PiAware setup: the FlightAware feeder on a Raspberry Pi

The hardware is on the table: Raspberry Pi, SDR stick, antenna, a blank memory card. Now all that is missing is the software that turns these parts into a station that hears aircraft in the sky and passes their data on to FlightAware. That is exactly what PiAware does. This guide shows you step by step how to install and set up PiAware – with the ready-made SD image or as a package on an existing Raspberry Pi OS. It also covers claiming, location for MLAT, the local map SkyAware and the commands that help you when there are problems.

Setting up PiAware: the short answer

You write the PiAware image to a microSD card with the Raspberry Pi Imager, enter your Wi-Fi in the piaware-config.txt file if needed, plug the card, SDR stick and antenna into the Pi and switch it on. After four to five minutes you claim the station with your FlightAware account and set location and antenna height on the statistics page – done. If Raspberry Pi OS is already running on your Pi, you install PiAware instead via FlightAware’s package repository.

Which components you need and where the antenna is best placed is explained in the guide Building your own ADS-B receiver. How ADS-B itself works is covered in Flight tracking with ADS-B for spotters. This article is only about the software.

What PiAware actually does

PiAware is not a single program but a small bundle that works together on the Pi. The actual reception runs through dump1090-fa: this decoder controls the SDR stick, demodulates the signals at 1090 MHz and turns them into readable ADS-B and Mode S messages. The basics of these messages are explained in Transponder Mode A, C and S.

The piaware program then handles the connection to the outside. It reads the decoder’s data stream, processes it with the helper program faup1090 and sends it encrypted and compressed to FlightAware. On the side, it regularly reports system data such as CPU temperature, load and storage space. If FlightAware requests multilateration, piaware additionally starts the fa-mlat-client, which passes selected raw messages on for positioning. How MLAT locates aircraft without their own position report is described in MLAT and multilateration explained.

Every station gets a unique feeder ID. You use it to link the Pi to your FlightAware account – and it ensures that your statistics are preserved even after a card swap if you enter it again in the configuration.

SD image or package: the right way for you

FlightAware offers two installation methods. Which one fits depends on whether your Pi runs exclusively as a feeder.

Criterion	PiAware SD image	Package installation
Starting point	blank microSD card	Pi with Raspberry Pi OS Trixie, Bookworm or Bullseye
Effort	flash, enter Wi-Fi, start	add repository, install packages via apt
Operation	possible without the command line	terminal or SSH access required
Updates	automatic and manual updates allowed by default	updates disabled by default
Using the Pi for other tasks	not really intended	possible without problems
Configuration	/boot/piaware-config.txt or piaware-config	piaware-config or /etc/piaware.conf

For the third case, Feeding several networks at once with Ultrafeeder and ADS-B reception without a Raspberry Pi are worthwhile.

Way 1: the PiAware SD image

The image is a complete operating system with a preinstalled decoder, feeder and local map. FlightAware offers it as a compressed file of around 700 MB, plus a variant with support for a small Waveshare display.

Wi-Fi setup: file or Bluetooth

When editing piaware-config.txt, keep this in mind: use a plain text editor and turn off typographic quotation marks, otherwise PiAware won’t read the values. According to FlightAware, WPA/WPA2 and open networks are supported, but WEP is not. By default, the Pi gets its address via DHCP; if you want a fixed IP, set wireless-type to static and enter, among other things, the address, netmask, gateway and nameserver.

From PiAware 7.0, it also works without editing files: the Wi-Fi details can be transferred via Bluetooth, either through the FlightAware app for iOS or through a configuration page in the browser. FlightAware names Chrome, Edge, Opera and Chrome on Android for this.

Way 2: installing PiAware on Raspberry Pi OS

If your Pi is already running Raspberry Pi OS, you put PiAware on top as a package. Prerequisite according to FlightAware: Raspberry Pi OS Trixie, Bookworm or Bullseye, an internet connection and access to the command line – directly on the Pi or via SSH. The procedure in brief:

1. Update the system: sudo apt update, then sudo apt full-upgrade and a restart with sudo reboot.
2. Add the repository: Download the flightaware-apt-repository package from the FlightAware installation page and install it with sudo dpkg -i. It adds FlightAware’s package source to your system.
3. Install PiAware: sudo apt update and then sudo apt install piaware.
4. Install the decoder: If you don’t have a decoder yet, follow with sudo apt install dump1090-fa.
5. Restart: sudo reboot.

One difference from the SD image: with the package installation, automatic and manual updates are switched off. If you want FlightAware to be allowed to update the software or to be able to trigger updates from the statistics page, you enable both with sudo piaware-config allow-auto-updates yes and sudo piaware-config allow-manual-updates yes.

You don’t need the dump978-fa package for the second frequency range, 978 MHz, in Europe: UAT is a US system, as UAT on 978 MHz explained shows.

Claiming the station

No matter which way you went: only claiming links the station to your FlightAware account. Wait four to five minutes after starting, then you have three options:

• Via Bluetooth through the FlightAware app for iOS or the online configuration page. According to FlightAware, this way works only with the SD image, not with the package installation.
• In the browser: From your home network, open the Pi’s local IP address. A station that has not yet been claimed shows a claim link there.
• Via feeder ID: With cat /var/cache/piaware/feeder_id, you read out the ID and append it to the claim address on the FlightAware website.

If the station doesn’t show up as claimed after five minutes, restart the Pi and check the Wi-Fi settings. If that doesn’t help, FlightAware offers ADS-B support by email.

