Automated Installation of AcarSDeco2 on RPi

[ab cd]

AUTOMATED INSTALL ON RPi 2/3/4 Raspbian Stretch / Buster

(1) Easy Installation - Just copy-paste one command to run bash script and it does everything.

(2) Automatic start - systemd service automatically starts it at boot/reboot.

(3) Easy monitoring & control - Provides commands systemctl status, systemctl stop, systemctl start, and systemctl restart.

(4) Easy configuration - Provides a separate config file in simple format, each config item on a separate line, starting with --

(5) Blacklisting of rtl-sdr - The installation script creates a blacklist file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-rtl-sdr.conf with required blacklist entries, preventing error: failed to connect/open rtl-sdr device.


FOR DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS:
https://github.com/abcd567a/ad2/blob/master/README.md


.

Running ModeSDeco2 AND AcarSDeco2 on Same Pi
If you want, AcarSDeco2 and ModeSDeco2 (Click here) can be installed on the same RPi, provided:

(1) Two DVB-T dongles are plugged into RPi, one for ModeSDeco2, other for AcarSDeco2.

(2) The two dongles are serialized so that each software use its respective dongle+antenna. The dongles can be serialized, say 00000101 & 00000102. In addition, following to be added in config of the two softwares

ModeSDeco2 config:
--device-serial 00000101

AcarSDeco2 config:
--device-serial 00000102

How to serialize dongles

## Install necessary tool
sudo apt update
sudo apt install rtl-sdr

## Stop all programs which use the dongle
sudo systemctl stop md2 ad2

## Issue following commands one by one.
## Each command will ask [y/n], type y for yes.

rtl_eeprom -s 00000101 -d 0

rtl_eeprom -s 00000102 -d 1

## Un-plug, then re-plug both dongles

## Check that dongles have been correctly serialized
rtl_test -t

## Reboot Pi to restore it to normal
sudo reboot

 

[AnirbanSen]

Known ACARS frequencies - acarsd ACARS Decoder for Linux and Windows

Known ACARS frequencies - acarsd ACARS Decoder for Linux and Windows

www.acarsd.org

Any likelihood of conflict with other feeders when run on same RPi as dump1090?

 

[AnirbanSen]

Access at Port 8686 - Site cannot be reached.

[email protected]:~ $ sudo systemctl status ad2
● ad2.service - AcarSDeco2
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/ad2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enab
Active: activating (auto-restart) (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2019-09-06 15
Process: 2498 ExecStart=/bin/bash /usr/share/ad2/ad2-start.sh (code=exited, st
Main PID: 2498 (code=exited, status=132)

Sep 06 15:16:41 SenPi0 systemd[1]: ad2.service: Unit entered failed state.
Sep 06 15:16:41 SenPi0 systemd[1]: ad2.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
lines 1-8/8 (END)

 

[AnirbanSen]

[email protected]:/usr/share/ad2 $ ./acarsdeco2 --help
Illegal instruction
[email protected]:/usr/share/ad2 $

 

[wiedehopf]

Each program using an SDR needs the SDR to itself. It can't be shared.
In this case you can't add a 2nd dongle either, it probably doesn't have an argument to select the dongle by serial number.

 

[AnirbanSen]

I tried even after stopping dump1090 and the result was the same.

 

[wiedehopf]

It'll be automatically restarted by piaware for example.

systemctl status is not very useful

this would be much more useful to see:
sudo journalctl --no-pager -u ad2

 

[wiedehopf]

It's not gonna work on the RPiZero, it's not compiled for it seems (Illegal instruction).

Needs a different Pi.

 

[AnirbanSen]

Hmm

 

[ab cd]

It's not gonna work on the RPiZero, it's not compiled for it seems (Illegal instruction).

Needs a different Pi.

Exactly.
The distro is for RPi 2 & 3
acarsdeco2_rpi2-3_debian9_20181201.tgz

.

Download – xDeco.org

 

[ab cd]

In this case you can't add a 2nd dongle either, it probably doesn't have an argument to select the dongle by serial number.

It does have an argument to share dongles.

--device-serial 00000101


To serialize dongles
(1) Plug in both dongles in RPi
(2) Give following commands. Last two commads will ask [y/n]. Say y
(3) Install rtl-sdr package

sudo apt update
sudo apt install rtl-sdr

(4) Stop all apps which use dongle

sudo systemctl stop piaware fr24feed dump1090-mutability dump1090-fa ad2

(5) Serialize dongles

rtl_eeprom -s 00000101 -d 0
rtl_eeprom -s 00000102 -d 1

(6) Unplug, then replug both dongles.

(7) Run following command to check if dongles are serialized correctly (i.e. 00000101 & 00000102)

rtl_test -t

(8) In config files of dump1090 and acarsdeco2 specify respective serial numbers (00000101 & 00000102)

 

[AnirbanSen]

I'm kind of stuck with Pi0s for the time being.
Perhaps the next project.

Question: If a SD card has been used to set up the Pi0, can it be moved to a Pi3/Pi4 and work or it configurates itself to the processor it first boots to?