-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 5
1. Hardware
The following we are going over the services available at the moment and the considerations to make on implementing them
Allows the tracking of aircrafts like planes, helicopters and so on.
- Needs one SDR + one special antenna and maybe band-pass filter
- Can receive up to hundreds of aircrafts in distances up to 500km depending on location and setup
- Can be implemented everywhere with a clear view to the sky
Is an add-on to ADS-B to collaboratively track the positions of aircrafts that can not be determined by ADS-B.
- Need working ADS-B reception
- No additional hardware needed
- Can be implemented everywhere where ADS-B is implemented
Allows tracking of ships, buoys and some SAR aircrafts
- Needs one SDR + one antenna which can be shared with some not all of the other services
- Can receive up to hundreds of ship in distances up to 100km
- Can be implemented in locations near the sea or near waterways that are used by ships or even in spots far away from water if the antenna is up high, like on a hilltop
Allows tracking of weather balloons
- Needs one or more SDRs + one antenna which can be shared with some not all of the other services and a antenna splitter
- Can receive up to a couple of radiosondes (one per SDR at a time) in distances up to 500km
- Can be implemented everywhere with a clear view to the sky
The core component of every setup is a computer that processes all the data coming from the SDRs.
Consider the following before deciding for a specific model.
If you are installing your setup in an outdoor enclosure space is at a minimum.
- The smallest option is to use a Raspberry Pi
- Another reasonably small option is to use a Mini PC like a Futro, NUC, ThinkCenter Tiny, ...
If you are installing your setup in an outdoor enclosure, under a hot roof or in generally hot climate it is crucial to keep the computer cool enough to avoid stability issues.
- The easiest option is to use a low power system like Raspberry Pi 1 or 2
- Another option is to include active cooling in your design, like a fan on a Pi3, Pi4 or Pi5 or choose a Mini PC with an integrated fan
The amount of computing power needed varies significantly with the number of services you want to implement
- ADS-B only does run on a Raspberry Pi 1, but there is not much headroom, so we don't recommended it
- ADS-B + MLAT + AIS will fine run on a Pi 2
- Decoding multiple radiosondes at once does require a bit of computing power so you may want to use the fastest Raspberry Pi you can find or even better a Mini PC
- Mini PCs with x86 CPUs like the Futro with Celeron J4105 do everything of the above mentioned with enough headroom for future software updates and addition of SDRs
- An old laptop or PC may work as well
- The more USB ports the more SDRs you can connect to decode different signals
- USB Hubs are not recommended as the bandwidth of the uplink port can not handle multiple SDRs
- As the system is running 24/7 this is a factor depending on your electricity costs
- This is even more important if you build a portable setup which you need to power off the grid with a powerbank
You want a system that can run for months completely unattended without crashing.
It is not fun if you need to recover a crashed system every couple of days.
System instability can be caused by a couple of things, here are the ones we have encountered on a regular basis
- An insufficient power supply or cable that is not capable to deliver the required current and stable voltage is a common problem especially with Raspberry Pi computers. The effects range from CPU throttling over disappearing SDR dongles to stopping systems.
- Overheating is a common problem especially in outdoor setups in the summer