Radarspotting

Hi all,

I would be interested to know if anyone out there has managed to plug an SBS-1 (original not ER) into a Pi using USB and is able to decode anything.

About a year ago, I spent a while trying to get it working using modesmixer2 but my latest enquiry was never resolved - earlier forum postings suggested it was possible but I cannot work out how,

I do have a working RPi feeding FR24, FA, PP, PF and adbsexchange via a FA Pro stick, but would love to compare the output from an SBS-1 with the FA stick.

When the SBS-1 is physically connected to the Pi, I'm showing Red/Orange and Blue lights but no Green.

Thanks in advance.

Paul.

Quote from: bumpy_up_here on April 27, 2020, 03:17:19 PM
I do have a working RPi feeding FR24, FA, PP, PF and adbsexchange via a FA Pro stick, but would love to compare the output from an SBS-1 with the FA stick.

How do you plan to do the comparison?  Same antenna, cable and connectors?  And how do you plan to plot the received data?

If it helps, when I've made a comparisons, the SBS and Pro Stick have visrtually the same range and pick up the same aircraft.

If you connect the SBS to an RPi, you need some software running on the RPi that can process the data from the SBS.  And plot the results so you can make a comparison.

My guess, I've not done this, is you need one of Sergsero's apps running on the RPi, to process the SBS data.  And someone else to offer you useful advice.

But I think you're going to invest a considerable amount of effort for little return.

Hi Anmer,

Thanks for your swift reply.

I was going to compare using the same (and different antennae) and to feed the data to a PC running basestation, it's really just experimentation and playing around and learning as I go. An exercise in fun rather than necessity.

I suspect you are right in terms of the effort required for little return. I guess I'm just curious as to whether it is possible - Sergsero's modesmixer2 looks like it should work but I am just unable to get it to talk to the SBS-1.

So my question to the community still stands - has anybody plugged an SBS-1 into a Pi and got it working and is able to offer any advice.

Cheers.
Paul

Why not compare what you're seeing with the SBS-1 on BaseStation with your PiAware browser map?

I'm assuming you've seen the PiAware map for your FlightAware feed?

Do you mean connect the SBS-1 to the PC and configure BaseStation to look at the data locally, comparing that to the PiAware browser map with data from the RPi/FA dongle?

If so, yes I can do that if my only objective was to compare the SBS-1 receiver to the FA dongle, but my primary objective is to get the SBS-1 to talk to the RPi.

Why? Because it's there as a famous mountain ear once said.

Thanks.

Simple answer to your question is I don't know. But a few ramblings from me......

Basestation is used to decode the output from an SBS. If you plug your SBS into an RPi you will need some software to decode the information being received off-air by the SBS. From my understanding, MSM2 can take the decoded data from BS and transcode it to many different formats for use elsewhere. I don't believe it can in itself do the decoding directly - happy to be corrected here though.

ModeSDeco2 works with dongles and does the decoding but I don't know if it can also understand the output from an SBS directly.

I run an SBS-1eR and FA dongle on a RPi. My experience using identical mag mount antennae mounted side by side on a biscuit tin lid, is that the FA dongle outperforms the SBS-1eR. My set-up here:

https://radarspotting.com/forum/index.php/topic,10598.msg43603.html#msg43603

Good luck, please post again if you are successful.

Tim

For what it's worth!

Screenshot of my SBS-1eR and Pro Stick coverage, both off the same external antenna using a Mini Circuits splitter.

There are three MLAT plots on PiAware that aren't on BaseStation.  The SBS-1eR has picked up the inbound DHL over Ireland that ProStick hasn't.  PiAware is showing an outbound over The Wash that BaseStation isn't but I suspect that's a lost signal timing setup.

In this example, the SBS-1eR outperforms the Pro Stick, marginally!

Once upon a time there used to 10 times as many aircraft  :'(

[attachment deleted reduce file load]

Many thanks for your replies and they are interesting observations.

