iFly GPS Forum

Thanks, Don, for the quick response. Wow, no soldering! I went ahead and ordered the separate parts from Amazon (Pi 2, the RTL-SDR, an Edimax and the recommended battery) since I already have the other parts. (In fact, I got excited when I found an old Pi B Rev 2 someone gave me last year. But "strangerwithadvice" says to get the Pi 2 because the old models are too slow.) A fellow pilot has a youtube up about plugging the pieces together. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE7kd-PJ2iE . I opted for the free 30 day trial of Amazon Prime, and since a warehouse is in our area, it's free one day shipping. I should be flying with ADS-B after Tuesday!

I plan to let my medical expire next year and plan to have a fire sale on the Glasair then. (So if anyone interested in a nice plane, google for "Glasair FT for sale" It's usually the 2nd or 3rd hit.) But for less than $100 for a year of flying, I couldn't resist this deal. I feel sorry for the manufacturers of production boxes. Their business is going to take a hit. (One sale from me they didn't get.)

I plan to put my assembly in a shoe box and use a thin sheet of copper foil for a ground plane for the antenna. (Or I'll use a two foot USB cable to get the SDR away from the Pi and mount the antenna pseudo-permanently with a ground plane.) Seems to be some debate on whether a 1/4 wave or 5/8 wave is better. I expect some antenna guru will soon offer a tuned strip line unit.

I put one together last night with parts I already had and 2 new receivers. Tried both the stable and beta versions with no luck. After re-reading this thread again, I realize that I missed the tiny but critical detail of selecting FREEFLIGHT as the ADS-B input. I had selected Stratus as I had assumed the name "Stratux" implied it was a Stratus clone. I was wrong. Assuming no more "operator headgap" errors, maybe when I get home and try again it'll work as advertised. Its neat to see that others with 3D printers are already making cases for these.