Stratux Europe Edition 1.6r1-eu024 PREVIEW

[b3nn0]

Quite a significant update with many under-the-hood improvements, but also quite a few bug fixes and some user facing changes.
As the under the hood changes are so significant, this release is labeled as a preview release. However, I don't expect any new major bugs - it has been running quite stable for me for a while.

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<0x20S>".
• 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

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

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: brcmfmac: brcmf_parse_vndr_ies: invalid vndr ie. length is too small 4 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.

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO CLEAR YOUR BROWSER CACHE AFTER INSTALLING THE NEW VERSION!

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This discussion was created from the release Stratux Europe Edition 1.6r1-eu024 PREVIEW.

[rgutlon]

I've now flown with the 1.6r1-eu024 PREVIEW release twice and it's worked flawlessly (Pi 3B w/ 1090 & 978 SDRs). Thanks for all the effort behind this update.

[FreakwantFlyer]

I can confirm, perfect edition. Many thanks for all your efforts!

[b3nn0]

Good to hear! It has now been released as final (with minor additional changes)