For the help of fellow ex-windows feeders: How to set up your PI

[LN-MOW]

It’s an Airnav antenna. Just plugged right into the dongle. Nothing fancy.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K7YW1XJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used to have an antenna supplied by FR24, but it suddenly stopped working. Suspect lightningstrike, Just bought this one.

[adampk17]

Swapped out my dongle for a Flightaware Pro Stick Plus. And what a difference 20 bucks makes. Very impressive over a regular dongle.

Can you post or DM me your antenna and cable config? Thanks

[LN-MOW]

Swapped out my dongle for a Flightaware Pro Stick Plus. And what a difference 20 bucks makes. Very impressive over a regular dongle.

[abcd567]

Found that in Stretch, country should also be configured to activate WiFi.

Therefore in addition to code given above, ADD following code also to file "wpa_supplicant.conf"

country=CA
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

(Replace CA by your country's 2 letter ISO code, e.g. for UK use GB, for USA use US, for Germany use DE, etc)
.

[LN-MOW]

Thanks, great info.

[abcd567]

I don't have any agenda with this, other than help others who might be a little lost in the Pi-world. Like myself. I initially experimented with Pi24, but it took me forever to get it to work, and I also couldn't get FR24 to 'see' my feeder. I found Piaware far easier to install - not least because you could edit the config-file with SSID and password before inserting the card into the Pi. Disconnecting screen and keyboard to swap over to the Pi is not ideal. The Skyview in Flightaware is also neat.

thumb-single.jpg thumb-single.jpg thumb-single.jpg

This is true.

The FR24 Developers should pay more attention to PI24 image and make it closer to plug-n-play by adding a file wpa_supplicant.conf in the /boot folder so that while the microSD card is still in the card reader of Laptop/Desktop, the user can open it in a text editor and add his WiFi credentials.

Since currently wpa_supplicant.conf is not available in PI24 image, it can be created by the user himself while the card is still in laptop/desktop (exactly like file ssh is created in Flightaware's Piaware image).

Care is to be taken that if the Windows File explorer does not show file extensions, the name "wpa_supplicant.conf" will actually be "wpa_supplicant.conf.txt" with ".txt" hidden, and the file will fail to activate WiFi. The user must change settings of File Explorer to "show extensions of known file types", then replace .txt by .conf

The file "wpa_supplicant.conf" should then be opened by a text editor like Notepad, and copy-paste text shown below. The user should replace "xxxxx" and "yyyyy" by their actual values, save file, slip-out microSD card from Laptop, slip-in into RPi, powerup, and Bingo, the WiFi is working right from first boot... no need to connect a mouse, keyboard & monitor to RPi.

network={  
    ssid="xxxxxxxxxxxxx"  
    psk="yyyyyyyyyyyy"  
}

[wiedehopf]

Skyview is part of dump1090-fa, so you can have it without using their data feeder, piaware

In case you want some additions, i'd recommend some stuff i tinker with:
https://github.com/wiedehopf/graphs1090#graphs1090 (Works with most dump1090 installations)
https://github.com/wiedehopf/timelap...#timelapse1090 (dump1090-fa only)


It's great you wrote up your process, i'm sure it's helpful for some people.

I believe you can put a file wpa_supplicant.conf in the boot partition from windows as well on any Raspbian to configure WiFi.
But all that would need to be in a neat guide for the pi24 image, otherwise it's unlikely to be found by the people looking for it.

[LN-MOW]

Weidehopf is right.
The field "Process arguments --net --gain -10" is applicable only to Pi24 image and controls its integral dump1090-mutability ver 1.14. It has no affect on dump1090-fa of Flightaware's Piaware image.

Thanks. Still worked when I removed it. Misunderstood info from another post.

I don't have any agenda with this, other than help others who might be a little lost in the Pi-world. Like myself. I initially experimented with Pi24, but it took me forever to get it to work, and I also couldn't get FR24 to 'see' my feeder. I found Piaware far easier to install - not least because you could edit the config-file with SSID and password before inserting the card into the Pi. Disconnecting screen and keyboard to swap over to the Pi is not ideal. The Skyview in Flightaware is also neat.

And as a spotter and reg-geek, having Flightaware Enterprise is also useful.

Thanks for all the feedback.

[abcd567]

The biggest problem seems to be the activation of the Pi24 image.

This is true for a new user.

However the user switching from Windows to RPi already has fr24key, and it simply requires to be copy pasted either from windows feeder's file fr24feed.ini, or from FR24 "My Data Sharing" page (https://www.flightradar24.com/account/data-sharing)

FR24 ini -1.png FR24 ini -2.png FR24 Key from My Data Sharing.png

I'd recommend making a sticky thread explaining step by step how to use the Pi24 image.

A dedicated thread just for the Pi24 image wouldn't hurt though, no need for other options in the same thread, people get confused easily.

I think Oblivion has already written a guide for Pi24. It needs to be made sticky

It probably also doesn't help that pi24 supplies a dump1090 version with no working map and outdated demodulation.
FR24 could easily compile and install dump1090-mutability 1.15 dev on their images.

FULLY AGREE. This is a burning need which is not paid attention to by FR24 Developers

Also i don't see this thread being very helpful anymore: "Raspberry PI installation made too easy with extra feature."
It seems outdated.

The author seems to have lost interest in it. He is no more answering any issues raised.

.

[wiedehopf]

The biggest problem seems to be the activation of the Pi24 image.
I'd recommend making a sticky thread explaining step by step how to use the Pi24 image.

Or just make this thread sticky: https://forum.flightradar24.com/thre...24-Data-Feeder

A dedicated thread just for the Pi24 image wouldn't hurt though, no need for other options in the same thread, people get confused easily.

It probably also doesn't help that pi24 supplies a dump1090 version with no working map and outdated demodulation.
FR24 could easily compile and install dump1090-mutability 1.15 dev on their images.


Also i don't see this thread being very helpful anymore: "Raspberry PI installation made too easy with extra feature."
It seems outdated.

[abcd567]

The title of this thread suggests that it is for guidance of those who are switching from Windows feeder to RPi feeder.

If someone was feeding from Windows, sure he was feeding only FlightRadar24 and not Flightaware (as Flightaware dont have Windows feeder).

In this situation the easiest and best option is Pi24 image.

[Oblivian]

It's not that there is many spread wide guides that need to be centralised. It's that the base image and hardware available varies so much there are endless possibilities. And the more options given gives that illusion.

Here you'll find a few distinct guides already based on pi24 as a base (due to being the forum host and target recipient) and generic image guides, often merged with other bundled feeder scripts or tips to process once started.

There's no right or wrong way other than contamination of mix and matching to try and get a different desired outcome outside the guides already in print as it were

Sent from my EML-L09 using Tapatalk

[abcd567]

Weidehopf is right.
The field "Process arguments --net --gain -10" is applicable only to Pi24 image and controls its integral dump1090-mutability ver 1.14. It has no affect on dump1090-fa of Flightaware's Piaware image.

[wiedehopf]

Just trying to help you improve your guide.
Someone might mistakenly think he could change gain like that.

It also removes a step and that's always good.

Try on your setup if you don't believe me.

[LN-MOW]

--net and --gain are arguments passed to the internal dump1090.

If using an independent dump1090 process those arguments have no effect.

That could be - and there are probably many other variables too. My post was just ment as a help to those who elect to follow the same path to get it working.