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  • How to Feed Data to Multiple Sites - A Brief Guide

    Last update - April 12, 2019:

    It has become very common that users want to install multiple feeders to feed multiple sites like FlightRadar24, Flightaware, Planefinder, Adsbexchange, Radarbox24, etc etc.

    Basically feeding to any site requires following software:
    (1) An Operating System like Noobs, Raspbian, Ubuntu etc.
    (2) A Decoder software like dump1090 MR, dump1090-mutability, dump1090-fa, ModeSDeco2 etc.
    (3) An exclusive data feeder for each site like fr24feed (FlightRadar24), Piaware feeder (Flightaware), PFClient (Planefinder), rbfeeder (RadarBox24) etc. The data feeder of a Flightaware & Adsbexchange (which provides feedback of MLAT results) also install their MLAT Clients.

    Various Options to Install Software

    OPTION (A): Pi24 image from Flightradar24.com
    1. Burn microSD card with Pi24 image. This image contains: Raspbian Lite OS + dump1090-mutability v1.14 + fr24 data feeder.

    2. Slip out microSD card from card reader, slip into RPi and powerup.

    3. Signup by command sudo fr24feed --signup.

    4. Configure FR24 Feeder as shown below

    5. Install feeders from respective sites:
      Flightaware (Install piaware data feeder only. Do not install dump1090-fa)
      Planefinder
      Radarbox24


      NOTE: The Pi24 image sometimes mounts as "read-only file system". As a result installation of other feeders fails and gives erro messages. In this case first change read-only file system to read & write system by following command, then try again to install other feeders.
      Code:
      sudo mount -o remount,rw /


    OPTION (B): Raspbian image from Raspberrypi.org + dump1090-mutability ver 1.15~dev
    1. Burn microSD card with Raspbian Lite image. This image contains only Operating system.

    2. Enable SSH: While the microSD card is still in the card reader of your Laptop/Desktop, in File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) click on drive letter of the microSD card (labelled boot) to open it. It will open folder /boot which has many files & few folders. In the folder /boot, create a new text file and name it ssh.

    3. Slip out microSD card from card reader, slip into RPi and powerup.

    4. Install dump1090-mutability

    5. Install feeders from respective sites:
      Flightradar24
      Flightaware (Install piaware date feeder only. Do not install dump1090-fa)
      Planefinder
      Radarbox24


    OPTION (C): Raspbian image from Raspberrypi.org + dump1090-fa
    1. Burn microSD card with Raspbian Lite image. This image contains only Operating system.

    2. Enable SSH: While the microSD card is still in the card reader of your Laptop/Desktop, in File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) click on drive letter of the microSD card (labelled boot) to open it. It will open folder /boot which has many files & few folders. In the folder /boot, create a new text file and name it ssh.

    3. Slip out microSD card from card reader, slip into RPi and powerup.

    4. Install dump1090-fa

    5. Install feeders from respective sites:
      Flightradar24
      Flightaware
      Planefinder
      Radarbox24


    OPTION (D): Piaware image from Flightaware.com
    1. Burn microSD card with Piaware SD card image. This image contains: Raspbian Lite OS + dump1090-fa + Piaware data feeder.

    2. Enable SSH: While the microSD card is still in the card reader of your Laptop/Desktop, in File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) click on drive letter of the microSD card (labelled boot) to open it. It will open folder /boot which has many files & few folders. In the folder /boot, create a new text file and name it ssh.

    3. Slip out microSD card from card reader, slip into RPi and powerup.

    4. Install feeders from respective sites:
      Flightradar24
      Planefinder
      Radarbox24


    FR24 FEEDER CONFIGURATION

    OPTION-1:
    If NO external decoder (like dump1090 MR, dump1090-mutability, dump1090-fa, or ModeSDeco2 etc) is installed,
    and you want to use dump1090-mutability v1.14 provided by Pi24, then:
    • Select "Receiver: DVB-T". See screenshot below.
    • Set "Process Arguments: --net --lat xx.xxxx --lon yy.yyyy".
    • To see map, in your Browser type address http://<IP of Pi>/dump1090/gmap.html
    • If Flightaware feeder Piaware is also installed, you will need to enable MLAT input to port 30104. To do this, set "Process Arguments: --net --net-bi-port 30104 --lat xx.xxxx --lon yy.yyyy"
    • To change gain of Receiver (DVB-T) from default "max" (=49.6), add --gain to process arguments like this: "Process Arguments: --net --net-bi-port 30104 --lat xx.xxxx --lon yy.yyyy --gain zz" , where zz is the gain value you want to set.


