Dump1090 keeps dying on RPI

[PistolPete]

Hi All,


I built a spare RPI around 6 weeks weeks ago with Dump1090 and FR24Feed using a guide from this forum and everything was going well until about 2 weeks ago when FR said I was offline. Didn't think much too it, so I rebooted the PI. Now, for the last few days or so I've awoken each morning to find Dump1090 appears to have died and needs restarting.

I run it with the HTTP option (that becomes inaccessible) and on looking the process is still running but nothing appears in View1090 or the FR24feed.

Windows I'm pretty good at, Linux-y stuff is much harder for me so I'm really looking for some pointers. Is there is a log file or something I can look at to try and determine what's going on?

Thanks

Pete

[mrcarlos]

what is your feed hardware? dvbt? if that check or replace antenna, for me sounds like problem with antenna.

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

[PistolPete]

Thanks for the response.

Yes, it's an R820T based DVB-T tuner. What makes you suspect the antenna? When it's down and I restart Dump1090 it's fine again until the early hours of the next morning.
Why would the antenna be failing only overnight and why does a faulty antenna cause the HTTP side of the Dump1090 to die too.

[Sam26K]

My guess is the rpi is loosing power or restarting for some reason. You can monitor your rpi in real time with a networked remote computer with VRS. Monitor it for a few days and observe what happens with the VRS log files.
http://www.virtualradarserver.co.uk/

[Lincolnshire Poacher]

Not sure how I did it, but my pi launches FR24 Feeder on startup.

[PistolPete]

I've been doing some more digging and I've come across something odd. I've found a log file showing that the tuner is being disconnected and reconnected with a different ID. However, this happens 2-3 hours AFTER I think Dump1090 is dropping, but only ever happens whilst the it's in this state. It's never the same time after and it's not a difference in time zones.

Mine is a Rasberry Pi Model B and it's being run by an official RPI3 PSU so I'd like to think it's not power related, however I'm going to try running a seperate PSU for the USB and see if that solves the problem.

[Lincolnshire Poacher]

It could be the power supply, I started off running FR24 feed on a pc, the DVBT dongle was on a 1.5 metre extension lead, since moving it on to a pi3 I have lost a bout 25 miles from the range, I'm wondering if this could also be power related. Might need to try a powered usb hub i think.

[Sam26K]

It could be the power supply, I started off running FR24 feed on a pc, the DVBT dongle was on a 1.5 metre extension lead, since moving it on to a pi3 I have lost a bout 25 miles from the range, I'm wondering if this could also be power related. Might need to try a powered usb hub i think.

The 1.5 meter USB extension cable was probably your reliability problem. Plugging a ADS-B dongle directly into the rpi's USB is the best method but advise limiting extension cables to 6 inches. Just make sure the rpi has a sufficient power source and you shouldn't have a power problem.

The problem with range is an antenna problem and nothing to do with a reliable ADS-B receiver.

[PistolPete]

Oddly, without changing anything I've not had a drop in approaching 14 days.

[Lincolnshire Poacher]

I've had a good increase in range since plugging the dvbt directly in to the Pi's usb port, I'm running with a longer aerial lead instead.

[Arock]

That sounds really similar to my problems at the beginning. Here is my little story, maybe it helps somebody.

I installed DUMP1090 and FR24Feeder on a Raspberry 2 as shown in the official guide from Flightradar24. In the beginning, it works pretty well. The complete system is on my balcony and powered by a photovoltaic panel and battery. But the the system became instable. Sometimes, it works for a day or so, then dumo1090 crash. Othertimes, it takes only one hour. That was very frustrating, because i can't find a reproductable error. In the end, evertime i lost the capability to connect via SSH via WLAN to reboot the Raspberry. That works only, when i pull the trigger from the WLAN-Dongle and reconnect again.

1. My first check was the power supply. The Raspberry get his power from a Step-Down-Transformer. The max. current is 3A, so that was not the problem. Also the Outputvoltage was verry stable.
2. Next, i installed a little Low-ESR-capacitator parallel to the power source, but that has no effect. Dump1090still crashes/hang up.
3. The next attempt was the solution! I installed a USB-cable parallel from the Step-Down-Board direct to the USB-Ports at the Raspberry. It seems, that my DVB-T-Stick first run instable couse of a bad power supply. Now, with some extra power, everything works fine.

At this point, sorry for my english.

Greetings from germany.