My Hopeless attempt with the $113.50 receiver

murphey

murphey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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murphey
  1. Starting over from scratch.
  2. Clean SD card. Not formatted, right out of the package.
  3. Downloaded clean copy of stratux image (the one with Raspian and the application) and unzipped it.
  4. Used Win32DiskImager to transfer image to SD
  5. Put SD into Pi
  6. Plug HDMI cable into Pi and monitor.
  7. Connect USB keyboard and mouse to Pi
  8. Note: no wifi dongle, no SDR.
  9. Power on Pi.
  10. On the Pi - red and green lights.
  11. Blank screen on the monitor. Nothing.
Same datapoint as before - two partitions - one with stratux and the other with boot. Since I can't see anything on the monitor, there's no way I can change anything.

Raspbian by itself and everything works fine. Just not with stratux image.
 
I started to follow the posts on building the ADS-B receiver after last week's EAA email update with the article about the Stratux. Last spring I picked up a Status 1 on ebay and found it is very valuable for pilot awareness in having doppler weather onboard.


I ordered a Raspberry Pi starter kit, battery, the RTL-SDR, and an extra 8GB SD card. After reading about your attempt to build the unit, I decided to get an extra card. I plan to leave the one in the kit with NOOBs on it and image write the extra card. This is all new to me and I am trying to avoid any pitfalls. I hope to switch between the ADS-B and a standard Raspberry Pi. When not using it in the airplane I can swap out the SD card and use it as a home desktop computer.


You must feel very frustrated trying to get yours to work. I do not recall reading in the “My attempt with the $113.50 receiver” thread were anyone hooked up the ADS-B configured Raspberry Pi to a display and keyboard. Being software driven, is the video enabled with the ADS-B image loaded?


Can't wait to get mine, I'm watching for the UPS truck every day.:blueplane:
 
You might try downloading just the Raspbian image without the ADSB stuff.

http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianImages

Load that onto a card and see if you can get anything on the monitor. Then you'll know whether the issue is the software or the hardware.
 
wsuffa said:
You might try downloading just the Raspbian image without the ADSB stuff.

http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianImages

Load that onto a card and see if you can get anything on the monitor. Then you'll know whether the issue is the software or the hardware.
Click to expand...

SD with only Raspbian works perfectly. It's the stratux version, which has the stratux software installed in a Raspbian environment, that's not working. Like A1Topgun, I'm working with 2 SD cards. One is pure Raspbian, the other one is stratux.

infuriating, to say the least. Baffling, too.
 
I've loaded all 3 images on the same card, no issues each time. Haven't ever tried to hook a monitor/keyboard up to it to see what it actually does though, it just works. If you PM me your address, I'll send you a known-good card.
 
Is the red light off (or flashing)? That indicates the unit is not getting enough power.

Try a different power supply and/or cable.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
dans2992 said:
Is the red light off (or flashing)? That indicates the unit is not getting enough power.

Try a different power supply and/or cable.
Click to expand...

Red light on (power).
Green light on - I think this one is data transfer, because it blinks while building plain vanilla RB from the NOOBS download.
Blue light - SDR - not installed at this point. One unknown at a time.
 
The raw code is available on Github. You might check to see if there is something in the code which prevents the software from starting if the SDR isn't detected.

Like others, I've used all the published versions with no problem, written and rewritten to the same old card using winDisk32Imager. The only difference I've seen in your efforts compared to all the rest of us is that we all started with the SDR and WiFi dongle installed.
 
murphey said:
  1. Starting over from scratch.
  2. Clean SD card. Not formatted, right out of the package.
  3. Downloaded clean copy of stratux image (the one with Raspian and the application) and unzipped it.
  4. Used Win32DiskImager to transfer image to SD
  5. Put SD into Pi
  6. Plug HDMI cable into Pi and monitor.
  7. Connect USB keyboard and mouse to Pi
  8. Note: no wifi dongle, no SDR.
  9. Power on Pi.
  10. On the Pi - red and green lights.
  11. Blank screen on the monitor. Nothing.
Same datapoint as before - two partitions - one with stratux and the other with boot. Since I can't see anything on the monitor, there's no way I can change anything.

