ADS-B Receiver Raspberry Pi | Build Your Own Flight Tracker

Building a Raspberry Pi ADS-B receiver costs roughly $60 and delivers live aircraft tracking from your home using free feeder software.

A plane passes overhead somewhere in US airspace every few seconds. With an ADS-B receiver Raspberry Pi build on your desk, you can pull down flight numbers, altitudes, speeds, and destinations from aircraft within a 200-mile radius — all in real time, with no subscription and no radio license. The four components you need cost about what a dinner for two runs, and the free software image boots in under ten minutes. This guide names the exact hardware, walks through the fastest step-by-step setup, and flags the mistakes that keep beginners offline.

ADS-B Receiver Raspberry Pi Hardware: What You Actually Need

Four components are essential. Two are optional but improve coverage if you live in the United States. The table below gives current prices, and every part is available from major electronics retailers.

Total for a starting build with a Pi Zero 2 W runs about $60. Adding the two optional pieces brings the ceiling to roughly $120. If you already own a Pi and a microSD card, the outlay drops below $40.

How Do You Set Up Your ADS-B Receiver?

The fastest path uses the pre‑configured ADS-B Exchange image, which boots into a working feeder with almost no manual configuration. The same Pi can feed Flightradar24 and FlightAware simultaneously — each network runs as a separate service on top of the same receiver.

Step 1: Download and flash the image

Grab the current build from ADS-B Exchange: the file adsbx-9.0.240503.zip is the stable release as of mid‑2024. Open Raspberry Pi Imager, choose Use Custom, select the downloaded image, pick your SD card, and hit Write. Once it finishes, insert the card into the Pi.

• Alternative: Pi Imager v2024 and later include an ADSB feeder image under Other specific purpose OS — select that and skip the manual download.

Step 2: First boot and network connection

Plug the SDR dongle into a USB port, attach the 1090 MHz antenna, and power on the Pi. Wait about five minutes while it expands the filesystem and starts the feeder software. On a phone or laptop, open your Wi‑Fi settings and look for a network named ADSBx-config — connect to it. Then open a browser and go to http://adsbexchange.local. Select your home Wi‑Fi network, enter the password, and let the Pi reboot.

• After reboot, the ADSBx-config network disappears and the Pi is on your home network. The green LED on the Pi should show steady activity.

Step 3: Configure your location

Open a browser to http://adsbexchange.local again (or use the IP address your router assigned). You will see a settings page asking for latitude, longitude, and altitude (MSL). Use a tool like the free elevation finder at freemaptools.com to get your altitude above sea level. Enter the numbers, give your feeder a name, and save. The feeder starts sending data within 30 seconds.

Step 4: Verify the feed is live

Visit https://www.adsbexchange.com/myip from the same network as the Pi. If your feeder appears with an online status and shows recent messages, the build is working. Optional: SSH into the Pi and run sudo bash /tmp/axstats.sh to check MLAT (multilateration) status — a green indicator means your receiver is providing position data to the network.

Which Software Image Should You Use?

Three free options dominate the Raspberry Pi ADS-B scene. You are not locked into one — a single Pi can feed all three networks simultaneously, and ADS-B Exchange runs a cooperative that does not filter or commercialize the data.

If you want the simplest out‑of‑box experience, the Pi Imager’s built‑in ADSB feeder image writes Flightradar24’s latest image and gets you online fastest. For users who prefer open‑source software with no commercial overlay, ADS-B Exchange’s dedicated image is the better call.

Common Mistakes That Wreck Your Reception

Most first builds fail for one of five reasons. Each is easy to avoid once you know where to look.

• Wrong antenna frequency. ADS‑B uses 1090 MHz globally. A 1200 MHz antenna might pick up signals but misses the primary band. Buy a 1090 MHz rated antenna with an SMA connector that matches your SDR dongle.
• Skipping location configuration. Without latitude, longitude, and altitude, the feeder sends garbage positions and the network rejects the data. Spend two minutes entering accurate coordinates.
• Not enabling SSH during setup. If the Pi boots and you cannot reach the web interface, SSH is your only rescue. Enable it in Raspberry Pi Imager’s customization menu before writing the SD card.
• Using an undersized power supply. A Pi 4 needs 5V at 3A over USB‑C. A phone charger rated at 5V/1A causes random crashes and invisible data gaps. Use the recommended supply.
• Indoor antenna behind a wall. ADS‑B signals come from the sky. A window sill or balcony adds dozens of miles of range. An attic mount doubles the coverage area compared to a desk inside a room.

Final Build Checklist

Before you call the build finished, run through these five checks. Each one confirms your receiver is pulling in clean data and feeding the network correctly.

1. Hardware verified: Pi, SDR dongle, 1090 MHz antenna, and 5V/2.5A+ power supply are all connected and the green LED on the Pi has stopped blinking (steady = booted).
2. Image written: The software image (ADS-B Exchange, Flightradar24, or PiAware) is on the SD card and the card is inserted.
3. On the network: The Pi shows up on your router’s client list or you can reach the web interface at adsbexchange.local (or the equivalent URL for your chosen image).
4. Location set: Latitude and longitude are entered correctly, and altitude is within 10 meters of your real elevation. The feeder status page shows recent messages.
5. Feed confirmed live: The network’s check page shows your feeder online. On ADS-B Exchange, https://www.adsbexchange.com/myip returns an online status with a recent timestamp.

For a detailed comparison of the best SDR dongles, antennas, and pre‑built kits available now, see our roundup of the best ADS-B receivers tested — it covers the models that actually pull in reliable data at different price points.