Tim - How is your SBS-1eR connected to your RPi? USB or is it on the same IP network? I notice you have a green light on yours, that is what is lacking on mine.

If I use dmesg, I can see the messages regarding FTDI indicating it has successfully connected to the RPi, so I would expect a green light unless, as you say, MM2 is not able to talk directly to the SBS-1 via USB...

[    5.324124] ftdi_sio 1-1.1.3:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[    5.324276] usb 1-1.1.3: Detected FT2232C
[    5.344345] usb 1-1.1.3: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[    5.344707] ftdi_sio 1-1.1.3:1.1: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[    5.344873] usb 1-1.1.3: Detected FT2232C
[    5.350174] usb 1-1.1.3: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB1

When I start MM2, I can see the following messages in the logfile when I'm trying to feed the data to BaseStation running on a PC...(it is an SBS-1 despite the message below)

2020-04-28 09:53:23.531  INFO     outServer(sbs10001:10001) started
2020-04-28 09:53:23.535  INFO     inSerial(/dev/ttyUSB1:921600) connected
2020-04-28 09:53:28.652  INFO     outServer(sbs10001:10001) 192.168.1.18:64986 connected
2020-04-28 09:53:33.624  INFO     outServer(sbs10001:10001) 192.168.1.18:64986 SBS-3 LOGIN

However, no data appears in BaseStation (and no green light either) - I can get data appearing in BaseStation if I change the mm2.sh to change '--inSerial /dev/ttyUSB1:921600:none' to '--inConnect localhost:30005' which picks up the data from the FA stick instead.

https://radarspotting.com/forum/index.php/topic,2978.msg25569.html#msg25569 indicates to me that what I am trying to achieve should be possible, it's fun trying to find out.

Thank you,
Paul

Quote from: bumpy_up_here on April 28, 2020, 10:05:37 AM
Tim - How is your SBS-1eR connected to your RPi? USB or is it on the same IP network? I notice you have a green light on yours, that is what is lacking on mine.

Hi Paul,

I'm afraid that's poor English on my part. "I run an SBS-1eR and FA dongle on a RPi.", should have read "I run an SBS-1eR and separately I also have a FA dongle running on a RPi." Alternatively, you didn't spot in the picture I have 2 antennae connections. One goes to the FA set-up and the other directly to the SBS / BS hence the green light showing. I just keep everything in a homemade "box" as it makes it easy for power / network connections etc.

On another post there was mention of the kinetic handshake, perhaps what you are seeing is the data from the FTDI, but it is not readable by MSM2 due to this handshake not being available.

I do run MSM2 on my RPi and pick up the MLAT return feed from FA displayed in the web page from MSM2. I have also combined the 30005 and 30105 feeds into one feed running MSM2 on my laptop and feeding that into BS - works fine.

I keep my BS and FA feeds separate as I feed PP from my BS set-up. They don't like transcoded data (i.e. data from MSM2 in BS format which started off as a Dump1090 decoded feed) it screws up the Mlat system.

Tim

Hi Tim,

Yes, that's exactly what I normally do, run MM2 on the RPi and combine 30005 and 30105 and feed BS on the PC - that works well, although when I was working on this, last April, it took me ages to realise I needed to upgrade to the latest version of BS to achieve this.

Ah well, I think I'm not going to be able to resolve this issue of plugging the SBS-1 into the RPi via USB and feeding data - a shame but a worthwhile learning exercise for me. I've refamiliarised with Linux and my setup which had been chugging away in the background with no interference for about a year.

Thanks Tim and Anmer for your inputs.

Paul.

There's a lot to be said for "trying".  Well done for exploring this option and sharing your thoughts and experiences.

Newsflash - I finally got it working, using fr24feed and NOT modesmixer2.

So I am now feeding fr24 from an SBS-1 plugged in via USB into a Raspberry Pi4.

