Releases: b3nn0/stratux
Stratux Europe Edition 1.6r1-eu032
This release is is marked as a pre-release for now. If no major issues come up, it will turn into a final release.
This is a new major release. To install it, you need to reflash your MicroSD card.
If you don't want to lose your settings, please backup the stratux.conf file on the card, and copy it back to it after flashing. Your old settings will then be imported.
New Features
- Migrated from esp32-ogn-tracker to ogn-tracker, enabling support for newer T-Beam variants with new power management chips, including experimental support for T-Beam S3.
- Added experimental support for NMEA output via BLE. This allows connecting SkyDemon via BLE instead of Wifi.
Note: This is HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL! Use at your own risk, preferably not while navigating complex airspaces! If you find issues, please report. - Basic Cursor-On-Target protocol output to view traffic in software supporting COT
Bug fixes
- Fixed BMP280 not being detected if configured to use alternate addressing (as found on the recent Stratux AHRS boards)
- Made serial port baud rate detection more robust, fixing issues with usb2serial based GPSes (incl. T-Beam)
Other
- Removed "Log" indicator light on GPS page as it confused users
- Switched to latest RaspberryPi OS image
Known Issues
SkyDemon sometimes reports a "Connection timed out" error while trying to pair via BLE. It is not known why that happens. Just retry a couple of times.
Full Changelog: v1.6r1-eu031...v1.6r1-eu032
Stratux Europe Edition 1.6r1-eu031
This is a minor bugfix release. If you don't encounter any of the mentioned issues, feel free to skip this release.
As this is a minor release, you can either re-flash your SD card, or update any Stratux EU030 version via OTA upload of the .sh file.
Changes
- Fixed an issue that USB devices were not detected correctly in rare occasions
- Fixed an issue that OGN Tracker configuration would not apply correctly/would reset on reboot in some cases
- Fixed an issue for setups that were carrying a legacy OGN transmitter (e.g. SoftRF), transmitting the old protocol version when using GDL90: In this case, your ownship would always point northbound and have a speed of 0 kts
- Stratux now prefers its own GPS positioning over received ownship info via SDR
- Fixed issue on the "Map" page, that caused the aircraft type of received aircraft to be wrong in many cases, making most targets show up as airliners
Stratux Europe Edition 1.6r1-eu030
Finally, a new Stratux release, just in time for Aero Friedrichshafen 2024!
This is a major release and requires re-flashing of the Micro SD card.
If you don't want to lose your settings, back up the "stratux.conf" file from your old SD card before flashing, and copy it back on it after flashing, and your settings will be restored on first boot.
Highlights
- Fixed a bug in eu029-hotfix1, which would cause many aircraft received via OGN to be shows as helicopters
- Support for BMP388/BMP390 pressure sensors by @oriagranat9 in #248
- Added support for uAvionix pingUSB / MavLink #259 by @stefanux2 in #261
Other noteworthy changes
- The "my location" marker on the Map page will now auto-update to always show your current location, even when moving
- Reverted back to GLONASS rather than BEIDOU on Ublox 8, as it seems to perform a lot better in sub-ideal conditions
- Configure and use $GNGST sentence for GPS precision estimation on UBlox, rather than rolling our own guesswork
- Switched to a new base image based on RaspiOS Bookworm, enabling experimental support for the RaspberryPi 5. Note: RPi5 builds are NOT RECOMMENDED due to its high power demands.
- Minor fix to Wifi country selection by @zyv in #260
- Allow manual configuration of serial GPSs by @paony in #266
- Allow changing receiver gain for dump1090 via the web interface by @stefanux2 in #275
- Some minor improvements to the web interface by @stefanux2 in #276
Known issues
- Fan control is not supported on the Pi5. Use the builtin fan header/control.
Important note to those who build Stratux from source
Stratux now uses RaspiOS Bookworm. It will NOT run correctly on bullseye any more due to changes to the mount points in bookworm.
Please upgrade your OS before trying to run the latest source code.
New Contributors
- @oriagranat9 made their first contribution in #248
- @zyv made their first contribution in #260
- @stefanux2 made their first contribution in #261
- @paony made their first contribution in #266
Full Changelog: v1.6r1-eu029...v1.6r1-eu030
Contributors
Assets 4
Stratux Europe Edition 1.6r1-eu029-hotfix1
Hotfix release for continued OGN reception
This is a hotfix release for OGN related protocol changes.
Anyone using OGN reception via an SDR (i.e. has the "868 Mhz (OGN, ADS-L)" option enabled) is strongly advised to apply this patch by flashing it via the web interface. It can be applied to any more or less recent Stratux version.
