Newly installed GDL-82 not seeing traffic

[Swampfox201]

The airplane I rent has a GTX 327 transponder. The owner just installed a GDL-82 for ADS-B. I’m not seeing any traffic using ForeFlight and a Stratux receiver. Here is a screenshot from ForeFlight. Shouldn’t the ownship line have my tail number listed? Not sure what’s up.

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[Swampfox201]

Go to the Stratux GUI...under settings, look to see if the owner has entered the hex code for that plane. If he has, you will not see this airplane on ForeFlight or Stratux. This is done so you will not see yourself as a traffic conflict. If you are seeing other traffic, that is likely what has happened. If you are squawking 1200, the GDL82 might be in anonymous mode.

Thanks Doug. I bought the Stratux as a kit so messing with the GUI is something I’m not familiar with. I’m seeing no traffic at all. Before the GDL82 I would see some but not all.


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[GeorgeC]

the GDL82 is an ADS-B out transponder and has nothing to do with your ability to receive traffic on your Stratux/ForeFlight setup.

While you will be able to receive weather and air-to-air 1090 traffic, the GDL82 has to be configured to tell it that you have 978 and/or 1090 receivers on board. Otherwise, the ground stations will not uplink the traffic inside the "hockey puck" around your aircraft.

I had to enable these settings on my 335 when I started flying with my Scout.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

While you will be able to receive weather and air-to-air 1090 traffic, the GDL82 has to be configured to tell it that you have 978 and/or 1090 receivers on board. Otherwise, the ground stations will not uplink the traffic inside the "hockey puck" around your aircraft.

I had to enable these settings on my 335 when I started flying with my Scout.

This. By default, the GDL 82 and other ADS-B Out-only units will tell the ground stations that you're Out-only, so the ground stations won't re-transmit radar targets... And I'm not sure if the Stratux is dual-band, 1090-only or 978-only, but if it isn't dual band, the traffic that's on the other band wouldn't show up without the right settings either.

You (or your dealer) will need to download the GDL 8x install tool, plug a standard USB A to B cable (standard USB printer style cable) from a laptop to the GDL 82, run the software and choose the "Capable" radio button on the "1090 ES Receive Capable" and "UAT Receive Capable" lines at the bottom of the Configuration->System page. Details are in section 7.3 of the install manual.

 

[GeorgeC]

You will not see mode c targets, which the ground stations will only uplink if your transponder is configured to ask for them.

 

[Swampfox201]

Ok..I will be glad to help you. First..the GDL82 is an ADS-B out transponder and has nothing to do with your ability to receive traffic on your Stratux/ForeFlight setup. Be sure you have your ipad locked onto Stratux wifi. Then go to the address bar at the top of your ipad screen and type : 192.168.10.1. This will connect the ipad to the Graffic User Interface of your Stratux or GUI. You should see the screen showing the status of both receivers, 1090, 978 plus the status of your gps. On the ground you should be able to pick up 1090 traffic almost all the time....978 traffic is not quite as popular , but you might see a few hits here also. Your gps should show a lock as well...it might take several minutes before it acquires enough satellites to lock. If all this looks good, go to ForeFlight and be sure it is connecting to Stratux. Be sure you have traffic turned on in ForeFlight. If you want to view all traffic, be sure to turn off Hide Distant Traffic..This setting only allows near traffic to display on your screen . Let me know if you still are having problems. I have built a dozen of the Stratux receivers in the past few years and I am aware some of the information I told you might be confusing.

Doug,

Thank you for taking the time to explain how to get into the GUI. I didn't know you could do that. I may have several issues. I'll post some screenshots below.

I do have traffic selected in the map view of Foreflight and Hide distant traffic is turned off. My phone is connected to Stratux by wifi but you're right the wifi symbol on the top does not show up.

First off my version of Stratux is old. I suppose I should upgrade. If you have a link on how to do that I probably should.

Second I don't have a GPS module on my Stratux. If I remember right the website I saw researching Stratux said I didn't need one because my phone has GPS.

Lets not worry about the GDL82 right now lets see if we can get 1090 traffic to show up while not in the airplane because right now I'm not getting any traffic. I do get ADSB weather when receiving a tower. I'll post the screenshots below. Thanks again.

 

[Swampfox201]

This. By default, the GDL 82 and other ADS-B Out-only units will tell the ground stations that you're Out-only, so the ground stations won't re-transmit radar targets... And I'm not sure if the Stratux is dual-band, 1090-only or 978-only, but if it isn't dual band, the traffic that's on the other band wouldn't show up without the right settings either.

You (or your dealer) will need to download the GDL 8x install tool, plug a standard USB A to B cable (standard USB printer style cable) from a laptop to the GDL 82, run the software and choose the "Capable" radio button on the "1090 ES Receive Capable" and "UAT Receive Capable" lines at the bottom of the Configuration->System page. Details are in section 7.3 of the install manual.

Boy this stuff isn't plug and play is it? I thought once the owner installed ADS-B out the traffic on my iphone would just work. I really doubt the owner will want to screw with changing any settings as long as they are ADS-B compliant.

 

[baboss]

Boy this stuff isn't plug and play is it? I thought once the owner installed ADS-B out the traffic on my iphone would just work. I really doubt the owner will want to screw with changing any settings as long as they are ADS-B compliant.

