Stratux homemade ADS-B review

[Paul 5r4]

In preparing for the potential removal of my navworx EXP ADSB unit, I've purchased the stratux unit. Total cost was $130 for this dual band receiver. The recommend gps antenna isn't available. I use the dual antenna so didn't need it anyway. It went together just like it should and fit nicely into the case. Assembly time was about 30 minutes. I took it flying today and did a side by side comparison with the Navworx. Navworx wifi to my ifly and the stratus wifi to my nexus tablet. I was interested to see if the FAA was somehow filtering some of the traffic out of the affected navworx units. My findings:

1. This little box worked beautifully. It yields the very same information as all
the other units costing $800-1000!
2. Several times during the flight I looked at the number of aircraft that each
was displaying by tapping the ADSB button. They were always with 2 of each
other. Sometimes the navworx showed more targets then the next the
stratux was showing more hits. I guess the FAA isn't doing any kind of
filtering against Navworx.... at least not yet.
3. Unless you've wired a USB outlet into your panel... this is a battery only unit.
Any infö I found stated about 4 hours with the 6000 mah battery pack. I find
that hard to believe because there's also a small cooling fan running on the
battery. The battery is super light... something like 6 oz IIRC.

I like it



Edited December 11th to add these screen shots. The stratux was sitting on the top of my car in a park and this is the traffic picture I had. I do think I was close to an adsb tower.... like a few hundred yards maybe... It would be hard to believe ALL of the traffic I saw in this photo were adsb out equipped. So, someone was and it was causing the tower close to me to send out a signal and anyone with adsb in.... well this is what they got. I like the stratux!

[David Lewis]

I have the same setup with the Dual GPS, but with a Nexus7 display running Avare. System works beautifully once everything is configured. My hangar neighbor was a little annoyed when I demonstrated how well it worked because he had paid several hundred dollars for the commercial Stratus version. The Stratux approach is a far cheaper solution for exactly the same functionality.

[rleffler]

There are several vendors that sell everything all ready to go for less than $75 on Amazon. It saves having to do the research to ensure that everything works well together.

[Ben Meyer]

I've been running my Stratux for just over a year. Works perfectly!

[Larry DeCamp]

Got my Stratux free as a promo with my new ifly 740. Plugs into a usb on my panel and the little telescoping antenna has magnetic base. It works great as soon as you reach pattern altitude !

If anyone wants to buy a 720 I will part with one. Same as 740 but not quit as fast.

[Raymo]

Here is the original Stratux thread.

http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...hlight=stratux

[mbuehler]

Has anybody wired one of these into their GRT Hx? I currently use a Stratus 2s with Foreflight on my iPad, but from what I understand I could get a Stratux, wire it into the GRT, and have my traffic / weather in their in addition to using the Stratux via WiFi with Foreflight? All for much less than my Stratus

[ChuckGant]

This is awesome. I've never played with Rasberry Pi projects, but look forward to giving it a shot.

Has anyone tried the Ping Buddy sold by iFly?
https://www.iflygps.com/shop-t136/pingbuddy-ads-b.aspx

[petersb]

Originally Posted by mbuehler

Has anybody wired one of these into their GRT Hx? I currently use a Stratus 2s with Foreflight on my iPad, but from what I understand I could get a Stratux, wire it into the GRT, and have my traffic / weather in their in addition to using the Stratux via WiFi with Foreflight? All for much less than my Stratus

Yes I have. I have the Raspberry Pie 3 , which requires modified software to provide a serial output required by the GRT HXr.

The modified software unfortunately disables the onboard GPS, however, when it is working the targets do show up on the map.

GRT has been threatening since Oshkosh to add WiFi to the HXr, this will allow the use of the original Stratux software to work properly.

[Mich48041]

I have the pingBuddy and iFly 740 GPS. The pingBuddy sends traffic and weather via wifi to the iFly. There is a lot more traffic out there (and displayed) than can be seen out the window. The pingBuddy requires 5 volts for power via a USB cord. I plug the USB cord into the iFly USB port, but any USB port will work. The pingBuddy does not get hot, only gets warm to the touch. So it does not require a cooling fan. The pingBuddy has good reception when suspended from the roll bar brace under the rear window in my RV-12.
The pingBuddy regular price is $150, but they do have periodic airshow specials for $100. Adventurepilot also has a holiday special right now for buying the iFly 740 and pingBuddy combination. The pingBuddy is also available at Amazon.
I am happy with the pingBuddy. Compared to the Stratux, the pingBuddy is about the same price, smaller, lighter, uses less power, and no assembly is required. The antenna on the pingBuddy looks like it could be easily broken if bumped when the pingBuddy is rigidly mounted. Being suspended by its USB cord in my RV-12, the pingBuddy should just swing out of the way if bumped.
Whatever ADS-B-IN receiver you buy, make sure it is dual band so that it will receive traffic directly from all other ADS-B-Out equipped aircraft without depending on a ground station to relay 1090 traffic to you.