I tried out a Stratux box in the USA last week. This is an ADS-B receiver built from Raspberry Pi Model 3 and USB dongle (similar to a Pilotaware box). The free open-source software receives traffic data from ground based transmitters at 968MHz and displays that on ForeFlight and many other EFB Apps. You can fit a second USB stick receiver if you also want to receive ADS-B at 1090MHz from nearby ADS-B equipped aircraft, and a GPS dongle if you want location.
I found the Velros kit very simple to plug together. They don’t ship outside USA so I got it delivered to the Flight School directly. Software was pre-loaded onto the microSD card. The built-in Wi-Fi hotspot “just worked”, no configuration required on Foreflight. After take-off at about 500 feet it started receiving from nearby ADS-B towers and worked in most places. Helpful when looking ahead for METAR and TAF information.
At the moment, traffic information is only broadcast in areas where another aircraft is actively transmitting ADS-B out. This is to encourage more aircraft to install the ADS-B out equipment – somewhat more pricey than my simple receiver at less than $100 but makes it much more useful.
Shown below a traffic advisory issued by ATC resulted in the aircraft ahead climbing and turning north, reported here at 400 feet above and to our right, which we spotted when probably less than 1 mile away.
Same area/time as seen by SkyDemon with Pilotaware – the other nearby aircraft wasn’t 1090 ADS-B equipped so not visible by that system
However, the FAA is said to be actively working on opening up ADS-B traffic transmissions in all areas to all aircraft after a mid-air collision last summer. [See brief details on the AOPA video channel, starting at 4:55 here
My only concerns were that the construction is mechanically delicate, e.g. when thrown around in a flight bag, and the large thin antenna can be a bit awkward. Reception was sometimes affected by poor location of the antenna, and I didn’t find an ideal spot for it. There is a crowd-funded version just coming out called FlightBox, also based on the same hardware and Stratux software which looks more robust and uses smaller antenna. Priced from around $150 it already has sold 500 units and is likely to be very popular.
This unit is less useful in Europe because nobody has installed ADS-B ground transmitter stations. It could be used as a basic 1090 ADS-B receiver to spot other ADS-B out equipped aircraft in your area but you might be better investing in a Pilotaware which has many additional features (including recently adding Mode S). Lack of support for SkyDemon is currently a major drawback for Stratux.
I also bought the recommended ANKER 10,000mAh rechargeable battery pack. Huge amount of capacity for such a small and simple to use device. Will be handy for the iPad amongst other things.
Very interesting!
The investment for transmitting the data will never happen in Europe. The airlines have ACARS and TCAS 2, and the GA market is way too fragmented, with the IFR portion (the main customers) being very small. Consequently the lack of support for SD (or any other European moving map GPS app) is probably unsurprising.
Same with TIS (traffic info) via Mode S. Europe could have easily done this but nobody bothers. I vaguely recall the extra cost is something like 100k per radar – probably just one extra PCB and some software on which the vendor would be making a 99% gross margin 
Also the equipment will never be mandated for OCAS VFR here, which is where by far the biggest risk lies.
I was looking to replace my Dual X150 GPS for Christmas and about to buy a Garmin GLO.
Then I thought why not get some extra feature at the same time. Traffic warning is high on my list, with onboard weather next.
I rent planes so I need something lightweight that fits in my flightbag, with good endurance if possible. Being compatible with SD is a must too.
So a receive-only system is good to me.
I checked lots of stuff : pilotaware, flarm, skyecho, iLevil, scout and so on …, even Stratus !
I am now thinking that Stratux is the best bang-for-buck (Adam style ). For the price of a GLO, I get ADS-B In.
Building one from parts doesn’t seem too complex and plenty of people described the process on forums.
My questions are:
)The Stratux or any portable ADS-B UAT receiver is very useful for weather, but not very useful for traffic unless the aircraft has ADS-B Out installed. A dual frequency receiver is marginally better in that it will receive equipped aircraft using either frequency. The ground stations are very selective in broadcasting TISB (non equipped aircraft). All the airline targets are 1090 MHz, most of which don’t trigger any TISB because they are required to have TCAS II. The equipped aircraft only cause ground stations to broadcast around their position within 15 NM and +/- 3500 feet (aka the hockey puck). You can spot the equipped aircraft as they will be displaying their N number or call sign. When you fly into the puck of an equipped aircraft, you show up as a TISB target to that aircraft and a pop up ghost at your position. In most cases the ghost will persist for up to 30 seconds, depending on the update rate of your radar position. You can see the ghost in your last ForeFlight shot showing two nearby targets, one is your ghost at the same relative altitude and the other is opposite direction traffic 400 feet above you. I don’t see the aircraft that is generating the puck, so my guess is that it has something like a GTX345, so would not show on a single frequency unit.
AOPA may argue for the FAA to add blind broadcast of all traffic, but I seriously doubt that will ever happen. TISB is not a traffic alerting system, it is only intended as an aid for the pilot to obtain visual acquisition. There are a lot of caveats to explaining how the actual system works and pilots are easily fooled into thinking that because they see tons of traffic, they see nearby traffic that is a potential threat. All of the traffic shown on the first screenshot is irrelevant.
Jujupilote wrote:
I am now thinking that Stratux is the best bang-for-buck
Well, with pilotaware, you get mode C/S (without bearing info) what Stratux doesn’t provide. Also you don’t get weather in Europe, so not really sure of the value of Stratux.
ploucandco wrote:
Well, with pilotaware, you get mode C/S (without bearing info) what Stratux doesn’t provide
And yearly subscription fees…..
ploucandco wrote:
Also you don’t get weather in Europe, so not really sure of the value of Stratux.
In southern UK you already / almost do
I first thought about going Flarm but I find it expensive (I thought that was open source, not licensed like this). And its range is very small, especially from a portable mount inside a Cessna. Indeed, my main worries were glider traffic.
Flarm won’t tell me if the next glider airfield 10 miles ahead is a hornet’s nest or not. So I will try to avoid it anyway.
I then looked into pilotaware, etc… that detects Mode C/S. But it can’t give you a bearing unless it’s an installed TAS. So little use too.
And I think/hope more and more aircraft will equip with ads-b and weather on UAT frequency will spread out. At least I will see airliners
Trawling through the internet in search of a Christmas present for myself, initially I was looking at a GPS receiver to go with SkyDemon on my iPad but then I started thinking about the stratux ads-b receiver, seemingly its simple enough to get it working with SkyDemon.
I would like to use this to display traffic and offload the gps signal from the iPad (battery draining and a heat source), my question is how much traffic would this display and it’s hard to find a straight answer.
Will it
A/ only display aircraft ads-b transmitters ( still a small proportion of the ga fleet and the main worry about traffic bumbling along at 5000ft)
B/ ads-b and mode-s transponders of other aircraft which are transmitting after being interrogated by radar (ie just like PCAS systems)
It will only show ADS-B traffic outside the US.
Hello aidanf123 ! I knew I wasn’t alone !
Info : I was about to order but no battery seems to be exportable from the US. I must be linked to air transport safety.
So Stratux, Openflightsolutions ans Scout (for those I checked) do not ship to France 
Does anyone know a european based seller or alernative ?
I could buy one without battery, continously running on cigarette lighter, but I don’t feel like it.
Does it sound reasonable to someone ?