You’re ruining a pretty old software version on that Stratux. They're up to v1.5 now. They’ve also found better GPS and AHRS chips so you might want to look into adding new or upgrading some of your components.
http://stratux.me/

Edit: Here’s the Stratux Amazon page w/ some of the components.

 

[GeorgeC]

If you just have one SDR, you'll want to set it to 978 and tell the GDL you have only a 978 receiver.

 

[Swampfox201]

Ok...I see the problem. You only have one radio installed in your Stratux. You have both 1090and 978 switches turned on as seen under Hardware. First, try turning 978 off and see if you start seeing traffic on 1090. You should be able to see a lot of traffic on 1090...air carriers,etc. If that works, you can turn 1090 off and select 978 if you want to get weather. When you are in range of ADS-B towers, you will get weather and rebroadcast traffic. I think the problem is your Stratux is using one SDR radio and the GUI is set to both 1090 and 978. Try this and report back. I think you would be really impressed if you built a newer Stratux. You would have both 1090 and 978,waas gps and ahrs. Good luck.

Doug,

I updated my OS to v1.5b1

I did some research last night and yes I believe thats been my problem. I only have one radio tuner on my system. I turned off 978, turned on 1090 and let it run all night. I checked foreflight several times and there was still no traffic. Most of the time on the status page it showed 1 1090 message and overnight it had a maximum of 4. This morning for some reason the menus changed slightly and now I don't have the option of choosing 1090 or 978.....not sure why.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Boy this stuff isn't plug and play is it? I thought once the owner installed ADS-B out the traffic on my iphone would just work. I really doubt the owner will want to screw with changing any settings as long as they are ADS-B compliant.

Depends - If they're using any sort of portable In solution, they'll want those settings changed too.

It's not about the devices being "plug and play", it's how it works with the system. The ground stations will rebroadcast any traffic that it thinks you can't see that's within your "puck" (15nm laterally ±3500 feet vertically), if it knows you can receive it. So, let's say you have 978 In and Out, the ground stations would broadcast the position of any 1090 traffic and any non-ADS-B traffic that is on radar to you. BUT... Why would they waste frequency time sending you that traffic if you can't receive it? That's what those settings are for, to tell the ground stations that you can receive as well as send.

Regarding your wifi icon on your phone, I do not own an iphone, and I am not sure if that matters as long as your iphone is set to Stratux under wifi.

I believe that you shouldn't expect to see the WiFi icon on the iPhone screen - I'm pretty sure that only gets displayed if the phone can get an Internet connection through the WiFi. Since we're not expecting any Internet service through the Stratux, it doesn't display the WiFi icon.

 

[Swampfox201]

I have one more trick for you to try. With your Stratux running and connected to your phone, go back into the GUI. On the Status screen, top one, tap on the software version v1.5b1 about a dozen times until the GUI goes into Developer mode. After this occurs, go to settings and turn off everything except 1090. See if that allows you to see traffic. Let me know.

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[Swampfox201]

I have one more trick for you to try. With your Stratux running and connected to your phone, go back into the GUI. On the Status screen, top one, tap on the software version v1.5b1 about a dozen times until the GUI goes into Developer mode. After this occurs, go to settings and turn off everything except 1090. See if that allows you to see traffic. Let me know.

I was able to get into developer mode and I turned off everything but 1090 but still no joy. I’ll post more screen shots. Maybe my setup is just junk. I let it run all afternoon and I put the antenna by a window.

The usb radio antenna works because I plugged it into my Mac last night and was able to tune in some fm radio stations. The last screenshot is from an app called Flightradar24. It shows all the airplanes in my area. Too bad the Stratux doesn’t do the same.

Thanks for your help Doug. If you have any further ideas let me know.

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[Swampfox201]

Depends - If they're using any sort of portable In solution, they'll want those settings changed too.

It's not about the devices being "plug and play", it's how it works with the system. The ground stations will rebroadcast any traffic that it thinks you can't see that's within your "puck" (15nm laterally ±3500 feet vertically), if it knows you can receive it. So, let's say you have 978 In and Out, the ground stations would broadcast the position of any 1090 traffic and any non-ADS-B traffic that is on radar to you. BUT... Why would they waste frequency time sending you that traffic if you can't receive it? That's what those settings are for, to tell the ground stations that you can receive as well as send.



I believe that you shouldn't expect to see the WiFi icon on the iPhone screen - I'm pretty sure that only gets displayed if the phone can get an Internet connection through the WiFi. Since we're not expecting any Internet service through the Stratux, it doesn't display the WiFi icon.

Thanks it does make sense when you put it that way. Why tie up bandwidth if the pilot doesn’t want ADS-B in.


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[Swampfox201]

If it makes any difference here is the Raspberry Pi I’m using.

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[GeorgeC]

My first stratux was pretty much the same setup.

 

[Swampfox201]

My first stratux was pretty much the same setup.

Any issues with yours?

 

[flyingcheesehead]

The puck has nothing to do with your problem...

I only brought up the puck because I was explaining the settings that need changing on the GDL-82 if you want to get ADS-R traffic through the Stratux.

 

[Swampfox201]

I finally got it working. Doug sent me a message saying he thought my antenna or SDR was bad. He mentioned he had a friend who had the antenna wire break off the bottom of the antenna. I pried the bottom off my antenna and sure enough the antenna wire had broken off the solder joint. Resoldered it back on and it works now. Cheap ass antenna!

Thanks everyone! Now I’ll have to see how it works in the plane.

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