Jeff Clark wrote:
I too have flown a bunch of hours with a dual band Stratux alongside the dual band SkyRadar DX, and for something that hasn't even reached version 1 release its very impressive. The only issue I've had is frequent wifi drops. Further investigation revealed it was my own fault. I was starving the pi for power with a less-than-quality USB cable. I switched to the thickest cable I had, and the connection remained steady. HINT: if the red light on the pi blinks sporadically, it needs more power. And the power requirements will only go up when I add the GPS/AHRS board. Also, the antenna wire connectors are fragile and I pulled an end off one cable from the constant plugging/unplugging into the radio.
I hope to solve these issues by adding a buck converter that will allow me to supply 5v to the pi from a 12v-24v cigarette lighter. With the pi, 2 radios, AHRS chip, and buck converter there's gonna be some heat output, so I'll also add a switched 5v fan to ventilate The case (eventually controlled by the pi itself). The antenna issue will be solved With SMA connectors on the case that will accept the popular SMA antennas. This will let me use small antennas plugged directly into the case for better portability, or antennas with cables to reach the Windows for better reception. Obviously it's no longer a $70 solution, but for someone who enjoys DIY projects it's an economical and reliable alternative to the current commercial ADS-B solutions.
On power consumption, make sure that you using latest version of the image because the developer did a few tweaks to reduce power consumption. I tested power consumption on mine today (two sdrs and the GPS/AHRS chip) running v.4r1 and it was using 1.06 amps maximum. It may go higher when you are receiving data from one of the towers but I have not tested that yet.