My Attempt at a $115 ADS-B Receiver Build for Foreflight

978 gets you weather and some traffic, 1090 gets you the airliner traffic and I think, possibly incorrectly, if you are within the hockey puck of a 1090 transmitter you piggy back on their signal as they trigger the ground stations to transmit traffic info.
 
Scrabo said:
978 gets you weather and some traffic, 1090 gets you the airliner traffic and I think, possibly incorrectly, if you are within the hockey puck of a 1090 transmitter you piggy back on their signal as they trigger the ground stations to transmit traffic info.
Click to expand...
Ok that's what I thought as I've been following along on this thread and build.. I am going to try to ditch the battery and just plug this into my planes cigarette light port..
Even though the red light flickers it seems to be functioning correctly... But I think a dedicated power source might be better..
 
Make sure to check the voltage input of your cigarette lighter use charger. Our Cessnas are 24v shipboard power while the first adapter I had died quickly as it was expecting only 12v.
 
I have a 12v Cherokee..

Also I have version 0.4 and built a second one for a friend using Wing X, will this version work with Wing X?
 
Scrabo said:
978 gets you weather and some traffic, 1090 gets you the airliner traffic and I think, possibly incorrectly, if you are within the hockey puck of a 1090 transmitter you piggy back on their signal as they trigger the ground stations to transmit traffic info.
Click to expand...
You think correctly. The receipt of traffic depends on either having ADS-B Out or being in someone else's an ADS-B hockey puck.

The question I remain with is whether most domestic airlines have both 978 and 1090. I haven't had a chance to compare by using my single band in the same cockpit as someone else's dual band and see if there is a difference in what we are receiving.
 
midlifeflyer said:
You think correctly. The receipt of traffic depends on either having ADS-B Out or being in someone else's an ADS-B hockey puck.

The question I remain with is whether most domestic airlines have both 978 and 1090. I haven't had a chance to compare by using my single band in the same cockpit as someone else's dual band and see if there is a difference in what we are receiving.
Click to expand...

Since I have two of these before my friend picks his up I should try this and compare what the do..
 
midlifeflyer said:
You think correctly. The receipt of traffic depends on either having ADS-B Out or being in someone else's an ADS-B hockey puck.

The question I remain with is whether most domestic airlines have both 978 and 1090. I haven't had a chance to compare by using my single band in the same cockpit as someone else's dual band and see if there is a difference in what we are receiving.
Click to expand...
1090 is required of aircraft that operate above FL180 so airliners pretty much "all" have to have 1090. Since they generally don't use ADS-B weather, they don't also have 978.

If you have ADS-B Out on 978-only you may be able to configure your Out transmitter to tell the ground stations you need any 1090 traffic rebroadcast to you on 978. In that case the ground stations would also rebroadcast to you over 978 any traffic transmitting only on 1090 that is also relevant to you (ie: in your "puck" that's +/-3500' and within 15NM of your position).

If you don't have ADS-B Out, then with a single band 978 you'll likely miss all the 1090 traffic, unless someone nearby has Out on 978 only and is correctly configured to request the rebroadcast. In that case you'd see the 1090 traffic that is in the other aircraft's "puck" as described above.

-Josh
 
I got the same battery (white, not black) from NewEgg for $25 including shipping. It's impressive and works great so far - no worries about power. You could darn near start the plane with it.

The other day in a Cessna 172 I noticed the magnetic compass was 40-some degrees off with the Stratux and battery on the cowl. (We were still preflighting.) It was the Stratux, not the battery. Moved everything to the back seat and it was fine. Curious if anyone is finding similar issues?
 
masloki said:
Make sure to check the voltage input of your cigarette lighter use charger. Our Cessnas are 24v shipboard power while the first adapter I had died quickly as it was expecting only 12v.
Click to expand...

Also if you are running 2 antenna, you'll want to make sure you have at least 2amp for the Rasberry. I think envelope one antenna wants more than 1 amp.
 
midlifeflyer said:
You think correctly. The receipt of traffic depends on either having ADS-B Out or being in someone else's an ADS-B hockey puck.

The question I remain with is whether most domestic airlines have both 978 and 1090. I haven't had a chance to compare by using my single band in the same cockpit as someone else's dual band and see if there is a difference in what we are receiving.
Click to expand...

The airlines may only broadcast 1090ES out, that's all the need. They may have a 978 reciever.
 
midlifeflyer said:
You think correctly. The receipt of traffic depends on either having ADS-B Out or being in someone else's an ADS-B hockey puck.



The question I remain with is whether most domestic airlines have both 978 and 1090. I haven't had a chance to compare by using my single band in the same cockpit as someone else's dual band and see if there is a difference in what we are receiving.
Click to expand...


Why not just log into the thing and analyze the log files? I assume it's writing logs of which receiver hears what. If it's not, I'm sure they'd be easy to create if your SD is large enough.

