Docker acarsdec

Docker container for running vdlm2dec and forwarding the received JSON messages to another system or docker container. Best used alongside ACARS Hub.

Builds and runs on amd64, arm64, arm/v7, arm/v6 and 386 architectures.

Note for Users running 32-bit Debian Buster-based OSes on ARM

Please see: Buster-Docker-Fixes!

Required hardware

A computer host on a suitable architecture and one USB RTL-SDR dongle connected to an antenna.

Up and running

version: "2.0"

services:
  vdlm2dec:
    image: ghcr.io/sdr-enthusiasts/docker-vdlm2dec:latest
    tty: true
    container_name: vdlm2dec
    restart: always
    device_cgroup_rules:
      - "c 189:* rwm"
    ports:
    environment:
      - TZ="America/Denver"
      - SERIAL=13305
      - FEED_ID=VDLM
      - FREQUENCIES=130.025;130.450;131.125;131.550
    tmpfs:
      - /run:exec,size=64M
      - /var/log
    volumes:
      - /dev:/dev:ro

Configuration options

Variable	Description	Required	Default
TZ	Your timezone	No	UTC
SERIAL	The serial number of your RTL-SDR dongle	Yes	Blank
FEED_ID	Used by the decoder to insert a unique ID in to the output message	Yes	Blank
FREQUENCIES	Colon-separated list of frequencies, but to a maximum of 8, for the decoder to list to	Yes	Blank
PPM	Parts per million correction of the decoder	No	0
GAIN	The gain applied to the RTL-SDR dongle. If you want to set the gain manually it is set in tenth of db (ie -g 90 for +9db)	No	400
OUTPUT_SERVER	The server where messages will be forwarded to.	No	acars_router
OUTPUT_SERVER_PORT	The port where the server will receive messages on.	No	5555
OUTPUT_SERVER_MODE	The output mode. udp, tcp and zmq are valid	No	udp
MODE	The output mode. P for planeplotter, J for JSON and A for acarsdec.	No	J
QUIET_LOGS	Mute log output to the bare minimum. Set to false to disable.	No	TRUE
VDLM2DEC_COMMAND_EXTRA	Additional arguments to pass to the decoder.	No	Blank

Output modes

TL;DR: No change to your setup is necessary for continued functionality, but you should update your configuration to use the new variables and at least use TCP.

A recent change in the container has meant we are migrating from SERVER/SERVER_PORT to OUTPUT_SERVER/OUTPUT_SERVER_PORT as a better name for what the variable is representing. The old variables will continue to work for the time being, but please update your configuration to use the new variables. Simply replace SERVER with OUTPUT_SERVER and SERVER_PORT with OUTPUT_SERVER_PORT. If you do not have SERVER/SERVER_PORT set, you do not need to do anything and it will work as it did before.

Generally speaking for a proper migration, whatever your SERVER was before should be set in your compose as OUTPUT_SERVER and whatever your SERVER_PORT was before should be set as OUTPUT_SERVER_PORT. If SERVER was not set, you do not have to add in OUTPUT_SERVER. If you did not have SERVER_PORT set in your compose, you do not have to add in OUTPUT_SERVER_PORT unless you want to use zmq.

Additionally, the OUTPUT_SERVER_MODE variable has been added to allow for the output mode to be set. The default is udp and the container will function as it did before. tcp and zmq are also valid options and recommended over udp for reliability.

To use tcp with acars_router with the default ports it would have mapped, simply set OUTPUT_SERVER_MODE=tcp and leave the OUTPUT_SERVER_PORT as 5555 or unset.

If you wish to use zmq with acars_router with the default ports it would have mapped, simply set OUTPUT_SERVER_MODE=zmq and set OUTPUT_SERVER_PORT as 35555.