Raspbian by itself and everything works fine. Just not with stratux image.
Click to expand...


Take the MD5 of the stratux image and verify that it is: a13754819d45981ad47196d906e93519
 
murphey said:
Red light on (power).
Green light on - I think this one is data transfer, because it blinks while building plain vanilla RB from the NOOBS download.
Blue light - SDR - not installed at this point. One unknown at a time.
Click to expand...

I just built mine and it seems to work OK, pre flight test. I first tried to 'dd' the SD image via Linux, and got what you got: steady red light (power) on, and steady green light (disk IO) on. This did not work.
I then copied the image on Windows 7 using Win32DiskImager to the SD, and that worked perfectly (in both cases no formatting of the target SD was done).
When it works correctly, the red light comes on steady and remains so. The green light flickers a bit, then after a few seconds goes off. I was not able to get anything via HDMI, but had no need to (and assumed it's turned off by default in this image version). The new web interface seems to work fine (hit the Pi with any web browser on 198.164.10.1).
 
Took me about 15-30 minutes to build it this morning. Have not tried to connect it to a PC or monitor, just to an iPad and an Android tablet. My preliminary results from ground testing (so no ADS-B towers - just to check connectivity):

  • ForeFlight (iOS) recognizes it as a Freeflight systems unit
  • WingX Pro (iOS) recognizes it as a stratux. WingX for Android doesn't appear to have ADS-B capability yet.
  • FlitPlan Go! (both iOS and Android) just recognizes it. As far as I can tell, you can select any of the supported wifi-based units and get a heartbeat.
  • Droid EFB (Android) - can't tell whether it recognizes it or not. I couldn't find a page in DroidEFB where it even tells you whether a unit is connected or not. Anyone know?
  • AvNav EFB (Android) - appears to work just like FltPlan Go! When I select one of the supported WiFi units, it the app indicates it is getting a heartbeat (although not as clearly as FltPlan Go!)

I'll be able to do more testing tomorrow, weather permitting (seems funny to say that). I'm giving a lesson and, while I won't screw around with this on my student's dime, my home base is close enough to a station that I can typically get ADS-B weather there on the ground.
 
murphey said:
  1. Starting over from scratch.
  2. Clean SD card. Not formatted, right out of the package.
  3. Downloaded clean copy of stratux image (the one with Raspian and the application) and unzipped it.
  4. Used Win32DiskImager to transfer image to SD
  5. Put SD into Pi
  6. Plug HDMI cable into Pi and monitor.
  7. Connect USB keyboard and mouse to Pi
  8. Note: no wifi dongle, no SDR.
  9. Power on Pi.
  10. On the Pi - red and green lights.
  11. Blank screen on the monitor. Nothing.
Same datapoint as before - two partitions - one with stratux and the other with boot. Since I can't see anything on the monitor, there's no way I can change anything.

Raspbian by itself and everything works fine. Just not with stratux image.
Click to expand...

What pi rev do you have?

Could be a hardware incompatibility.
 
Make sure it's the Raspberry Pi 2, not the previous Raspberry Pi.

What are you using to power it? The battery pack in the original parts list or something else? If something else, it has to be able to provide enough current for the device.
 
Why would you hookup the stratux version a monitor? You don't use that in the cockpit. Why aren't you using the WiFi dongle and sdr?

It seems like your trying to fly your living room and not following directions.

Got my stratux up and running in 20 mins using the directions step-by-step. SD card setup using a Mac.

Follow directions and have the supported hardware connected.
 
RotorDude said:
I just built mine and it seems to work OK, pre flight test. I first tried to 'dd' the SD image via Linux, and got what you got: steady red light (power) on, and steady green light (disk IO) on. This did not work.
I then copied the image on Windows 7 using Win32DiskImager to the SD, and that worked perfectly (in both cases no formatting of the target SD was done).
When it works correctly, the red light comes on steady and remains so. The green light flickers a bit, then after a few seconds goes off. I was not able to get anything via HDMI, but had no need to (and assumed it's turned off by default in this image version). The new web interface seems to work fine (hit the Pi with any web browser on 198.164.10.1).
Click to expand...

