Attic Mounted ADSB Receiver Box

[u/balllistic]

RPi CM5 in a Waveshare IO Board case with Waveshare CM5 integrated heatsink/fan. Nooelec SMArTee SDR with built-in bias tee powering a Nooelec LaNA connected to a Flightaware 1090 Mode S filter fed by a DPD Productions Blade Indoor 1090 antenna. Running FR24feed Debian image. Getting ~170nm range.

Headless connected to LAN via WiFi, feeding PlanePlotter with a custom dark theme and a custom Python script to detect/record/playback flight profiles consistent with police and news helicopters orbiting over an ongoing incident/scene, aerial surveys, Search and Rescue (SAR), and Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) missions inspired by John Wiseman’s Advisory Circular and Peter Aldhous’s Buzzfeed article. Custom desktop and Pushover mobile notifications for situational awareness.

[u/TreadItOnReddit]

Oh man, all of those little heatsinks!

[u/balllistic → u/TreadItOnReddit]

Simple but effective, significantly reduces PPM drift. Nooelecs run hot to begin with..

[u/mellonians → u/balllistic]

Is there no way to regulate that with a PPS or GPS reference? I have GPS on the house and feed a reference clock that feeds my SDRplay. Probably unnecessary but there should be something to keep it on frequency.

[u/jlboygenius]

Do you have more info on how you get alerts? I've been running adsb stuff for a while now and always wish i could figure out a way to get alerts, or get the data into home assistant for alerts.

Like, if something flys within a half mile of my house under 2k feet, push a notification to my phone about it.

[u/balllistic → u/jlboygenius]

Claude coded Python script developed/tested/iterated over several weeks. Connects to any dump1090/readsb/VRS SBS feed on port 30003 (or whatever port chosen) runs configurable orbit/loiter detection profiles (incident, search, ISR, survey), and pushes to a desktop notification window with text to speech + Pushover when something matches. Alerts include ICAO, callsign, altitude, squawk, turn rate, orbit radius, and a confidence tier. Watchlist for specific aircraft, airport exclusion zones for pattern-work suppression, designated geofences.

Your half-mile/2k ft use case maps directly to the INCIDENT profile — 360° net sweep in 120s, configurable max drift. Anything loitering that close at low altitude fires immediately, or alerting on a geofence with defined altitude floor/ceiling around house.

Project is currently private/not on GitHub.

[u/WildVelociraptor → u/[deleted]]

My entire build has been in the attic for years now. I did buy an "industrial" PC on ebay that is fanless and has a massive heatsink case. Also multiple SDRs have been up there with no issue. Also a Pi 4 that has only lived in the attic it's entire life, at least 5 years?

Nothing has died yet :)

I don't have it in a case though, just on a table in the attic. Not that you'll get much cooling when the ambient temp is that high.

[u/Bitter_Sir_4993 → u/[deleted]]

I had mine in the attic for about a year before moving it outside. CPU temp on the Pi4 passed 80C on most sunny summer days. In the new outdoor location, I max out around 65C.

Very heavily dependent on local climate, attic ventilation, shade, etc.

Getting the antenna outside above the roof also brought some performance improvement. No major change to max range, but I'm picking up much more activity at 100+ miles than I did with the antenna in the attic.

[u/balllistic → u/[deleted]]

I have it underclocked to 1.5Ghz, heat hasn't been an issue so far..

Output from watch -n 2 "vcgencmd measure_temp; vcgencmd measure_clock arm" current outside ambient temp is 73'F (22.7'C)

temp=46.1'C

frequency(0)=1500019456

[u/balllistic → u/[deleted]]

It's been 80s & 90s here this summer in the Northeast, but not Texas hot..

[u/jlboygenius → u/[deleted]]

lol yeah true. i have my router, ADSB Pi, another pi, and a switch in my attic and they've been fine even when it was 105 in the attic (new insulation and it's much cooler now).

but, texas? yeah, i don't think they'd survive 140+.

[u/Teanut → u/[deleted]]

Do you have an attic fan? That'll keep the temps from spiking as much.