Beast mode configuration

After using the JSON format for aircraft data transmission since inception, Wingbits are now making the move to using the Beast format for encoding aircraft data for transmission to the servers. This will reduce data transmission usage by approximately 30-50% in most cases. This will be particularly helpful for those using LTE services or other limited data plans.

The same data that is being received by your station will continue to flow through but it will be encoded in a more efficient format before being sent to the servers.

Here's what this means for you, depending on your setup

Standard BYOD installs

(as per the official install guide/script) — automatically handled, no changes needed. Wingbits will migrate your station to the new data transmission format automatically.

Container setups

If you're running one of the container setups listed in the byod-unofficial-tools channel on the Discord server, the respective authors have already been advised of this change. Please reach out to them directly for a timeline on when the updated version will be available for you to adopt.

Custom container or other custom setups

If you've built your own container setup, you can make the change based on the below information or reference the standard BYOD install script or any of the tools listed in the byod-unofficial-tools channel that have already implemented the change, as a guide for updating your setup.

The deadline to complete this migration is 20 April 2026

After this date, the old endpoint will be removed and stations that have not been changed over will stop sending data to the Wingbits servers.

Configure Beast mode for readsb

The following configuration will need to be added to the readsb config. On a standard installation, the readsb config file is located at /etc/default/readsb

Add the following to the NET_OPTIONS section of the config:

--net-connector localhost,30015,beast_reduce_out --net-beast-reduce-optimize-for-mlat --net-beast-reduce-interval=0.125

For example, a complete standard install readsb config with the above added would look similar to this:

RECEIVER_OPTIONS="--device 0 --device-type rtlsdr --gain auto --ppm 0"
DECODER_OPTIONS="--lat -12.123456 --lon 123.123456 --max-range 450 --write-json-every 1"
NET_OPTIONS="--net --net-ri-port 30001 --net-ro-port 30002 --net-sbs-port 30003 --net-bi-port 30004,30104 --net-bo-port 30005 --net-connector localhost,30006,json_out --net-connector localhost,30015,beast_reduce_out --net-beast-reduce-optimize-for-mlat --net-beast-reduce-interval=0.125"
JSON_OPTIONS="--json-location-accuracy 2 --range-outline-hours 24"

Note: The existing json configuration must remain as it is still utilised for some of the communications

How to verify your station is using Beast mode

Once you have changed your readsb config, the station will start to send Beast formatted data to the Wingbits client. The team will check this on a regular basis and if it all looks good, will change the station over to Beast mode. You can verify that your station has been changed over to Beast mode by going to the Statistics page for that station in the Wingbits Dashboard. One of the stats at the top is Readsb Mode and that will show as "Beast" when it has been changed over.