This patch is required to continue receiving all relevant 868Mhz protocols.
It contains no other changes. A bigger release with all recent changes will be published in the coming weeks.
To install the update, go to the "Settings" page, and click this button:
Select the update-...sh file, then click the button again to start the install process.
If you want to verify that the installation succeeded, wait until you have a GPS signal, then go to http://192.168.10.1:8082 or similar, if you changed your Stratux IP.
The first line of that page should display version 0.3.0:
OGN Stratux receiver (EU/Africa) 0.3.0/Mar 24 2024
If it still displays 0.1.5, something went wrong.
Important: You MUST have a GPS signal for the status page to come up!
Stratux Europe Edition 1.6r1-eu029
It's been a while..
With Stratux seeming to be in really good shape, the rate of updates has reduced a bit. However, it's time for a new, feature packed update to keep you busy after your return from Oshkosh.
This one can even be installed OTA, without having to re-flash the SD card. EU and US versions are provided. The update file can be applied to any 1.6r1-eu028 EU or US version.
New Features
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Stratux now fully supports the new EASA ADS-L draft standard: https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/downloads/137503/en
Reception will be part of the OGN reception. So if OGN is enabled, you will also receive ADS-L.
Transmission is achieved if you install a new OGN-Tracker firmware on your T-Beam, if equipped with one. To install it, follow the steps described here.
Hopefully this will replace the myriad of different protocols on the 868Mhz band in Europe. Thanks to @pjalocha -
The OGN Tracker firmware shipped with Stratux now also transmits FANET, typically used by paragliders.
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If your Stratux is connected to the internet, Stratux can - optionally - subscribe to the OpenGliderNetwork and integrate received nearby aircraft into your traffic stream, thanks to @qubolino
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If you are using an UBlox 8 GPS chip, Stratux now configures it to use GPS+Galileo+BeiDou, instead of GPS+Galileo+GLONASS, thanks @VirusPilot
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Support for some additional MPU9xxx/MPU6xxx AHRS sensors, which just seem to be MPU9250 compatible, thanks to @susanneeichel
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OpenFlightMaps offline map package have been updated and now also contains France, see here.
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Some minor tweaks to the map layer chooser on the Map page
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Unified log-viewer pages on the web interface to make it easier to find the correct link to also download system and trace logs
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When re-flashing your Stratux, you can now simply backup and restore your stratux.conf file from/to the boot partition. Stratux will automatically import an existing stratux.conf from the boot partition and apply its configuration (e.g. set up the WiFi as configured, etc.)
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Improved rotation of log files to not fill up the rather small in-memory filesystem
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Improved compatibility of the X-Plane-compatible simulator output, now works correctly with all apps I had available for testing (Note: Garmin Pilot for Android works with it, but it doesn't support reception of traffic data from the simulator, so there is no point in using it like that)
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Developer QoL feature: added "Trace logs" recording options, which will create a compressed log file recording all received data from GPS, ADS-B, UAT and OGN, can be replayed at different speeds and skipped forward. Helps a lot when debugging unique issues.
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Experimental: Similar to the OGN-Tracker Firmware, Stratux now also ships a custom version of GxAirCom, which can be used as an alternative, thanks to @rvt. See here.
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Experimental: Basic support for the new TTGO T-Beam S3 supreme running SoftRF
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Experimental: Support for OGN reception on 915Mhz for the US. Stratux will select the frequency band automatically depending on location. There are still some rough edges with this, so don't rely on this always working correctly. Thanks to @pjalocha.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed SSL errors when downloading of map data files if the Stratux did not have a GPS position since startup
- Fixed a rare race condition/crash when checking disk usage
- Allow ! in wifi SSID, thanks to @ptimoney
- Fixed the OpenAIP online map layer not working any more after some changes to their server infrastructure
- Some fixes to GPS satellites display when receiving BeiDou, thanks @VirusPilot
- Some tweaks to UART GPS support and baud rate detection, thanks to @sternflyer and @rush0815
Stratux Europe Edition 1.6r1-eu028
Mostly a maintenance and bugfix release.
Due to the underlying OS change, however, there are no update.sh files for OTA updates available, and a re-flash of the Micro SD is required.
Features
- It is now possible to turn off the LoRa/OGN transmission capabilities of ogn-rx-eu, freeing up the PI's GPIO pins to be used for something else (e.g. TomBric's radar display)
- There is now also an OGNTracker binary with SX1262 support, in case you have a SX1262 based T-Beam
- If persistent logging is enabled (or the Stratux not yet rebooted), it is now possible to search for an aircraft that was previously received via OGN, for potential search&rescue purposes. To do so, you have to visit the OGN status page on port 8082.
