Can 2 receivers on same network produce a merged output?

[Liz55]

We moved house. The new antenna has a great view to the south and a poor view to the north. I could put another antenna up with a better view to the north but that would not see well to the south. I've got enough bits to put another receiver together. That would send two feeds to PF, but I would need to view two separate web pages to view the air traffic. Has anyone tried to merge the outputs for their own use?
On the PF Sharer List would the output be shown individually or joint?

Liz

 

[ab cd]

Let us say you have:

(1) Pi 1: All data feeders installed on it. You also have dump1090 installed on it with its dedicated dongle & antenna.

(2) Pi2: No data feeders installed on Pi2. You have only dump1090 installed on it with its dedicated dongle & antenna.

You want data from Pi2 to be diverted to Pi and combined with data of Pi, and combined date fed to planefinder and other sites, as well as displayed on map on Pi1

First install socat on Pi-1, if not already installed

sudo apt install socat

Now run this command on Pi-1
Note: replace 192.168.0.21 by the local IP of your Pi-2

socat -u TCP:192.168.0.21:30005 TCP:localhost:30004 &

The above command will create a data tunnel, enabling data flow from Pi2 to Pi1:

To test if the data tunnel is established and data is flowing from Pi-2 to Pi-1:

(1) Break the tunnel by following command

sudo killall socat

(2) temporarily disconnect antenna from dongle of Pi-1, and check dump1090 map. Within a minute or two, all (or almost all) plane will disappear from the map.

(3) Now issue following command;
(Note: replace 192.168.0.21 by the local IP of your Pi-2)

socat -u TCP:192.168.0.21:30005 TCP:localhost:30004 &

If data flow is established, planes will appear again on map, but of course from data of Pi-2.



NOTE:
This pipe will be disconnected on reboot of Pi. It may also get disconnected after running fo some time. You will therefore need to create a "startup & maintain" script and make it start at boot by an entry into file /etc/rc.local

AUTO START AT BOOT & MAINTAIN DATA TUNNEL

STEP-1

sudo touch /home/pi/pi2topi1.sh
sudo chmod +x /home/pi/pi2topi1.sh
sudo nano /home/pi/pi2topi1.sh

In the file opened, copy-paste following code
(Replace 192.168.0.21 by IP address of your Pi-2)

#!/bin/sh
while sleep 30
do
   /usr/bin/socat -u TCP:192.168.0.21:30005 TCP:localhost:30004
done

STEP-2

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

In the file opened by above command, scrool down till you see last line (whic is only exit 0).
Just above exit 0, copy paste this line

/home/pi/pi2topi1.sh

STEP-3
Reboot Pi-1

To UNINSTALL:

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

Delete the following line in above file:
/home/pi/pi2topi1.sh

 

[Lee Armstrong]

We moved house. The new antenna has a great view to the south and a poor view to the north. I could put another antenna up with a better view to the north but that would not see well to the south. I've got enough bits to put another receiver together. That would send two feeds to PF, but I would need to view two separate web pages to view the air traffic. Has anyone tried to merge the outputs for their own use?
On the PF Sharer List would the output be shown individually or joint?

Liz

We detect merged feeds and do not allow them. Feeding twice to Plane Finder is ok but please only merge for your personal use!

 

[ab cd]

We detect merged feeds and do not allow them. Feeding twice to Plane Finder is ok but please only merge for your personal use!

Thanks Lee for pointing out. I did not know that.

To meet Planefinder's requirements, this can be done:

(1) Each of Pi-1 & Pi-2 are kept stand alone i.e. with their own antenna, dongle, dump1090 and pfclient.

(2) To merge for personal use:

OPTION-1
Install ModeSMixer2 on Pi-1, and configure it to get feed from both Pis, using cofiguration

--inConnectId 127.0.0.1:30005: Pi-1
--inConnectId 192.168.0.21:30005: Pi-2
(Replace 192.168.0.21 by Pi-2's actual IP)

OPTION-2
Create 2nd instance of dump1090 on Pi-1, and configure it to get feed from both Pis. The combined data can be viewed on map of 2nd instance of dump1090.

The 2nd instance should be configured to:

(a) run in "--net-only" mode so that it does not need / grab the dongle.

(b) Should be blocked from outputing combined data on port 30005 by argument "--net-bo-port 0"

 

[Liz55]

Thanks guys for the ideas and comments. Once we get another good antenna spot, and another coaxial-colinear antenna manufactured (the current one is mounted inside a surf rod) the programming part will be easy.There's a fair sized data hole to the north west of us which will benefit from another feed.

 

[ab cd]

While awaiting for your coaxial collinear antenna to complete, why not make and use this antenna. It is very easy to make, and performes quiet good inspite of its small size and simplicity, does not require any special connectors, and costs almost nothing:

Handy SPIDER - No Soldering, No Connector


.

 

[Liz55]

I need a tower on which to mount the antenna. 15 metre tower coming from a neighbour's place.

 

[foxhunter]

combining the view of two or more receivers works perfect with the adjusted tar1090 script of Wiedehopf