Upgrade issue: when updating from v2.1.3 to a newer version, the feeder is not restarted automatically because of a change in the debian build system. Either reboot your device or use sudo systemctl restart opensky-feeder after installation.

OpenSky Feeder for Dump1090 (Raspberry Pi-based)

This article describes how to feed your data into the OpenSky Network using a Rasperry Pi-based ADSB receiver. If you already operate a dump1090 ADS-B/Mode S receiver on a Raspberry Pi, you can skip the prerequesits and start feeding data to OpenSky right away. The setup just takes 5 minutes.

Alternatively, there are now several docker-based multi-feeding setups, which integrate our feeder. We suggest trying out:

The feeder daemon is open source and availabe on Github: https://github.com/openskynetwork/opensky-sensor

Running your dump1090 on a different system?

Check out this page to install the feeder on a different architecture. If you are running your dump1090 on a Raspberry Pi system, just continue with this guide.
If you run a native Debian armhf (i.e. not Raspbian) on your device, you might be lucky to install the package described here on the page. If you experience any problems, please contact us.

Prerequisites

If you are not operating such a receiver, there are several possibilities to build your own:

The easiest option is to use the pre-configured image and follow the instructions here. If you choose this option you will NOT need to complete the Obtaining and installing the feeder step.
Use a stock Raspbian image and install the dump1090 software by yourself. We recommend using dump1090-fa as it is the most well maintained.
You can also use any other Linux distribution on your device, but officially we only support Raspbian images. You may be lucky with other Debian-based images and you might also get our software working on other distributions but there is no easy method to get the OpenSky feeder running.
If you already have dump1090 running on any device in your network, you can also install the software on your x86, x86_64, armhf or arm64 machine, relaying the data to the OpenSky Network.

Obtaining and installing the feeder

When your device is running, you have to log into it. On Windows, you can use Putty for this task. The default login credentials, e.g. for the adsbreceiver.net image are

Username: pi
Password: adsbreceiver

Next, execute the following two commands (for the second command, you might have to enter the password again)

wget https://opensky-network.org/files/firmware/opensky-feeder_latest_armhf.deb
sudo dpkg -i opensky-feeder_latest_armhf.deb

After that, you will be prompted some questions about your receiver setup. If you have an OpenSky account, you can also supply your OpenSky username. If you provide a username, your sensor will automatically be added to your account.

If you configure your receiver a second time (i.e. you've upgraded from a Raspberry Pi 1 to 3), you can also reuse your old serial number which is also asked by the setup. If you leave this field blank, you'll be assigned a new serial number automatically.

You can access statistics and coverage maps on our website (My OpenSky -> My Sensors). Don't worry, the negative serial number is alright. Known issue :-)

After the setup is done, the feeder is started automatically and starts feeding to the OpenSky network. It is furthermore started every time the raspberry pi is booted.

Updating and reconfiguring the feeder

If you installed the feeder with dpkg

If you want to update the feeder, you can execute the previous steps again. You can also refer to the Changelog to see if there are any updates. Your configuration will be retained, so you won't be asked for your location again. You can also use apt to keep the feeder up to date, as described here.

If you want to reconfigure the feeder (e.g. adding your username after you created an account), you can use the following command to get the configuration dialog again:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure opensky-feeder

If you used the pre-configured image

Re-flash your Raspberry Pi with the image and follow the steps again as described here.

Important note

For all above cases please be aware that, after you have set your username once, you cannot change it anymore. If you need to do that, please write an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Troubleshooting and Logging

In case your feeder is not working (or if you are just curious), have a look into the log files using the following command:

sudo journalctl -b 0 -u opensky-feeder

The feeder will also print a lengthy message every 10 minutes which includes some statistics about the relayed frames.

Removing the feeder

If you do no longer want to feed into the OpenSky network, you can either temporarily disable the feeder or remove it.

