Your Stratux’s GPS Lock Problem Has a $20 Fix

If you’ve ever sat on the ramp waiting for your Stratux to find itself — watching the GPS light blink for 90 seconds while you’re trying to brief a departure — you already understand the problem. The internal GPS module works fine once it’s locked. Getting there, especially on a cold start from inside a hangar, takes longer than it should.

The external GPS puck solves this. It’s a $20 upgrade, it plugs into USB, and it locks faster because you put it where it can actually see the sky.

Why External GPS Beats Internal for Cockpit Use

The internal GPS module sits inside the Stratux case. That case is usually in a flight bag, on a shelf in your avionics stack, or mounted somewhere in the cabin where it may or may not have a clear view of the sky. Metal airframes, avionics panels, and even overhead windows reduce the signal the GPS antenna can see.

The external GPS puck lives on your dashboard, glareshield, or wherever you can give it a direct view of the sky. That’s not a subtle difference — GPS reception is almost entirely about antenna placement and sky view. A GPS sitting on a metal dash with a clear view of the overhead is always going to outperform the same GPS module buried in a box on a shelf.

There’s also a flexibility argument. With an external GPS, you can mount your Stratux unit wherever it works for the radios — and put the GPS antenna where it works for GPS. Those two optimal locations are often not the same place.

Cold Start vs. Hot Start: The Numbers That Matter

GPS receivers have two modes: cold start (no cached data, building almanac from scratch) and hot start (cached almanac, knows approximately where to look). The difference in lock time is significant:

Internal GPS in a closed case, inside a hangar

Cold start lock time: 60–90 seconds, sometimes longer. The module is hunting for satellites through whatever attenuation the case and your aircraft’s structure introduce. It gets there, but you’re waiting.

External GPS puck on the dash with clear sky view

Cold start lock time: 15–30 seconds. Same satellites, better antenna placement. The difference is geometry — the puck can hear what the buried module is struggling to find.

Hot starts (after the almanac is cached) are faster either way, but cold starts on the first flight of the day are where the external GPS really earns its $20.

The VK-162: What You’re Actually Getting

The external GPS that Crew Dog ships is the VK-162 puck. It’s a well-regarded component in the Stratux community, and for good reason:

u-blox GPS chip

u-blox is one of the dominant GPS chipmakers in the professional and aviation-adjacent market. The chip in the VK-162 is the same family used in a lot of serious embedded navigation work. It’s not a commodity no-name receiver — it has real sensitivity and reliable NMEA output.

WAAS-enabled

The VK-162 receives SBAS/WAAS corrections from geostationary satellites, which improves position accuracy. This matters if you’re using Stratux for ownship display in ForeFlight® — the position you’re feeding your EFB is more accurate with WAAS corrections enabled. Sub-3-meter accuracy is typical in good conditions.

Plug-and-play USB, no drivers required

The VK-162 shows up as a standard USB serial device. Stratux detects it automatically on boot. There’s no configuration required, no driver installation, no firmware to flash. Plug it in, reboot, done.

This is actually a meaningful point. Some GPS modules require specific driver support or show up as ambiguous USB devices that need manual assignment. The VK-162 just works, which is what you want from a component you’re going to handle in the dark during preflight.

Setup: Plug In and Verify

Getting the external GPS running takes about five minutes:

1. Power down your Stratux completely before plugging in the GPS.
2. Connect the VK-162 to one of the USB ports on your Raspberry Pi. Either port works.
3. Power on the Stratux. The software detects the GPS module automatically during boot — no configuration needed.
4. Connect to the Stratux web interface at 192.168.10.1 (join the Stratux WiFi network first) and navigate to the status page.
5. Verify GPS lock — the status page shows GPS source, satellite count, and fix status. You should see the external GPS recognized and, within a few seconds of having sky view, acquiring a fix.

If you had an internal GPS previously configured, Stratux will automatically prefer the external GPS when both are connected. You don’t need to do anything special to switch between them.

Placement Tips: Where to Put the Puck

The puck is small — roughly the size of a thick quarter — and it has a USB cable attached. You’ve got flexibility on where it lives, but the guiding principle is always clear sky view.

Dashboard / Glare Shield

The most common location. Lay it flat with the dome facing up. Keep it away from anything metallic directly above it (overhead panel switches, metal window frames). Most aircraft dashboards give excellent sky view through the windscreen.

Side Window

If your windscreen view is blocked — maybe you’ve got a lot of overhead panel gear — a side window mount can work well. Suction cups or a small wedge mount keeps it in place.

Anywhere with clear overhead sky

The simple test: can you see the sky from where the puck is sitting? If yes, it’ll lock. The only locations to avoid are those with significant metal or structural obstruction directly overhead.

Cable routing

Run the USB cable in a way that keeps it out of your scan path and away from flight controls. A few small cable clips or a wrap around your yoke keeps it tidy. The cable is long enough for most panel configurations without extension.

Get the External GPS Puck

The VK-162 is in stock and ships fast. It’s the same GPS puck included in our external GPS pre-built units — proven hardware, verified compatible, no surprises.

Stratux External GPS (VK-162) — $19.99 →

Also available on Amazon: amzn.to/3KrEfq4

If slow GPS lock is the most annoying part of your preflight, this is the cheapest fix in aviation. Twenty dollars, five minutes of installation, and your cold start times drop by two-thirds. Not a bad trade.

The One Upgrade That Changes What Stratux Looks Like on Your EFB

If you’ve got a Stratux running and you’re happy with weather and traffic, there’s one more thing it can do that a lot of pilots haven’t tried: feed attitude data to your EFB and unlock synthetic vision.

The AHRS upgrade board is $39. Once it’s installed, ForeFlight® shows you a 3D terrain display with a live attitude indicator. The horizon moves with the aircraft. It’s not your primary flight instrument — but as a situational awareness tool and backup attitude reference, it’s one of the more useful things you can bolt onto a portable receiver.

What AHRS Actually Is

AHRS stands for Attitude and Heading Reference System. In practice, it’s a small board packed with sensors that measures what your aircraft is doing in space:

• Attitude — pitch and roll (is the nose up? are you in a bank?)
• Heading — magnetic or gyroscopic compass direction
• Altitude/pressure — barometric altitude used to enhance the picture

That data gets passed to your EFB over the same WiFi connection Stratux already uses for weather and traffic. Your EFB receives it as part of the GDL-90 data stream and uses it to render the synthetic vision display — the 3D terrain picture with a floating horizon line overlaid on your position.

Without AHRS, Stratux feeds position, weather, and traffic. With AHRS, it adds the attitude layer that makes synthetic vision possible.

What You Actually See in ForeFlight® With AHRS Enabled

Once the AHRS board is installed and ForeFlight® detects it, the synthetic vision display activates automatically. Here’s what changes:

The Synthetic Vision Map View

The 3D terrain map — the one that shows mountains, ridges, and surface features in perspective — becomes live. The horizon shifts in real time as your aircraft banks and pitches. Terrain that’s above your altitude turns a warning color. It’s the same principle as panel-mounted synthetic vision, rendered on your iPad.

