I wanted to report back here. I got the parts I ordered from Amazon in a couple of days and tossed everything together, did a quick download of the OS and installed it on the SD Ram. Powered it up and it worked like a charm. I did some test flights with it over the previous weekend and it works pretty good. In the remote area I live in, until I got up over 2000 AGL I was only getting one tower, but more populated as I climbed on up.
I'm looking forward to the next gen software/hardware that will add AHRS and pressure barometer to the mix. This thing is pretty cool!

I ordered my parts and have been going thru the source code.
I havent written anything in Go before but it's a pretty straight forward language. I might try adding AHRS in my ample free time

I've been working on one of these for a couple of weeks (damn, toddlers consume a ton of time!), and I flight-tested it yesterday. It definitely works! About 10 miles east of Corvallis at 3500', I picked up two towers at one point and got a few traffic reports. I'm sure there were more planes about, but I wasn't sending ADS-B out, so the secondary radar contacts weren't being transmitted to me.





I went overboard on the power supply. I used a Li-po battery from RC planes and a switching regulator to take the (nominal) 7 volts down to the 5 that everything is expecting. Also, I have a current-sensing load distribution device, but that's just there for me to experiment with.

hpux735 wrote:I've been working on one of these for a couple of weeks (damn, toddlers consume a ton of time!), and I flight-tested it yesterday. It definitely works!

I just picked up the NooElec dongle for $20 works great! I'm using Avare on my Galaxy Note 4. What all components are you using? Does it allow for Bluetooth? Currently, I'm plugged directly into the phones USB port via USB OTG. The dongle drains my phone battery fairly quick...

TradeCraft wrote:

hpux735 wrote:I've been working on one of these for a couple of weeks (damn, toddlers consume a ton of time!), and I flight-tested it yesterday. It definitely works!

I just picked up the NooElec dongle for $20 works great! I'm using Avare on my Galaxy Note 4. What all components are you using? Does it allow for Bluetooth? Currently, I'm plugged directly into the phones USB port via USB OTG. The dongle drains my phone battery fairly quick...

For the Wi-Fi dongle, I used this one http://www.adafruit.com/products/814 from adafruit.

For the power regulator, I used something basically like this http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__ ... _21v_.html and a lithium battery like this http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__ ... ruck_.html I'm not at all saying that's the best way to do it, but I used to do a lot of r/c flying, so I had all that stuff lying around. The 1.3 Ah 7-volt pack runs my device for about 2.5 hours, so depending on your mission, I'd get at least a 3Ah pack.

I'm making another one for my brother right now that is a lot more compact.

Also, I installed the GPS with gyroscope, accelerometer, and compass but I haven't tested that at all. In theory, it's supposed to support the synthetic vision feature eventually. I think the ahars stuff is yet to be finished.

hpux735 wrote:

TradeCraft wrote:

hpux735 wrote:I've been working on one of these for a couple of weeks (damn, toddlers consume a ton of time!), and I flight-tested it yesterday. It definitely works!

I just picked up the NooElec dongle for $20 works great! I'm using Avare on my Galaxy Note 4. What all components are you using? Does it allow for Bluetooth? Currently, I'm plugged directly into the phones USB port via USB OTG. The dongle drains my phone battery fairly quick...

For the Wi-Fi dongle, I used this one http://www.adafruit.com/products/814 from adafruit.

For the power regulator, I used something basically like this http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__ ... _21v_.html and a lithium battery like this http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__ ... ruck_.html I'm not at all saying that's the best way to do it, but I used to do a lot of r/c flying, so I had all that stuff lying around. The 1.3 Ah 7-volt pack runs my device for about 2.5 hours, so depending on your mission, I'd get at least a 3Ah pack.

I'm making another one for my brother right now that is a lot more compact.

Also, I installed the GPS with gyroscope, accelerometer, and compass but I haven't tested that at all. In theory, it's supposed to support the synthetic vision feature eventually. I think the ahars stuff is yet to be finished.

Thanks for the info! I discovered the reddit page dedicated to this. Found a 3d printable case that my local maker shop is printing right now. Also have the GPS chip on order. I'll throw some pics up when I get rolling on this.