Your own ADSB Receiver and Decoder for $10.06 for Windows & Android?

[Eric McCandless]

Any interest in your own ADSB Receiver and Decoder for $10.06 brand new and displaying ADSB tracks on Android or PC?

 

I have been researching ADSB receivers and was considering building one. Then I came across some articles on Software Defined Radio (SDR). Long story short, no need to build one, you can buy one far cheaper than the cost of the parts.

 

I won't bore you with the technical details, but suffice to say SDR is a technological miracle, and the best part is it is very cheap.

 

To set up a ADSB receiver, all you need is to buy a SDR on line from ebay. I got mine from a Hong Kong ebay seller called koala-ok for $10.06 including free shipping. With koala in the title, it must be ok, right? I have no affiliation with them.

 

The device is called

 

USB 2.0 Digital DVB-T SDR+DAB+FM HDTV TV Tuner Receiver Stick RTL2832U+R820T2

 

A good tip is to get the "R820T2" but a "R820T" will do ok as well, but the "R820T2" is a newer chip which has a better sensitivity. Apparently, there are some fake R820T2 USB dongles about, and some of the fakes use the older R820T chip instead (which is not too bad anyway).

 

Mine arrived from Hong Kong in exactly one week. How can they build them, ship them to Australia for $10.06 and still make a profit?

 

So the first thing I did was disassemble it and check that it indeed has the R820T2 chip inside. The different software decoders I tried only reports it as a R820T, but it actually does have a R820T2 chip. This software anomaly has been reported by others in the SDR community.

 

Enough of the technical stuff.

 

What do you get? See the image below. A USB stick, a remote control, an antennae, and a software driver disk.

 

 

Don't use the software disk (does not have the ADSB drivers) or the remote (no need). The antenna that comes with it is very ordinary, and good enough to get you started, but you may want to get a better antenna and coax cable later.

 

How to get it to work?

 

Android

 

1. plug the antenna into the antenna connector on the USB stick, but be gentle, and place the antenna somewhere where it can see the sky. ADSB works on 1090 Mhz which is line of sight, so higher the better.

 

2. plug the USB stick into the On-The-Go (OTG) USB adapter that came with your tablet/phone and plug into the USB port.

 

3. Go to Google Play Store and download and install "Avare".

 

4. Start Avare and click on "Map" and you should be good to go. If an aircraft with an ADSB transmitter is in range (roughly 50nm) you should see it.

 

5. enjoy.

 

PC (there are probably other easier ways but this is what I did)

 

1. plug the antenna into the antenna connector on the USB stick, but be gentle, and place the antenna somewhere where it can see the sky. ADSB works on 1090 Mhz which is line of sight, so higher the better.

 

2. plug the USB stick into the USB port.

 

3. download a driver called "SDRSharp" from this site http://sdrsharp.com/#sdrsharp

 

4. unzip into a folder and run the "zadig" application to install the USB drivers by clicking on "Install WCID Driver"

 

5. from the SDRSharp folder, run the "ADSBSharp" decoder application and click on "Start". If there are ADSB aircraft in range, you should start to see a figure in the frames per second box.

 

6. Now that the radio is receiving and the ADSB decoder is decoding, you need to run a map display program. I selected (randomly) a program called VirtualRadar, but there are many others. VirtualRadar can be found at http://www.virtualradarserver.co.uk/Download.aspx. Run the setup program and run the VirtualRadar program. A screen will come up and start to display a message count. Click on the hypertext link on the initial screen http://127.0.0.1/VirtualRadar/desktop.html and a map will open and after a while will display any aircraft being received and tracked. The map initially is centred around UK Heathrow, and you may have to pan the map to your location in Australia.

 

7. If you have trouble, have a read of the SDRSharp and VirtualRadar websites as I am not a guru on the application software and it took me a little bit of fiddling to get it all to work. There are probably easier ways to get ADSB to work on the PC, but this was my first attempt to get it working in one night. Android was far easier and just worked.

 

8. enjoy.

 

Apple

 

1. no idea as I don't have one.

 

Have fun. Eric

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Eric:

 

Well done! Thanks heaps for that info.