The Attitude Indicator

ForeFlight®’s attitude indicator (accessible from the map or the dedicated attitude screen) shows a live artificial horizon driven by Stratux AHRS data. Pitch, bank, and slip are all represented. This is genuinely useful for maintaining situational awareness during turns, in IMC, or as a cross-check against your primary instruments.

Backup Attitude Reference

If your primary vacuum-driven attitude indicator fails in flight — a real-world scenario that still kills pilots every year — having a secondary attitude source on your iPad is a valuable backup. The Stratux AHRS is a $39 board, not certified avionics, but it gives you something to fly by while you sort out the situation and get to VFR conditions or the nearest airport.

How the Stratux AHRS Board Works

The AHRS board uses a combination of MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) sensors — the same category of technology used in your smartphone for accelerometer and gyroscope functions — plus a barometric pressure sensor for altitude.

A few things worth knowing about the standard Stratux AHRS build:

No magnetometer in standard builds

The standard AHRS board doesn’t include a magnetometer. Heading is computed through a combination of GPS track and gyroscopic integration rather than magnetic compass. This works well in normal maneuvering flight. In slow hover-like maneuvers or during extended taxiing, you may notice heading drift. In the cruise environment where most pilots use Stratux, this is rarely an issue.

Barometric altitude

Altitude shown through the AHRS feed is barometrically derived. This requires proper calibration when you power up — which ForeFlight® walks you through automatically.

MEMS sensors have real-world characteristics

MEMS sensors are good and getting better, but they’re not laser-ring gyros. Brief maneuvers are tracked accurately. Extended steep spirals or unusual attitude recovery may show some drift, which the sensor fusion algorithm corrects when you return to wings-level. Think of it as “very good situational awareness” — not “backup ADI to fly a missed approach.”

The Right Way to Think About Stratux AHRS

The Stratux AHRS is a valuable synthetic vision backup. That’s the most honest and accurate framing. It makes your iPad dramatically more useful in the cockpit by adding the attitude layer to weather and traffic. It’s a legitimate safety enhancement for situational awareness.

It is not a replacement for your primary flight instruments. Your vacuum AI or ADAHRS, your certified GPS, your mag compass — those are your primary references. The Stratux AHRS is the enhancement layer that makes synthetic vision work on your $39 portable receiver. The two roles are different, and both are valuable.

Treat it the way you’d treat any portable cockpit tool: great situational awareness enhancement, useful backup reference, not a replacement for certified equipment.

Compatible EFBs

The Stratux AHRS works with every major EFB that supports GDL-90 attitude data:

iOS: ForeFlight® 7.x+, WingX, FlyQ, FltPlan Go, iFly

Android: Avare, AvNav

If your EFB is on this list, it works. No special configuration beyond what you’d do for any Stratux setup.

Installation: Add Board, Reboot, Calibrate

Installing the AHRS board is about as complicated as installing RAM in a laptop — which is to say, not very:

1. Power down the Stratux unit completely.
2. Open the case and locate the GPIO header on the Raspberry Pi. The AHRS board connects here — it’s a standard header, and the board only goes on one way.
3. Seat the AHRS board on the GPIO header. Make sure it’s fully seated and square.
4. Reassemble and power on.
5. Check the Stratux web interface (192.168.10.1) to confirm AHRS is detected.
6. Open ForeFlight® and connect to Stratux as you normally would. ForeFlight® will detect the AHRS source automatically and prompt you to calibrate.
7. Run the calibration — ForeFlight® walks you through this. It takes about 30 seconds and sets the barometric reference.

Total install time: 15 minutes. No soldering, no special tools, no firmware changes. The Stratux software already knows how to talk to the AHRS board — it’s a supported component in the standard firmware.

Add AHRS to Your Stratux

The AHRS board ships ready to install. Same component used in Crew Dog’s pre-built units — no compatibility concerns, no guesswork.

Stratux AHRS Board — $39.99 →

Also available on Amazon: amzn.to/43FiREs

Synthetic vision is one of the bigger quality-of-life upgrades in the cockpit. The Stratux AHRS makes it work on your existing setup for $39. If you’re already running Stratux for weather and traffic, this is an easy next step.

A GPS track log is one of the most useful things your Raspberry Pi isn’t doing yet.

Trip logs for road trips. Time-correlated dash cam footage. Hiking route archives. Fleet tracking on the cheap. All of it runs on a $12 u-blox USB GPS and the software already sitting in your Linux package manager.

The VK-162 is the GPS module inside every Stratux ADS-B receiver — WAAS-capable, u-blox chipset, plug-and-play on Linux with zero driver installation. In this guide, you’ll set up gpsd to receive GPS data, then write GPX track files — the format every mapping tool on earth already speaks — using a short Python script that works on every current Pi OS version.

Twelve dollars and an afternoon. Here’s how.

What You Need

• VK-162 USB GPS dongle (~$12 at Crew Dog Electronics)
• Raspberry Pi (any model with USB — Pi 3B, 4, or Zero 2W) or any Linux machine
  • Pi Zero W users: you’ll need a USB OTG adapter — the VK-162 is USB-A
• SD card with Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm or Bullseye) or any Debian/Ubuntu-based distro
• Internet connection for package install

What you don’t need: external antennas, special drivers, paid software, or a data connection after setup.

Step 1: Plug In and Confirm the Device

Plug the VK-162 into a USB port. Give it a second, then check:

ls /dev/ttyACM*

You should see /dev/ttyACM0 (or /dev/ttyUSB0 on some systems). That’s your GPS talking to Linux.

Confirm u-blox chipset:

lsusb | grep -i "u-blox"

Expected output: Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1546:01a8 U-Blox AG

No ttyACM0? Two common culprits: try a powered USB hub if on Pi Zero, or check whether brltty (Braille screen reader) grabbed the device — sudo systemctl disable brltty fixes it on desktop installs.

Step 2: Install gpsd

gpsd is the system daemon that reads raw NMEA sentences from your GPS and exposes clean location data to any application. Install it:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y gpsd gpsd-clients python3-gps

Configure it to use your device:

sudo nano /etc/default/gpsd

Set these values:

DEVICES="/dev/ttyACM0"
GPSD_OPTIONS="-n"
START_DAEMON="true"
USBAUTO="true"

Restart and test:

sudo systemctl restart gpsd
cgps -s

You’ll see satellite count, lat/lon, speed, and altitude updating in real time. Wait for a fix — typically under 60 seconds outdoors, longer on first cold start.

Step 3: Log GPX Tracks

GPX (GPS Exchange Format) is the universal standard for GPS track files — XML-based, opens in Google My Maps, QGIS, Strava, Garmin BaseCamp, and every major mapping tool.

