Guys,
I've been running a PiAware (from Fightaware, see: https://uk.flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/build/) for eight years originally with a Pi 2 Model B V1.1, the Flightaware SDR (Software Defined Radio receiver) dongle and a horrible 1090MHz antenna made from a cheap cut-down (to quarter wave at 1090MHz) magnetic base GSM antenna and positioned just above my roof gutter on a bit of sheet steel wedged between the tiles. All good and got me positioned somewhere in the twelve thousands rating of PiAware subscribers.
A couple of months back I had a rush on funds and started to update to a better 1090MHz antenna, reception is really all about the antenna, and a 3metre pole from UK Screwfix set 2metres above my gutter, its also all about antenna height. Wanting it minimise the antenna feed cable I went for a new enclosure and POE (Power over Ethernet) system which in turns means updating to a PI3B+, a POE Hat including a POE PSU and a new Cat5 feed cable to my loft along with all my other nonsense including TV antenna. All running very nicely and I could now see loads more aircraft from nearly one hundred miles further out. I returned from holiday to find I'd moved up to a new rating of somewhere in the eight thousands. Great. However, having set my recorder for a couple of my favourite TV programmes found they weren't recorded.
A quick scan through my TV channels and many of them were either missing or badly broken up. A re-tune found only 97 channels (and no HD channels) of the promised 129 in my area. Having tried everything I shutdown PiAware and re-tuned. Wow, 174 channels found including the missing HD channels. I had a problem.
I had bought a weather proof enclosure and mounted the Pi3B+, and the SDR dongle on a spare bit of copper laminate which just screwed in the box to make servicing easy. Ethernet was connected through a surface chassis Cat5 in/out socket via a short bit of Cat5 from Pi to the chassis socket and the SDR SMA connector to a chassis SMA male. The POE Hat included a fan and, being a sealed box and wanting to keep it so, and keep the Pi cool, I used two old copper finned PC-CPU heat sinks back to back on the lid with a 2 inch through hole full of conductive paste. At this stage nothing was bonded together.
WIth PiAware active and using my TV signal display I get pre Viterbi error rate of 2.88 E-2 (post Viterbi 1.03 E-4) and a signal quality of 30%. This was after a major improvement on rotating the box so that the copper laminate base was between the Pi and my TV antenna and adding a Ferrite Core clamp on the Cat5 cable. Without this Ferrite clamp the signal quality was zero percent and pictures very ragged/missing. Adding the Ferrite was very significant.
I found that simply bonding the copper laminate and copper heat sink which effecively surround (top and bottom) the Pi and SDR to the chassis mount SMA antenna socket which I assume got connected through to the Pi ground and retained the Ferrite Core Cat5 clamp returned my signal quality to 100% and the pre Viterbi error rate of 9.50 E-5 and post Viterbi of 0.0 so fixed. A re-tune gets me all my 174 channels back with PiAware running and hopefully my new score safe. So all good.
Why am I posting here? Well, maybe not everyone is running a PiAware system in their loft near a TV antenna but some might be running a similar set-up for a weather station or similar remoted Pi based sensor system, with/without POE and its hitting their TV viewing big time whether they know it or not.
It was a bonus that I just happened to have a bit of spare copper laminate to build on and a Ferrite Cored cable clamp lying about and I could simply add a bonding wire to join all the bits to Pi ground. If anyone here is planning a similar setup consider mounting the Pi and other clever bits on a conductive substrate and bond the lot to Pi ground and add Ferrite Core clamps to any wires going in or out of your enclosure. Perhaps also keep it all away from any other receiving equipement. I have more Ferrite cores on order, not cheap but the one I used gave a major improvement within seconds so a first try next time I have problems. Had all this failed 'Plan B' was to spray paint the internal surfaces of my enclosure with a EMI/RFI Conductive Coating Spray and bond to that but was 35 quid for 200ml that would have to wait.
