Running PiAware on macOS: A Complete Setup Guide

If you’re interested in tracking aircraft with ADS-B and feeding data to FlightAware, you might think you need a dedicated Raspberry Pi. But if you have a Mac with an RTL-SDR dongle, you can run the entire setup locally using Docker and dump1090. Here’s how I got it working.

What You’ll Need

A Mac (Intel or Apple Silicon)
RTL-SDR USB dongle (like the RTL2832U)
Docker Desktop installed
Homebrew package manager
A FlightAware account and feeder ID

Part 1: Installing dump1090

dump1090 is the software that decodes ADS-B messages from aircraft. We’ll build it from source and configure it to run automatically.

Install Dependencies

First, install the required libraries using Homebrew:

brew install pkg-config librtlsdr libusb

Build dump1090

Clone and build the FlightAware fork of dump1090:

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/flightaware/dump1090.git
cd dump1090
make RTLSDR=yes

Verify the build supports the features you need:

make showconfig

You should see RTLSDR support enabled.

Test dump1090

Before setting up automation, verify dump1090 works with your RTL-SDR dongle:

./dump1090 --net --interactive

You should see aircraft data appear in your terminal. Press Ctrl+C to stop it.

Part 2: Set Up Docker PiAware

Create a docker-compose.yml file for PiAware. First, find your Mac’s local IP address:

ipconfig getifaddr en0  # for WiFi
# or
ipconfig getifaddr en1  # for Ethernet

Create your docker-compose.yml:

services:
  piaware:
    image: ghcr.io/sdr-enthusiasts/docker-piaware:latest
    container_name: piaware
    restart: always
    ports:
      - 8080:80
    environment:
      - TZ="America/New_York"
      - FEEDER_ID=your-feeder-id-here
      - BEASTHOST=192.168.50.204  # Use your Mac's IP
      - BEASTPORT=30005
      - ALLOW_MLAT=yes
      - MLAT_RESULTS=yes
      - LAT=39.97371  # Your latitude
      - LONG=-75.58702  # Your longitude
    tmpfs:
      - /run:exec,size=64M
      - /var/log

Replace the following values:

FEEDER_ID: Your FlightAware feeder ID
BEASTHOST: Your Mac’s actual IP address
LAT and LONG: Your receiver’s coordinates
TZ: Your timezone

Start the container:

docker compose up -d

To have dump1090 start automatically when you log in, create a Launch Agent.

Create the file ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.dump1090.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.dump1090</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/dump1090/dump1090</string>
        <string>--net</string>
        <string>--quiet</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/dump1090.log</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/dump1090.err</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Important: Replace YOUR_USERNAME with your actual macOS username.

Load and start the Launch Agent:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.dump1090.plist
launchctl start com.dump1090

Verify Everything is Working

Check that dump1090 is listening on the correct port:

lsof -i :30005

You should see dump1090 listed.

Check the PiAware container logs:

docker logs -f piaware

You should see messages indicating it’s connected to FlightAware and receiving data from dump1090.

Accessing Your Data

Once everything is running:

PiAware web interface: http://localhost:8080
FlightAware stats: Check your FlightAware account for your receiver’s statistics page

Troubleshooting

dump1090 not starting

Check the error log:

cat /tmp/dump1090.err

PiAware can’t connect to dump1090

Verify your Mac’s IP address hasn’t changed. If it has, update the BEASTHOST in your docker-compose.yml and restart:

docker compose down
docker compose up -d

No aircraft detected

Ensure your RTL-SDR dongle is plugged in
Check antenna placement (higher is better, near a window)
Verify dump1090 is receiving data: tail -f /tmp/dump1090.log

Managing the Services

Stop dump1090

launchctl stop com.dump1090

Disable auto-start

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.dump1090.plist

Re-enable auto-start

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.dump1090.plist

Stop PiAware

docker compose down

Why This Setup Works

This configuration gives you:

Automatic startup of both dump1090 and PiAware when you log in
Persistent feeding to FlightAware
Easy access to the PiAware web interface
The ability to use your Mac for other tasks while tracking aircraft

The key is that dump1090 runs natively on macOS to interface with your RTL-SDR hardware, while PiAware runs in Docker and connects to dump1090 over the network via the BEAST protocol on port 30005.

Happy plane spotting!

Tags: piaware mac setup docker