SD Card Image Documentation

Hello! Thank you for purchasing (or downloading) the SD card image for our feeder software based on open-source code, ie. readsb, tar1090, etc.

Note, this image works on Raspberry Pi 3 or 4, may also work slowly on Pi zero if PROMG=no is set in adsb-config.txt file to disable graphana.

Below are some hints to get you started using it.


Quick and dirty setup -> If you do nothing else, do this: Before first boot, insert the microSD card into your PC/Mac/Workstation, and with a standard text editor:

  • Edit /boot/adsb-config.txt with your latitude, longitude, and altitude.
  • If you intend to use wifi, edit /boot/wpa_supplicant.conf with your Wifi SSID/Name and password.
  • Save the files, and safely eject the card, then insert in your Pi.
  • Once the Raspberry Pi boots, give it a few minutes, and visit https://www.adsbexchange.com/myip If you see two green smiley faces, you’re good to go!

If you want more details, see below:


Note – if your network supports multicast DNS, you may be able to access the web interface of your Pi at http://adsbexchange.local, and also SSH to “adsbexchange.local” instead of needing to locate your internal IP.


ADSBexchange.com Custom Kit Initial Setup

Use notepad or basic text editor. DO NOT use wordpad or microsoft word.

DO NOT USE FANCY OR MAGIC QUOTES. DO NOT CHANGE FORMAT.

!!!!! WINDOWS USERS !!!!!

Do not use Wordpad for editing this file, it will mangle it and your configuration won’t work. Use a proper text editor instead. 

Recommended: Notepad, Notepad++, VSCode, Atom, SublimeText.

!!!!! MACOSX USERS !!!!!

If you use Textedit to edit this file make sure to use “plain text format” and “disable smart quotes” in “Textedit > Preferences”, otherwise Textedit will use none-compatible characters and your network configuration won’t work!


Configuration file adsb-config.txt is located on the SD card.

Sample clean adsb-config.txt:

LATITUDE=13.366081
LONGITUDE=-121.694665
ALTITUDE=1050ft
USER="name_of_feeder"
DUMP1090=yes
GAIN=49.6
DUMP978=yes
AUTOGAIN=no
ZEROTIER=yes
PROMG=yes

Edit the adsb-config.txt with your information and altitude of antenna in MSL. 

Save the configured adsb-config.txt to the sd card.


ADSBexchange.com Custom Kit Initial Wifi Setup

ADSBx image uses default Raspbian setup for Wifi.  You can also use raspi-config if you have a keyboard and mouse.

wpa_supplicant.conf method.  

Before you power on the device you need to edit the wpa_supplicant.conf with your SSID and password located on the sd card.

After editing wpa_supplicant.conf, you can plug everything in and power the Pi.

At any time you can place a new wpa_supplicant.conf on /boot to update Wifi.  If it doesn’t work on the first boot, you can always create the file again and make another attempt or use an alternative method such as raspi-config.

Sample wpa_supplicant.conf:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
 update_config=1
 country=US
 network={
  ssid="Name of your WiFi"
  scan_ssid=1
  psk="Password for your WiFi"
 }

More Information:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/wireless/


SSH Login

SSH access is enabled and runs on port 22.

Default user: pi
Default password: adsb123

ssh pi@<lan_of_your_pi> (or use hostname adsbexchange.local if your local network supports mDNS)

Grafana Dashboard Login

Username: admin
Password: adsb123

Display ADSBx config

cat /boot/adsb-config.txt

Restart readsb service

sudo systemctl restart readsb

Show readsb status

sudo systemctl status readsb

Start Feeder Services

sudo systemctl start adsbexchange-mlat
sudo systemctl start adsbexchange-feed

Restart Feeder Services

sudo systemctl restart adsbexchange-feed
sudo systemctl restart adsbexchange-mlat

Show Feeder Services

sudo systemctl status adsbexchange-mlat
sudo systemctl status adsbexchange-feed