 

 

[kgwilson]

This is great. Now where can I find the $10.00 Mode S Transponder dongle for my Android?

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Oz runways users already are enjoying ADSB type service with the latest up grades. Any aircraft throughout Australia currently flying is displayed on a separate map showing rego, altitude relative to your aircraft, height and selected route / track.

 

If on your selected OzRunways map display a symbol also alerts your to other traffic showing rego and height relative to yours, plus direction of travel. Cost?...nothing more than the standard $79 per year subscription.

 

 

[red750]

Eric,

 

Is it a standard USB or Micro USB connector? Some tablets only have a Micro USB port.

 

 

[coljones]

Eric,Is it a standard USB or Micro USB connector? Some tablets only have a Micro USB port.

You will need an OTG (on the go) cable which converts from Micro USB (male) to Standard USB female so you can plug in standard USB devices like memory sticks, keyboards, USB HDD etc. and in this case a TV Tuner dongle. (with the right app you might even be able to watch TV as well on your Android)

Erik seems to have received an OTG cable as part of his Android Kit (I didn't) but you should be able to pick one up at Dick Smiths, JCar or JB HiFi for about $10. They are very handy to have and great for plugging in memory sticks and portable HDD with all your movies. To use in this mode there are a number apps you can use such as ES File or search for others using OTG as search criteria.

 

 

[kgwilson]

Oz runways users already are enjoying ADSB type service with the latest up grades. Any aircraft throughout Australia currently flying is displayed on a separate map showing rego, altitude relative to your aircraft, height and selected route / track.If on your selected OzRunways map display a symbol also alerts your to other traffic showing rego and height relative to yours, plus direction of travel. Cost?...nothing more than the standard $79 per year subscription.

Does this require an internet connection to work? Without the R820T2 chip I can't see how it would work without without being able to download that information via a data connection. If it does need connecting to a web service it won't be much good in remote areas where there isn't any.

 

 

[Bevan]

An easier solution for ADSB traffic is to build a rasberry pi based device which uses one of these DVB tuners to receive ADSB traffic. It'll cost you about $100 in parts, but will be usable on both Android and iOS.

 

Both AvPlan EFB and OzR support these devices and multiple users in the same aircraft can connect to the one adsb-pi receiver.

 

Oz runways users already are enjoying ADSB type service with the latest up grades. Any aircraft throughout Australia currently flying is displayed on a separate map showing rego, altitude relative to your aircraft, height and selected route / track.

 

 

You are only seeing other OzR users who have traffic enabled, not every aircraft. We developed a similar system as well early this year. Its great, but the limitations are the 3G network - when it doesn't work you see nothing.

 

The benefit with ADSB is you will see all ADSB equipped aircraft. If you want ADSB out for your aircraft, come to AusFly and see something really new, affordable and easy to fit to any aircraft.

 

 

[jetjr]

Who in Aus has ADSB out working?

 

 

[Bevan]

There is (at least ) one organisation working on one, they will be exhibiting for the first time at AusFly - Its not my train set so I can't say much more.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

Google are working on a affordable ADSB for drones, so it can't be far away

 

 

[jetjr]

They are working on a traffic separation system for THEIR drones - hopefully theres spin offs for GA.

 

Doesnt it still require base stations and data transfer systems?

 

Its a reasonable approach because unless its cheap and simple, UAV people wont take it on.

 

Amazon have requested separate airspace over major cities for theirs

 

 

[Nobody]

Oz runways users already are enjoying ADSB type service with the latest up grades. Any aircraft throughout Australia currently flying is displayed on a separate map showing rego, altitude relative to your aircraft, height and selected route / track.If on your selected OzRunways map display a symbol also alerts your to other traffic showing rego and height relative to yours, plus direction of travel. Cost?...nothing more than the standard $79 per year subscription.

This system is quite different to ADS-B. In the OZrunways/Avplan system you need 2 things to show up on the screen.You need to have a connection to the mobile data network(Telstra, Vodafone) and a be running Ozrunways or Avplan. The system works by your iPad uploading your position, direction and speed to a server. You then get information about aircraft that are also doing the same.

