ModeSDeco2 and ModeSMixer2 - console programs for RTLSDR and transcoding

[IanH]

You are missing a lot of graphic information from the Charts page!

See attached to see what I have.



[Attachment deleted by Admin to save file space]

[Triple7]

Did you enter your location in the format --location 50.11:14.27?

Not sure if it makes a difference, but worth a try if you haven't.

Tim

[Radio2.0]

You are missing a lot of graphic information from the Charts page!

my look exact the same.

[IanH]

Nice idea Tim.

Just looked at earlier post from zachmart where he gives the command line:

--location 14.4656:50.0468

Given his position in Europe, those should be reversed!

--location 50.0468:14.4656   That would be NE of Prague.

[zachmart]

Yes IanH, Thanks... That helped.
Now it works just fine. Thanks guys for help.

[IanH]

You helped us by providing the command line you were using 

Tim's suggestion that location might be the problem and there was the answer.

Glad everything is now ok.

Ian

[tebrown]

sergsero,

Would it be possible to add a feature to differentiate the source of the feed? Since FlightAware added MLAT support to piAware, it would be nice to have a quick and easy way to see which flights are locally sourced versus sourced some other way.  The FlightAware fork of dump1090 color codes the planes, which is nice.  There might be another way to do this, but it is not obvious to me. 

Great software! Thanks for making it!

Travis

[jmaurin]

sergsero,

Would it be possible to add a feature to differentiate the source of the feed? Since FlightAware added MLAT support to piAware, it would be nice to have a quick and easy way to see which flights are locally sourced versus sourced some other way.  The FlightAware fork of dump1090 color codes the planes, which is nice.  There might be another way to do this, but it is not obvious to me. 

Great software! Thanks for making it!

Travis

Travis, Modesdeco2 doesn't receive MLAT dat from piaware. I asked exactly this for sergsero, this is the reply:

Hi jmaurin!

Quote from: jmaurin on August 06, 2015, 07:45:02 pm
In ModeSDeco2, the option '--avrmlat' allows ModeSDeco2 to receive or send MLAT data?

Modesdeco2 was written in spring of 2013. And it initially has the option --avrmlat, which provides TCP server for output data to the network (as listener process) with the addition of time stamp for Planeplotter.
So, neither one thing nor the other - only output when client asks data.

Regards,
sergsero

[tebrown]

Hi jmaurin,

Thanks! I thought I looked through all the posts for this, but missed it. Thanks for following up.

Cheers,
Travis

[tebrown]

I did some experimenting, and ran a copy of modesmixer with this option: --inServer 30004.  The logs from piaware.out indicated it was sending data to modesmixer, and sure enough, when I looked at the web interface, it had about 8 aircraft visible. There was no signal level, which makes sense.  So, I started running modesmixer and modesdeco with web interfaces.  Most of the Mode-S only transmissions turned into ADS-B data. The new ADS-B tracks are the from the MLAT feed, and the signal level is from the modesmixer/RTL-SDR.  That's really slick.  The only problem is I can't easily identify which planes are which.  So, jmaurin, I think if you gave modesmixer a whirl, it would do what you wanted.

Cheers,
Travis

[jmaurin]

I did some experimenting, and ran a copy of modesmixer with this option: --inServer 30004.  The logs from piaware.out indicated it was sending data to modesmixer, and sure enough, when I looked at the web interface, it had about 8 aircraft visible. There was no signal level, which makes sense.  So, I started running modesmixer and modesdeco with web interfaces.  Most of the Mode-S only transmissions turned into ADS-B data. The new ADS-B tracks are the from the MLAT feed, and the signal level is from the modesmixer/RTL-SDR.  That's really slick.  The only problem is I can't easily identify which planes are which.  So, jmaurin, I think if you gave modesmixer a whirl, it would do what you wanted.

Cheers,
Travis

hummm.....+- !

Since i'm not familiar with PiAware code, I'm not sure if they can make difference between two data. That's what I tought: use modemixer ro receive data from PiAware (MLAT) and ModeSDeco2 (SDR-RTL), then send both to PiAware......but since ModeMixer doesn't make any difference between MLAT and data from RTL, ModMixer will send both data do piaware......so MLAT data will be duplicated.....right? I'm note sure if piaware can make differene between these planes....

[tebrown]

hummm.....+- !

Since i'm not familiar with PiAware code, I'm not sure if they can make difference between two data. That's what I tought: use modemixer ro receive data from PiAware (MLAT) and ModeSDeco2 (SDR-RTL), then send both to PiAware......but since ModeMixer doesn't make any difference between MLAT and data from RTL, ModMixer will send both data do piaware......so MLAT data will be duplicated.....right? I'm note sure if piaware can make differene between these planes....

Yes, I believe you are correct.  I will run some experiments to see if I can confirm this or not. This is why it would be nice if modesmixer could optionally not forward data from a specific port.  I am not sure what dump1090 does, but it's also worth a look.

[GregoryGHarding]

what is the function of the -location option in mixer2? is it only for web interface or is it passed for mlat/etc?

[tebrown]

hummm.....+- !

Since i'm not familiar with PiAware code, I'm not sure if they can make difference between two data. That's what I tought: use modemixer ro receive data from PiAware (MLAT) and ModeSDeco2 (SDR-RTL), then send both to PiAware......but since ModeMixer doesn't make any difference between MLAT and data from RTL, ModMixer will send both data do piaware......so MLAT data will be duplicated.....right? I'm note sure if piaware can make differene between these planes....

So I was thinking about this last night (instead of sleeping), and I think my setup will actually work as intended.  Here is a very rough network diagram of how everything is connected:

Code Select Expand


-----------       -------------            --------------     --------------
| RTL-SDR |  ---> | MODESDECO |----------->| MODESMIXER |---->| WEB CLIENT |
-----------       -------------   BEAST    --------------     --------------
                   |    |        (30005)         ^
             BEAST |    | BEAST                  |
           (30005) |    | (30005)                | BEAST
                   V    V                        | (30004)
       -------------   ------------------        |
       |  piaware  |   | fa-mlat-client |--------'
       -------------   ------------------



[sergsero]

Modesmixer2/Modesdeco2 has a built-in algorithm for the approximate determination of the location of the receiver. Its accuracy is enough for decoding unpaired CPR messages.

However, for aircraft on ground and accurately measure distance to the target, you should use the option --location <lat:lon>. For example, --location 35.55:-82.89.

Regards,
sergsero