I've been running a PiAware (from Fightaware, see: https://uk.flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/build/) for eight years originally with a Pi 2 Model B V1.1, the Flightaware SDR (Software Defined Radio receiver) dongle and a horrible 1090MHz antenna made from a cheap cut-down (to quarter wave at 1090MHz) magnetic base GSM antenna and positioned just above my roof gutter on a bit of sheet steel wedged between the tiles. All good and got me positioned somewhere in the twelve thousands rating of PiAware subscribers.
A couple of months back I had a rush on funds and started to update to a better 1090MHz antenna, reception is really all about the antenna, and a 3metre pole from UK Screwfix set 2metres above my gutter, its also all about antenna height. Wanting it minimise the antenna feed cable I went for a new enclosure and POE (Power over Ethernet) system which in turns means updating to a PI3B+, a POE Hat including a POE PSU and a new Cat5 feed cable to my loft along with all my other nonsense including TV antenna. All running very nicely and I could now see loads more aircraft from nearly one hundred miles further out. I returned from holiday to find I'd moved up to a new rating of somewhere in the eight thousands. Great. However, having set my recorder for a couple of my favourite TV programmes found they weren't recorded.
A quick scan through my TV channels and many of them were either missing or badly broken up. A re-tune found only 97 channels (and no HD channels) of the promised 129 in my area. Having tried everything I shutdown PiAware and re-tuned. Wow, 174 channels found including the missing HD channels. I had a problem.
I had bought a weather proof enclosure and mounted the Pi3B+, and the SDR dongle on a spare bit of copper laminate which just screwed in the box to make servicing easy. Ethernet was connected through a surface chassis Cat5 in/out socket via a short bit of Cat5 from Pi to the chassis socket and the SDR SMA connector to a chassis SMA male. The POE Hat included a fan and, being a sealed box and wanting to keep it so, and keep the Pi cool, I used two old copper finned PC-CPU heat sinks back to back on the lid with a 2 inch through hole full of conductive paste. At this stage nothing was bonded together.
WIth PiAware active and using my TV signal display I get pre Viterbi error rate of 2.88 E-2 (post Viterbi 1.03 E-4) and a signal quality of 30%. This was after a major improvement on rotating the box so that the copper laminate base was between the Pi and my TV antenna and adding a Ferrite Core clamp on the Cat5 cable. Without this Ferrite clamp the signal quality was zero percent and pictures very ragged/missing. Adding the Ferrite was very significant.
I found that simply bonding the copper laminate and copper heat sink which effecively surround (top and bottom) the Pi and SDR to the chassis mount SMA antenna socket which I assume got connected through to the Pi ground and retained the Ferrite Core Cat5 clamp returned my signal quality to 100% and the pre Viterbi error rate of 9.50 E-5 and post Viterbi of 0.0 so fixed. A re-tune gets me all my 174 channels back with PiAware running and hopefully my new score safe. So all good.
Why am I posting here? Well, maybe not everyone is running a PiAware system in their loft near a TV antenna but some might be running a similar set-up for a weather station or similar remoted Pi based sensor system, with/without POE and its hitting their TV viewing big time whether they know it or not.
It was a bonus that I just happened to have a bit of spare copper laminate to build on and a Ferrite Cored cable clamp lying about and I could simply add a bonding wire to join all the bits to Pi ground. If anyone here is planning a similar setup consider mounting the Pi and other clever bits on a conductive substrate and bond the lot to Pi ground and add Ferrite Core clamps to any wires going in or out of your enclosure. Perhaps also keep it all away from any other receiving equipement. I have more Ferrite cores on order, not cheap but the one I used gave a major improvement within seconds so a first try next time I have problems. Had all this failed 'Plan B' was to spray paint the internal surfaces of my enclosure with a EMI/RFI Conductive Coating Spray and bond to that but was 35 quid for 200ml that would have to wait.
Statistics: Posted by RaspISteve — Tue Jul 16, 2024 9:17 pm — Replies 1 — Views 68