    FR24 settings - Integral dump1090.png

    OPTION-2:
    If an external decoder (like dump1090 MR, dump1090-mutability, dump1090-fa, or ModeSDeco2) is installed, then select:

    "Receiver: ModeS Beast (TCP)" and "HOST/IP: 127.0.0.1:30005"
    OR
    "Receiver: AVR(TCP)" and "HOST/IP: 127.0.0.1:30002".

    See screenshot below.

    fr24feed setting BEAST-TCP using dump1090-fa or dump1090-mut v1.15.png . fr24feed setting AVR-TCP using dump1090-fa or dump1090-mut v1.15.png


    BLOCK DIAGRAMS
    FR24 Block Diagram - Receiver DVBT-2.png . FR24 Block Diagram - Receiver AVR or Beast-2.png
    Last edited by abcd567; 2019-04-13, 01:08.

  • #2
    Last update, April 14, 2018:
    The problem and solution given below existed in the Pi24 at the time this post was originally written.
    The current version Pi24-2.0.0 does not have this problem, and the solution given below is neither needed nor applicable to it.


    The installation of Planefinder and Flightaware feeders on Pi24 does not work OK for following reasons:
    • The Planefinder feeder, which works ok on install, crashes when Pi is rebooted, and fails to start even manually by command "sudo systemctl restart pfclient".
    • Flightaware MLAT results feed-back is not displayed on map. The built-in dump1090 (MR) does not have facility to keep MLAT feedback separate from the data received by DVB-T and combine it only on map display.

      This facility is available in dump1090-mutability and dump1090-fa. Unfortunately if dump1090-mutability or dump1090-fa is installed on Pi24 image, map display stops. The reason is that both dump mutability and dump fa display map through lighttpd, which fails to start when istalled on Pi24. Even giving command "sudo systemctl restart lighttpd" does not succees to start it.



    [S O L V E D]:
    Failure of lighttpd and pfclient on Pi24 image.

    Code:
    sudo systemctl status lighttpd -l
    
    raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Lighttpd Daemon.
    raspberrypi lighttpd[631]: 2017-06-17 20:24:34: (log.c.118) [COLOR="#FF0000"]opening errorlog '/var/log/lighttpd/error.log' 
    failed: No such file or directory[/COLOR]
    raspberrypi systemd[1]: lighttpd.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=255/n/a
    raspberrypi systemd[1]:[COLOR="#FF0000"] Unit lighttpd.service entered failed state.[/COLOR]

    Code:
    sudo systemctl status pfclient -l
    
    Starting pfclient: pfclient/etc/init.d/pfclient: 35: /etc/init.d/pfclient: [color="#ff0000"]cannot create /var/log/pfclient/error.log: 
    Directory nonexistent[/color]
    raspberrypi pfclient[539]: [color="#ff0000"]failed![/color]
    Manually created following folders and files:

    folder /var/log/lighttpd and file /var/log/lighttpd/error.log

    folder /var/log/pfclient and file /var/log/pfclient/error.log

    On reboot found all these folder and files are deleted, and lighttpd and pfclient again failed.

    WORKAROUND
    Arranged to recreate needed folders & files at boot, by adding following code to file rc.local just before last line (exit0).
    Code:
    sudo nano /etc/rc.local
    
    #added following lines at the end of file, just before exit0
    
    mkdir -p /var/log/lighttpd
    touch /var/log/lighttpd/error.log                
    chmod 666 /var/log/lighttpd/error.log            
    systemctl restart lighttpd
    
    mkdir -p /var/log/pfclient                       
    touch /var/log/pfclient/error.log
    chmod 666 /var/log/pfclient/error.log
    systemctl restart pfclient
    Now lighttpd, dump1090-mutability, Piaware data feeder and Piaware MLAT feed-back plane's display on map, are all working OK on Pi24 image.
    .
    Last edited by abcd567; 2018-04-14, 06:52.

    Comment


    • #3
      The Pi24 image has a tmpfs entry for /var/log folder in it's /etc/fstab file.
      This entry causes deletion of contents of /var/log folder on reboot.

      Pi24 image
      Code:
      cat /etc/fstab
      proc            /proc           proc    defaults          0       0
      /dev/mmcblk0p1  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
      /dev/mmcblk0p2  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1
      [COLOR="#FF0000"]tmpfs   /var/log    tmpfs    defaults,noatime,nosuid,mode=0755,size=100m    0 0[/COLOR]
      Update April 10, 2018
      Above comments about Pi24 were valid for the version current at the time this post was originally written. These comments are no more applicable to the current version Pi24-2.0.0.