Save this script as /usr/local/bin/gpx-logger.py:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import gpsd, datetime, time, signal, sys, os

gpsd.connect()

def save_gpx(path, points):
    os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(path), exist_ok=True)
    with open(path, 'w') as f:
        f.write('\n')
        f.write('\n')
        f.write('  \n')
        for lat, lon, alt, ts in points:
            f.write(f'    \n')
            f.write(f'      {alt:.1f}\n')
            f.write(f'      {ts}\n')
            f.write('    \n')
        f.write('  \n\n')
    print(f"\nSaved {len(points)} points to {path}")

outfile = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else \
    os.path.expanduser(f"~/tracks/{datetime.date.today()}.gpx")
points = []

def stop(sig, frame):
    save_gpx(outfile, points)
    sys.exit(0)

signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, stop)
signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, stop)

print(f"Logging to {outfile} — Ctrl-C to stop")
while True:
    p = gpsd.get_current()
    if p.mode >= 2:
        points.append((p.lat, p.lon,
                       p.alt if p.mode >= 3 else 0.0,
                       datetime.datetime.utcnow().strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ')))
    time.sleep(1)

Run it:

mkdir -p ~/tracks
python3 /usr/local/bin/gpx-logger.py ~/tracks/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).gpx

Auto-start on boot (systemd):

Create a wrapper at /usr/local/bin/gps-logger.sh:

#!/bin/bash
mkdir -p "$HOME/tracks"
exec python3 /usr/local/bin/gpx-logger.py "$HOME/tracks/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).gpx"

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/gps-logger.sh

Create /etc/systemd/system/gps-logger.service:

[Unit]
Description=GPS Track Logger
After=gpsd.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/gps-logger.sh
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now gps-logger

Your Pi now logs every session to a dated GPX file automatically.

Step 4: Correlate with Dash Cam Footage

If you’re recording video on a Pi, GPS logs let you match approximate location to any timestamp in the footage — useful for insurance documentation, road trip archives, or just knowing where you were.

The key: make sure your system clock is GPS-disciplined first. The S05 guide (gpsd + chrony) covers that setup. Once your clock is accurate, your video file timestamps and your GPX track timestamps will align.

Open both in Dashware (free, Windows) or DashCam Viewer (Mac/Win) to overlay GPS data on footage. These tools match files by timestamp — no extra metadata needed.

Step 5: View Your Tracks

Copy GPX files off your Pi:

scp [email protected]:~/tracks/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).gpx ~/Desktop/

• gpx.studio — browser-based, elevation profiles, shareable links
• Google My Maps — import GPX, share with anyone
• QGIS — open source GIS for serious analysis
• Garmin BaseCamp — syncs to watches and handheld GPS units

What Else Can the VK-162 Do?

Once you have it, the VK-162 has a habit of becoming indispensable:

• APRS tracking with Direwolf — full ham radio station, no TNC required → guide
• Stratum 1 NTP server — GPS-disciplined time source for your homelab → guide
• Clock source for chrony — accurate time sync without PPS → guide
• Aviation ADS-B — the same module lives inside every Stratux receiver

Wrap Up

The VK-162 is one of those components that quietly becomes load-bearing in a Pi project. You plug it in thinking “I just need GPS coordinates,” and six weeks later it’s keeping your NTP server accurate, logging every drive, and anchoring timestamps on your dash cam footage.

Twelve dollars. Plug-and-play on Linux. Works with everything gpsd supports.

Get the VK-162 at Crew Dog Electronics →

Most Pilots Don’t Think About Their UAT Radio. Until It Stops Working.

Most people buy a Stratux and never upgrade it. That’s fine — it works. But if you’ve ever wondered why the UAT radio occasionally misses traffic, why your weather isn’t coming in cleanly, or why your unit won’t boot — there’s a good chance the CC1310 radio board is worth a closer look.

This isn’t a complicated part. It’s a small board with a specific job: receive 978 MHz UAT signals. When it’s working well, you don’t notice it. When it isn’t, you lose weather, traffic coverage degrades, and diagnosing the problem isn’t always obvious.

Let’s talk about what it actually does — and how to know if yours needs replacing.

What the UAT Radio Actually Is

The Stratux UAT radio is a Texas Instruments CC1310 chip on a dedicated receiver board. It is not an RTL-SDR dongle doing double duty — it’s purpose-built hardware for 978 MHz reception. That distinction matters more than it sounds.

Generic SDR dongles are general-purpose receivers. They’re flexible, but they’re not optimized for any single frequency. The CC1310 is. It’s engineered specifically for the 978 MHz UAT band, which means better sensitivity, better noise rejection, and more reliable decoding under real-world conditions. When you’re at 8,500 feet with three paint-shaker aircraft below you trying to all broadcast at once, that matters.

The CC1310 also draws less power than an SDR-based approach, which is a small but real benefit if you’re running on a portable battery.

What the UAT Radio Receives

The 978 MHz UAT band carries two types of transmissions:

Traffic (ADS-B Out from UAT-equipped aircraft)

Any aircraft broadcasting on 978 MHz — which is most GA traffic below FL180 in the US — shows up on your UAT radio. You see their position, altitude, and ground speed in your EFB. Pair it with the 1090 MHz ADS-B radio (included in a full Stratux build) and you’ve got both bands covered.

FIS-B Weather (Ground Broadcast)

This is the big one. FIS-B weather is broadcast from ADS-B ground towers on 978 MHz. Your CC1310 radio receives it, Stratux decodes it, and your EFB displays it. What’s in FIS-B:

• NEXRAD radar — regional and conus composite, updated every ~2.5 minutes
• METARs — surface observations from airports along your route
• TAFs — terminal area forecasts
• PIREPs — pilot reports of actual conditions
• TFRs — temporary flight restrictions, updated in near-real-time
• AIR/SIGMETs, NOTAMs, winds aloft

All of this is free. No subscription. No satellite link. Just line-of-sight to an ADS-B ground tower, which you typically get at around 1,000 feet AGL or higher.

UAT Coverage Area: US and Canada

UAT (Universal Access Transceiver) is the North American standard for ADS-B below FL180. The ground tower network — including CIFIB (Canadian Infrastructure for Integrated Broadcast) towers — covers both the United States and Canada. If you’re flying anywhere in North American airspace below FL180, your UAT radio has coverage.

A note on altitude: FIS-B weather requires line-of-sight to a ground tower. On the ground or at very low altitude in a hangar, you won’t receive weather. That’s not a hardware problem — it’s geometry. Once you’re airborne and above the terrain masking, weather starts flowing in.

Signs Your UAT Radio Might Need Replacement

The CC1310 is a durable component, but it’s not immortal. Here’s what to watch for:

No FIS-B weather in flight

You’re cruising at 6,500 feet in an area with known ground station coverage, and your EFB weather layer is empty. Traffic might still be showing up (from 1090 MHz), but the weather tap has gone dry. That’s a UAT-specific problem.

Partial or inconsistent traffic

You’re seeing 1090 MHz traffic fine, but aircraft you know are UAT-equipped — low-altitude GA, Cessnas, Pipers — aren’t showing up. The UAT board may be under-performing.