Boot up the Pi with the wifi but the computer doesn't see the wifi. I've tried to connect using the computer (wifi) and the iPad wifi. Neither sees the Pi.
 
Last edited:
gasfiltered said:
The raw code is available on Github. You might check to see if there is something in the code which prevents the software from starting if the SDR isn't detected.

Like others, I've used all the published versions with no problem, written and rewritten to the same old card using winDisk32Imager. The only difference I've seen in your efforts compared to all the rest of us is that we all started with the SDR and WiFi dongle installed.
Click to expand...

That was the original config I had that didn't work. So I start by eliminating everything and then adding back one by one. Back to the complete setup, I guess.
 
murphey said:
Boot up the Pi with the wifi but the computer doesn't see the wifi. I've tried to connect using the computer (wifi) and the iPad wifi. Neither sees the Pi.
Click to expand...

As I mentioned above, I think the red/green lights on the Pi are key.
Did you see the steady red and flickering green, then green off when you booted the Pi?
(I am assuming the WiFi and SDR dongles are attached.)
 
RussR said:
Make sure it's the Raspberry Pi 2, not the previous Raspberry Pi.

What are you using to power it? The battery pack in the original parts list or something else? If something else, it has to be able to provide enough current for the device.
Click to expand...
120v adapter that came with the Pi, plugged into the wall.
 
TazzyTazzy said:
Why would you hookup the stratux version a monitor? You don't use that in the cockpit. Why aren't you using the WiFi dongle and sdr?

It seems like your trying to fly your living room and not following directions.

Got my stratux up and running in 20 mins using the directions step-by-step. SD card setup using a Mac.

Follow directions and have the supported hardware connected.
Click to expand...

Why? Because of basic debugging methods.

Everything connected as per instructions - nothing worked. So, get another SD card, install plain Raspbian to verify the hardware works. Yup, the Pi works just fine. That possibility is eliminated.

Now to check the wifi. Again, boot up plain Rasp with the wifi dongle. Yep. I see all the wifi networks in the neighborhood (some not even password protected!) So the dongle works.

Can't check the SDR with plain Rasp.

Next step - try the entire config again with the stratux SD.
Red & Green lights on the Pi.
No light on the SDR.
No wifi network named "stratux". Not on the iPad, not on the computer.
Even with the SDR not working, there should be a wifi network. Or not?
 
murphey said:
Why? Because of basic debugging methods.

Everything connected as per instructions - nothing worked. So, get another SD card, install plain Raspbian to verify the hardware works. Yup, the Pi works just fine. That possibility is eliminated.

Now to check the wifi. Again, boot up plain Rasp with the wifi dongle. Yep. I see all the wifi networks in the neighborhood (some not even password protected!) So the dongle works.

Can't check the SDR with plain Rasp.

Next step - try the entire config again with the stratux SD.
Red & Green lights on the Pi.
No light on the SDR.
No wifi network named "stratux". Not on the iPad, not on the computer.
Even with the SDR not working, there should be a wifi network. Or not?
Click to expand...

For the third time, you say "red and green", but as I mentioned above, if the green is solid, it's not booting properly which means most likely the image is bad.
The green light should come on and then flicker, as it's reading from the SD, and eventually turn off when it's done. Once it's working properly, the blue light on the WiFi dongle should start to flicker. But the key point is the green must be off. When it was solid on for me, I could not see the "stratux" network on the tablet, but once I had the proper image installed, the green light turned off and the stratux network showed up.
 
RotorDude said:
For the third time, you say "red and green", but as I mentioned above, if the green is solid, it's not booting properly which means most likely the image is bad.
The green light should come on and then flicker, as it's reading from the SD, and eventually turn off when it's done. Once it's working properly, the blue light on the WiFi dongle should start to flicker. But the key point is the green must be off. When it was solid on for me, I could not see the "stratux" network on the tablet, but once I had the proper image installed, the green light turned off and the stratux network showed up.
Click to expand...

Solid red, solid green for 6 minutes. No green light that blinks. No green light that turns off.
Bad image? ok - I'll build another image. This will be #5 attempt on 2 different operating systems. Is your preference Win7 or Mac?