Bug Fixes
- Shutdown/reboot from the web interface now actually trigger a shutdown/reboot, instead of sync&powercycle
- The "GDL90 bearingless target circle emulation" would also prevent bearingless targets being sent via NMEA if disabled. This has been fixed to now only affect GDL90 bearingless targets.
- Hopefully a bit more robust "AP+Client" mode, thanks to @mpotthoff - but still experimental/unstable due to hardware/firmware constraints of the PI
Under the Hood
- Switched to new/stable RaspiOS aarch64 base image, adding experimental support for the Pi Zero 2W
- Added rudimentary support for vector tile archives (mbtiles) to the integrated map - but not really usable for large maps due to theming
- Switched to new esp32-ogn-tracker base for new Random ID handling
- Updated dump1090
Noteworthy News
SafeSky
The developers of the "SafeSky" app have worked tirelessly to integrate well with Stratux. It is now possible to connect SafeSky with Stratux to create a unified GDL90 Stream for EFBs (e.g. SkyDemon), resulting in the best of both worlds:
- Low latency and offline capabilities from Stratux
- Mode-S/Mlat Position estimation, very high reception range and reception of even more traffic from SafeSky.
Check it out here
Garmin Pilot
Garmin has recently introduced support for Stratux in their "Garmin Pilot" app, and it seems to work fairly well.
Stratux Europe Edition 1.6r1-eu027
Major update with lots of changes, so no update via .sh file - you will have to re-flash the SD card to install.
PLEASE CLEAR YOUR BROWSER CACHE AFTER INSTALLING
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a long standing issue that could cause EFBs to detect a very brief disconnect when using GDL90 or X-Plane protocol¹
- Fixed aircraft symbols on map being drawn underneath MBTiles overlays
- AHRS messages are now only sent via NMEA if an AHRS is actually connected
- Fixed an issue that Wifi-Direct would only work if "Persistent Logging" is enabled first
New Features
- [Experimental] Added WiFi AP+Client mode. You can configure your Stratux to e.g. connect to your home network while still creating an AP (see known issues). Includes internet pass-through for devices that connect to the Stratux AP (with help from @mpotthoff)
- [Experimental] Support for sc16is752 i2c to serial chip for NMEA-out
- [Experimental] It is now possible to directly connect an RFM95/Lora module/hat to the PI's SPI pins for OGNTP/PilotAware-Out
- [Experimental] Added support for receiving AIS Data from ships - requires an additional SDR if enabled (thanks @rvt)
- Allow setting Wifi regulatory country to be able to connect to specific Wifi networks
- Added a PID-based fan control algorithm for more fine-grained and precise fan control (thanks @rvt)
- Added a few icons to the integrated map to differentiate between large aircraft, small aircraft, helicopters, gliders, balloons and hang gliders/parachutes (thanks to SimpleVFR for providing them)
- Added support for new TTGO T-Beam models with a new QinHeng USB-serial chip
- Added basic support for SoftRF T-Echo as NMEA source (no sat/precision information)
- Stratux now sends "Hard=STX" and software version via OGN. If a target that sends Hard=STX is received, a little Stratux icon is displayed on the Traffic page. This makes it possible to know when you receive another Stratux user as traffic
- Show error message if users enables more protocols than he has SDRs for
- Allow hot-plugging of UAT Radio
- If your Stratux has an internet connection (e.g. via WiFi client mode), it will now automatically serve as an OGN station, publishing other aircraft (and your own position) via APRS
Technical Stuff
- DHCP server now never sets a DNS or default gateway. This can allow some devices to use mobile data while connected to the Stratux (this was previously possible via the "Wifi Smart" option - it is now always the case and the option was removed)
- Switched to wpa_supplicant to create the AP
- We now also read the ARP cache to determine where to send GDL90/X-Plane messages, so we can actually auto-discover hosts when in client mode in some instances
- Switched from isc-dhcp-server to dnsmasq to have DNS caching capabilities when in AP+Client mode
- Improved bootup speed
- Stratux does now not send a "PASS?" passwod request to NMEA-Clients (TCP port 2000) - all EFBs seem to be fine with that these days
- Switched to dump1090 6.1 and go 1.17.1
- Completely reworked network and serial handling (GDL90/NMEA/X-Plane). It now prioritizes important messages over less important ones and should work fine even over very slow serial or TCP connections.