Stratux won’t complete boot / shows UAT radio as failed

The Stratux web interface (accessible at 192.168.10.1 while connected) shows radio status. If the UAT radio shows as failed, errored, or simply absent, the hardware needs attention.

Physical damage to the board

The connector is a small u.FL jack. If it’s been yanked or stressed — maybe during a case swap or a rough landing bag — the board can fail intermittently, which is the most frustrating kind of failure to diagnose.

How to Replace It: A 10-Minute Job

This is one of the nicest things about the Stratux design. The UAT radio board isn’t soldered in. It’s a module with a standard u.FL connector, mounted in the case with small screws. Replacing it is straightforward:

1. Power off and unplug the Stratux unit completely.
2. Open the case — typically two to four screws on the bottom of the case, depending on which enclosure you’re using.
3. Locate the UAT radio board — it’s usually labeled, and the u.FL antenna connector is the small circular connector attached to the antenna wire.
4. Disconnect the antenna by gently pressing on the u.FL connector and pulling straight up. No tools needed; fingernail or a non-metallic spudger works fine. Do not use pliers — you’ll damage the connector.
5. Unscrew the board from its standoffs.
6. Install the new board, connect the antenna, and reassemble.
7. Boot the unit and check the web interface to confirm the UAT radio is recognized.

Total time: 10 minutes if you’ve done it before, 20 if it’s your first time and you’re being careful. No soldering. No firmware flashing. Plug and play.

Get the Replacement UAT Radio

The CC1310-based UAT radio board is available directly from Crew Dog Electronics. Same part that ships in our pre-built units — no compatibility guesswork, no sourcing random parts from eBay that may or may not be the right spec.

Stratux UAT Radio — $39.99 →

Also available on Amazon: amzn.to/3KgXiTY

If you’re not sure whether the UAT radio is your problem, start at the Stratux web interface — 192.168.10.1 while connected to the Stratux WiFi network. The status page will tell you exactly which radios are recognized and whether they’re operating normally. From there, it’s usually a clear diagnosis.

Your weather data is only as good as the radio receiving it. The CC1310 is a purpose-built chip, and a fresh one is a $40 fix that brings your whole weather picture back to life.

Why Open Source Matters in Aviation: The Stratux Story

In 2015, a pilot named Chris Young published a GitHub repository called Stratux. He’d built an ADS-B receiver from a Raspberry Pi, two RTL-SDR dongles, and some code he wrote himself — total hardware cost under $70. Commercial equivalents cost $500–800. Within weeks, thousands of pilots had downloaded the software and built their own. Within months, the FAA was receiving letters from the Stratux community. Within years, the project had changed how GA pilots think about cockpit technology.

That’s what open source does in aviation. And we’re still early.

The Problem Stratux Solved

The FAA’s ADS-B mandate (effective January 1, 2020) required ADS-B Out equipment in most controlled airspace. The rule created a massive new market for ADS-B In receivers — portable devices that let pilots receive traffic and weather data in the cockpit on their iPads and EFBs.

Commercial ADS-B In hardware is good equipment. But it’s priced for the avionics market, which historically means “whatever the market will bear.” The Garmin GDL 39 — one of the most popular commercial portable ADS-B receivers — retailed for $599 to $799 depending on variant. For a $30,000 used Cessna pilot flying 50 hours a year, that’s a significant barrier.

Stratux eliminated the price barrier. Not by cutting corners — by using commodity hardware (Raspberry Pi, RTL-SDR) that mass production had driven to near-zero cost, and by publishing open-source software that anyone could audit, modify, and improve.

What Open Source Actually Means for Safety

The avionics industry sometimes treats open source as a safety concern. The opposite is closer to true.

When Stratux has a bug, it’s fixed in public. Anyone can see the issue, see the proposed fix, and see the testing before the fix is merged. The Stratux GitHub repository has hundreds of contributors who’ve each inspected the code. This is a meaningfully different security model than proprietary firmware that one company controls and audits internally.

Proprietary firmware can have bugs too — bugs that the company discovers, patches quietly, and ships in an update without ever telling users what was wrong. Open source doesn’t allow this. Everything is visible.

For supplemental situational awareness tools (which is what Stratux is — non-certified, non-primary), this matters. The community of pilots using and testing Stratux is larger than the QA department at most avionics manufacturers. Real-world flight testing happens at scale.

The Right to Repair Your Own Equipment

If a commercial ADS-B receiver fails, you send it to the manufacturer (or more likely, buy a new one — repairs are often not economical). The hardware is proprietary, the firmware is proprietary, and you have no recourse if the company discontinues the product or exits the market.

Stratux is repairable at the component level. SDR dongle failed? $15 replacement on Amazon. Raspberry Pi toast? $35 for a new board. GPS module dead? $10. Every part is commodity hardware that’s available from multiple suppliers indefinitely. The firmware is on GitHub — it won’t disappear if a company gets acquired or decides to discontinue the product line.

For equipment you depend on in the cockpit, right to repair isn’t just an ideological position. It’s a practical reliability argument.

Community Knowledge vs. Corporate Knowledge

The Stratux community has produced a staggering amount of practical knowledge. Forum threads with thousands of responses. YouTube build guides. Setup walkthroughs for every major EFB app. Troubleshooting guides for edge cases that no commercial manufacturer would have documented.

This knowledge lives on the internet permanently. It’s indexed by search engines, linked from aviation forums, and available to any pilot who needs it. When you’re stuck at 11 PM the night before a long cross-country trying to figure out why Stratux isn’t showing traffic in ForeFlight, you’ll find the answer — because someone had the same problem three years ago and posted the solution.

That’s the other thing open source produces: a community. Stratux users aren’t just customers. They’re contributors. Builders. Testers. People who care about the project because they use it and because they can participate in making it better.

The Economics of Open Hardware

Stratux didn’t make aviation companies poorer. It grew the market. Pilots who built their own Stratux became EFB power users — they subscribed to ForeFlight, bought better iPad mounts, upgraded their headsets. The accessibility of ADS-B In data pulled in pilots who never would have paid commercial hardware prices.

This is how open source usually works in hardware markets. The free availability of the platform expands the ecosystem. More pilots using EFBs means more EFB subscriptions means more investment in EFB development means better tools for everyone.

Stratux Today

The Stratux project is active. The community maintains the firmware, adds features, and tests on real aircraft. Commercial variants — pre-built units for pilots who want the Stratux capability without the assembly — have emerged from companies like Crew Dog Electronics that believe in the open-source model and sell hardware that runs the same community firmware.

The Crew Dog Electronics catalog offers pre-built Stratux units for pilots who want ready-to-fly equipment built on the open-source platform. Same firmware, same community support, no soldering iron required.

What Comes Next

Open-source avionics is still early. Stratux solved the ADS-B In problem. The same model could address other GA pain points: weather displays, engine monitoring, autopilot interfaces. The Raspberry Pi hardware platform that powers Stratux is capable of much more than ADS-B.