      Raspbian Jessie image
      In Respbian Jessie image tmpfs entry is not there, and that is why the contents of folder /var/log are not deleted on reboot
      Code:
      cat /etc/fstab
      proc            /proc           proc    defaults          0       0
      PARTUUID=b2dfebce-01  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
      PARTUUID=b2dfebce-02  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1
      # a swapfile is not a swap partition, no line here
      #   use  dphys-swapfile swap[on|off]  for that


      Piaware 3.5.0 image
      In Piaware image, tmpfs entry is there, but the folder /var/log is not associated with tmpfs entry, and that is why the contents of folder /var/log are not deleted on reboot
      Code:
      cat /etc/fstab
      /dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot vfat defaults 0 2
      /dev/mmcblk0p2 / ext4 errors=remount-ro,noatime 0 1
      tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,nodev,nosuid 0 0
      Last edited by abcd567; 2018-04-11, 01:18.

      Comment


      • #4
        This is a very comprehensive, useful and important guide. Deserves to be made sticky.

        Comment


        • #5
          Hi abcd thanks for that great guide!

          I just set the fr24 port to 30005 instead of 30002 and it started working.

          It kinda makes sense because we just set the fr24 to Beast tcp input but 30002 is the raw output of dump1090 and 30005 is the beast output.
          Or am I confusing this?

          Comment


          • #6
            @wiedehopf:
            Any of the following two settings are valid. Personally I prefer Beast setting.

            "Host/IP = 127.0.0.1:30002" is used with "Receiver = AVR(TCP)".

            "Host/IP = 127.0.0.1:30005" is used with "Receiver: ModeS Beast (TCP)".

            FR24 Settings with dump1090-fa or mut for multiple feed by Pi.png

            Comment


            • #7
              @abcd567 I'm sorry i accidentally selected beast with fr24feed --reconfigure (running on an x86_64 debian right now).

              So of course it wasn't working.

              Thank you for clarifying.

              P.S.: Also if you install piaware manually alongside fr24 it's nice to manually visit flightaware /adsb/piaware/claim/FEEDER_ID
              with feeder_id replaced with the id piaware shows you on the command line since you don't have piaware-web (i mean you could install it)
              (had to compile all the stuff too, but i guess all that does not really belong here)

              Comment


              • #8
                @wiedehopf

                Some times ago, I have installed both FR24 feeder and Piaware feeder on following OS by compiling its .deb package from source:

                1. Ubuntu 16.04 x86_64 on my Desktop with intel processor.

                2. Raspbian Jessie x86 rpd desktop running in Oracle VM on my Windows 8.1 Desktop.

                I used J Prochazka's automated scripts which detect the architecture and compile the package automatically. I have created following thread in this forum in Sept 2016, describing J Prochazka's method:

                Automated Installation of Dump1090-Mutability, Data Feeders, and Performance Graphs

                .
                Last edited by abcd567; 2018-04-10, 15:38.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by abcd567 View Post
                  (B) Raspbian image from Raspberrypi.org
                  1. Burn microSD card with Raspbian Jessie Lite image. This image contains only Operating system.
                  2. Install either dump1090-mutability or dump1090-fa
                  3. Install Flightradar24, Flightaware, Planefinder, Adsbexchange, and Radarbox24 feeders from respective sites.
                  Hi, and thanks for the great and very helpful post. I had a corrupted SD card image after my old USB power supply failed (at least I think so), so I had to reinstall my Pi Feeder. I followed this option (B).

                  Now, all seems to work well (except maybe MLAT - at least on my FA status page, while it says "Multilateration (MLAT): Supported / Enabled (synchronized with 2 nearby receivers)", the number reported is "0"), but for one thing: I cannot see the local PiAware status page (Piaware-IP:8080). I can see all the other status pages (FR24, although it does not give much information, Planefinder and dump1090-mutability with the maps). I saw some other posts that seem to imply this is pretty normal if you use dump1090-mutability instead of the FA version. Is that so? And is there a workaround?

                  The HTTP server (light HTTP?) seems to work fine, as I can see its placeholder page when I access the Pi's IP address without specifying a port or at port 80.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    nurunet
                    The Flghtaware status page at IP and IP:8080 is available ONLY in Piaware image.
                    It is NOT available in Raspbian image. It will show a Placeholder for Lighttpd at IP and IP:8080

                    The Piaware image is available at STEP-2 of this page: https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/build

                    The Raspbian image is available on this page: https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/

                    ,
                    Last edited by abcd567; 2018-10-05, 09:12.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by abcd567 View Post
                      nurunet
                      The Flghtaware status page at IP and IP:8080 is available ONLY in Piaware image.
                      Thanks a lot for the clarification!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Hello, I installed the last version of the automated feeder on my raspberrypi. Everything seems to work perfectly.

