Sat May 22, 2021 5:22 pm
#1848555
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THIS, THEN YOU PROBABLY NEED TO READ THE LAST POST, FIRST.
I thought I would share my experiences with SoftRF, which gives either a FLARM, OGN Tracker, FANET or PAW transmit/receive capability (you can only select one at a time) for less than £50. You have to order the bits yourself, but it’s been relatively straightforward to but together and update the software. Details are here: https://github.com/lyusupov/SoftRF
I put together the Prime Mk II as it looked the easiest of all. Here it is next to my SkyEcho2 to give you an idea of size.
I used the TTGO T-Beam V1.0 circuit board (£25 on eBay) and replaced the 1.5dB antenna that came with it for a 3dB helicoil antenna (£9 on EBay) - it screws on and off the SMA connector easy enough. I bought an 18650 rechargeable battery for £5 (local shop), which seems to give it 6hrs+ on a single charge, and I bought a 3D printed box through Treatstock.co.uk (£8). Total cost was £47 all in.
The TTGO T-Beam circuit boards ship with the SoftRF software onboard, so there is no need to load anything if you don’t want. My V1.0 board was old stock and had RC8 firmware, and I saw that RC9 released recently - so I decided I should try the firmware upgrade. Again, it was relatively straightforward and I now run the latest RC9.
I’ll add my findings in the next post...
I thought I would share my experiences with SoftRF, which gives either a FLARM, OGN Tracker, FANET or PAW transmit/receive capability (you can only select one at a time) for less than £50. You have to order the bits yourself, but it’s been relatively straightforward to but together and update the software. Details are here: https://github.com/lyusupov/SoftRF
I put together the Prime Mk II as it looked the easiest of all. Here it is next to my SkyEcho2 to give you an idea of size.
I used the TTGO T-Beam V1.0 circuit board (£25 on eBay) and replaced the 1.5dB antenna that came with it for a 3dB helicoil antenna (£9 on EBay) - it screws on and off the SMA connector easy enough. I bought an 18650 rechargeable battery for £5 (local shop), which seems to give it 6hrs+ on a single charge, and I bought a 3D printed box through Treatstock.co.uk (£8). Total cost was £47 all in.
The TTGO T-Beam circuit boards ship with the SoftRF software onboard, so there is no need to load anything if you don’t want. My V1.0 board was old stock and had RC8 firmware, and I saw that RC9 released recently - so I decided I should try the firmware upgrade. Again, it was relatively straightforward and I now run the latest RC9.
I’ll add my findings in the next post...
Last edited by gaznav on Wed May 26, 2021 11:10 pm, edited 3 times in total.