G-Man said:
I got the same battery (white, not black) from NewEgg for $25 including shipping. It's impressive and works great so far - no worries about power. You could darn near start the plane with it.

The other day in a Cessna 172 I noticed the magnetic compass was 40-some degrees off with the Stratux and battery on the cowl. (We were still preflighting.) It was the Stratux, not the battery. Moved everything to the back seat and it was fine. Curious if anyone is finding similar issues?
Click to expand...


Everyone who's ever put an electromagnetic device near a magnetic compass. ;)

I finally got off my duff and ordered parts. Everything should be here shortly.

Will be more interested in checking out what these guys have done in the embedded OS probably more than actually using the thing.

Saw where the latest official version someone finally got around to figuring out what hackish junk was eating all the CPU and fixed that.

Maybe it's time to help them polish the turd a bit. ;)

Also didn't buy that Anker battery. Amazon had these as the Deal of the Day two days ago for $35. Unbeatable. Still not awful at $49.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012NIQG5E/

Probably run the silly thing for a number of days on that and still be able to charge both the phone and the iPad with it.

Only downside, charge rate is limited to 2A so it takes the better part of a full day to fully charge it if you let it get empty.

For those that have built, what say you on adding heat sinks to the Pi?

I think I went ahead and ordered a set but doesn't seem completely necessary unless you're overclocking the thing.
 
I just did a preliminary case for my ADS-B Pi unit. I am calling it preliminary because I found new thing I would like to do as I was building it.

Some notes: I removed the magnet on the antennas and I added Velcro so the can be placed anywhere in the plane. Also I place my unit on the back seat to avoid messing with the compass.

FYI I tried to add a switch to my unit and I bought a cheap USB cable and it could not supply enough power to run the unit. It would start to power up then shutdown I used a better cable and it ran fine unfortunately the cables too short to reach the switch.
 

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I have a 1amp and 2.1 charger .. In my Cherokee it's far enough away from the compass it doesn't affect it

image_zps5dagkcvx.jpeg
 
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denverpilot said:
Saw where the latest official version someone finally got around to figuring out what hackish junk was eating all the CPU and fixed that.
Click to expand...

There was a thread polling a queue at 2500Hz; dropping it to 10Hz reduced the CPU usage a lot.
 
I did another flight yesterday out of Millard this time. This trip, the eyes were better. No one was transmitting anything to trigger the TIS-B. I did see I was receiving the ground station and I could see several aircraft transmitting on 1090.

Since I built it mostly to get the FIS-B data, getting traffic was really an extra to me. I find I don't look at the iPad very often- an occasional glance to see if I'm heading in the right direction (flew to Wahoo). At this time, I find the 1090 ES traffic to be more useful in an airport where there are jets too.
 
GeorgeC said:
There was a thread polling a queue at 2500Hz; dropping it to 10Hz reduced the CPU usage a lot.
Click to expand...

https://github.com/cyoung/stratux/releases
It looks like V0.4r4 from 10/21/15 is still the most current Latest Release.

There are three in Pre-Release, including V0.5b3 from five days ago.

Are you suggesting we download and install the new V0.5b3? I'm hesitant to use something still in Pre-Release. Thanks...
 
G-Man said:
https://github.com/cyoung/stratux/releases
It looks like V0.4r4 from 10/21/15 is still the most current Latest Release.

There are three in Pre-Release, including V0.5b3 from five days ago.

Are you suggesting we download and install the new V0.5b3? I'm hesitant to use something still in Pre-Release. Thanks...
Click to expand...

Me too, I've only loaded the release versions
 
Pinstriper said:
Me too, I've only loaded the release versions
Click to expand...

I am always on the bleeding edge and use the pre releases but always have a SD card with the stable release close by.

Current betas definately have shown power consumption improvements but as always, there are a work in progress
 
Use whatever version you've personally tested and decided works for you. It's not like there's a formal real QA test process around the stuff.

A "release" in this boutique open source world means someone had five or six people say "it seemed to work for me".

Feel free to apply whatever rigor and discipline level you like to it all. Every release by every scientific measure ever done on software development, creates at least as many new bugs as it fixes.

The only difference is in whether the bugs are noticed or noticeable.

There's no warranty expressed or implied and the leadership of Stratux clearly states the software released or not, is not intended for in-flight use.

Or as most of us open source users and creators say, "If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces."
 
denverpilot said:
There's no warranty expressed or implied and the leadership of Stratux clearly states the software released or not, is not intended for in-flight use.
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Where is this so clearly stated, because I've never seen it?
 
PA28Flyer said:
Where is this so clearly stated, because I've never seen it?
Click to expand...


Take what he is saying with a grain of salt. It looks like he is coming in 6 months late and trying to criticize and minimize the efforts and development that a bunch of people did for fun, and have provided to many.

