Build a ADSB.fi Community-Based Flight Feeder

REAL-TIME ADSB AIRCRAFT MAP

Adsb.fi is a community-driven ADSB flight tracker that runs on Raspberry Pi and other low-power devices utilizing affordable software-defined radio hardware.

Adsb.fi provides open and unfiltered access to worldwide air traffic data by aggregating multiple flight data feeds provided by our growing community of aviation, amateur radio & electronics enthusiasts worldwide.

Please use the following instructions to build a complete RPi-based flight tracker and configure your device to start feeding flight data to the Adsb.fi flight tracking community network.

If you already have a flight feeder setup that outputs BEAST data such as READSB or DUMP1090-FA, you can add the Adsb.fi feed software to your setup using the instructions below.

curl -L -o /tmp/feed.sh https://adsb.fi/feed.sh
sudo bash /tmp/feed.sh

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Parts List

Raspberry Pi or Similar SBC
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B,  Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, Raspberry Pi 400, Raspberry Pi Zero W, Orange Pi Zero2, Orange Pi , Orange Pi 4, Orange Pi 5, Libre AML-S905X-CC (Le Potato) or similar single board computers. This will also run on many Linux distros such as Debian and Ubuntu.
Please note that if you are running the software in a VM, the MLAT portion will not work correctly as most USB drivers are just not fast enough. It will decode Mode-S perfectly fine.

Micro SD card  – 8GB or Larger Recommended

Power supply for Pi or SBC
SDRs and other external hardware can sometimes use more power than some stock Pi power supplies can deliver.  It is recommended that you use at least a 3A supply or larger to avoid issues.

RTL2832-based SDR (Optionally one with built-in LNA and 1090 Filter)
AirNav RadarBox FlightStick, Nooelec NESDR Series SDR, RTL-SDR V3, Etc

1090mhz Vertically Polarized Antenna
A good antenna is essential to the reception of signals.  The stock antenna that comes with most SDR dongles is good enough to get you started, but a correctly tuned antenna will vastly expand your range and reception reports.  Many different types of antennas can be constructed DIY from plans found on the internet.

Optional – 1090MHZ Filter
These come in a variety of shapes and types.  The filter does what the name suggests, it filters out any unwanted RF above and below the target frequency.  Some dongles made specifically for ADS-B have this built in.

Optional – LNA / Low-Noise Amplifier
An LNA amplifies the signal coming from the antenna before it is sent to the receiver.  This can help extend your receive range but can also hurt local performance in some respects if the gain is not configured correctly.  For the best results, always use an LNA with a filter.  Some dongles made specifically for ADS-B have this built in.

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Installation

Step 1: Begin by flashing your microSD card with the latest version of ‎Raspberry Pi OS using the Raspberry Pi Imager.‎ 

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Step 2: Before flashing the SD card, open the advanced options by clicking the gear icon.‎

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Step 3: From the advanced options window, set your device’s hostname and password, enable SSH, configure ‎your wireless LAN, and select your locale settings.  Click Save.  Choose your storage media and click Write to burn the image to your SD card.

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Step 4: Once written to the microSD card, insert it into the Pi. ‎Plug the SDR USB dongle into one of the Pi’s USB ports and power up the Pi.‎

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Step 5: With your Pi booted, connect to the Pi via SSH to install the Adsb.fi software. Note ‎that this can also be done locally on the Pi by connecting a keyboard, mouse, and monitor directly to ‎the Pi and opening a terminal window.
Using a program such as PuTTY or Tera Term, open an SSH connection to your Pi using either the local hostname you set up when configuring the image or the local IP address of the device.  In his example, the hostname is raspberrypi.local

For help determining the local ip address of the Pi, please use reference the following guide.
https://all3dp.com/2/find-raspberry-pi-on-network/

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Step 6: Once logged into your device, make sure your Pi’s software is up to date by entering the following commands:‎

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo reboot

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Step 7: Allow your Pi to reboot, then reopen the SSH connection or terminal window.

Your site’s latitude, longitude, and elevation will be needed for the next steps.  This information must be accurate as it will skew the MLAT calculations if incorrect.

The following site https://www.daftlogic.com/projects-find-elevation-on-map.htm is a good resource for this information.  Click on the map and the coordinates and elevation are displayed in the lower box.

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Step 9: Enter the following commands in your ssh console or terminal window and answer the prompts to install the READSB Decoder Software

sudo bash -c "$(wget -O - https://github.com/wiedehopf/adsb-scripts/raw/master/readsb-install.sh)"

sudo reboot

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Step 9: Enter the following commands in your ssh console or terminal window and answer the prompts to install Adsb.fi feed software.

curl -L -o /tmp/feed.sh https://adsb.fi/feed.sh
sudo bash /tmp/feed.sh

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Step 10: Test that your feeder is sending data to the Adsb.fi community network.
Visit https://adsb.fi from a web browser on the same local network as your new feeder.  You should see “You are feeding data” in the lower-left corner of the screen.  You can click this link to view your feed status.

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View your devices receive map locally on your device.
http://<<IP Address of Pi>>/tar1090

Install optional graphs1090 stats package: https://github.com/wiedehopf/graphs1090

The configuration of READSB is outside the scope of this document. 
More information can be found here: https://github.com/wiedehopf/readsb

More info on ADSB.fi and the community they are trying to create can be found on their website, Discord server, and GitHub page.