ModeSDeco2 and ModeSMixer2 - console programs for RTLSDR and transcoding

[sergsero]

Hi Roby,

1. The number of messages with coordinates depends on ratio of the observed aircraft with extended squitter (ADS-B) transponder and Mode S in coverage area of your radar. What ratio do you have in yours? It value can be compared to similar programs, for example, RTL1090 or ADSB#.
In my area (screenshot attached) the ratio of the three days of observations: total number messages - 19116328, 1090EX - 13672883, with (valid) coordinates - 6324088. Or there is ~72% and ~46%.
Radio-jamming and/or overload receiver chip by wrong gain setting can be the reason of low number of validity coordinates.


2. Company name, Aircraft type and other information about aircrafts are extracted by the program from the database file basestation.sqb. But this information for every specific aircraft should be exist there previously to be obtained from.


3. What ICAO code are you use?
Enter ICAO code to input field and METAR data (in string on Google map) will be automatically updated approximately every thirty minutes (via randomization interval).


4. It will be displayed at the top of the form. Information about the route of the flight program takes from the database file flightroute.sqb, which has the same format as in PlanePlotter.
To use it add the option: --frdb /path/to *sqb. In your case, for example, --frdb C:\Radio\VirtualRadar\BaseStation\flightroute.sqb

Regards,
sergsero

[Attachment deleted by Admin to save file space]

[robybenjy]

Hi Sergey,

1. My ratio after 1 day and 13 hours of observation are:
   - total messagges 926629
   - ADS-B total 181863 (20%)
   - ADS-B positions 75257 (41%)
The positions percentage is not bad, but the ADS-B messages are few in comparision of total.
I will test another gain value or auto and it could be that I will have fewer messages, but higher quality.
I remember that using ADSB# with ADSBScope the quality was about 70%.
Anyway, with ModeSDeco2 I had 225 Km. as max coverage, even if my antenna is 15 m. high from ground and I have not 360° open space.
I know that a better antenna would enhance the reception!

2. A some time ago I downloaded a basestation.sqb file from http://pp-sqb.mantma.co.uk/ for Virtual Radar Server, but now the site is not longer available. May be the informations in that file are not complete.
I think is better to install PlanePlotter and to use the file inside.

3. I use LIQO ICAO code (Monte Argentario) and this morning I see that the METAR info are updated regularly.
Yesterday evening the info were updated about 0955UTC even if on the web I founded new METAR at 1655UTC.

4. For the flight route I think the only solution is to install PlanePlotter and extract the file.

I will post on my blog a tutorial for italian users about your good software.
Thanks again for your help.

Roby

[Attachment deleted by Admin to save file space]

[Triple7]

4. For the flight route I think the only solution is to install PlanePlotter and extract the file.

You don't actually need to install PlanePlotter, in fact doing so won't give you an up to date flightroute.sqb file. If you join this Yahoo list, you can download an updated file twice a week. Just rename it flightroute.sqb and save it to you hard drive in the location you have referenced in ModeSDeco2. So something like --frdb C:\Radio\VirtualRadar\BaseStation\flightroute.sqb as Sergsero suggests.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/PP-logs-and-routes/info

Tim

[dfroula]

Sergsero, I'm trying to get modesmixer2 to connect to an SBS-1 that connected to my laptop running Windows by USB so that I can access it without needing BaseStation to be running.

How can I achieve this ?  I've tried:

modesmixer2.exe --inSerial ttyUSB0:3000000 --outServer beast:31007

but I'm not specifying the USB port correctly as the error says that it cannot find the file specified.

What would the format be for Windows ?

Thanks in advance

Phil

If you were running on a Pi or Linux system,  for serial input, the entire path to the port must be specified. I would also specify the handshaking mechanism to avoid uncertain what type is being used. The Modes-S Beast requires hardware handshaking. Basestation may be different. Your string should look like:

modesmixer2.exe --inSerial /dev/ttyUSB0:3000000 --outServer beast:31007

Since you are running on Windows, "ttyUSB0" is incorrect. You should use the Windows designation for the USB serial port: COM1, COM2, etc.

modesmixer2.exe --inSerial COM25:3000000:hardware --outServer beast:31007

Look in the Device Manager under "Ports (COM & LPT)" to see what is available.

Best,

Don

[Pidea]

Excellent Don, thanks I'll try that shortly.

Regards

Phil

[jmaurin]

Hi Sergsero, may I have some sugestions for ModesDeco?

1) Include an option/config to save data (statistics) before shutdown and reload these data after start. User could be select to see session data (since last program startup) or cumulative data.

2) An option to set max range line color (that one that's gray today)

3) Multi-lingual. Would be cool if modesdeco could load interface texts from external file. With this, users could translate web interface for any language.

4) An option to add html text to header/footer of web interface. We could include information about QTH, page counter, information of hardware, etc...

And the last one I think it's a little bug. Using android cell phone, when you bavigate to modesdeco2 page, I can see and select main menu to switch tabs. But after selecting MAP, I can't open main menu anymore to go to another tab. The menu it's on screen, but doesn't open.

[robybenjy]

4. For the flight route I think the only solution is to install PlanePlotter and extract the file.

You don't actually need to install PlanePlotter, in fact doing so won't give you an up to date flightroute.sqb file. If you join this Yahoo list, you can download an updated file twice a week. Just rename it flightroute.sqb and save it to you hard drive in the location you have referenced in ModeSDeco2. So something like --frdb C:\Radio\VirtualRadar\BaseStation\flightroute.sqb as Sergsero suggests.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/PP-logs-and-routes/info

Tim

Hi Tim,
thanks for suggestion.
In fact, I installed PP but there is not any basestation or flightroute files inside.

