Rtl1090
Curtis Cassel
The application opens a TCP server on port 31001 (for the first dongle) and this will be
queried by the Windows Firewall. To run rtl1090 together with
Planeplotter this needs to be acknowledged.
For a quick start select RTL AGC and TUNER AGC.
This is the best setting for best range.
If you encounter doughnut problems from nearby targets, then switch
off TUNER AGC and select a high (if not the highest) gain value.
If you start multiple instances from the same folder the same settings will
be used and the last settings of any instance will be stored in the same settings
file. It is highly recommended to use different folder for multiple instances.
A test can be executed by pressing the MAX/MIN button at any time after the dongle has started operation. This test evaluates the boundaries of the reception range of your particular dongle. The result will be displayed in the list when the LIST button is ON, e.g. typical result for R820T tuner
For LIST=ON Mode-A/C
data are presented in a pseudo AVR formatted line. This is for
information only.
The signal strength of the data packet is shown in [ ] in decimal figures.
The possible range is from 00 to 255.
Mode A and C replies cannot be distinguished. However if a code falls into an allowable range of altitude between 0 and 47000 ft as FL indication will presented in ().
Note that any altitude data are always QNE, i.e. at 1013 mb
Consecutive codes of the same value are not displayed as a list entry, but as a dot.
Mode-S data are presented in a pseudo AVR formatted line. This is for information only. Contrary to the true AVR format the data packet is CRCed and the last three bytes are xored with the CRC.
The signal strength of the data packet is shown in [] in decimal figures. The possible range is from 0 to 255.
Multiple dongles can be operated by RTL1090 in parallel on one or multiple computers. However, usually the display programs like Planeplotter can accept data from one data source only. Therefore RTL1090 can be operated in a chained mode, where one instance of RTL1090 serves as a concentrator and TCP server and all other instances send their data packet to this particular instance.
Inter-instance data traffic uses UDP to avoid unnecessary protocol overhead. It is primarily intended to be used for same computer setups. However, the setup may be extended to between different PCs. In this case firewall considerations may apply.
For this purpose a dialog can be opened from the UDP CONF button. Enter the target IP and port of the concentrator here. Please be aware that this assignment may be overwritten by RTL1090 to avoid circular data conflicts. See section 4.3.
Enable traffic to concentrator
RTL1090 will assign ports automatically even in a multi-dongle environment.
To avoid circular data conflicts ports may be reassigned automatically from time to time.
Port assignments can be overridden by command line entries. A circular data conflict protection may be lost in this case.
This version includes support for Andys RTL1090 utility driving the RTL dongle.
You will find the RTL dongle selection at the end of the list of receiver types
in the PlanePlotter..Options..I/O settings dialog.
Please bear in mind that the RTL dongle cannot perform as well as a dedicated
Mode-S receiver but with a price tag that may be less than a tenth of other
receiver types, it enables you to try the system with your own local data.
Entry of a Home Position (optionally for port 30003 messages only)
The home position can be entered in the [CONFIG] dialog. Entry of a home
position accelerates aircraft position finding. Just copy your entry from
Planeplotter into the fields of the Config dialog.
The use of the home position can be disabled, e.g. for mobile use,
by unchecking the [USE] box.
For airport use of RTL1090 the surface position cannot be determined unambigously
without entry of a home position. Without a home position aircraft surface positions
may be displaced by 90, 180 or 270 of longitude.
This chapter is only interesting to those users that operate more than one dongle
intheir installation AND want to assign specific RTL1090 instances to a specific dongle
and/or a specific TCP port. If you operate one dongle only, this chapter does not
contain any additonal information.
Create icons for your dongles that you want to run with RTL1090 simultaneously. Setup
the start-up data for each icon individually, so that the icons will start their individual
RTL1090 instance
The HTTP server provides data for its RTL1090 instance only. Data received from other instances by UDP are not provided. However multiple RTL1090 instances can be interrogated by their individual HTTP server.
Table names can be changed in the RTL1090 CONFIG dialog at the users discretion, e.g. they can be remembered easily. The maximum length of a tablename is 8 characters. Only A-Z, a-z and 0-9 are allowed to be part of the tablename.
