ADS-B reception without a Raspberry Pi: Pi Zero, Orange Pi, old PC and Windows

Almost every guide to building your own ADS-B receiver begins with the same sentence: get a Raspberry Pi. That is not bad advice – but it is not the only option. Maybe you still have a Pi Zero in a drawer, an old laptop is gathering dust in the basement, or you first want to try out on your Windows PC what is flying over your house. This guide shows you which alternatives to the Raspberry Pi work for ADS-B reception, where their limits lie and when the detour is worth it.

The short answer: what an ADS-B computer really needs to do

The computer in an ADS-B station has a manageable job. It takes the raw data from the SDR stick over USB, a decoder turns it into identification, position, altitude and callsign, and feeder software sends the results, if you wish, to networks such as FlightAware, Flightradar24 or ADS-B Exchange. Which stick is suitable is shown in the comparison SDR sticks for ADS-B. The computer needs no high-performance hardware, but above all:

• a stable USB port where the stick reliably gets power and data,
• a clean power supply so there are no crashes in continuous operation,
• a Linux system on which the common decoders and feeder packages run,
• a network connection if you want to share data or open the map on your home network,
• and the ability to run around the clock without noise or the electricity bill getting in the way.

What the classic setup with a Raspberry Pi, stick and antenna looks like is shown in the guide Build your own ADS-B receiver. This one is about everything that comes into question instead of the Pi.

The alternatives at a glance

Before we get into detail, a rough comparison. The ratings refer to a typical home station with one stick and one to three feeder services.

Platform	Performance for ADS-B	Power consumption	Setup	Particularly suited for
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W	sufficient for one station	very low	easy, OTG adapter needed	small, hidden stations near the antenna
Orange Pi Zero3 and others	sufficient to good	low	a bit more manual work on the system	budget-minded tinkerers
Libre Computer Le Potato, Nano Pi NEO 3	sufficient	low	easy with a suitable image	replacement for Pi models
Old PC or laptop (x86)	more than enough	much higher	Linux installation required	multiple sticks, Docker, experiments
Windows PC, native	good	depends on the computer	driver via Zadig	trying things out, desktop view
Windows with WSL 2 or VM	good	depends on the computer	more involved, USB forwarding	Linux feeder without a second computer

Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W: the little brother

The Pi Zero 2 W is the most obvious alternative when a big Pi is missing or too expensive. Raspberry Pi specifies a 64-bit quad-core processor (Arm Cortex-A53) at 1 GHz and 512 MB of RAM, plus Wi-Fi on the 2.4 GHz band and Bluetooth. For a decoder and one or two feeder programs that is generally enough.

You need to know two quirks. First, the Zero 2 W has only one micro-USB port for devices and a separate one for power. The SDR stick therefore needs an OTG adapter from micro-USB to USB-A – and a network cable is possible only through an additional USB adapter. Second, the Wi-Fi transmits only on 2.4 GHz. If the station is far from the router, check the connection beforehand.

The feeder project adsb.im lists the Zero 2 W explicitly as supported, but points out that the Zero 2 W and Pi 3 models are more prone to MLAT instability. If taking part in multilateration matters to you, a more powerful board is the better choice. What is behind MLAT is explained in the article MLAT and multilateration.

Our tip: The Zero 2 W plays to its strengths when it sits right at the antenna – for example packed weatherproof under the roof. Then the coax cable stays short, and only the power cable has to go into the house. What to watch for in an outdoor setup is in the guide Running an ADS-B receiver outdoors.

Orange Pi and other single-board computers

Besides Raspberry Pi there is a whole range of single-board computers with Arm processors that are suitable as ADS-B computers. The adsb.im project names the following, among others, as tested:

• Orange Pi Zero3 – according to the project its personal favorite for value for money,
• Libre Computer Le Potato,
• Nano Pi NEO 3,
• Orange Pi 3 LTS, 4 LTS, 5 and 5 Plus – known to work, but not tested regularly.

Beyond that, according to the project the software stack runs on any board supported by DietPi, as well as on most Debian and Ubuntu systems. That is the real sticking point with Pi alternatives: the hardware is rarely the problem, the operating system image more often is. For Raspberry Pi there is an official, long-maintained system. With other manufacturers, much depends on whether community projects such as Armbian or DietPi keep the board up to date.

A concrete example of such a detail: on Linux, plugging in an RTL-SDR stick normally loads the DVB-T TV driver, which blocks the stick. You disable it permanently with a blacklist entry. RTL-SDR.com points out that on some boards such as the Orange Pi Zero, a differently named driver module has to be blocked than on the Pi. Ready-made images like the one from adsb.im take such steps off your hands.

The old PC or laptop: lots of power, but electricity costs money

A retired office computer, a mini PC or an old laptop is massively overpowered for ADS-B – in a good way. On an x86-64 computer running Debian or Ubuntu, decoders like readsb, the tar1090 web interface and several feeders run at the same time without the processor breaking a sweat. adsb.im even offers its own installation image for this that can be installed on any x86-64 system. If you prefer to do it yourself, follow the guide Installing readsb and tar1090.

A PC really shines when you have more in mind: several sticks for 1090 MHz and other bands, a Docker environment with several feeders or long history data. How that works with containers is covered in Feeding multiple networks with Ultrafeeder. For side projects like receiving ACARS messages, a PC with headroom is nice too.

The flip side is power consumption. A single-board computer makes do with a few watts, an old desktop PC often draws many times that at idle – and an ADS-B station runs 8,760 hours a year. Do a quick calculation beforehand of what your device costs in continuous operation.