- Enabled log rotation for stratux.log file
- Switched to a new RaspiOS base image (based on bullseye)
Known Issues
- When using AP+Client mode, it can sometimes become impossible to connect to the AP with some devices, or the connection becomes slow and contains errors. This is caused by buggy Wifi Chip Firmware and can probably not be fixed on our side. AP+Client mode is therefore considered experimental and "you get what you get". If you have issues you will have to live with it. Experience shows that it seems to be more stable when only using the 2.4Ghz band without automatic channel selection
RaspberryPi Zero 2W Support
Note that this release does NOT officially support the new PI Zero 2W. However, if you want to try it anyway, you can
- Use a card reader to mount the Micro SD card in your PC
- Mount the BOOT partition
- Copy the file bcm2710-rpi-3-b.dtb to bcm2710-rpi-zero-2.dtb
After that, Stratux SHOULD boot and work correctly, but there was no further testing done. If you try it and have something noteworthy to report, feel free to join the discussion of this release.
¹ Apparently this was caused by hostapd. We now use wpa_supplicant to create the AP
Stratux Europe Edition 1.6r1-eu026
You can either re-image the SD card, or use the provided .sh file to upgrade 1.6r1-eu025 to eu026. The .sh file can also be used to upgrade the eu025-US version.
Bug fixes
- Serialout devices are now fixed to /dev/serialout0 and /dev/serialout_nmea0, which fixes issues that the device was not recognized sometimes
- improved compatibility with mbtiles that have more exotic metadata
- Reduced gain for 1090ES receiver to fix cases where very close aircraft were sometimes not received any more (slightly reduces 1090ES reception range)
- Fixed a memory leak that would cause the Stratux service to crash when running for multiple days
Features
- the mapdata directory is now writable by the user pi, so that it's easier to put custom map tile archives in there for novice linux users
- the Map page now remembers your last layer configuration and re-enables the selected layers when revisiting the page
- sdr-tool can now also be used to configure 868Mhz SDRs
- Stratux is now using overlayfs and a read-only root partition to make it even more resistant to filesystem corruption. See below.
- Added $RPYL NMEA message to provide AHRS data to EFBs that connect via NMEA (Sky-Map, XCSoar, ...?)
- Stratux will now try to auto-detect baud rate of GPSes connected via prolific Serial/USB converters
- Image size has been reduced by shrinking the partition after image creation and running zerofree to make it more compressible
- You can now also download the US-settings image here, which is the same as the EU image except that "Developer Mode" and "OGN" are disabled and "UAT" is enabled by default.
Overlayfs details
By default, the root ext4 partition is now mounted read-only to /overlay/robase and overlayfs is used to create a 250MB in-memory file system overlay, which is then mounted as /.
This means, that any changes made to the root filesystem will be lost on reboot. No writing to the Micro SD card will happen by default.
To make this possible, the stratux.conf file was moved to /boot so it will remain editable. In case more low-level settings are changed (e.g. network), the /overlay/robase partition will be automatically remounted rw, then the settings will be written, synced and mounted back to read-only.
If you do not want all of this, you can disable all of this completely by enabling this toggle:
(Users of the US version first have to enable the advanced settings by rapidly clicking the Version number on the top of the Status page 7 times)
After a reboot, the partitions will be mounted as in earlier versions.
To temporarily remount /overlay/robase as read-write, you can use overlayctl unlock and overlayctl lock commands.
Stratux Europe Edition 1.6r1-eu025
As the eu024 pre-release didn't show any new issues, this release now finalizes the pre-release.
In addition to the changes mentioned in the pre-release, the final release features a better OSM offline map for the web interface, as well as the option to download US Sectional charts or OpenFlightMap Data for the EU. Also, the Stratux files are now almost completely self-contained in /opt/stratux, instead of installed all over the place.
Quite a significant update with many under-the-hood improvements, but also quite a few bug fixes and some user facing changes.
Most notably, we are now using a 64 bit base operating system, which significantly improves quality of life for developers and reduces CPU usage of the PI.
This also means that there will be no .sh update file for this version. You will need to re-image your SD card to install this update.
If you are using a T-Beam with OGN Tracker, I strongly recommend updating the firmware as well, as there were compatibility improvements with PilotAware.
Changes
Important notes to EFB developers:
- Due to a bug, bearingless targets had the tail number "Mode<0x14>S" instead of "Mode<0x20>S" (note that 0x14 = decimal 20, so the bug was using decimal 20 instead of hexadecimal 20). If your EFB was using the well known tail number "Mode S" to draw a bearingless target circle with GDL90, please update your code to not only identify "Mode<0x14>S", but also "Mode<0x20>S".
