Planeplotter / Planespotting

[Yokoshibu]

If anyone is in to plane spotting / aircraft tracking and similar stuffs and you are in Reno or Cedar City (granted it's in Utah) please take a look at planeplotter and the RTL-SDR combo, The planeplotter network is lacking people in those 2 area's that would aid the multilateration network that extends from colorado into utah.. it stops in southwestern utah / central nevada and then picks back up in the No-Cal area.

 

[gariac]

It would have certainly helped if you provided some links.
SonicGoose.com | Connecting PlanePlotter directly to RTL1090

Personally, I think this is nuts. You would be crazy to bypass Virtual Radar Server since it is 100 times better than plane plotter. I mean, it isn't even a contest. I suppose if you wanted to feed plane plotter from VRS, you could do that too, but nothing I found says the RTLSDR will allow planeplotter to do MLAT. I used to run planeplotter on my SBS-1, but I grew tired of it crashing, and the author of the program is totally useless. On the other hand, the author of Virtual Radar Server is simply brilliant and quite a gent. Funny how you pay for software such as Plane Plotter, only to be treated like trash, while VRS is free and the author will help you as well.

Note VRS runs very well under linux using mono. I also prefer dump1090 to rtl1090. Dump1090 is simply amazing. I've run 4 simultaneous dongles at a time using dump1090.

 

[kma371]

but nothing I found says the RTLSDR will allow planeplotter to do MLAT.

Well it does

 

[jonesyxvii]

It would have certainly helped if you provided some links.
SonicGoose.com | Connecting PlanePlotter directly to RTL1090

Personally, I think this is nuts. You would be crazy to bypass Virtual Radar Server since it is 100 times better than plane plotter. I mean, it isn't even a contest. I suppose if you wanted to feed plane plotter from VRS, you could do that too, but nothing I found says the RTLSDR will allow planeplotter to do MLAT. I used to run planeplotter on my SBS-1, but I grew tired of it crashing, and the author of the program is totally useless. On the other hand, the author of Virtual Radar Server is simply brilliant and quite a gent. Funny how you pay for software such as Plane Plotter, only to be treated like trash, while VRS is free and the author will help you as well.

Note VRS runs very well under linux using mono. I also prefer dump1090 to rtl1090. Dump1090 is simply amazing. I've run 4 simultaneous dongles at a time using dump1090.

First, as the owner/operator/author of sonicgoose.com, I thank you for the link (though I'm not sure of the context in which it was provided).

Second, if you read through the website for RTL1090 (http://www.rtl1090.com) you'll see a reference to version 2 of the software, wherein it states: "RTL1090 VERSION 2 (103) If you want to contribute to the Planeplotter network you MUST use this software version." This is what allows MLAT to work within that particular software combination.

Third, RTL1090, dump1090, ADSB#, VRS, PlanePlotter, BaseStation, ADSBScope, Globe-S, etc. are all decent and capable applications in their own right and proponents of each can claim it's "100 times better" than the others. I use all of them for various purposes and on various hardware. It's important to remember that each one has its own benefits and limitations, and as long as you work with the software within those parameters, you'll have great success.

Enjoy the hobby,

Rob

 

[com501]

Can this be run unattended on a remote site? What hardware does it need?

I have mountaintop sites with extra antennas from Mustang VOR east to Elko Mountain.

 

[jonesyxvii]

Can this be run unattended on a remote site? What hardware does it need?

Absolutely. All you need is a PC (or a RaspberryPi for compactness), the USB dongle, and an antenna. A Google search will turn up plenty of ideas on how to put together a remote installation.

 

[kma371]

Can this be run unattended on a remote site? What hardware does it need?

I have mountaintop sites with extra antennas from Mustang VOR east to Elko Mountain.

I ran two remote sites, one was on Mt Diablo in the bay area (no longer active) and one in the East Bay. I just ran teamviewer to access the computer if I needed to update software version remotely.

