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Prime Edition MkIV

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Linar Yusupov edited this page May 23, 2026 · 10 revisions

Prime Edition Mark IV is a direct successor of SoftRF Prime Edition Mark II and Prime Edition Mark III.

It is supposed to require minimal skills from a builder to begin with and gives an opportunity to evaluate if the SoftRF technology is appropriate for your needs.

Prime Edition Mark IV is based upon a partner's hardware - LilyGO® T-Beam 1W LR2021 board, which is available for direct purchase from manufacturer at more or less reasonable price.

LilyGO® T-Beam 1W LR2021 uses he most recent and advanced Semtech LR2021 multi-band radio on the market

Compatibility 1

Type Protocol FLARM OGN tracker PilotAware Skytraxx SoftRF
Radio FLARM AIR V7

 

OGNTP

 

P3I

 

FANET+

 

1090 ES
ADS-B

2

2
 

SRD 860
ADS-L

Data FLARM NMEA

  Garmin GDL90

 

Dump1090  

1 - it is necessary for a reader to distinguish the difference between statement "compatible" and statement "fully compatible".
     SoftRF implements only a reasonable minimum of the protocols specs. No "bells and whistles" so far.
2 - Reception of DF17 traffic 'downlink' frames only.

ADS-B Out remark

No doubts that an amateur-built non-certified low-cost ADS-B transponder is possible.
It was shown to public by our own "proof-of-concept" study for :

However, as a certified and instrument rated pilot with 20+ years of experience, in no way I will give a tool for every looser in the world, all he/she can afford is to spend 50 USD for the LilyGO® T-Beam 1W LR2021, to abuse the ADS-B technology and compromise my own flight safety and flight safety of every other air law abiding pilot.

SoftRF firmware does intentionally exclude every possibilities to transmit anything on 1090 MHz radio frequency.
Any attempt to contribute the transmit feature into SoftRF from aside will be blocked at very early stage.

Prime Mark IV vs Mark III and II


T-Beam Classic Supreme 1W
First appearance 2018 2023 2025/26
SoC ESP32 ESP32-S3 ESP32-S3
LF clock source 32K XTAL
Flash memory 4 MB 8 MB 16 MB
PSRAM 8 MB 8 MB 8 MB
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n 802.11 b/g/n 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.2 Classic and LE 5 LE only 5 LE only
sub-1GHz radio SX1276 or SX1262 SX1262 or LR1121 SX1262 or LR2021
Max. Tx power 20 or 22 dBm 22 dBm 33 dBm
PMU AXP192 or AXP2101 AXP2101
Battery 18650 Li-Ion 18650 Li-Ion F550 Li-Ion
GNSS Ublox NEO-6 or NEO-8 Ublox M10 or Quectel L76K Quectel L76K
Display optional 0.96" OLED built-in 1.3" OLED built-in 1.3" OLED
USB 2.0 FS
Client/Host 		2.0 FS
Client/Host
Air pressure sensor BME280
IMU QMI8658
Magnetometer QMC6310
RTC PCF8563
Card micro-SD (SPI only) micro-SD (SPI only)

Disclaimer

SoftRF firmware for Prime Edition Mark IV is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Author of SoftRF firmware:

  • will reject any hardware related claims associated with LilyGO® T-Beam 1W LR2021 board. Ask for support from seller or manufacturer ;
  • reserves the right to suspend or terminate support of LilyGO® T-Beam 1W LR2021 in the firmware at any time.

For the time being ( May '26 ) there were no critical hardware issues reported for current version of the LilyGO® T-Beam 1W LR2021 board. However things my change over the time...
If you have issues with bringing up your new LilyGO® T-Beam 1W LR2021 or just not happy with the board - be prepared to execute your Purchase Protection plan.


Bill of materials

Required

Number Part Qty Picture Source
1 LilyGO®
T-Beam 1W LR2021 3 		1 LilyGO Store

3 - 868 MHz variant is applicable for these world regions: EU, RU, NZ, SA, IN ;
     915 MHz - US, CA, AU, KR, IL.

Recommended

Number Part Qty Picture Source
2 Antenna
1090 MHz		 1 AliExpress

Buttons

BOOT button function

Button(s) Function
BOOT cycle between aircraft info pages in OLED Text screen
BOOT with RESET enter into Espressif Service Mode
BOOT short after RESET enter into bootloader mode

Screen pages

Even though the built-in OLED display is not bright enough to operate against direct sun light - it is still very useful as the system diagnostic tool.

There are four different screens available:

4 - 'Baro' page is not available when the air pressure sensor is missing ;

One can use BOOT button to switch between these screens.

The screens are better explained on this page.

Additional information on T-Beam 1W board

  1. LilyGO® product info
  2. Schematics: V1.1 
  3. LilyGO® GitHub

Hardware

SoftRF

SkyView

Flight Recorder

Adapters

Software

Firmware

Tools

Protocols

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