The barrier to entry for open-source avionics hardware has never been lower. Commodity single-board computers, affordable SDRs, accessible programming languages, and a global community of makers who are also pilots. The next Stratux — whatever problem it solves — is probably being built in someone’s garage right now.

That’s worth caring about.

Most Stratux support questions start the same way: “It worked great on the ground and then…” Don’t be that pilot. A two-minute pre-flight check of your Stratux takes longer than reading this sentence but saves a lot of frustration 5,000 feet up.

These eight checks come directly from patterns our support team sees repeatedly. Work through them before your first flight — and again any time you haven’t flown with Stratux in a while. The Status page on your Stratux web interface (at 192.168.10.1) tells you almost everything you need to know.

1. Confirm GPS Lock Before You Move

Open the Stratux Status page and look for GPS position, altitude, and satellite count. You want 6+ satellites minimum; 10+ is ideal. The position should match your actual location — not 0,0 (somewhere in the Atlantic) or some random address across the country.

Why this matters: no GPS means no AHRS attitude data, no relative positioning for traffic, and your ownship won’t appear correctly in your EFB. Give Stratux 3–5 minutes after power-on to acquire satellites if you’re in a new location or haven’t used the unit in weeks.

2. Verify Traffic Reception

Even sitting at the ramp, you should see 1090 MHz messages on the Status page — transponder squawks from nearby aircraft, ground vehicles, anything that’s transmitting. If you have a dual-band unit, check 978 MHz UAT counts too (in the US).

If you see zero messages while sitting at a busy airport, something’s wrong: antenna connection, SDR, or settings. Fix it before you fly, not after.

3. Confirm Your EFB Actually Has Stratux Data

This is the one that catches people. Open your EFB app — ForeFlight®, Garmin Pilot, SkyDemon, WingX, whichever you use — and verify it shows “Stratux connected” or an equivalent status. Then verify your position is coming from Stratux, not the tablet’s internal GPS.

Most EFBs show a small GPS source indicator. If it says “internal” or shows your tablet’s cellular-assisted location instead of Stratux, the WiFi connection dropped silently. Reconnect and verify the source before you taxi.

Bonus check: see at least one traffic target in your EFB (even a ground vehicle with ADS-B Out). If you’re connected and seeing nothing, check whether your EFB is set to show traffic from external devices.

4. Set Your Region

On the Stratux Settings page, Region must be selected — not left at 0 or “not configured.” In the US: enable both 978 MHz UAT and 1090 MHz ES. In Canada and Europe: 1090 MHz ES, plus 868 MHz OGN if you have that hardware.

UAT coverage extends across Canada via CIFIB towers — pilots flying across the border don’t need to change hardware. But they do need the right region setting. Wrong region = wrong frequencies = no traffic where you expect it.

5. Enter Your Ownship Code (If You Have ADS-B Out)

If your aircraft has ADS-B Out, set your ownship ICAO 24-bit hex code in Stratux Settings. Without it, your own transponder appears as a nearby traffic target — a ghost following you at 0 feet separation, which is confusing and can mask real targets.

You can find your aircraft’s hex code by searching your tail number on any flight tracking website. It’s a 6-character hex string like A1B2C3. Enter it once; it stays in your Stratux configuration.

6. Check Power Before You Leave the Ramp

Stratux should have been running for at least 5 minutes before takeoff. On the Status page, check CPU temperature (below 70°C is fine) and make sure there are no power warnings. On the hardware, no red or blinking LEDs should be present.

Power cable quality matters more than people expect. A cable that’s marginal on the ground becomes a problem at cruise when vibration loosens the connection. Strain-relieve your USB cables before you fly; use at least a 2.5A power source, ideally 3A.

7. Calibrate AHRS in Its Flight Position

Stratux’s built-in AHRS — the attitude reference that drives synthetic vision in your EFB — is a remarkable $20 backup tool. It gives you pitch and roll when your primary instruments are unavailable. But it needs to be calibrated with the unit in its actual flight position, not sitting flat on a table.

Mount Stratux where it will fly. Then on the Settings page, tap “Set Level.” Do this once when you install the unit; repeat any time you change the mounting position or haven’t flown in a few months. A few seconds on the ground means accurate attitude data in the air.

8. Antenna Has Clear Sky View

ADS-B is line-of-sight. If your antennas are buried inside a metal structure — dashboard, door pocket, bag — reception suffers. Mount Stratux where the antennas have an unobstructed view upward. A suction cup mount on the glareshield, a kneeboard mount, or a seat bracket all work well.

While you’re at it: make sure USB cables are strain-relieved. A cable that pulls free in turbulence takes down your entire setup mid-flight. Secure them with a cable tie or velcro before you go.

After Your First Flight

When you land, spend 60 seconds on the Status page: were traffic messages received throughout the flight? Check your EFB track log — did it record a complete track? If AHRS attitude was drifting, recalibrate the sensor orientation via Settings → Calibrate AHRS before your next flight.

The Stratux community forums and the Crew Dog Electronics support team see most issues quickly. If something didn’t work right, bring your hardware specs, firmware version, and a description of the symptom — someone will recognize it.

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These checks cover the most common pre-flight gaps we see. They don’t replace your aircraft checklist or aeronautical judgment — Stratux is a situational awareness tool, not certified avionics. Fly the aircraft first, always.

Building a new Stratux? Crew Dog Electronics builds and sells complete, tested units ready to fly — no soldering required.

Your Raspberry Pi has no idea what time it is without an internet connection. The onboard clock drifts. If you’re running a homelab, doing ham radio APRS or FT8, or just want a reliable time source off the grid, you need real GPS time — not internet NTP.

The stack: a VK-162 USB GPS dongle feeds raw timing data to gpsd, which hands it off to chrony, which runs as a local Stratum 1 NTP server (adequate accuracy for LAN use — for sub-microsecond, you’d need PPS hardware). Every device on your network gets single-digit millisecond accuracy from GPS satellites. No internet required.

Yes, your $4 billion GPS constellation is now your Pi’s alarm clock. Setup takes about 10 minutes.

What You Need

• Raspberry Pi — any model with USB (3B, 3B+, 4, Zero 2W)
• VK-162 USB GPS dongle — u-blox chipset, plug-and-play on Linux, no drivers. Also available at Crew Dog Electronics.
• Raspberry Pi OS (Lite or Desktop — Debian-based)
• Sky view for the GPS: a window, or a USB extension to get the dongle closer to glass

Step 1: Install gpsd

gpsd reads raw NMEA data from your GPS and makes it available to other applications via shared memory.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install gpsd gpsd-clients -y

Plug in the VK-162 and find its device node:

ls /dev/ttyACM* /dev/ttyUSB* 2>/dev/null

VK-162 typically appears as /dev/ttyACM0 (CDC-ACM chipset) or /dev/ttyUSB0 (CP2102 variant). Note which one you see — use that in the config below.

