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-   -   Stratus wanna-be (Stratux) (https://vansairforce.net/community/showthread.php?t=128742)

okei 08-22-2015 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by humptybump (Post 1007999)
Correct. I experimented with what I had on hand.


BTW: when I reviewed the reddit author's videos, I noticed he was in the Detroit area and did not see towers until he was around 3000' AGL and a close look shows he edited out more than an hour of video. During a period of maneuvering at just over 300' AGL, he see 7 then 4 then 2 then 3 towers. There is also a brief moment when he too had the "not connected" status. I had the same experiences.


You're referring to the timestamp just above "FreeFlight, 0 towers"? That's the last update on the current radar frame. The video wasn't cut, just sped up. Whole flight is there. The towers don't show up until 3000' AGL because it was an experimental version of the project and the backend wasn't running until then :). You can see that it would have gotten towers by 500-1000' AGL by getting 2 or so towers 300' AGL. If there's no signal, it the tower will disappear within a few seconds.

xavierm 08-22-2015 09:22 AM

Haven't flown with mine.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by humptybump (Post 1007785)

I had no problem getting my iPhone 6P to connect to the Stratux wifi. The first problem came when I tried to get ForeFlight to recognize the Stratux (FreeFlight) device. It took 20 minute of random ideas and then it connected. None of this surprised me since I had the same problem yesterday in my bench. Subsequent boot-ups of the Stratux had no problem with connecting. I'll classify it as one of those random things.

I had the same problem so I don't think it's random. it happened with both the code I compiled myself and the pre-configured image. I continued to tinker with the pre-configured image I installed and found that the NooElec must be in a certain USB port on the Pi. Mine worked with the NooElec on the lower right hand port (with the network and USB ports facing you). I powered down, and switched the port the receiver was in and it wouldn't work unless it was plugged into the port previously mentioned.

I have not tried to troubleshoot with the self compiled code. I'll probably give it a try later this weekend.

I also noticed that the number of towers seen depends on how much I extend the antenna. Again, this was tried indoors.

There's no GPS support in the pre-configured version. If you compile yourself and add a GPS receiver (RY835AI 18Hz USB GPS is reported to work) to your Pi then you'll also have GPS (or use the internal GPS in your device if equipped, or a bluetooth GPS). Apparently someone is working on adding code for AHRS.

YMMV

humptybump 08-22-2015 10:27 AM

Hi Xavier! Thanks for your update.

This project reminds me of many RPi projects I've done - something's work "first time" and some things need "trial and error". Once everything is figured out, it's important to "leave it as it is".

Enjoy the project. I'll be interested in more reports!

humptybump 08-22-2015 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by okei (Post 1008037)
You're referring to the timestamp just above "FreeFlight, 0 towers"? That's the last update on the current radar frame.

Thanks for the correction. I'm not a ForeFlight user and it looked suspicious when the time jumped forward.

catmandu 08-22-2015 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xavierm (Post 1008043)
. . . Apparently someone is working on adding code for AHRS.

Oh, that would be really cool. Think I will postpone my iLevil 2 purchase.

NM Doug 08-22-2015 04:17 PM

First Stratux test flight
 
I put the Stratux together yesterday with the parts listed on the site and using the SD image file. I also made the read-only modification from here, because I figured I'd be just unplugging the power when I was done trying it, and it seems this might keep the file system from getting corrupted when I yank the power.

We tried a test flight this morning (didn't get an early start, so it was a little hot and bumpy).

I put the Stratux between the seats:


and did a fancy install of the antenna:


Sue monitored Foreflight on the iPad while we were climbing out, and then we both explored the data a bit.

We had one ADSB tower available still on the ground (KAEG is line-of-sight to the top of the Sandias), and we picked up a second by 1000AGL. During our brief flight, we generally had three towers show up - once it dropped to one, and once we had five, at a time when we had climbed to 4000AGL.

The local radar updated, and we were able to get METARs and TAFs with no problem. I haven't flown with a Stratus or equivalent, but the performance was good enough to inspire some more tests.

humptybump 08-22-2015 05:28 PM

Doug, thanks for the PIREP!

humptybump 08-23-2015 05:44 AM

R820T vs R820T2
 
Given the different PIREPs, I did some reading about various SDR-RTL dongles.

For APRS I've used the old E4000 chipset SDRs. These have proven to be somewhat superior on the 100-450Mhz range. However, they are getting scarse and are typically $40 when compared to the RTL2832U R820T based units which center around $15.

Recently, a few sellers have been offering an updated design for the low cost units. These newer dongles use an R820T2 chip and a few better tolerance supporting components.

The result is the newer units show improvement in sensitizing and reduced noise above 800Mhz.

I hope to test one of the newer units and will update my PIREP above.

boom3 08-23-2015 07:57 AM

On Friday I received my Amazon order and put everything together. I downloaded and wrote the image to the micro SD card. After that I turned it on and stratux showed up as a Wi-Fi on my iPad. (I suggest waiting 45 secs or so because the Rasberry Pi does need to boot.) I selected it and then opened Foreflight. When I went to devices, "Free Flight" showed that it was connected. Everything seems to be working.

Saturday I was excited to try it out and was wheels up about 6:30am.

For now I just set it on the passenger seat.


The antenna has a magnetic base and I found that my pinch welt has some steel in it. Good enough for a quick test.


All ready to go, no towers showing up on the ground. Ipad mini with built in GPS (4g).


Climbing out I picked up 2 towers at about 1300 ft and then had all 4 in my area by about 2300. Reception did seem to vary between 2 and 4 towers depending on my heading. (likely antenna position)

Weather Radar was working but there were not returns yesterday.

I didn't see any traffic but figured out later that I hadn't turned it on in Foreflight.

All in all it exceeded my expectations and seems to work quite well. Granted I was pretty much local in the Puget Sound area the ground stations were relatively close.

boom3 08-23-2015 08:36 AM

A little later my friend Darin showed up to the airport so we took it for another flight in his 9A. This time I brought my full size iPad this time because he'd be flying and I could mess around with it with the larger screen. The problem was I forgot that this iPad was wifi only so I didn't have a position source. We almost went back for my iPad mini but Darin suggested connecting to his GDL 39 by Bluetooth. It worked! Now we had GPS position by Bluetooth and the Stratux was still connected by WiFi.

Darin has a really nice new panel with all the ADS-B stuff so we could compare.


This time I just stuffed it in his side pocket.


Again I found some steel and stuck on the antenna.


About the same reception I experienced this morning only this time we were receiving traffic. (because I turned it on, duh:rolleyes:)


We went to Chehalis for fuel and then climbed to the South to see how long it'd take to pick up a ground station in Oregon. By 4000ft or so we started picking up the Scappoose station. It took some time to update and populate. Here at 5634ft we were picking up from 2 to 4 stations depending on our heading.


If you've heard on the news about the Pacific Northwest being on fire, they're not lying. I've never seen it this bad.


So far so good. I'm very excited how well this works. On this flight at least it was very comparable to Darin's Garmin system. We both seemed to get weather and traffic at about the same time.

I'm not going to say at this point that Stratux is totally comparable to the good stuff because I really doubt it is. I'll need to get out on a long cross country to see how it really performs. Today though, it was awesome and soooo worth $106. :D


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