Seven minutes. Time for dinner. Maybe by the time I get back, the green light will be off.

Eight minutes.
 
murphey said:
Solid red, solid green for 6 minutes. No green light that blinks. No green light that turns off.
Bad image? ok - I'll build another image. This will be #5 attempt on 2 different operating systems. Is your preference Win7 or Mac?

Seven minutes. Time for dinner. Maybe by the time I get back, the green light will be off.

Eight minutes.
Click to expand...

To compare notes, build it on Win7 as I just did myself today.
Be sure to use Win32DiskImager to copy the image to the SD card.
This is the image I used: stratux-v0.2r1-f47a224c1d-09042015.img
Be sure to extract the image file from inside the zip container it comes in.

Then try it. Be sure to put the WiFi and SDR dongle(s) in, and watch the red, green and blue (on the wifi) lights carefully.
Red should come on and stay on (power). Green should come on, flicker a bit, and after a few seconds turn off, around which time the wifi blue will start flickering. At this point you should see the "stratux" network advertised on the air.
 
RotorDude said:
To compare notes, build it on Win7 as I just did myself today.
Be sure to use Win32DiskImager to copy the image to the SD card.
This is the image I used: stratux-v0.2r1-f47a224c1d-09042015.img
Be sure to extract the image file from inside the zip container it comes in.

Then try it. Be sure to put the WiFi and SDR dongle(s) in, and watch the red, green and blue (on the wifi) lights carefully.
Red should come on and stay on (power). Green should come on, flicker a bit, and after a few seconds turn off, around which time the wifi blue will start flickering. At this point you should see the "stratux" network advertised on the air.
Click to expand...

As I said, this will be #5, the third time on Win7.
 
murphey said:
As I said, this will be #5, the third time on Win7.
Click to expand...

And presumably several SD cards from different sources?
As I noted above, my first attempt was 'dd' under Linux, which reported success on the copy operation, but then I got the dreaded "solid green" on boot, and no "stratux" network.
After doing it (with the same media) on Win7 per above, green started flickering and the stratux network came up.
 
RotorDude said:
And presumably several SD cards from different sources?
As I noted above, my first attempt was 'dd' under Linux, which reported success on the copy operation, but then I got the dreaded "solid green" on boot, and no "stratux" network.
After doing it (with the same media) on Win7 per above, green started flickering and the stratux network came up.
Click to expand...

Latest endeavour...there's a FOURTH! little light. This one is on the wifi dongle. Right now, only the red light on the Pi, light on the SDR and light on the dongle. Computer and iPad sees the stratux network.

Only took 2 days. Of course this is just the network. Still need to check on FF and WingX.
 
murphey said:
Latest endeavour...there's a FOURTH! little light. This one is on the wifi dongle. Right now, only the red light on the Pi, light on the SDR and light on the dongle. Computer and iPad sees the stratux network.

Only took 2 days. Of course this is just the network. Still need to check on FF and WingX.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:
 
Here is a video of the boot process.
http://youtu.be/siIH_EDxe5A
You don't need the sdr in for the wifi to start, but no reason not to. I'll stick a card in the mail tomorrow for you to try so you can at least eliminate that.. Might just have a bad pi.

iPad wall-warts make much better power supplies.

Edit, just saw your latest post! Glad you're finally seeing the network.
 
murphey said:
Latest endeavour...there's a FOURTH! little light. This one is on the wifi dongle. Right now, only the red light on the Pi, light on the SDR and light on the dongle. Computer and iPad sees the stratux network.

Only took 2 days. Of course this is just the network. Still need to check on FF and WingX.
Click to expand...


What was wrong with it? Wrong image file written?
 
murphey said:
Latest endeavour...there's a FOURTH! little light. This one is on the wifi dongle. Right now, only the red light on the Pi, light on the SDR and light on the dongle. Computer and iPad sees the stratux network.

Only took 2 days. Of course this is just the network. Still need to check on FF and WingX.
Click to expand...

Yay!!!!
 
murphey said:
Latest endeavour...there's a FOURTH! little light. This one is on the wifi dongle. Right now, only the red light on the Pi, light on the SDR and light on the dongle. Computer and iPad sees the stratux network.

