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Adam Erchegyi - 8/31/2021 11:00:32 AM

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TouchTheSky - 8/31/2021 7:22:13 AM

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Adam Erchegyi - 8/30/2021 7:17:19 PM

Hi folks,

I am catching up with this whole traffic topic (and the posts of this thread) and looking for some recent experiences. My primary goal would be to display both ADS-B and FLARM traffic in SkyDemon (the aircrafts I fly - mostly in Switzerland - have either power-flarm or TAS, but unfortunately without connectivity). Seems there are two good options out there, one being SkyEcho2 (cost of the device and the need for a yearly subscription to decode FLARM data makes it somewhat nah), other is Stratux (rather bulky and comes with home-made feeling). So my questions are:

1. Why isn't this - very popular - option mentioned in the SkyDemon documentation? stratux.me doesn't show SkyDemon as a compatible EFB either.
2. Is there still any pre-built ready-to-use version of Stratux available for my use-case? It seems the well-documented version from Crewdog Electronics comes with UAT radio only and there is no European version available.
3. Are you aware of any other disadvantages compared to SkyEcho2 what I might have missed?
4. Is there any use of the AHRS module while only used with SkyDemon?
5. How do you avoid traffic warnings for your own aircraft?

Thanks for any further hints you might have. Happy landings!

Adam, as one of the Stratux Europe contributors I am certainly happy to answer:

1. This question obviously goes to Tim
2. As of now I am aware of the following sources for pre-built ready-to-use versions of Stratux Europe:
1. https://www.stratux-flarm.de/stratux-komponenten
   
2. https://dross.net/aviation/shop/
   
3. no
4. no
5. Air Avionics AT-1 connected to Dynon SkyView, Stratux connected to SkyDemon

Thanks a lot for the answer, I'll check the links.

Actually, it's a pity that none of the sets have battery included, so in the end it will look like a homemade explosive 

It's pretty much off-topic here and might need to bring this conversation to the Slack channel, although could be useful for other SkyDemon users in the future. I'm thinking about keeping the box permanently in my pilot bag and making a suction mount for external antennas only. Any practical experience on power consumption (Pi3 should be better than Pi4 if my understanding is correct) and heat generation?

I'm not sure if I understand your answer to #5. I meant how to avoid my own aircraft's target (either from modeS or Flarm) being visible on the SkyDemon map. Sounds like simple filtering based on whatever parameters. Why do you need AT-1 and SkyView for that?

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Fedko - 10/4/2021 11:14:26 PM

Hello everyone. 

I'm quite new to Skydemon - first year of  use, as well as very new to Stratux - just finished building a Europe Flarm version. 

I have a couple of questions, as I wanted to be sure that my Stratux is correctly built and setup. Some questions might seem dumb... but after a couple days of surfing on internet, I was unable to find a clear answer.

Would anyone be able to perhaps clarify the following for me? I am currently using the lastest version of Stratux - 1.6r1-eu026.

1) I got nooelec v3 radios - One seems pre-programmed to 1090 Mhz and the second one to 978 Mhz. Do I need to somehow re-program the 978 Mhz unit to 868 Mhz with some SDR software? Or is this somehow done automatically by the Stratux software?

2) Is there any particular order in which the radios need to be connected to the USB ports of the Raspberry Pi? Or any radio can be plugged into any of the two ports, and the Stratux will somehow detect which radio receives on which frequency?

Thank you @b3nn0 for your great support on this Stratux EU project. I saw on your Github page that the Stratux Flarm should be connected to Skydemon via the FLARM-NMEA protocol;

3) But is there any difference between "Air Avionics AT-1" and "FLARM via Airconnect"? 

4) Should GDL90 protocol be only avoided due to stability issues? Or does it have any eventual advantage over FLARM-NMEA?

Also, what power banks are you guys using, and what autonomy do you get? I still didn't buy one, and I read that some may cause interference with the Stratux unit.

Thank you very much in advance.

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b3nn0 - 10/7/2021 7:26:38 AM

Wrt. Protocol Choice:
Here my rule of thumb:

IF your Stratux is built and configured to receive UAT, AND your are flying in a country where UAT is available (US, CA, Denmark I think?), THEN use GDL90. ELSE use NMEA.

Reason: GDL90 uses UDP as its network protocol, which is a good thing in theory, but with UDP it can happen that packets are dropped, delayed or even received multiple times. It's just part of the protocol and to be expected. Sadly, SD is rather intolerant when it comes to such errors.

Additionally, NMEA has proper support for the bearingless circles, yes. You can not use both at the same time.

Wrt. Internet connection:
Sadly, the way Android does routing over multiple interfaces is quite bad, IMO it's simply buggy. The only way to get this to work with Android is by using Wifi Direct: https://github.com/b3nn0/stratux/wiki/Wifi-Direct-and-Android-mobile-data-while-connected-to-Stratux

Wrt. Fan:
This depends on what hardware your Stratux contains and how it is connected. No idea how Dross does it. I assume you don't have a fan control module in there, so you can either connect the fan to 3.3v or 5v. I prefer 3v to have it a bit more quiet. Airflow is good enough either way (well, depends on the fan of course, but full-power is certainly not needed). Google "Raspberry Pi Pins" to see how/where to connect.

BTW: Stratux EU has its own discussion platform, where you usually will quickly get high-quality answers. I don't check in here too often: https://github.com/b3nn0/stratux/discussions

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Fedko - 12/16/2021 8:45:31 PM

Thank you very much @TouchTheSky and @b3nn0 for your answers, it is very clear.

I will go have a look at Github discussion. 

While I'm here, I would like to take the opportunity to ask about what is the best way to reduce the OGN Noise. 

Looking on the screenshot below, I seem to be suffering from significant range loss: 5.31x. Is there any way to improve this?

Thanks a lot, and happy Holidays to all!

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TouchTheSky - 12/17/2021 7:02:06 AM

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Fedko - 12/16/2021 8:45:31 PM

Thank you very much @TouchTheSky and @b3nn0 for your answers, it is very clear.

I will go have a look at Github discussion. 

While I'm here, I would like to take the opportunity to ask about what is the best way to reduce the OGN Noise. 

Looking on the screenshot below, I seem to be suffering from significant range loss: 5.31x. Is there any way to improve this?

Thanks a lot, and happy Holidays to all!

I assume you are using the usual antennas so you may try to move them away from your Pi as it is the source for most of the "noise". A good alternative would be a T style dipole antenna which usually comes with 1-2m cable. Sometimes all metal Pi cases help but then Wifi might become less reliable. Can you post a picture of your Stratux?

Btw, you may consider the Stratux Slack channel where many of us are quite active: Stratux Slack. Besides the "#general" channel there is a particular channel "#stratux-europe-edition".