Balena-ADSB - More than one RTLSDR on one RPI

Project help
1

Hey there!

I have just recieved another RTLSDR reciever and an antenna I would like to add to my existing setup.
There is already a dongle connected and working and I was wondering if and how one can add another dongle to the same Raspberry Pi.

2

Hello, what model of Pi are you using? Does it have a second USB port? Otherwise, perhaps you could try a USB hub? I have successfully used two SDR dongles on a Pi 3B+ with balena-ADSB.

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3

Sorry, didn’t see you post!
Did you edit anything in the config?

Is it supposed to be just plug and play so dump1090 will recognize both the SDRs?

4

Hello, in my case I was using the second dongle for UAT, using the instructions here: GitHub - ketilmo/balena-ads-b: ADS-B Flight Tracker running on balena with support for FlightAware, Flightradar24, PlaneFinder, OpenSky Network, RadarBox, ADSB Exchange, Wingbits, and UAT.

5

Well, in my case I am in Europe.
Thus UAT is not working for me.

I want to have two different dongles with two different antennas on one Pi using the balena image.
Is this possible?

6

@Ketil do you think you can help here?

Thanks

7

Certainly, @mpous! Thanks for tagging me.

And hello @memaxwell, I’m the maintainer of balena-ads-b.

You can certainly add several RTLSDR sticks to your Raspberry Pi, given that it has available ports. As the sticks tend to build a bit, you might need to add a short USB extension cable to be able to fit them.

Out of the box, balena-ads-b comes configured for UAT. But as you mentioned, that’s only available in the US currently.

Are there any specific services you would like to add to your setup? On one of my development stations, I have three RTLSDR sticks connected, feeding OGN and AIS data in addition to ADS-B. (In addition to a LoRaWAN hat, on top of that).

I’m working on a release of the OGN feeder for balena, and hope to have it ready soon. For the AIS feeding, I use a slightly modified setup of the excellent AIS-Catcher for Docker.

Does that answer your question? Feel free to follow up if you would like to learn more.

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8

For future viewers, also see this related thread.

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