Stratux reception problems...

Huckster79

Huckster79

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Huckster79
I recently took a long cross country, I picked up a pre-built stratux new off Amazon to use w foreflight. I had connection to towers less than half the trip... West of the Mississippi hardly at all.

my friend has a Stratus 2, and he flew the same trip.... he lost reception only a short time while flying low across the plains... This was very frustrating...

I tried positioning it so antennas were by the sky lights and for a while tossed it on the dash.
Neither spot seemed to change much.

I’m considering returning it, but before I do that I’m wondering if anyone has any insight that may prevent the need for that? Do they just not get as good of reception as their name brand brother?
 
Difference in the receivers. Stratus uses a high(er) grade of receiver, tuned for the frequency. Stratux uses a COTS SDR, whine in my experience is less sensitive.

All that said, I’d make sure the antennas are comparable. If you don’t have a good antenna, it will not work well.
 
I use a Stratux unit that was built using the old Raspberry Pi ADSB kits. It has been flawless with my iFly 740b GPS. Yet when flying with a friend in his Commander he was using a Stratus unit and while my iFly would see it, much of the information would not appear and some items would not update. I tried everything I knew to make it work. I will add that I upgraded my antennas to my unit and as mentioned above, that could be a factor.
 
wsuffa said:
Difference in the receivers. Stratus uses a high(er) grade of receiver, tuned for the frequency. Stratux uses a COTS SDR, whine in my experience is less sensitive.

All that said, I’d make sure the antennas are comparable. If you don’t have a good antenna, it will not work well.
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idk it was prebuilt... Skydogs I think it is... if I gotta buy a bunch more stuff to make it work there goes the savings...

I can’t lie I’m kinda bummed... liked the idea of Homebuilt or in this case small biz built
 
Are you broadcasting ADSB-out? If not, you’re not going to activate a ground station (“puck”) and won’t see any ADSB-in info in areas of no traffic that has ADSB-out to turn on a ground station (Apologies if you already knew that).

Also, are you losing WiFi connection from Stratux to your EFB, or from Stratux to ground stations?
 
What altitude were you at? I'd check your route of flight against http://towers.stratux.me/ . My gdl39 is on the hat shelf by the D window, I don't expect much when down low, between towers.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Are you broadcasting ADSB-out? If not, you’re not going to activate a ground station (“puck”) and won’t see any ADSB-in info in areas of no traffic that has ADSB-out to turn on a ground station (Apologies if you already knew that).

Also, are you losing WiFi connection from Stratux to your EFB, or from Stratux to ground stations?
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Help me understand. Are you saying that if I'm outdoors with a stratus or stratux and there's a plane overhead, I won't see it in a tablet with foreflight, Avare, etc. Unless I am broadcasting ADSB out?
 
CharlieD3 said:
Help me understand. Are you saying that if I'm outdoors with a stratus or stratux and there's a plane overhead, I won't see it in a tablet with foreflight, Avare, etc. Unless I am broadcasting ADSB out?
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You won’t see it if SOMEONE is not broadcasting ADSB-out. Doesn’t have to be you. Stratux will pick up a ground ADSB signal (ADSB-in), but only if the ground station is broadcasting. ADSB-out from a nearby plane is what activates the ground station to start its broadcast of traffic & weather. What they call “your puck” is basically the ground station that you activate to give you ADSB-in data...if you don’t have ADSB-out, you are dependent on being near some else’s puck. 40 mile radius? Can’t remember.

Someone else can reconfirm/refute.
 
Had no idea it worked that way. Figured they were always broadcasting.
 
CharlieD3 said:
Help me understand. Are you saying that if I'm outdoors with a stratus or stratux and there's a plane overhead, I won't see it in a tablet with foreflight, Avare, etc. Unless I am broadcasting ADSB out?
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Neither Stratus and Stratux broadcast, receive only. That's why they're relatively cheap. You're depending on other aircraft in the area that are broadcasting OUT to trigger the ground stations.
 
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Huh.

Instead, traffic is broadcast when an airplane reports its position using ADS-B Out. Each traffic broadcast is tailored to the requesting aircraft’s position and includes tracked aircraft within a 15-nm circle around that aircraft, extending 3,500 feet above and below. Think of this airspace as the ADS-B Out aircraft’s puck, because it is shaped like a hockey puck. So an aircraft with ADS-B In that does not have ADS-B Out will receive traffic information, but traffic very close to the receiving aircraft may not be displayed—remember, it’s showing traffic in another aircraft’s puck, and the position of that aircraft is unknown.
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https://www.aopa.org/go-fly/aircraft-and-ownership/ads-b/what-about-portable-ads-b-receivers
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Are you broadcasting ADSB-out? If not, you’re not going to activate a ground station (“puck”) and won’t see any ADSB-in info in areas of no traffic that has ADSB-out to turn on a ground station (Apologies if you already knew that).

Also, are you losing WiFi connection from Stratux to your EFB, or from Stratux to ground stations?
Click to expand...
I don’t have out yet so I didn’t expect traffic alerts always but my understanding was the Wx/info was supposed to available all the time even without “out”

I was going to do a tail beacon but my old transponder acting janky so I just need a full upgrade..
 
I have built several of these. One of the biggest problems is corrupted SD disks usually caused when someone just unplugs it without doing the shutdown procedure. This is easily resolved by removing the SD, plugging it into a laptop, and then running the scandisk utility. You may also be having an issue with the GPS system. Some of these use the GPS/AHRS chip that has to be soldered in but works very well. Others have a GPS on a USB stick. Some of these cause electrical emissions that affect operations of the Stratux. This can usually be fixed with some aluminum tape that will block the electrical interference.
 
Huckster79 said:
I don’t have out yet so I didn’t expect traffic alerts always but my understanding was the Wx/info was supposed to available all the time even without “out”

I was going to do a tail beacon but my old transponder acting janky so I just need a full upgrade..
Click to expand...

Ah, good question. I don’t know the answer. Assumed it was all or nothing being broadcast.
 
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