Only took 2 days. Of course this is just the network. Still need to check on FF and WingX.
Click to expand...

Guess I'm not near a tower or airplanes with ADS-B, 'cuz I can't see anything on FF.

Tomorrow. I'll be close to DIA, should see something then.

Took the advice of [someone] and picked up 2 x 1ft USB extenders. Much easier to work with and an extra foot of distance for the antenna. Now to figure out where to put it in the airplane.
 
murphey said:
Guess I'm not near a tower or airplanes with ADS-B, 'cuz I can't see anything on FF.

Tomorrow. I'll be close to DIA, should see something then.

Took the advice of [someone] and picked up 2 x 1ft USB extenders. Much easier to work with and an extra foot of distance for the antenna. Now to figure out where to put it in the airplane.
Click to expand...



What was the problem, after all?
 
midlifeflyer said:
Took me about 15-30 minutes to build it this morning. Have not tried to connect it to a PC or monitor, just to an iPad and an Android tablet. My preliminary results from ground testing (so no ADS-B towers - just to check connectivity):

  • ForeFlight (iOS) recognizes it as a Freeflight systems unit
  • WingX Pro (iOS) recognizes it as a stratux. WingX for Android doesn't appear to have ADS-B capability yet.
  • FlitPlan Go! (both iOS and Android) just recognizes it. As far as I can tell, you can select any of the supported wifi-based units and get a heartbeat.
  • Droid EFB (Android) - can't tell whether it recognizes it or not. I couldn't find a page in DroidEFB where it even tells you whether a unit is connected or not. Anyone know?
  • AvNav EFB (Android) - appears to work just like FltPlan Go! When I select one of the supported WiFi units, it the app indicates it is getting a heartbeat (although not as clearly as FltPlan Go!)

I'll be able to do more testing tomorrow, weather permitting (seems funny to say that). I'm giving a lesson and, while I won't screw around with this on my student's dime, my home base is close enough to a station that I can typically get ADS-B weather there on the ground.
Click to expand...
Except for an inability to confirm DroidEFB, it all seemed to work.
 
murphey said:
Latest endeavour...there's a FOURTH! little light. This one is on the wifi dongle. Right now, only the red light on the Pi, light on the SDR and light on the dongle. Computer and iPad sees the stratux network.

Only took 2 days. Of course this is just the network. Still need to check on FF and WingX.
Click to expand...

Yeah, no surprise - it took me that many tries to burn the image the first time around. About to do it again with the latest image. Using an old version of the image writer given the issues I had with the new version.
 
murphey said:
Guess I'm not near a tower or airplanes with ADS-B, 'cuz I can't see anything on FF.

Tomorrow. I'll be close to DIA, should see something then.
.
Click to expand...
Maybe. Maybe not. We have an GBT on the small non-towered airport I fly out of and, even then, it's readable on the ground at only some locations due to line-of-sight limitations. John Collins kml plot of GBTs indicated there is one at DIA but it might not be readable from the ground at FTG.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Maybe. Maybe not. We have an GBT on the small non-towered airport I fly out of and, even then, it's readable on the ground at only some locations due to line-of-sight limitations. John Collins kml plot of GBTs indicated there is one at DIA but it might not be readable from the ground at FTG.
Click to expand...

I pick up UAT data on the ground at FTG with the Stratus so the RPi setup should too. I typically start getting data as soon as I turn it on in front of the hangar but that could be a reflected signal. Data should be good on the ramp since the DEN tower is visible from there.
 
Last edited:
Clark1961 said:
I pick up UART data on the ground at FTG with the Stratus so the RPi setup should too. I typically start getting data as soon as I turn it on in front of the hangar but that could be a reflected signal. Data should be good on the ramp since the DEN tower is visible from there.
Click to expand...
I didn't realize the GBT was in line of sight to FTG. In that case, no doubt you are getting a signal on the Stratus and should of the RPi Stratux.
 
I'm using AVARE and have the Avare External I/O plugin. Using vo.2r1 of Statux I can see traffic but not weather.

How do I get weather in this set up?
 
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