adding ADS-B?

Pi 2 is working just fine for me with OGN, Pilotaware, Fr24 and 360Radar.

Cheers
Kev

[SteveT]

Hi,

Did this ever make any progress?

I've just updated to a Rosetta in my plane and changed my classic to an OGN relay station (PWBroadmd).

I didn't realise when I decided to do this that I would be removing the ADSB receiver from the ground station, or that I would lose the ability to view traffic from it on radar.

I'm keen to keep it up as a relay, but really want to have live radar in the clubhouse for PilotAware and ADSB traffic, which would I think need the requested changes in this thread?

Cheers

Steve

[Vince]

Pi 2 is working just fine for me with OGN, Pilotaware, Fr24 and 360Radar.

Cheers
Kev

Do you have details on how you did this as I’m looking at doing the same.

[Kevin W]

Hi

I don't have the details, but I just worked my way through it:

Add second dongle and give it a unique serial in eprom
Installed dump1090 mutability
Installed fr24 uploader
Installed 360 mlat uploader
Installed 360 adsb uploader

Any specific q's I can dig out answers for you, most of the links you need are in my first post in this topic.

Cheers
Kev