- For GDL90, Stratux will now always report ellipsoid ownship altitude, as the spec. requires. This can not be changed in the web interface any more, as pretty much all EFBs seem to expect it like this by now.
Features
- By default, Stratux will now write log files only to a temporary ram disk to safe your SD card in case of power loss. This can be changed from the web interface
- Added option to set transmit power for OGN Tracker (T-Beam), including disabling transmission
- Added support for MPU6500 AHRS chip as found on some recent GY-91 boards
- The default low resolution OSM Offline world map is now a lot more detailed. It's still low-res, but much better than before
- It is now possible to download additional offline map archives. Right now, this includes OpenFlightMaps (~700MB) for Europe and US VFR Sectional charts for the US (~5GB). See here for more details: https://github.com/b3nn0/stratux/wiki/Downloading-better-map-data
General improvements
- Switched to new RaspiOS aarch64 base image
- Switched to latest librtlsdr
- Switched to go 1.16, with full usage of go modules to improve the build process
- Some improvements to the web interface code and help texts
- Disabled swap file to reduce SD card writes
- Updated dump1090
- Minor improvements to Stratux EU case: more venting holes, rounded corners, slightly larger screw holes
- Ublox GPS LED PPS turned off to make it less distracting when night-flying
- On the PI4, Wifi-Direct is now forced to the 2.4Ghz band, instead of using the 5Ghz band, which is not compatible with older devices
- Direct browsers to a maximum cache timeout limit of 5 minutes, to reduce issues reported from not clearing browser cache after updates
- ogn-rx-eu startup is now delayed until a valid GPS time is received, as it could otherwise crash from time to time when the system time suddenly changes significantly
- Increased 868Mhz reception range by implementing error correction in ogn-rx
- Stratux is now installed almost completely self-contained to /opt/stratux, instead of all over the system - excluding system configuration (Wifi hotspot, DHCP, ...)
- The image doesn't ship with the source code any more. If you want to do development, you will have to clone it yourself
Bugfixes
- Minor improvement to bearingless target selection to send to EFB
- Fixed bearingless target name "Mode S" (see notes to EFB developers above)
- Better handling of ICAO ID vs. non-ICAO ID for PilotAware targets
- Fixed some aircraft type codes in Flarm-NMEA protocol (drone, ground object)
- Fixed a potential crash if communication with your AHRS chip is unreliable
- Fixed issue that it was impossible to set the "Baro altitude offset" back to 0 once it was changed
- [OGN Tracker Firmware] Improved compatibility with original Pilot Aware
Known issues
- The RaspiOS Kernel seems to log a lot of errors when using Wifi-Direct. This doesn't seem to cause any issues though. See here: raspberrypi/linux#4348
- Due to the 64 bit requirement, this image will only run on the Pi 3B and newer. Older versions, or the Pi Zero are not supported and won't be supported in the future.
- OpenFlightMaps offline data is missing France - it's not downloadable from their website.
PLEASE MAKE SURE TO CLEAR YOUR BROWSER CACHE AFTER INSTALLING THE NEW VERSION!
Stratux Europe Edition 1.6r1-eu023
This release doesn't have too many exciting new features, but a lot of small improvements all over the place.
Reworked GPS Handling code
- Removed parsing of proprietary PUBX messages, using standard NMEA now
- Lots of improvements to standard NMEA parsing
- Fixed issue that number of satellites in view on the Status and GPS page could jump around a lot
- Improved chip configuration (SBAS, Galileo) for Ublox
- Improved computation of GPS Accuracy. Note that Accuracy might show a bit worse on the web interface now. This is only due to rework of the precision estimation - it is not worse in reality.
Improvements to OGN Tracker firmware and interface
- Firmware is now compiled with WITH_LORAWAN for Lora support
- Improvements to PilotAware and OGNTP transmission timing. Transmission is now more regular to make it more reliable
- A few other small improvements, see here: https://github.com/pjalocha/esp32-ogn-tracker/commits/master
- When using OGN Tracker, you can now configure your aircraft registration, so it will be displayed to other Stratux users even if it is not registered in OGN DDB.
Other
- New setting to configure a pressure altitude offset, can be used to work around an imprecise BMP280 sensor (#83)
- Improved barometric altitude estimation from ADS-B if no baro sensor is connected
- Added option for the Stratux EU case to include a lead-through for a velcro-strap to secure a battery pack (#89)
- OGN Receiver module now also receives pressure information for a future OGN transmission PI HAT module
- Fixed issue that Mode-S distance estimation was not done for some targets