Configure gpsd:

sudo nano /etc/default/gpsd

START_DAEMON="true"
GPSD_OPTIONS="-n"
DEVICES="/dev/ttyACM0"
USBAUTO="true"

Replace /dev/ttyACM0 with whatever appeared in your ls output. The -n flag tells gpsd to open the device immediately rather than waiting for a client — essential for chrony to get timing data at boot.

sudo systemctl enable gpsd
sudo systemctl start gpsd

Move the Pi near a window and verify:

cgps -s

You should see satellite data within 1–5 minutes. First fix after a cold start can take a few minutes depending on sky view. Once you see a valid latitude/longitude, gpsd is working.

Step 2: Install and Configure chrony

sudo apt install chrony -y

sudo nano /etc/chrony/chrony.conf

Add these lines at the top, before any pool entries. Then comment out or remove the default pool lines if you want GPS-only time (or keep them as internet fallback if you have connectivity):

# GPS via gpsd (NMEA — single-digit millisecond accuracy)
refclock SHM 0 refid GPS precision 1e-1 offset 0.9999 delay 0.2

# makestep: allow large clock steps on first 3 updates (handles stale Pi clock)
makestep 1 3

# Allow LAN clients to sync from this server
allow 192.168.0.0/24

# Comment out or remove these if using GPS-only (no internet):
# pool 0.debian.pool.ntp.org iburst
# pool 1.debian.pool.ntp.org iburst

About the offset value: 0.9999 is a temporary starting value that prevents chrony from immediately rejecting the GPS as a falseticker. After running for 10–15 minutes with a GPS fix, run:

chronyc sourcestats

Look at the Offset column for the GPS source. That’s your real measured offset — update the offset value in chrony.conf to match, then restart chrony. Typical USB GPS offset is 0.05–0.4 seconds.

sudo systemctl restart chrony

Step 3: Verify the Time Source

chronyc sources -v

Once GPS has a fix and chrony has synced, you’ll see an asterisk next to the GPS source:

MS Name/IP address    Stratum Poll Reach LastRx Last sample
=============================================================
#* GPS                      0   4   377    11  +12ms[+11ms] +/- 95ms

The # means local reference, * means selected as primary. After offset calibration you’ll typically see single-digit milliseconds — vastly better than a drifting Pi clock with no reference at all.

chronyc tracking

Look for Reference ID : GPS. That’s your Stratum 1 NTP server.

Step 4: Point LAN Clients at the Pi

Linux (chrony):

sudo nano /etc/chrony/chrony.conf
# Add:
server 192.168.0.X iburst prefer

Windows:

w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:"192.168.0.X" /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:YES /update
net stop w32time && net start w32time
w32tm /resync

macOS: The GUI no longer supports custom NTP servers easily. Use Terminal:

sudo sntp -sS 192.168.0.X

Common Issues

cgps shows no data / no fix

The VK-162 needs a clear sky view. Move it to a window, or run a USB extension cable to get the dongle closer to glass. Cold start (first fix after moving locations) takes 2–5 minutes.

GPS appears in sources but no asterisk

Chrony is conservative about promoting a new source. Give it 10–15 minutes after first GPS fix. If it still won’t select GPS, confirm cgps -s shows a valid fix and that gpsd is running (systemctl status gpsd).

gpsd not starting after reboot

USBAUTO="true" handles USB enumeration timing. If gpsd still starts before the device appears, add a ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 3 line to the gpsd systemd unit override.

Ham Radio Use Cases

GPS time sync earns its keep in digital modes that depend on precise timing:

• FT8 / WSJT-X: Requires system clock within ±1 second (±0.5s recommended for reliable decoding). A drifting Pi clock breaks FT8 off-grid. GPS fixes this permanently.
• APRS with Direwolf: Accurate position timestamps and beacon timing. See our VK-162 APRS setup guide for the full Direwolf stack.
• WSPR: Transmission windows are 2-minute aligned — GPS keeps you on the correct window without internet dependency.

The Hardware

The VK-162 USB GPS uses a u-blox 7 chipset — well-supported by gpsd, plug-and-play on any Debian-based Linux, no driver installation needed. Plug it in, /dev/ttyACM0 or /dev/ttyUSB0 appears, done.

A note on accuracy: USB GPS over NMEA gives you single-digit millisecond accuracy after offset calibration. That’s more than adequate for NTP, FT8, APRS, and general homelab time sync. If you need sub-microsecond accuracy (financial systems, precision test equipment), you’d need a GPS module with a PPS output wired to a GPIO pin — a different project and a different class of hardware.

Summary

• Install gpsd, configure /etc/default/gpsd with your device path and -n flag
• Install chrony, add refclock SHM 0 with makestep 1 3 and your allow subnet; calibrate the offset after first run
• Verify with cgps -s (GPS fix) and chronyc sources (GPS selected with asterisk)
• Point LAN clients to the Pi’s IP — your $15 GPS dongle is now a Stratum 1 NTP server

Problem 1: iPad Keeps Disconnecting from Stratux Wi-Fi

This is the most common complaint, and it has a completely fixable cause.

Root Cause A — Screen Dimming and Auto-Lock

When your iPad screen dims or auto-locks, iOS aggressively manages Wi-Fi connections to save battery. If Stratux Wi-Fi isn’t actively transferring data when the screen goes dark, iOS can drop the connection.

Fix: During flight, disable auto-lock. Go to Settings → Display & Brightness → Auto-Lock → Never. This is a pre-flight habit, not a hardware issue.

Root Cause B — 2.4 GHz Interference

Crowded airports, FBOs, and some cockpit setups have RF noise on 2.4 GHz. Stratux broadcasts on 2.4 GHz by default.

Fix: Make sure your iPad is only connected to the Stratux network — not simultaneously trying to reconnect to a nearby airport or FBO Wi-Fi. Forget any competing networks before flight. On some setups, repositioning Stratux closer to the iPad makes a measurable difference in connection stability.

Root Cause C — USB Power Issue Causing Intermittent Reboot

If Stratux is rebooting mid-flight, your iPad will lose the connection and reconnect each time. You might not notice the reboot if you’re heads-down.

Fix: Check your power supply. The Raspberry Pi 4 can draw up to 3 amps at peak. Cheap USB cables and underpowered battery banks cause undervoltage events that restart the Pi silently. Use a quality cable and a battery bank rated at 3A output or higher.

Problem 2: GPS Won’t Lock

If Stratux is showing “No GPS Fix” or it takes more than 5 minutes to lock, these are the usual suspects.

Root Cause A — The GPS Module Can’t See the Sky

USB GPS dongles (including the VK-162) need a clear view of the sky to acquire satellites. Inside a metal-roofed cockpit or under an instrument panel, you might only have a partial sky view.

Fix: Position the GPS module near a window — even touching the windscreen works. If you’re getting intermittent locks only in certain seat positions, that’s your diagnostic. For a permanent solution, a remote-mount antenna with an SMA extension cable lets you position the antenna puck on the glareshield where it has a full sky view.

Root Cause B — Cold Start After Long Storage

After weeks without use, the GPS module has lost its last-known satellite positions. First lock after a long break can take 3–5 minutes.