The key was finding this post https://radarspotting.com/forum/index.php/topic,6854.msg32798.html#msg32798

I installed fr24feed, set it up for the SBS-1 on USB, made sure mpx was yes in /etc/fr24feed.ini, as well as bs and raw being set to yes.

Then I ran basestation.exe on my PC, under Hardware settings/Network, entered the address of the Pi and used port 20072.

Et voila, basestation finally (after over a year (on and off) of trying) started showing aircraft.

I firmly believe that something changed in modesmixer2 somewhere around 2015/2016 that meant it could no longer work with SBS-1 and USB using outServer, but I don't care any more as I don't need to use it.

Thanks to Anmer and Triple7 as well as IanH for the other post.

Paul.

Thanks for the update Paul.

Can I make sure I understand your setup?

1. You have an RPi running the FR24 feeder application?

2. Your SBS-1 is connected to the RPi via a USB cable?

3. BaseStation is running on a PC using a "Network" connection to the RPi IP address and port 20072

There is nothing else in play?

It sounds like BaseStation is still getting its data from your SBS-1 and so too is the FR24 feed.  Or is it?  Do you have an FR24 feed account unique for this setup?

Hi Anmer,

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes

Nothing else in play - no dump1090 or any other feeds - this was a vanilla Buster on a Pi4 4Gb.

Yes, I believe that fr24 are getting a feed from port 10001 and my basestation on the PC is getting the data (replicated) on 20072 (as per IanH's post) and yes, I set up a unique (new) fr24 feed account this morning.

Cheers,
Paul.

Thanks.

The bottom line is one can feed FR24 from an SBS-1 if there's also an RPi in the setup as you have described.

Good work.

I worded my original SBS 'how-to' rather badly, as it was all assumptions and I didn't have the hardware to test

And for some reason users would never come back and confirm/deny outcome when trying to get things working :/

But that all but confirms my suspect one listed for 'older' SBSs - 3 seem to be a hard chicken

(And I now note I need to change it to reflect PI IP rather than localhost/windows..)

Quote1. FR24feed primary connection
Step 1
Configure FR24feed for SBS via USB or LAN (source port 10001)
Enable SBS relay/out option
Close FR24feed

Step 2
Configure basestation to FR24feed as network source:
(settings - hardware settings - network)
localhost:20072
Close Basestation
Open FR24feed (ensure connecting to SBS3)
Open Basestation (ensure connecting to FR24feed relay on 20072)

Other apps should share access to 20072 (+ 30006 if BS open)

and for older I had:

2nd Option
Configure FR24feed for SBS-USB
Enable SBS relay
Close FR24feed

Configure Basestation for network data
IPofPI:20072
Close

Run FR24feed - check connect via USB
Open basestation - check connect + display

I tried to get them to amend the instruction PDF (even today it mentions macOS which has been dropped) to correct the port settings and how it says to set it up. As it doesn't cover all examples. But alas.

Especially since the built in web config interface says this under sbs-relay..
   SBS1 compatible feed, port 10001, Kinetic Avionics RX only!

When it was confirmed looooong ago the correct port is 20072 as you found buried elsewhere.

Hi guys - just wondered if I could get a bit of help with this, please.

I have installed fr24feed on the RPi, entered all my personal details and selected option 2 for SBS via USB/LAN. The next step asks to confirm whether I want to connect via the network or USB, so I select option 2 for USB. It is now asking me for the following:

"Step 4.3A - Please enter your receiver's COM port number/device path"

Anyone got any idea what I enter here?

Basestation on the Windows PC has the Pi's IP address and port (20072) entered and is communicating with the Pi as it says connected/Not connected each time I restart fr24feed on the Pi. Just the middle bit in between i'm stuck with!

Thanks, Max

Welcome.

What receiver are you using to feed aircraft data to the RPi?  Do you use an SBS?  And what do you have on the RPi in addition to the FFR24 feeder app?