You might need some filters though to reduce interference from other transmitters on a high level site.

 

[Yokoshibu]

Gariac, thank you for thinking my idea is nuts. I like honest feedback. I have a question though, can you do multilateration with your 4 dongles feeding virtual radar server? I just don't know that much about VRS.

Com501
- To do this you need an antenna, receiver, Computer (or single board computer), and an internet connection.
- Extra antenna's may not help if they are not tuned to 1090 Mhz. The receiver dongles that Nooelec sells come with pre-cut 1090Mhz antennas however they are not what you would install at a radio site. The receivers / dongles run about 18$ NooElec - SDR Receivers - Software Defined Radio The antenna I use I am getting ready to replace. Right now I use a DPD 1090 antenna you can find it here: DPD Productions - VHF Air/Aviation Band, FBO Base, ACARS & ADS-B (SBS / RadarBox) Antennas for Commercial & Hobbyist Applications. I am going to get an antenna that has a built in bandpass filter and amplifier once the design is completed. Read more here: Antenne Active PCB 1090 MHz - 1090 MHz Active PCB antenna - F5ANN is still working on the design.

The raspberry PI now has software that will let it feed planeplotter directly with no need for anything else other than the Raspberry Pi and receiver dongle... total cost minus shipping, antenna, and internet connection is now around 45$. The Raspberry pi does need to be programed with the location of the station.... considering location is a key in multilateration!

Elko is a great spot, It wouldn't help me any but it would build out the network that exists in Colorado and Utah! To see the current locations of aircraft on the planeplotter network look here, Note the red dots are the multilateration generated locations, you will see them in colorado / eastern utah and in san francisco during normal hours of the day PlanePlotter from COAA This link shows where all the users are currently located at: PlanePlotter from COAA You can see the big hole between truckee and salt lake city, another reason why Elko is a great spot!

Cedar City would fill in southern UT/NV considering there already are a few stations in lost vegas.

Ok time to go my battery is dying on my laptop... fail.

 

[gariac]

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There is MLAT and there is MLAT. The fr24 boxes are gpsdo controlled. When I used to serve plane plotter, I did MLAT versus ADS-B comparisons. Basically you compare the MLAT position to the GPS location provided by ADS-B. The best I ever got out of PP was about 3 miles. Usually more like 5 miles. Due to the programing crashing and Bev being completely useless in fixing it, I gave up on PP.

Now what is 100 times better than PP Is VRS. Very stable, trivial to install. It uses Google for the mapping. I have run it under Windows and Linux.

Regarding the dongles, if you want a remote, dump1090 will stream just fine. You would run VRS at your house.

When I was running 4 dongles at a time, it was a test to see if I could run 4 sector antennas. A Beagleboard XM maxes out with 4 dongles run simultaneously.

If you expect to run remotely, you need to insure the unit will start running upon power up. Further, the software needs to start if it crashes. Basically you need to make everything that you want to run to be a service. Otherwise you will be visiting your remote site to boot the thing.

I unfortunately lost my remote site so the project just sits on a shelf. But it was interesting to learn how to do a "hardened" system. I had no way to crash the software, but I killed the processes and watched them restart. On the burner was to use the GPIO and another SBC to make a hardware watchdog timer.

 

[Yokoshibu]

ok so you can run mutiple offsite locations to VRS but will it still do the MLAT process?

I honestly think the 3-5 mile error is ok enough for my needs but I can see why the creater released the radarcape on fr24 like he did to run on a sanitized network for the gps timetags... I dont believe he uses the GPS to provide a sync to the oscillator but he certainly is using the timetags down to the nanosecond I calculated it out and it puts you in the accuracy of a few meters. Like I said before I would go down that road and get a radar cape had it not been proprietary to one network, Honestly I would like to share all of the data to several networks! So can VRS share the data out to multiple networks? like PP, flight aware, Pinkfroot and the like?