Fix: Power on Stratux while you’re still in the pattern, not in the run-up area. Let it acquire satellites during preflight — by the time you’re taxiing, it’ll have a fix.

Root Cause C — gpsd Not Running on the Stratux

Occasionally the GPS daemon on Stratux doesn’t start correctly after boot.

Fix: Open the Stratux web interface (go to 192.168.10.1 in your browser while connected to Stratux Wi-Fi). Check the GPS status indicator. If it shows “No GPS” even after several minutes outside with sky view, do a soft-reboot via the web UI and let it restart fully.

Problem 3: Not Seeing ADS-B Traffic

Before assuming something’s broken, it’s worth understanding what “no traffic” can mean.

Root Cause A — You’re Outside UAT Tower Coverage

Stratux receives two ADS-B frequencies: 1090 MHz (ES, aircraft-to-aircraft worldwide) and 978 MHz (UAT, US only, requires FAA towers). UAT weather and ground-based traffic rebroadcast only work within range of a tower.

Fix: If you’re flying VFR cross-country and you lose FIS-B weather and UAT traffic, you may have simply left a tower’s footprint. This is normal. 1090 ES traffic from aircraft transponders will still display — those are direct aircraft-to-aircraft, no towers needed.

Root Cause B — Traffic Layer Not Enabled in Your EFB

Every EFB has its own layer controls. Traffic doesn’t show up by default on all of them.

Fix: In ForeFlight®: tap Maps → Layers → Traffic and make sure it’s toggled on. In Garmin Pilot: check the map settings for the traffic overlay. If you can see the Stratux in your EFB’s “Devices” or “Connected” section but traffic isn’t showing, it’s almost always a display layer setting.

Root Cause C — SDR Dongle Not Seated Correctly

The software-defined radio dongle that receives ADS-B signals has a USB connection that can come loose during turbulence or from handling.

Fix: Open the Stratux web interface and check the ES and UAT receive counts. If both are zero and you know you’re in range of traffic, power Stratux down, reseat both SDR dongles, and restart. A quick tug-and-reseat fixes this 90% of the time.

Problem 4: Stratux Shows GPS Fix But No Traffic in ForeFlight

This one trips up a lot of pilots. The connection looks established, but ForeFlight® only shows attitude (synthetic vision) — not traffic or weather.

Root cause: ForeFlight® connected in AHRS-only mode. Some GDL 90 devices have a handshake sequence — ForeFlight® can connect to Stratux and receive AHRS data before the traffic stream fully initializes.

Fix: Check the Stratux web UI. Look at the ES and UAT receive counts — they should be incrementing if there are aircraft in your area. If counts are climbing but ForeFlight® still shows no traffic, close and reopen the ForeFlight® app while staying connected to Stratux Wi-Fi. This forces it to re-initialize the full GDL 90 data stream.

Problem 5: Stratux Works, Then Stops Mid-Flight

Root Cause A — Heat

The Raspberry Pi 4 will throttle and eventually restart if it gets too hot. In direct sunlight on a glareshield, it can hit thermal limits in under 30 minutes.

Fix: Keep Stratux out of direct sun. Under a seat, on a console, or anywhere with airflow and shade works. If your aircraft runs hot in the cabin, a small USB fan aimed at the Stratux vents can help. The case is designed for airflow — don’t block it.

Root Cause B — Power Supply Under Load

Cold weather, long flights, and power-hungry USB accessories can push your battery bank to its limits.

Fix: Check the Stratux web interface for any undervoltage warnings. If you’re seeing intermittent restarts on longer flights, upgrade to a higher-capacity battery bank and verify your USB cable is rated for 3A.

When Nothing Works

If you’ve worked through all of this and something’s still broken, you’re not out of options.

The Stratux community is active and well-documented. The GitHub issues page has solutions for edge cases that would take hours to find elsewhere. The Discord community has pilots and builders who’ve seen most failure modes.

And because every component in Stratux is replaceable, a hardware failure is never a total loss. SDR dongles, GPS modules, Raspberry Pi boards, and cases are all available separately. If the GPS fails, you replace the GPS — not the whole unit.

Replacement parts and accessories are available at our Amazon store if you need them.

Still stuck? Leave a comment below. We read everything and answer the ones we can.

There’s a question that comes up every time someone compares Stratux to a sealed ADS-B receiver: “Aren’t they basically the same thing?”

The hardware does similar things. The price is similar. But the philosophy isn’t.

Open source means the code that runs in your cockpit is public. Anyone can read it, audit it, improve it, and build on it. That’s not a selling point — it’s a structural property. If a bug is found, any developer in the community can fix it. If a feature is missing, any developer in the community can add it. If the company that built the hardware disappears tomorrow, the software lives on.

Sealed devices can’t say that.

Repairability Isn’t a Feature — It’s a Commitment

Stratux is built around components you can replace. SDR dongles. GPS modules. Antennas. The Raspberry Pi at the core. Every piece is available, documented, and swappable. When something breaks — and in aviation, things break — you fix it. You don’t throw it away and buy a new one.

This is what we mean by “the Framework Laptop of aviation.” Framework became famous for making laptops repairable. The aviation equivalent has been overdue.

Think about what that means in practical terms. Five years from now, a sealed ADS-B receiver might be obsolete. No parts. No support. The manufacturer has moved on. Your Stratux, on the other hand, is built on standard hardware you can find on Amazon for under $15. A failed GPS module is a Tuesday afternoon project, not a $400 equipment replacement.

Right-to-repair isn’t a political stance. In aviation, it’s a safety argument.

No Vendor Lock-In

Open source software means your data, your config, and your setup belong to you. There’s no subscription to cancel. No firmware update that silently removes a feature. No end-of-support date that bricks working hardware.

What you build, you keep.

That matters in a cockpit where the rules are already complicated enough. Your Stratux will work with the EFB you have today and the one you switch to in three years. It works with ForeFlight®, Garmin Pilot, WingX, AvPlan, SkyDemon — any app that reads GDL 90 traffic and weather. No proprietary handshake. No exclusive compatibility list. Standards-based from the ground up.

Built by Pilots and Makers, Together

Stratux started as a community project on GitHub. It still is. The people who fly with it are the same people filing issues, testing builds, and writing documentation. That’s not marketing — it’s a development model.

When a pilot reported that GPS lock was slow at high altitude, the community investigated and shipped a fix. When a flight school wanted to run Stratux on multiple aircraft simultaneously, developers worked out the configuration. When someone found a bug in the AHRS calculation, a pull request fixed it in days — not months, not “your support contract doesn’t cover that.”

This is what an open community looks like when it’s working. The hardware gets better because the people using it have the access to make it better.

AHRS: A $20 Synthetic Vision Backup

Stratux includes an AHRS (Attitude and Heading Reference System) sensor. This gives your EFB pitch, roll, and heading data — enabling synthetic vision on your moving map without a certified ADAHRS system costing thousands of dollars.