Table 4 shows configuration data for the current RTL1090 installation and can be used for rempote debugging purposes.
If you are planning to use the tables 1-3 for your own software please note that the current format version of each of these tables is presented by table 4.
TV receiver sticks - those based on the RTL2832U interface chip - can be used to make simple but effective ADS-B receivers. Because of the limited abilities of these chips, please don't expect them to perform as well as dedicated receivers such as the microADSB or Mode-S Beast, but they only cost a few pounds/dollars. Be sure to get a stick based on the R820T/RTL2832U chips, as the earlier E4000 chip may not tune to the required 1090 MHz frequency. And just because the receiver is low-cost doesn't mean that it won't benefit from a good antenna placed outdoors as high as possible! A good, well-placed antenna is the key to maximum reception range. As cable can be lossy at 1090 MHz, consider using a USB extension rather than an antenna lead exceeding about 10 m (30 feet), and be sure to use the best cable you can if the run exceeds a few metres. For short runs, top-quality satellite TV cable may suffice.
One device which is proving popular is the FlightAware Pro Stick USB ADS-B Receiver - it has a built-in pre-amp for 1090 MHz which can increase reception range significantly. However, the pre-amp may mean that the the stick provides best performance when preceded by a filter (included in the Pro Stick Plus variant, linked in the UK Amazon). Amazon UK. Amazon US. If you are intending to use a DVB-T stick for narrow-band reception (e.g. AIS or VDL-2 data), I suggest getting one with a TCXO to avoid drift problems. Look for the RTL-SDR Blog dongle (available on Amazon US and other retailers world-wide).
You can also use these sticks on the Raspberry Pi card PC with the dump1090 program, as a source for Plane Plotter including the ability to show a graphical and text status display anywhere on your local network with a Web browser.
Warning: Be sure not to install the TV software which comes with the stick, i.e. the software on the small CD-ROM which is in the same package. That software is required for TV viewing, but will interfere with using the stick for ADS-B reception. The software mentioned below is required, not the TV drivers! Why? See Graham Tanner's note below....
Below is a link to a little something Nic Storey created which may help with the RTL setup, This was all done on an Atom 1.6 Nettop PC running Windows-8 Pro. Hopefully it will make things easier. There are clickable buttons within the first few seconds to get all the software needed. Nic Storey's video - RTL1090 Software
My suggestion of that additional text in the Wiki is because of the way that USB Drivers are installed in Windows, and how they affect the running of programs. I have already seen a few messages from people saying that "they've got the dongle, loaded the software from the CD, and can't get PP to work" (or similar messages). I'm just trying to prevent a problem before it happens (or happens too often).
When you load a piece of driver software into Windows it put entries into the Windows Registry; this includes details of with which USB device it is associated. Later, when you plug-in your USB device (whether it's a card reader, your DVB-T, your camera, your whatever), Windows detects the new device and looks through the Registry for the matching entry, and finds the relevant driver software for it; another internal association is made which results in a further minor registry update.
This all means that when you plug this device into this USB port it will use this driver software, and run this program.
So, when you get your DVB-T dongle and install the software from the CD (which is usually a program called BlazeTV), every time you connect your dongle to a USB port it will be detected, find the driver program, and run a program (BlazeTV in this case). This is why you will see emails saying "every time I plug in my dongle the BlazeTV program start-up, how do I stop it?"
But in our case, we don't want to run BlazeTV, and we don't want to be using the driver that makes the dongle receive TV signals ... we want a different driver (the one installed by Zadig, or the one used by PlanePlotter and the RTL1090 system), and we want a different program. So, when you get your dongle, don't install the drivers from the CD, and you will have removed one problem from the set-up.
Once again, don't install the Driver software from the CD, you will need to use the Zadig driver. As far as I'm aware this is the only driver available for any of the dongles to allow them to be used as VHF/UHF receivers, others may appear in the future?
Bearing in mind that the dongle can only be used for one thing at a time - you can't use it for Plane Plotter AND as a VHF/UHF receiver at the same time ...
Plan on plugging-in the dongle to one particular USB port when you want to use it for Plane Plotter. Plan on using another/different USB socket when you want to use it as a receiver.