Roby

[robybenjy]

I tested my dongle in ModeSDeco2 with gain 42.1 and I noted that the ADS-B percentage is more or less the same, but the coverage is worse than the gain 48.0.
Now I'm testing with "Gain:Auto" and the "Agc:Off" and I noted the coverage increases.
For Sergsero: the "--gain" work on the RTL and the "--agc" work on the Tuner, is it right?
Tomorrow I'll test with "Agc:Auto" to compare.
The problem is the best Signal/Noise ratio to have more good messagges from long distance.

If other users of RTL-SDR showed their experience on how to set their dongle for a better result, I would be grateful to them.
Anyway, I think in my area there are more type S transponder than ADS-B, so the percentage is different.

I downloaded the flightroute.sqb from yahoo group and now I have the route on the info.

Roby

[Attachment deleted by Admin to save file space]

[sergsero]

Hi Roby,

The settings are in reverse order.

The option --gain refers to receiver chip R820T. Its value can be explicitly specified by user in decibels. Supported fixed gain values (29): 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.7 3.7 7.7 8.7 12.5 14.4 15.7 16.6 19.7 20.7 22.9 25.4 28.0 29.7 32.8 33.8 36.4 37.2 38.6 40.2 42.1 43.4 43.9 44.5 48.0 49.6. Or you can to choose in settings <--auto>.

If all components of the setup (narrow-band antenna on highest elevation, no interference) are optimal I recommend setting a maximum gain of 49.6 "in hardware" and allow the program to determine this value based on monitoring the conditions of radio reception.
Or get it value experimentally according actual operating conditions.

"--agc" enable Automatic Gain Control (AGC) in RTL2832 chip (default: off).

Regards,
sergsero

[robybenjy]

Hi Sergey,

I thank you for the clarification.
I have not yet tested with "AGC Auto", but I will soon.

I tried instead to send data to ADSBScope to have a "easy to read" log of the aircrafts received and then I added the command --beast 31001.
Now the planes are also displayed on ADSBScope and I noticed a couple of things: the Data-Quality is always between 90 and 100% higher than with ADSB #, and some planes are displayed here before then in ModeSDeco2. In fact, in ModeSDeco2 coordinates do not appear in the "Flights" list if they are in Mode S and therefore the planes do not appear on the map, whereas they already appear on the map of ADSBScope. What is this due to?

In addition, I connected to ADSBScope "ADSB-Display", contained in Mike's Transport Displays software, so you have on the screen even the current traffic, in addition to the log of all received aircraft.

More I use your software and more I'm finding out that you did a good job!

Roby

[Attachment deleted by Admin to save file space]

[dfroula]

Hi Roby,

The settings are in reverse order.

The option --gain refers to receiver chip R820T. Its value can be explicitly specified by user in decibels. Supported fixed gain values (29): 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.7 3.7 7.7 8.7 12.5 14.4 15.7 16.6 19.7 20.7 22.9 25.4 28.0 29.7 32.8 33.8 36.4 37.2 38.6 40.2 42.1 43.4 43.9 44.5 48.0 49.6. Or you can to choose in settings <--auto>.

If all components of the setup (narrow-band antenna on highest elevation, no interference) are optimal I recommend setting a maximum gain of 49.6 "in hardware" and allow the program to determine this value based on monitoring the conditions of radio reception.
Or get it value experimentally according actual operating conditions.

"--agc" enable Automatic Gain Control (AGC) in RTL2832 chip (default: off).

Regards,
sergsero

Just to clarify further, the R820T actually has three gain settings internally. When an R820T setting is set explicitly, the gain value is used as an index into a table of three gain values that set the three gain stages in the R820T. It is a known discrepancy that setting the R820T gain to "auto" will allow a slightly larger gain than setting the R820T gain to its maximum value manually.

The other RTL2832 gain switch, if switched on, doesn't really provide any true gain at all. It simply normalizes the decoded data to avoid clipping. It doesn't seem to provide any advantage, at least in my system when I was running a dongle receiver.

Best regards,

Don
WD9DMP

[jmaurin]

Another report: Windows 10 + Chrome (fresh install) = doesn't show map.

[IanH]

In fact, I installed PP but there is not any basestation or flightroute files inside.

Roby

Roby

If you want the latest basestation.sqb file, go to:

http://planebase.biz/bstnsqb

I heard that because this was now available, the other link don't bother with creating one any more.

[robybenjy]

Hi Ianh,

thanks for the good suggestion: I replaced my basestation.sqb file with it and now I have the complete info about aircrafts type on ModeSDeco2.

For Sergsero,
today the software crashed with this error message: libusb_callback xfer status: 4
Is it a bug or my pc status?

Roby

[sergsero]

Hi jmaurin,

Another report: Windows 10 + Chrome (fresh install) = doesn't show map.

1. Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013 - 32 bit https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=40784
2. Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86) - 32 bit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8328
3. Zadig for Windows Vista or later http://zadig.akeo.ie/downloads/zadig_2.1.2.exe
4. Google Chrome v.44.0.2403.125 m
5. The result is shown in the screenshot

Regards,
sergsero

[Attachment deleted by Admin to save file space]