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Stratux homemade ADS-B review

Paul 5r4

Well Known Member
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

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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!

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Totally agree

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.
 
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.
 
Stratux with Ifly 740

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.
 
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 :)
 
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.
 
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.
 
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The Stratux is great for FIS-B wx, but it will not show a complete (as far as an ADS-B traffic solution can be) traffic picture unless the client (your) aircraft has a properly configured ADS-B Out installation. Basically ADS-B Out tells the ground system what frequencies you receive data on. If you have ADS-B Out, it's possible that your ADS-B Out could be misconfigured if the installer did not know you are going to be using a 978 receiver like Stratux.

Foreflight has a great support article using a Garmin GTX330ES and Stratus 2 as an example:

https://support.foreflight.com/hc/e...30-to-enable-ADS-B-traffic-within-ForeFlight-
 
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The recommend gps antenna isn't available. I use the dual antenna so didn't need it anyway.
Thanks for the write up, Paul.

Was there anything special you needed to do get your external gps source to connect to the stratux? (I have a Bad Elf and am assuming the same process would be used. ???)

As Paul mentions, the external usb GPS (vk-162) that comes recommended on the stratux supply list is not available on amazon. Does anyone know if there a drop-in replacement? The list indicates it is optional--anyone using the kit without the external gps?
 
I don't use the dual antenna with the stratux. The dual antenna is paired via Bluetooth with my nexus tablet which is receiving the traffic & weather from the stratux via wifi into the nexus. I didn't have to do anything. The simcard on the stratux was already configured from the mfgr. I didn't have to update it or anything.

And to comment on one of the previous post here. You're correct, an ADSB IN device without an out device to wake up the towers to send information.... the traffic picture will be limited. I would have never bought the stratux in the first place but with the looming FAA AD to remove certain Navworx boxes from airplanes, (mine is one of them), I for sure wanted weather back in the cockpit and hopefully will get at least some of the traffic. I didn't want to spend 1000 bucks for a unit so that's why I bought the stratux.
 
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Hey Neal, I just had a look at the stratux site and it says it works with
"7.x" so my guess is yes. Maybe check the foreflight site and see if they advertise stratux support. The stratux wifi's to my ifly and nexus tablet and I get good traffic pictures. I am, (for now), adsb out equipped... until the FAA Ad against navworx comes out telling me I'll have to remove my navworx 600EXP.
 
Got the Stratux, AVARE, BT to serial & AVARE I/O working today

My goal is to replace my aged Lowrance GPS with one device (tablet) that can drive my Dynon AP74 autopilot and provide ADSB In traffic for my RV9A.
I used my Android phone for these experiments before buying a tablet.
For traffic, I bot the dual band Raspberry Stratux solution. It communicates with my phone via wifi and works OK. The standard antenna captures traffic from inside the luggage area behind the passenger seat.
For AP, I bought the BT to serial card offered on Ebay for $15. Once AVARE I/O established comm with the Stratux, I used AVARE I/O a second time to establish comm between the serial card & an old laptop that has a serial port (as a test). My serial to serial cable used pins 2 (xmit) & 5 (ground). If pin 3 (receive) was connected, the BT to serial card had to be plugged in after I/O established comm so I cut pin 3.
In AVARE you must establish a flight plan to get the RMB & BOD "phrases" which are the actual instructions sent to the AP. Your plan must be ACTIVE and hit NEXT for the RMB & BOD streams to be sent to the target which was my laptop (as a test) and the AP74 today.
The end results, my phone displays traffic and sends GPS data to the D100 & AP74. I plan to fly it tomorrow & will report further.
Thanks to Zubair & Chuck for all their help & Duffy for his YouTube training videos.
 
The Stratux is great for FIS-B wx, but it will not show a complete (as far as an ADS-B traffic solution can be) traffic picture unless the client (your) aircraft has a properly configured ADS-B Out installation. Basically ADS-B Out tells the ground system what frequencies you receive data on. If you have ADS-B Out, it's possible that your ADS-B Out could be misconfigured if the installer did not know you are going to be using a 978 receiver like Stratux.

Foreflight has a great support article using a Garmin GTX330ES and Stratus 2 as an example:

https://support.foreflight.com/hc/e...30-to-enable-ADS-B-traffic-within-ForeFlight-

My Stratux (and from the looks of it, the OP's also) is "dual band" with both 978 and 1090 SDRs. I think that if there is another aircraft, with ADS-B out,in range of one of the ground stations I'm receiving, I believe my Stratux, will "see" all the information available.
 
You will see their "puck" of airspace coverage, so if you are on the front edge of their puck you see nothing ahead of you as it is outside their puck.

What I think helps is the 1090 in shows you all relevant squitters of ES transponder traffic within your filter.
 
Anyone know what antenna is on on the Stratu(s) not Stratux? It would to be nice to have a low profile Stratux unit.
 
Most devices with internal "flat" antennas use what is referred to as a "patch antenna". They are not difficult to make but tuning is more critical and would require proper antenna tuning equipment.
 
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