A laptop has a nice side effect here: its battery bridges short power outages. Set it so it does not go to sleep when you close the lid, though, and think about placement – the computer should be as close to the antenna as possible so the coax cable stays short.

ADS-B on Windows: three ways

Many spotters have no Linux computer but do have a Windows PC. ADS-B works there too – just not quite as straightforwardly. We distinguish three ways.

Way 1: natively on Windows

First, the stick needs the right driver. Windows initially recognizes an RTL-SDR stick as a DVB-T receiver. With the free tool Zadig you replace this driver with WinUSB. RTL-SDR.com describes the key steps like this: start Zadig as administrator, under “Options” list all devices, select the entry “Bulk-In, Interface (Interface 0)” and install WinUSB. Important: Interface 0, not Interface 1 – and under no circumstances pick another device such as a mouse or keyboard.

After that you need a decoder that runs on Windows, and a display. A proven program for the display is Virtual Radar Server: an open-source .NET application that starts a local web server and shows the aircraft on a map in the browser. According to the project page it runs on Windows from XP to 11 and on Linux with Mono. Virtual Radar Server is fed with data in common formats such as AVR or Mode-S Beast – so you additionally need a decoder on the same or another computer that delivers these formats. How to set up the desktop view is shown in Flight tracking on a PC with tar1090 and Virtual Radar Server.

Way 2: Linux in WSL 2

If you want to use the Linux tools without setting up a second computer, the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL 2) is an option. Out of the box, WSL sees no USB devices. Microsoft describes the open-source tool usbipd-win for this: you install it on Windows, share the stick in an administrator PowerShell with usbipd bind and attach it to the Linux environment with usbipd attach --wsl. In the Linux terminal you check with lsusb whether it has arrived. While the stick is attached to WSL, Windows itself cannot use it.

That works, but it is more for tinkerers: without extra automation you re-attach the stick after every restart, and the WSL 2 environment has to stay active – Microsoft recommends keeping a WSL terminal open for that.

Way 3: virtual machine

The third option is a classic VM, for example with VirtualBox or Hyper-V, into which the USB stick is passed through. Here adsb.im explicitly warns: passing an SDR through to a virtual machine is known to cause MLAT problems. The reason is obvious – for MLAT, exact timestamps count, and every additional layer between the stick and the decoder can distort them. For plain position display this is less critical.

What to keep in mind when feeding without a Pi

The big networks have tailored their guides heavily to the Raspberry Pi. FlightAware, for example, describes the package installation of PiAware for an existing Raspberry Pi OS (details in the guide Setting up PiAware). On other platforms you still get there, just by detours:

• Use community images: adsb.im bundles the decoder and many feeders in one web interface and runs on the Pi, several other boards and x86-64. For Pi alternatives this is usually the most convenient way in.
• Use Docker: The containers from the sdr-enthusiasts community run on common Linux systems with Docker, on Arm boards as well as on x86 computers. Details in the guide on Ultrafeeder.
• Mind the architecture: An Arm board needs Arm packages, a PC amd64 packages. Anyone who grabs the wrong package gets installation errors. With uname -m you see which architecture your system has.
• Enter location and antenna height exactly: This applies on every platform – without this information your station does not take part in MLAT.

Which networks offer what in return is compared in the article What feeders get in return. An overview of the feeder programs themselves is given in ADS-B feeder programs compared; you will find concrete guides for the Flightradar24 feeder and for ADS-B Exchange and community networks.

Which alternative suits you?

And if tinkering is simply too much for you: there are also ready-made complete receivers. What they are worth is covered in the article Buying a plug-and-play ADS-B receiver. For use on the go at the fence, mobile ADS-B reception at your spotting position is also an exciting variant.

Common mistakes with Pi alternatives

• USB charger instead of a power supply: adsb.im explicitly advises a power supply intended for single-board computers, not a phone charger. Voltage dips lead to crashes and data gaps.
• DVB-T driver not blocked: On Linux the TV driver blocks the stick; on Windows the WinUSB driver is missing without Zadig.
• Wrong package for the architecture: Arm and x86 need different builds.
• Computer far from the antenna: A long coax cable costs more range than a faster computer ever wins back. More on this in the guide Finding the best antenna location.
• Power saving mode active: Laptops and Windows PCs like to put USB ports or the whole system to sleep.
• VM for MLAT: Anyone feeding from a virtual machine must expect unclean MLAT participation.

What you get out of it as a spotter

No matter what hardware it runs on: your own station shows you the traffic around your home airport straight from your antenna. In the early morning you see which direction the first approaches come from and know which runway direction in use applies – important for choosing between spots like the visitors’ hill in Munich or the Affenfelsen in Hamburg. Through the transmitted 24-bit address, the registration can be matched via a database – exactly how that works is covered under Tracking an aircraft by registration. And if you want to document your photos cleanly later, you match them against your own logs: Matching sightings with ADS-B.

Conclusion

The Raspberry Pi is the most convenient, but not the only way to your own ADS-B station. A Pi Zero 2 W is enough for a simple station, an Orange Pi Zero3 or another well-supported board is an inexpensive alternative, and an old PC offers power for multiple sticks and experiments – at the expense of the electricity bill. Windows is good for trying things out, but for permanent feeding with clean MLAT a dedicated Linux computer is the more robust route. The most range you get anyway comes not from the computer but from a good antenna position.