For disabling it, use the command
sudo systemctl disable opensky-feeder
Then either reboot the device or stop the feeder immediately:
sudo systemctl stop opensky-feeder

You can reenable the feeder again, using
sudo systemctl enable opensky-feeder
For removing the feeder completely, use:
sudo apt-get remove opensky-feeder
When removing the package, the configuration will be retained. If the feeder should be removed along with its configuration, use
sudo apt-get --purge remove opensky-feeder

Using apt to keep the feeder up to date

Instead of downloading the .deb archive and installing it manually, you can also configure apt to check for new versions when doing a normal system update:

Since the OpenSky website is using https, you need to install that transfer method
sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https ca-certificates
You also need the GPG key of the OpenSky Network which verifies the integrity of the archives
wget -O - https://opensky-network.org/files/firmware/opensky.gpg.pub | sudo apt-key add -
Add the OpenSky repository
sudo bash -c "echo deb https://opensky-network.org/repos/debian opensky custom > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opensky.list"
Update apt
sudo apt-get update
Now the feeder is updated everytime you use
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade
or something similar

Changelog

Release 2.1.7-1 from 23.07.2018

Support for hptoa branch of dump1090, see https://github.com/openskynetwork/dump1090-hptoa
SHA256Sum (armhf): 76924b152ac836faac8ef79348180ee5e0a3d2b9068b7c1e57fa21a35e9dbff0
SHA256Sum (arm64): 71bb878e1f74be967b863979d64f56369b0fae6aa0094eb1a020d7c94d31458e
SHA256Sum (amd64): a3af0884277b2b10d306401861fb454e9af14cef680d47749992aa36be9de5de
SHA256Sum (i386): a432faf050c936af791b4e0a857552983fa14982d9ae4ff08e524ff997f7821e

Release 2.1.6-1 from 22.02.2018

Introduced the OpenSky Kit
2.1.4-3 and 2.1.5-1 are still up to date for other receivers

Release 2.1.4-3 from 30.11.2017

Compiled armhf version under raspbian again to support RaspberryPi 1
SHA256Sum (armhf): a2b57a64040b714b6573caef502da6c1fcd1ba92fbdd4e3a21b8f3a702eeac5b
2.1.4-2 is still up to date for other architectures

Release 2.1.4-2 from 20.11.2017

Changed information text in debconf
SHA256Sum (armhf): 25b7c005973e716c89c806d95401f7d8743c4424b39dff49eb6b62a5991e6a47
SHA256Sum (arm64): cacd1c177ca4141f020db32785d49905b72d37f7d641302c2ec6a41254d93085
SHA256Sum (amd64): 61d4adf691ae8404ba61d084e1f1de4fd24569d364d4b18e3c10c5b7dff59a34
SHA256Sum (i386): f3c90c53f9cdbc5989de07a0d01d25ea50b30d209096c4e85d940549c5619b14

Release 2.1.4 from 19.11.2017

Let users change their serial number using debconf
Fixed auxiliary configuration path
Print serial number in signed form
SHA256Sum (armhf): 62bd5eae0426d97cf9d862ff655e52c4ba8e668ec5345e0fbdfbc7816d18b848
SHA256Sum (arm64): 20825172eceab707a722e5d813342f39324671f3a7a028a075f257bf3adc2016
SHA256Sum (amd64): 62572a3d6744bd6d3930d14bd23d305de9dd4ee05ddcc268a429dc1b43bace2c
SHA256Sum (i386): 717096b802b1f8480a2fa4e3e740c041c4a670835cad548d4dc2d7ef9fa7638e

Release 2.1.3 from 27.08.2017

Added features for donated sensors (no need to update for others)
MD5Sum: e91be0d53784ce6dad41dedb08b4f13e
MD5Sum (i386): f4772517780563d6f082377b7c1a21b0
MD5Sum (amd64): 380dac24e27b93f113fbd5388ee2f367
MD5Sum (arm64): 5cc2fbe2bca07ca0bcebc1be8ba284c5

Release 2.1.2 from 21.05.2017

Reintroduced serial number override
Fixed build system issues
MD5Sum: fb680636df54f7713f8cc7a4e0e44997
MD5Sum (i386): 10f4b79e67dadf4be33ea01d225df5f9
MD5Sum (amd64): 27a9e54c4dee09f45ea7ff3f6460760a

Release 2.0.1 from 08.03.2017

Fixed range checks for latitude/longitude
MD5Sum: 812898d8ede1dbcb677c3d7811fa2d83