I was under the impression it was native detected and you can skip entering anything since it skips using Dump1090

But if not finding the most likely case if it has a usb to serial chip is
/dev/ttyUSB0

Quote from: Anmer on August 16, 2020, 08:25:31 AM
Welcome.

What receiver are you using to feed aircraft data to the RPi?  Do you use an SBS?  And what do you have on the RPi in addition to the FFR24 feeder app?

Hi Anmer, I'm try to setup as per post #11. The SBS1 is connected to the Pi Zero at the moment via USB as the main Pi is feeding various things which I didn't want to disturb.

The SBS lights up when plugged in (red, orange and blue leds) - could it possibly not be detected properly by the Pi? And if so how would I be able to get it detected?

When inputting any value into Step 4.3A, it replies with something like option 2 (USB) is not available or not detected. (I'm away from the setup so trying to remember what it was saying last night!)

Thanks, Max

Thanks Mx.

I've not tried this myself so I'm reading the relevant posts to understand bumpy_up_here's setup.

My understanding is he has:

1. An SBS.  What model do you have?
2. PC running BaseStation, connected to the SBS via "Network".
3. An RPi running the FR24 feeder app, connected by USB cable to the SBS.

I assume your SBS has an Ethernet port?  What switch settings do you have, see attached?

[attachment deleted reduce file load]

Quote from: Anmer on August 16, 2020, 09:58:05 AM
Thanks Mx.

I've not tried this myself so I'm reading the relevant posts to understand bumpy_up_here's setup.

My understanding is he has:

1. An SBS.  What model do you have?
2. PC running BaseStation, connected to the SBS via "Network".
3. An RPi running the FR24 feeder app, connected by USB cable to the SBS.

I assume your SBS has an Ethernet port?  What switch settings do you have, see attached?

Hi Anmer, thanks for the reply.

1. Original SBS1, no ethernet port.
2. This part works - the PC is set to network and can talk to the RPi as it correctly shows when connected/not connected.
3. Exactly the same setup as you've described. The SBS is connected to the RPi via USB. The RPi is running fr24feed app.

This is what i get if enter anything (even just pressing enter) after the $:

     Step 4.3A - Please enter your receiver's COM port number/device path
     $:
     Entered path, 2, does not exist in the file system or is inaccessible!

I'm assuming the '2' is referring me choosing USB (option 2) or network (option 1)?

Thanks, Max

Thanks Max.

So we're singing from the same sheet, can you point me to the post or other source of the process you're following, especially where it refers to "step 4.3A"?

Quote from: Oblivian on August 16, 2020, 09:02:26 AM
I was under the impression it was native detected and you can skip entering anything since it skips using Dump1090

But if not finding the most likely case if it has a usb to serial chip is
/dev/ttyUSB0

Oblivian, you are the man! Thank you so much for your reply as I have it working now!

Process is as follows:

1.1 Email address
1.2 FR24 sharer code
1.3 MLAT calcs y/n - if yes give lat/long/height info
4.1 Receiver selection - select #2 for SBS1/1er on USB/network
4.2 Connection type - select #2 for USB
4.3A COM port number/device path - type "/dev/ttyUSB0" without the ""
4.3B Baud rate - select #3 for 921600
5.1 RAW data feed on port 30334 y/n - select yes
5.2 Basestation data feed on port 30003 y/n - select yes
5.3 SBS/Basestation RAW data feed on port 20072 y/n - select yes
6 logfile mode - I selected 0 (disabled) as I'm not bothered about a log file for now

Installation process complete and I'm receiving aircraft on the screen, albeit with about 10-12 miscodes, not sure if they are produced by the RPi.

Many thanks for the replies, problem solved!

Max

Great and well done Oblivian.  And thanks for sharing the setup.

Since the RPi isn't doing any message decoding, the miscodes may be originating elsewhere.  Unlerss I'm misunderstanding the setup.