Building antenna test system- How would you do it?

TomW

TomW

Member
I plan on setting up a couple of Raspberry Pi/Nooelec SDR systems so that I can test two antennas at same time. Since I live 25 miles NE of DFW airport, my statistics can change dramatically (40%) from day to day. I'm currently testing a spider and was planning to view statistics vs other spider from last week. I'm learning that weather may have more influence than antenna, for this type of test.... Therefore the system to test two (or more <grin>) setups at the same time. Photo shows the start of the system. I am making every effort to have exactly the same components for each system, with the only difference being the antenna and the 2 foot difference in longitude. It will also be able to swap the antenna between the two systems to help sort out system performance issues.

So, here is the question. What software and statistics would you collect? I currently have the Flight Aware and Plane Finder stats to choose from. I'm not opposed to installing others, as long as someone can mentor me on them...Any (and all) suggestions will be appreciated.

2015-05-28 11.39.16.jpg
 
I suggest to make two sets of comparision, one using Flight Aware stats & other using Plane Finder stats. Using more than one comparision gives better insight.
In addition to Flight Aware & Plane Finder stats, you can also make a third comparison by monitoring the performance locally on RPi using collectd-rrd tools graphs.

Most likely you have already installed dump1090-mutability and "collectd-rrd tools".
In case you have not yet installed it, here are the commands for installing it using xforce30164's auto install script:
Code: 
sudo apt-get install rrdtool
sudo apt-get install collectd
wget http://raspi.ayadex.com/volatile/web_install.sh
sudo chmod +x web_install.sh
sudo ./web_install.sh "dump-tools"
cd ~/pi/dump-tools
sudo ./install.sh "crontab"
 
ab cd said:
I suggest to make two sets of comparision, one using Flight Aware stats & other using Plane Finder stats. Using more than one comparision gives better insight.
In addition to Flight Aware & Plane Finder stats, you can also make a third comparison by monitoring the performance locally on RPi using collectd-rrd tools graphs.

Most likely you have already installed dump1090-mutability and "collectd-rrd tools".
In case you have not yet installed it, here are the commands for installing it using xforce30164's auto install script:
Code: 
sudo apt-get install rrdtool
sudo apt-get install collectd
wget http://raspi.ayadex.com/volatile/web_install.sh
sudo chmod +x web_install.sh
sudo ./web_install.sh "dump-tools"
cd ~/pi/dump-tools
sudo ./install.sh "crontab"
Click to expand...
I'm still running Dump1090. Does this code install both mutability and Collectd-rrd t00ls? or should I go through your previously posted procedure (kill dump1090 and install mutability with FlightAware mods)?
 
TomW said:
I'm still running Dump1090. Does this code install both mutability and Collectd-rrd t00ls? or should I go through your previously posted procedure (kill dump1090 and install mutability with FlightAware mods)?
Click to expand...
This code only installs collectd rrd tools. You have to use other procedure to install dump 1090-mutability.
http://forum.planefinder.net/thread...-raspbian-dump1090-data-feeder.241/#post-2475

When I changed from dump1090 to dump1090-mutability, I did a fresh install of ALL software (Raspbian Wheezy+dump1090-mutability+Piaware Data Feeder+Plane Finder Data feeder+collectd rrd tools), instead of installing dump1090-mutability while dump1090 is already installed.
 
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I'm guessing that since I'm running Flight Aware's image that the process is completely different than shown.... I found /etc/init.d/fadump1090.sh but my linux skills are not up to this...:(

I guess I could start fresh like you did. Would you mind mentoring if I don't bug you too much?
 
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Piaware image, as far as I know, has piaware's fork of dump-mutability. Just run command piaware status and see what it shows in output.

I suggest you ask in dump tools that you have piaware image installed, and ask:
(1) Do you need to install dump1090-mutability, or the already installed version is enough to install & run collectd rrd tools graphs?
(2) If answer to above is yes, do you have to do anything to stop/remove already installed dump1090?

http://forum.planefinder.net/threads/web-portal-and-collectd-rrd-graphs-automated-installation.256/
 
ab cd said:
Piaware image, as far as I know, has piaware's fork of dump-mutability. Just run command piaware status and see what it shows in output.

I suggest you ask in dump tools that you have piaware image installed, and ask:
(1) Do you need to install dump1090-mutability, or the already installed version is enough to install & run collectd rrd tools graphs?
(2) If answer to above is yes, do you have to do anything to stop/remove already installed dump1090?

http://forum.planefinder.net/threads/web-portal-and-collectd-rrd-graphs-automated-installation.256/
Click to expand...
piaware -v
returns: 1.20-1

Where you say "ask in dump tools" - Where?

Thanks
Tom
 
TomW said:
I'm guessing that since I'm running Flight Aware's image that the process is completely different than shown.... I found /etc/init.d/fadump1090.sh but my linux skills are not up to this...:(

I guess I could start fresh like you did. Would you mind mentoring if I don't bug you too much?
Click to expand...
I will be glad to help & guide you for your fresh install.

If you want a fresh install, I recommend you purchase one more microSD card to do this. This way you will not disturb your existing installed software, and in case of any problem, swithch back the new microSD card with old one.

See step-by-step installation instruction here.

http://forum.planefinder.net/thread...ctions-for-raspbian-dump1090-data-feeder.241/

When you reach to step-3 (dump1090 installation), skip it and move on to here: http://forum.planefinder.net/thread...-raspbian-dump1090-data-feeder.241/#post-2475
 
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Run on your RPi with Piaware Image:

sudo piaware-status

If Piaware Image has dump1090-mutability built-in, you should see something like this:

dump1090 is not running.
faup1090 is not running.
piaware is running.
dump1090-mutab is listening for connections on port 30005.
dump1090-mutab is listening for connections on port 10001.
piaware is connected to port 10001.
piaware is connected to FlightAware.
dump1090-mutab is producing data on port 10001

If Piaware Image has dump1090 built-in, you should see something like this:

dump1090 is running.
faup1090 is not running.
piaware is running.
dump1090 is listening for connections on port 30005.
dump1090 is listening for connections on port 10001.
piaware is connected to port 10001.
piaware is connected to FlightAware.
dump1090 is producing data on port 30005.
dump1090 is producing data on port 10001
 
ab cd said:
Run on your RPi with Piaware Image:

sudo piaware-status

If Piaware Image has dump1090-mutability built-in, you should see something like this:

dump1090 is not running.
faup1090 is not running.
piaware is running.
dump1090-mutab is listening for connections on port 30005.
dump1090-mutab is listening for connections on port 10001.
piaware is connected to port 10001.
piaware is connected to FlightAware.
dump1090-mutab is producing data on port 10001

If Piaware Image has dump1090 built-in, you should see something like this:

dump1090 is running.
faup1090 is not running.
piaware is running.
dump1090 is listening for connections on port 30005.
dump1090 is listening for connections on port 10001.
piaware is connected to port 10001.
piaware is connected to FlightAware.
dump1090 is producing data on port 30005.
dump1090 is producing data on port 10001
Click to expand...

pi@piawaredev ~ $ sudo piaware-status
dump1090 is running.
faup1090 is not running.
piaware is running.
dump1090 is listening for connections on port 30005.
dump1090 is listening for connections on port 10001.
piaware is connected to port 10001.
piaware is connected to FlightAware.
dump1090 is producing data on port 30005.
dump1090 is producing data on port 10001.
 
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