                        However, I don't understand how to feed/see my data in adsbexchange.

                        Any suggestions ?

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by cryoxdsl View Post
                          ...However, I don't understand how to feed/see my data in adsbexchange.

                          https://www.adsbexchange.com/how-to-feed/custom-feed-how-to/

                          Custom Feed – How To
                          One of the biggest requests we get is “how can I see what my receiver is receiving/sending”. Well, we have a solution to that!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            I'm using a Debian based Linux called MX.
                            The RTL283 dongle controlled by the fr24feed package.
                            It feeds fr24 and planefinder
                            fr24feed is setup to use mr-dump1090
                            with the following variables
                            --raw --net-beast --net
                            That feeds data out to ports 30001 30002 30003 30004 30005.
                            I feed the data to planefinder first using beast mode port 30005.
                            Planefinder client echoes the data out on port 30054.
                            I feed fr24feed gui with port 30054.
                            As a kicker and seemingly thankless rewardless task I feed radarbox24 (runs under wine. added to session autostart) using data on port 30003

                            The setup seems to be robust now as long I don't use too much RAM tracking planes on the computer; if so fr24feed might go into zombie mode and I'll need to reboot the laptop, Planefinder's polar view also seems to hog RAM at times

                            My frugal setup (once completed) with be an old business laptop with USB2 (sub $100), running MX or Zorin Linux), nooelect SmarTee (avoid the smarT).
                            RG8X feedline to either an UT106 (trimmed to 1/2wave) magnetic mount antenna onto a 4" electrical conduit cover ground plane with 2 1/2" bolt for radials (sub $10) , or my homemade semi-directional horseshoe antenna (220nm range max, solid range 120nm)

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by galenthurber View Post
                              My frugal setup (once completed) with be an old business laptop with USB2 (sub $100), running MX or Zorin Linux)
                              Here is my dump1090-mutability on MX Linux
                              dump1090-mut on MX Linux.png


                              (1) Dump1090-mutability ver 1.15~dev:
                              The 1st thing I installed was dump1090-mutability ver 1.15~dev by method given here:

                              How to Install dump1090-mutability_1.15~dev on RPi

                              (2) FLIGHTRADAR24 FEEDER:
                              Next I installed FR24 Feeder by following method:
                              Code:
                              sudo wget https://repo-feed.flightradar24.com/linux_x86_binaries/fr24feed_1.0.18-5_i386.deb  
                              
                              sudo apt install libc6 libstdc++6 zlib1g libusb-1.0-0  
                              
                              sudo dpkg -i  fr24feed_1.0.18-5_i386.deb  
                              
                              sudo apt --fix-broken install
                              Settings
                              Receiver = Mode S Beast (NO DVBT)
                              Host/IP 127.0.0.1:30005

                              Code:
                              sudo nano /etc/fr24feed.ini
                              This file has following two lines.
                              Delete both lines and make file /etc/fr24feed.ini empty.
                              Code:
                              bs="yes"
                              raw="yes"

                              Copy-paste following in the blank file /etc/fr24feed.ini
                              (Replace xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx by your actual FR24 key)
                              Code:
                              receiver="beast-tcp"
                              host="127.0.0.1:30005"
                              fr24key="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
                              bs="no"
                              raw="no"
                              logmode="0"
                              windowmode="0"
                              mpx="no"
                              mlat="yes"
                              mlat-without-gps="yes"
                              Save file (Ctrl+o) and Close (Ctrl+x)

                              Code:
                              sudo service fr24feed restart
                              
                              sudo service fr24feed status
                              
                              [ ok ] FR24 Feeder/Decoder Process: running.
                              [ ok ] FR24 Stats Timestamp:.
                              [ ok ] FR24 Link: connected [UDP].
                              [ ok ] FR24 Radar: T-CYYZ50.
                              [ ok ] FR24 Tracked AC: 1.
                              [ ok ] Receiver: connected (75 MSGS/0 SYNC).

                              (3) PLANEFINDER FEEDER:
                              Next I installed Planefinder feeder by following method:

                              Code:
                              sudo wget http://client.planefinder.net/pfclient_4.1.1_i386.deb  
                              
                              sudo dpkg -i  pfclient_4.1.1_i386.deb
                              Setting:
                              Network Address = 127.0.0.1
                              Port = 30005

                              .
                              Last edited by abcd567; 2018-10-28, 05:21.

                              Comment

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