After that, your station appears on FlightAware’s ADS-B statistics page. According to FlightAware, it takes up to 30 minutes for the first numbers to appear; afterward, when logged in, you can also find the page under the menu item “My ADS-B.” What you get as a feeder – above all the free Enterprise account – is summarized in the FlightAware guide, and the comparison with other networks is provided by What feeders get in return.

Location and antenna height for MLAT

The most important step after claiming is often forgotten: on the statistics page, you click the gear icon next to the station name and enter the exact position and the height of your antenna. Without this information, your station cannot take part in multilateration – the calculation is based on the exact positions of all receivers that hear the same signal.

In the configuration, allow-mlat and mlat-results are enabled by default. The positions calculated via MLAT are therefore also sent back to your station and appear on your local map. Older aircraft in particular, many helicopters and some military aircraft without an ADS-B position can become visible in the first place this way.

SkyAware: your own flight tracker map

With PiAware you get a local web interface called SkyAware. It shows all aircraft your station is currently hearing on a map – with details such as hex code, callsign and altitude. You can find the direct link and your Pi’s local IP address on your FlightAware statistics page. The map is reachable only from your own network.

For spotters, SkyAware is an honest tool: you see only what your antenna really receives, without filters and without data gaps from block lists. What the fields mean is explained in ICAO 24-bit address (hex code) and Callsign and flight number. If you want a more extensive interface, you will find the common alternatives in Installing readsb and tar1090 and Flight tracking on the PC with tar1090.

The most important commands and settings

A few commands are enough for everyday use. On the SD image, according to the FlightAware instructions, you log in with the user pi and the password flightaware – change the password immediately with passwd. SSH is switched off on new SD installations from version 3.3; you enable it by placing an empty file named ssh without an extension on the card’s boot partition.

Command	Purpose
sudo piaware-status	checks whether the decoder, faup1090 and piaware are running and whether the connection to FlightAware is up
piaware-config	shows the current configuration
sudo piaware-config <setting> <value>	changes a setting, for example allow-mlat yes
sudo systemctl restart piaware	restarts the feeder
cat /var/cache/piaware/feeder_id	shows the feeder ID
/var/log/piaware.log	log file with connection and error messages

After changes to the configuration, you restart the Pi or at least the service. A few settings are particularly interesting for spotters:

• Gain: New SD installations use adaptive gain in dynamic range mode, which automatically keeps the noise floor at or below a target value; burst mode is off by default there. With adaptive-min-gain and adaptive-max-gain, you limit the range; with the rtlsdr-gain option, you instead set a fixed value for the stick on the SD image.
• Burst mode: adaptive-burst yes lowers the gain when nearby aircraft overload the receiver. That helps right on the approach path but costs range and, according to the documentation, is considered experimental.
• Multiple sticks: With rtlsdr-device-index, you select the right stick on the SD image when several are connected.
• Reusing the feeder ID: With feeder-id, after a card or hardware swap you enter the old ID so that statistics and history are preserved.

Whether a changed setting actually brings more only shows in the numbers. How to compare range and message rate over days is shown in Measuring reception performance with graphs1090. Hardware levers such as preamplifiers and filters are described in Increasing ADS-B range.

Typical problems and their solutions

• Station can’t be claimed: Usually the Pi isn’t online at all. Check the Wi-Fi name and password in piaware-config.txt for typos and typographic quotation marks, or test with a network cable.
• No aircraft on the map: sudo piaware-status shows whether dump1090-fa is running. Is the stick really seated firmly, is the antenna cable screwed on? A look at the log reveals whether the decoder finds the stick at all.
• Hardly any range: Almost always it is the antenna, not the software. More in Finding the best antenna location and Building a 1090 MHz antenna yourself.
• No MLAT: Have you set location and antenna height on the statistics page? Without them, MLAT stays inactive.
• Station crashes or restarts: One possible cause is a power supply that is too weak. FlightAware recommends 5.1 volts at 2.5 amps.
• Receiver overloaded: If you live right next to the airport, try burst mode or a lower maximum gain. Which sticks are good for what is compared in SDR sticks for ADS-B compared.

More than FlightAware: connecting further networks

PiAware does not exclude other services. The decoder makes its data available on the local network, and additional feeder programs can access it in parallel. Many spotters add the Flightradar24 feeder – explained step by step in Setting up fr24feed – or feed community networks as in Feeding ADS-B Exchange and community networks. Which network offers what is put in context by ADS-B feeder programs compared.

What you get out of it as a spotter

Your own station is more than a contribution to the big network. If you live near your home airport, you see on SkyAware in the morning from which direction the first approaches are coming and know right away which spot works today. At Munich Airport, for example, that decides whether you head to the visitors’ hill or rather to the other end of the runway; in Hamburg, whether the Affenfelsen is worth it. The logic behind this is explained in Understanding the runway direction in use at airports.

Then there is the logbook: with your station’s data and the Enterprise account, you can assign registrations and flights to photos after the fact. How to do this systematically is shown in Matching sightings with ADS-B logs.

Conclusion

PiAware is one of the easiest ways to your own ADS-B station. With the SD image, a pure feeder is running after a few simple steps; with the package installation, you integrate PiAware into an existing Raspberry Pi OS. Three things are decisive afterward: claim the station, enter location and antenna height for MLAT and change the default password. piaware-status, the log and a well-placed antenna mast take care of the rest.