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ADSB.im

Simple to use ADSB Feeder Images
(not just) for common Single Board Computers

Supported Hardware

Supported Single Board Computers (SBCs)
Most importantly: you need a decent power supply. No, not a USB charger. An actual power supply designed for a single board computer. For most RPi3 class boards you can get away with a 5V/2.5A powersupply. For anything more powerful I recommend a 5V/4A power supply.
Boards that are actively tested and should work:
  • Raspberry Pi 4 or Pi 5 (the Pi 5 certainly is overkill; a Pi 4 with 1G RAM will do just fine)
  • Orange Pi Zero3 (currently my favorite when it comes to price / performance) -- but for just a little more money you can get a 1GB Pi4 which is still preferable
  • Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, Pi Model 3 A+/B(+) (note that a Raspberry Pi Zero W will NOT work; also, these models are more likely to exhibit some MLAT instability, so if possible go withe one of the other options)
  • Libre Computer Le Potato
  • Orange Pi 3 LTS (no wifi support), 4 LTS, 5, and 5 Plus (these are all known to work, but not tested regularly)
  • Nano Pi NEO 3
  • There are a number of images for various flavors of x86-64 VMs as well as an x86-64 native .ISO that can be installed on any x86-64 system.
Additionally, the software stack can be installed on any board that supports DietPi, and even on most Debian or Ubuntu Linux systems. Please note that installing the adsb.im software in a VM is known to cause MLAT issues when the USB SDR is passed through to the VM.
Supported Software Defined Radios (SDRs)
  • Airspy Mini (expensive, but by far the best supported SDR for ADS-B/1090MHz)
  • NoName Chinese 1090MHz SDR (directly from AliExpress, also comes in various branded versions like airplanes.live, airframes.io, ADSBexchange) -- this is a fairly good RTL SDR with 1090MHz filter and a low noise amplifier - and it's in a blue metal housing which really helps with heat dissipation and longevity
  • Rtl-Sdr.com v3 and v4 dongle (it appears that the v3 is slightly better for ADS-B use cases)
  • FlightAware pro stick (includes 1090MHz filter and a low noise amplifier - because of the plastic housing I prefer the one above)
  • RadarBox green stick (includes 1090MHz filter and a low noise amplifier - this appears to be slightly lower quality than the ones above)
  • RadarBox red stick (includes 978MHz filter and a low noise amplifier -- for UAT978)
  • Nooelec NESDR SMArt and SMArTee
  • Most other RTL2838 based USB sticks should work
  • SDRplay RSP1a and RSP1b - other models might work as well
Antennas
  • You'll get by far the best results with an outdoor antenna mounted as high as possible (for good visibility to the horizon)
  • Matthias Wirth's wiki has a great summary of some of the antenna options
Filters and LNAs (low noise amplifiers)
  • some of the recommended SDRs above already include filter and LNA
  • especially when investing in the Airspy Mini and a good outdoor antenna, a filtered LNA is a very useful addition. Again, great info on Matthias' wiki
  • A cavity filter is the gold standard for filtering and makes a significant difference in very noisy environments. None of the integrated SDRs have a cavity filter - those things are BIG.
SD cards (well, technically µSD cards)
  • While the software fits on an 8GB card, it's generally better to go for a larger card as that extends the useful life of the card. Flash cells have a limited amount of write cycles and a larger card will balance the writes across more cells. The software stack tries to reduce unnecessary writes, but we still see especially 8GB cards die fairly regularly.
  • Ideally you want a class 10 card from a name brand. SanDisk Ultra have been known to be reliable.
  • Many other brands also have decent cards - but shy away from anything where the price is too good to be true.
  • Personally, for most of my feeders I use 64GB SanDisk Extreme cards - others have been very happy with the SanDisk Industrial and Samsung High Endurance cards.

Sample hardware setups that are known to work well.
You have more than one local IP address running the ADSB.im software, see a list at https://my.adsb.im/