Beginners guide to setting up a basic windows plane tracking system

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
Chris

OK, basic stuff, right-clicked the K, but no "Exit" shown!!!!!
(Same on the W7 Pro laptop as on the W10 Pro Acer - though W10 did give me an easy option from the Start Menu to uninstall it!)

Think I will have to progressively allow the Blocked Firewall Packet Rules - one at a time - to try to find out if one of those is the problem.
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
A/S

As I hope you can see from my posts earlier today, I think I've tried most (?) of the possible combos of IP address and Port No on that bl**dy m/c, and nothing seems to work.

Except, that is, when I accidently mis-entered the IP as "27.0.0.1" (!) - which then appeared to hang my VRS application for a few minutes until a message popped up and, IIRC, it said something like that host (wherever, if ever, it exists) did not respond.

So it seems to me that the Test message is actually getting to the VRS Server but is then being "actively rejected" for some bl**dy reason - and the rejection message comes up on screen within a few seconds, not minutes
 

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,220
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
As far as Im aware - and Ive only been in this game a few weeks longer than you - refused connection is good - if it cant see the computer hosting the dongle at all you get this instead - just tried this as my netbook is off.

I think it refused connection means the connection is getting to the hardware but is "bouncing off" for some reason.



Capture.JPG
 

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,220
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
So lets work through this logically. BTW dont give up - it will be a minor misconfiguration somewhere - it took me bloody ages (almost a week) to get the pi up and running the first time around!

You are running the dongle on a second machine.

You have set the VRS configuration to the ip of the second machine - x.x.x.8

You are getting bounced out instead of connecting when using 3000x series ports.
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
A/S

From memory, the message you just posted is more like the one I got when I mis-entered the IP address - and quite a lot different to the one that I am consistently getting. (which is shown several times in the screen shots I posted)
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
A/S

Basically "Yes" to all 3 points - although the machine IP address has been set at various times to "127.0.0.1" and to xxx.xxx.x.8 - but the result is the same in that the response message quotes that specific IP address + the Port No

PS: Got to break off for a bit to do the recycling and have something to eat - probably back in an hour or so.
 
Last edited:

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,220
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
OK so you need to have the VRS target set as x.x.x.8

Open a command line (start - run - cmd - enter)

type the following

ping x.x.x.8 (where x.x.x.8 is the ACTUAL address of the second computer!)

enter. And if you have successful inter - computer connection you will get something like this

Capture.JPG

If you get "request timed out" then there is no connection. Im using 192.168.1.6 as I know thats currently active on the LAN.
 

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,220
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
OFF TOPIC - but as a tip using ping x.x.x.x -t (<ip address> space -t) is a useful network tool as it keeps the ping going indefinitely allowing you to try different configs, network cables, switch stuff off & on etc.

When it changes from timed out to conencted you have solved the network issue!
 

lovelyperson

Dreamer
Joined
Sep 8, 2004
Messages
1,009
Reaction score
1,805
Points
113
Location
Alicante, España
My Satellite Setup
2.0m PF dish
1.8m PF Famaval
1.8m PF Marrafa
1.4m Tecatel offset
1.2m dish + Stab HH120
TBS 5925 USB
Octagon SF8008 4k Twin
GTMedia V8 UHD
GTMedia GTcombos x 2
Goldmaster SR525 HD
Sat-illimitè F300 hyper
62.0ºE - 63.0ºW
My Location
Alicante, España
............. it took me bloody ages (almost a week) to get the pi up and running the first time around!/QUOTE]

We like honest people here :D:D..........bet you were pleased when you were 'up and running'..............the words 'bloody ages' are very polite compared to my words trying to set up my first Dreambox 7000 years ago. :eek:

Really looking forward to joining in with this 'plane tracking' topic........aviation has always been a big interest.

Best wishes. respect-048.gif
 

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,220
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
When you are ready to go if you start your own thread we can pile in & give you dedicated help :) Im missing my little setup here. :( - looking forward to rebuilding it over the weekend.
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
Pinging now and getting the responses
 

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,220
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
Info moved to troubleshooting thread

A/S
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
Morning (here anyway)

I've just fitted a small 47MHz-2150MHz inline amp just below the Colinear & Discone antennas at the end of the garden, and powered it via a DC inserter (and home built DC filter network to try to eliminate any crap coming from the cheap 12V walwart PSU I used) just behind the SDR module, and the result has effectively been a doubling of the number of aircraft transponders being received (to around 24-25) and of the ranges at which they are (to around 50+ miles or so in all directions).

Thus see attached sample screenshot - also seen other planes out between Oxford and Swindon, and it looked like the Northampton area as well - so well worth the effort involved.

PS: Thought I had blown the SDR module up this morning when I accidently connected the power inserter the wrong way round so that it fed 14V into the input of that and I could not understand why it was getting warm:(! - was NOT a happy chappy until I got everything else sorted out and fired up the PC and so on, to find the SDR unit still working fine:-biglaugh
 

Attachments

  • Virtual-Radar--Snapshot-1a---2016-12-11.jpg
    Virtual-Radar--Snapshot-1a---2016-12-11.jpg
    176.4 KB · Views: 11
Last edited:

Analoguesat

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
50,739
Reaction score
11,220
Points
113
Location
Scottish Borders
My Satellite Setup
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
My Location
Scottish Borders
Nice - you are well ahead of my maximum - 16 or 17 when conditions were very favourable a week or so back. Im trying my tuned 8 element again although its difficult to do a proper comparison as atmospheric conditions are very different
 

Channel Hopper

Suffering fools, so you don't have to.
Staff member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
35,533
Reaction score
8,554
Points
113
Age
59
Website
www.sat-elite.uk
My Satellite Setup
A little less analogue, and a lot more crap.
My Location
UK
Nice - you are well ahead of my maximum - 16 or 17 when conditions were very favourable a week or so back. Im trying my tuned 8 element again although its difficult to do a proper comparison as atmospheric conditions are very different

Not forgetting Heathrow, Gatwick, and about ten other airfields in the vicinity.

It will really come into its own when drones are forced to have active transponders when in the air.
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
Not forgetting Heathrow, Gatwick, and about ten other airfields in the vicinity.

It will really come into its own when drones are forced to have active transponders when in the air.

CH

Previously. on a Sunday, I would get around 12 planes with ranges up to about 25 miles from Heathrow (we are 5 miles North of that) - now both numbers have doubled, and so it's the reception that has improved considerably, and not just the numbers of planes flying around this area.

PS: must get back, with Chris's help, to getting the Splatter Diagrams working.
 

Channel Hopper

Suffering fools, so you don't have to.
Staff member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
35,533
Reaction score
8,554
Points
113
Age
59
Website
www.sat-elite.uk
My Satellite Setup
A little less analogue, and a lot more crap.
My Location
UK
Heathrow changed their flight and stacking patterns in the past week, and there are also increases in traffic from the smaller fields in the run up to Christmas.
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
Heathrow changed their flight and stacking patterns in the past week, and there are also increases in traffic from the smaller fields in the run up to Christmas.

CH

IMHO, the "telling" point is the much greater ranges rather than the numbers of planes (those vary according to the day/time of day, and the season as you point out) because I never picked up anything much more than 25 miles away, whereas the system is now seeing them out to around 50 miles.
 
Top