It’s a backup aid, not certified avionics. Say that plainly and it’s still remarkable: for $379, you get ADS-B In traffic, weather, and a synthetic vision backup for your tablet. Treated as what it is — an enhancement to your situational awareness, not a replacement for your primary instruments — it earns its place in the cockpit.

The open-source architecture means if the AHRS performance on your specific aircraft could be improved, you can dig into the configuration. Calibration guides live in the community wiki. Edge cases get documented. Nothing is a black box.

Who This Is For

Not everyone needs open source avionics. If you want something sealed in a box, fully supported, and you’re comfortable with that tradeoff — that’s a legitimate choice.

But if you’re the kind of pilot who wants to understand what’s running in your cockpit, who’d rather fix something than replace it, who thinks the right to repair your own equipment shouldn’t require a lawyer — Stratux was built for you.

The GA community has always been full of builders and tinkerers. The original homebuilders. The guys who fab their own parts. The folks who know their aircraft better than any shop. Stratux fits that tradition. Open source isn’t a workaround. For a lot of pilots, it’s the point.

Get Started

The pre-built Stratux is available at [Crew Dog Electronics](https://crewdogelectronics.com/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=identity-page) — ready to fly out of the box, no configuration required. If you want to build your own, the GitHub repository and community documentation are public and free.

Either way, what you’re getting isn’t just a receiver. It’s a piece of hardware with a philosophy behind it — one that assumes you’re smart enough to own what you buy.

*Status: DRAFT COMPLETE — 870 words | Pre-publish checklist: verify /why-open-source/ URL, add internal links to B17 (setup guide) + B18 (buyer’s guide), confirm RankMath keyword (“open source ADS-B”), generate DALL-E featured image before publish.*
*Scheduled: Pre-publish checklist Mar 8 | Publish Mar 10*

Will It Work With Your EFB?

Yes — and that’s the right question to ask first.

Stratux is compatible with ForeFlight®, Garmin Pilot, FlyQ, WingX, and Avare. The connection is dead simple: Stratux creates its own Wi-Fi network, your iPad or iPhone connects to it, and your EFB sees it as an ADS-B source. No dongles, no pairing codes, no app store download required beyond whatever EFB you already use.

ForeFlight® is by far the most common setup. If that’s what you’re flying with, you’re set. Full walkthrough here: How to Set Up Stratux ADS-B for the First Time.

(Note: ForeFlight® is a registered trademark of ForeFlight LLC. Stratux is compatible with ForeFlight — not affiliated or endorsed.)

What You Actually Get

At $379, the prebuilt Stratux from our US store ships as a ready-to-fly unit. A Raspberry Pi, software-defined radio dongle(s), GPS module, and AHRS sensor in a case. You plug it in, connect to the Wi-Fi, and your EFB starts showing traffic and weather. That’s it.

What it delivers in the cockpit:

• ADS-B traffic — aircraft broadcasting ADS-B Out show up on your EFB map
• FIS-B weather — NEXRAD, METARs, TAFs, TFRs, PIREPs — all free, FAA-provided, no subscription
• GPS position — feeds your EFB for moving map even without cellular
• AHRS — attitude data for synthetic vision on your EFB (more on this below)

“Open source” isn’t just a tech detail — it matters for you as a buyer. The Stratux community has been improving this software for over a decade. There’s no company that can decide to discontinue the product, lock you to a subscription, or push an update that breaks your setup without warning. You own the hardware. You own the software. That’s unusual in avionics.

The $449 kit option is for those who want to build their own. Either way, nothing is sealed. Every component is user-replaceable. It’s been called the Framework Laptop of aviation — the analogy holds.

What It Won’t Do

This section is the one most buyer guides skip. We’re not skipping it.

ADS-B Out: Stratux does not transmit. It only receives. If you’re flying in Class B, C, or above 10,000 feet MSL in Class E, you need ADS-B Out from a certified transponder or standalone transmitter. Stratux won’t satisfy that requirement. This is the most common misconception — worth being completely clear on.

Certified weather: FIS-B is FAA-provided real weather data, but Stratux is not a certified avionics system. Use it as a supplemental tool alongside certified sources in actual IMC. This is the same limitation that applies to any ADS-B In portable — Stratux isn’t unique here.

AHRS — what it is and isn’t: Stratux includes attitude data (pitch, roll, yaw) from an onboard sensor. For the cost of roughly $20 in components, you get a real synthetic vision backup on your EFB. That’s remarkable. It’s not a certified attitude indicator and shouldn’t be treated as primary — but as a backup awareness tool during unusual attitude recovery or vacuum system failure, pilots consistently find it useful. For best results: mount it level, away from RF interference sources, and let it settle before takeoff.

SiriusXM weather: Stratux uses FIS-B only. No subscription weather streaming.

Pilots respect honesty more than marketing spin. These are the limitations. They’re the same limitations any portable ADS-B receiver has — Stratux is just up-front about them.

The Setup Reality

The “Raspberry Pi” part makes some pilots nervous. It shouldn’t.

When you buy the prebuilt unit, the Pi is pre-configured. It boots automatically when powered. You don’t touch a command line. You don’t install anything. The process is: power it on, connect your iPad to its Wi-Fi network, open ForeFlight — done. Most pilots are looking at traffic and weather in under 20 minutes from opening the box.

The community around Stratux is genuinely active — Discord, GitHub, years of documented answers to common questions. Compare that to calling a tech support line and navigating a phone tree for a sealed device. Open source wins on support, even if it sounds counterintuitive.

Powering it is portable: any USB battery bank works. Mount options range from suction cup to kneeboard to panel mount — pilots have figured out every cockpit configuration imaginable.

Where It Sits in the Market

We’re not going to tell you every other receiver is garbage. That’s not our style, and you’re smart enough to do your own research.

What we will say: as of early 2026, sealed entry-level commercial ADS-B receivers start around $399. Stratux at $379 sits in the same price tier. The difference isn’t the sticker — it’s what happens in year three when something breaks. Replace a $15 GPS module or buy a new $400 device? That’s not a price argument. That’s a right-to-repair argument.

For pilots who want a detailed head-to-head breakdown, our FlightBox V3 vs. Stratux comparison covers the specifics.

One more number worth keeping in mind: a ForeFlight® subscription runs $200/year. Stratux is a one-time hardware purchase on gear you own outright. The math works in your favor pretty fast.

How to Get Started

Two paths:

Buy prebuilt. The Crew Dog Electronics Stratux ships from our Amazon store, ready to fly. Pick one up here — Dual Band is the one most pilots want (traffic from both 978 MHz UAT and 1090 MHz ES aircraft).

Kit builders. The GitHub repo is live, community is active, and the build documentation is thorough. If you enjoy this kind of project, it’s a weekend well spent.

Either way, your next stop after unboxing: Set up Stratux in 20 minutes →

Questions? Crew Dog Discord — real pilots, real answers.

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Crew Dog Electronics sells prebuilt Stratux units and components. We’re the team behind crewdogelectronics.com — based in the US, shipping to US and Canada.