 

While this is great it will miss a lot of aircraft. For instance if you are running ozrunways and someone else is running Avplan you wont see them on your ipad. If they have the wifi only ipad then you wont see them on your ipad. If they are are a glider you wont see them on your ipad. If they are outside of phone network coverage you wont see them.

 

 

[rhysmcc]

This system is quite different to ADS-B. In the OZrunways/Avplan system you need 2 things to show up on the screen.You need to have a connection to the mobile data network(Telstra, Vodafone) and a be running Ozrunways or Avplan. The system works by your iPad uploading your position, direction and speed to a server. You then get information about aircraft that are also doing the same.While this is great it will miss a lot of aircraft. For instance if you are running ozrunways and someone else is running Avplan you wont see them on your ipad. If they have the wifi only ipad then you wont see them on your ipad. If they are are a glider you wont see them on your ipad. If they are outside of phone network coverage you wont see them.

I wonder if Ozrunways and AvPlan would come to an agreement to "share" this data, it's already publicly displayed on their website.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I have built a few RaspPi ADSB units for people for use in their aircraft also on the gound and they work well. They use the SDR as described above and I cant say with Avplan but certainly works extremely well with OZrunways

 

 

[Nobody]

Two things would be great.

 

1 Avplan and Ozrunways agreeing to share the server side data so that traffic shown on one system also shows on the other.

 

2. If you have one of the raspberry pi ads-b recievers then using ozrunways and your ipad detects an aircraft that isnt already in the ozrunways system then its data gets uploaded.

 

 

[Ada Elle]

What size antenna do you need for 1090?

 

 

[Nobody]

What size antenna do you need for 1090?

the small one that comes with the dongle works reasonable well in receiving traffic.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

What size antenna do you need for 1090?

One for 1090 mhz they are available on ebay for around 30 bucks

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Two things would be great.2. If you have one of the raspberry pi ads-b recievers then using ozrunways and your ipad detects an aircraft that isnt already in the ozrunways system then its data gets uploaded.

If you are using a Pi on Ozrunways you will see traffic that is not using Ozrunways it will be the direct aircraft to your aircraft signal and as well you should see all the traffic actually using Ozrunways via the Ozrunways program...so you will get the best of both worlds the only exception will be the traffic that is actually transmitting a ADSB signal will only be in radio range area of where you are flying

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

What size antenna do you need for 1090?

If you want to make your own cut it to 69mm long that will be close enough

 

 

[Nobody]

If you are using a Pi on Ozrunways you will see traffic that is not using Ozrunways it will be the direct aircraft to your aircraft signal and as well you should see all the traffic actually using Ozrunways via the Ozrunways program...so you will get the best of both worlds the only exception will be the traffic that is actually transmitting a ADSB signal will only be in radio range area of where you are flying

What I was trying to say and not doing a very good job of was imagine if two light plane running ozrunways on an ipad are flying along. One has the ABS-b respberry pi as well. Also flying in the areas is a QLink Dash8. Now the dash 8 will show up on the ipad in the aircraft that has the raspberry pi but the other plane will not have that traffic on its screen. Imagine though if that traffic was uploaded to the server by the aircraft with the raspberry pi.

 

 

[Eric McCandless]

What would be fantastic for enhanced situational awareness would be if AirServices made public Internet access available to their ADS-B and mode-S servers with an API for commercial products. Presently, there are 28 ADS-B ground stations throughout Australia giving approx. 50% coverage @ 5,000 feet and 75% coverage at 10,000 feet.

 

 

ADS-B Coverage @ 5,000 feet ADS-B coverage @ 10,000 feet

 

Perhaps alternatively, OzRunways and AvPlan could negotiate with private ADS-B servers such as FlightRadar24 which is based on community participation of ADS-B trackers.

 

 

Screenshot from FlightRadar24 ADS-B

 

 

 

[Eric McCandless]

Eric,Is it a standard USB or Micro USB connector? Some tablets only have a Micro USB port.

As coljones said you can pick an up OTG USB cable from most computer shops, or from ebay ($1 with free shipping). Eric

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Yes that would be the best of both worlds. I am sure Bas or Rowan could come up with something like that for sure

 

Ozrunways could become a sudo FlightRadar 24