Hopefully he will be a positive contributor, and if he sees opportunities for improvement, he will share them with the "strangerwithadvice" over on Reddit.

It would be fun to see how many downloads of the code vs sales of Stratus since August.

If you look at any of the hardware items on Amazon, the he "frequently purchased with" items are the other recommended components.

Pretty impressive if this open source project takes a meaningful market share.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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I was ready to order a Stratus from Sportys before I stumbled on this.. In glad I went this way
 
denverpilot said:
For those that have built, what say you on adding heat sinks to the Pi?

I think I went ahead and ordered a set but doesn't seem completely necessary unless you're overclocking the thing.
Click to expand...

Two heat sinks come with the Pi...one for the CPU and one for the other thing. Many are adding a small fan when installing the AHRS/GPS chip.
 
Anybody running an internal battery yet? I want to run one but don't know what I need. I'd like to not have to have the external battery pack.
 
murphey said:
Two heat sinks come with the Pi...one for the CPU and one for the other thing. Many are adding a small fan when installing the AHRS/GPS chip.
Click to expand...


I think that's only true if you're buying their "approved" kit. I buy Pi and similar electronics toys from whoever has them cheapest today on Amazon Prime. The "kit" has stuff in it that I already have around here and don't need more of, like the SD card and the power supplies.

That "kit" manufacturer has some of their very similar kits on Amazon Prime also which ends up being $5 cheaper and shipped in two days if you really need all of that stuff. They just don't do the pre-loaded Stratux SD through Amazon fulfillment. Comes with one of the other popular Linux pre-loads.

I'm going to reload it anyway, whether it shows up with Stratux or something else.

Or I can pick SDs up cheaper at Microcenter during a run to get parts for work stuff. They have one of those tool/parts bins of SD and USB sticks at the checkout counter CHEAP under their own brand name and they perform "well enough" I never bother with Sandisk or other brands that have to pay for marketing.

Sometimes Microcenter runs sales on the Pis, too.
 
Criitter7 said:
Anybody running an internal battery yet? I want to run one but don't know what I need. I'd like to not have to have the external battery pack.
Click to expand...

I plug mine into the cig lighter.. Comes on with the master, off with the master.. Problem solved
 
Pinstriper said:
I plug mine into the cig lighter.. Comes on with the master, off with the master.. Problem solved
Click to expand...

Shutting down the Stratux by killing the power is not the best idea. It's still a computer, altho a tiny one. Would you pull the plug on your computer at work or at home except in an emergency?

Unfortunately, Chris has yet to add a software OFF switch altho it's on the Wish List, so right now it's necessary to open a terminal window on your tablet, log into the RPi and shut it down gracefully. The default password on the RPi is "raspberry" (no quotes). Then you'll see a Linux command line with the $. At that point type

sudo init 0

hit the Return or Enter key, wait a moment. You'll notice most of the lights on the unit stop. Then you can pull the plug, kill the power, whatever.

I cringe when I see/hear people just pulling the power cord.
 
murphey said:
Shutting down the Stratux by killing the power is not the best idea. It's still a computer, altho a tiny one. Would you pull the plug on your computer at work or at home except in an emergency?

Unfortunately, Chris has yet to add a software OFF switch altho it's on the Wish List, so right now it's necessary to open a terminal window on your tablet, log into the RPi and shut it down gracefully. The default password on the RPi is "raspberry" (no quotes). Then you'll see a Linux command line with the $. At that point type

sudo init 0

hit the Return or Enter key, wait a moment. You'll notice most of the lights on the unit stop. Then you can pull the plug, kill the power, whatever.

I cringe when I see/hear people just pulling the power cord.
Click to expand...

The shutdown and reboot buttons have been added to the last few betas on the webUI and work.

It's coming !!!!
 
murphey said:
Shutting down the Stratux by killing the power is not the best idea. It's still a computer, altho a tiny one. Would you pull the plug on your computer at work or at home except in an emergency?

Unfortunately, Chris has yet to add a software OFF switch altho it's on the Wish List, so right now it's necessary to open a terminal window on your tablet, log into the RPi and shut it down gracefully. The default password on the RPi is "raspberry" (no quotes). Then you'll see a Linux command line with the $. At that point type

sudo init 0

hit the Return or Enter key, wait a moment. You'll notice most of the lights on the unit stop. Then you can pull the plug, kill the power, whatever.

I cringe when I see/hear people just pulling the power cord.
Click to expand...



Scrabo said:
The shutdown and reboot buttons have been added to the last few betas on the webUI and work.



It's coming !!!!
Click to expand...


I was going to say, that's a five minute fix in the UI and the /etc/sudoers file. "Wish list"? WTF?
 
denverpilot said:
I was going to say, that's a five minute fix in the UI and the /etc/sudoers file. "Wish list"? WTF?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it's beyond the "wish list" stage. It appears to be in the code that is currently in beta.
 
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