Wow. It’s hard to believe that it’s already March 8. An amazing amount has happened in the past six weeks. The Kickstarter launched, reached its minimum goal, and concluded. We launched a new web store (huge thanks to Shopify for making that relatively painless). We endured the agonizing two week wait for the money from Kickstarter. We ordered another $20,000+ in parts using personal credit cards. Last Thursday the Kickstarter funds finally arrived. (Yay!) Today we got confirmation that the last of the major components – the wifi adapters and Raspberry Pis – have shipped.
Last week the VK-172 USB GPS modules arrived – in full retail packaging. My wife and daughter helped me remove them from the packaging, then “shell” them – removing the plastic housing. I now have a box containing 500 GPSs, all tested to make sure that they boot. A random sampling of roughly 10% have been tested to make sure that they achieve a 3D GPS lock. So far – kudos to the nameless Chinese company who makes the VK-172 – they’ve all passed.
This past weekend was all about the fans. The 40mm x 10mm cooling fans arrived (as expected) without a connector. I spent several hours trimming, stripping, crimping and shrouding. (It really is far less sexy than it sounds.) At this point I have about 100 of the 1000 fans prepped for use in FlightBox. If there’s anything that intimidates me about this process it’s the thought of another 900 fans, waiting to be trimmed, stripped, crimped and shrouded. This is going to take a while. Fortunately, it’s the kind of work you can do in front of the TV in the evening.
The next few weeks look to include much of the same. But… I went ahead and booked an AirBNB and a rental car for Fun-N-Sun. It’s about 9 hours flight time from KC to Lakeland in the Tiger, and I’m looking forward to it. We’ve arranged to exhibit as a partner in the Avilution / Droid EFB booth. Sun-N-Fun is good pre for the madness of Oshkosh, so it will give me some idea of what to expect. If you’re going to be at the show, please stop by and say hello. I’ll be demoing FlightBox, talking Stratux, and (if we have any units in stock), selling kits. It should be a good time.
For everyone who’s ordered through the Kickstarter or on the web store prior to now – we expect to ship your FlightBox kit in March. Keep an eye on this blog and / or the Kickstarter updates page for the latest. Thanks to everyone for their enthusiasm and their patience. We’re doing our best to get you an outstanding product as quickly as we can.
Best Regards,
Steve
Thanks for the updates. Really appreciate all your effort in pulling the components together. Wish I lived closer. I’d be at your place watching TV & helping out.
Larry
Portland, OR
Ditto on “Thank You” for the updates.
Good to see the FlightBox done by a
“Tiger” driver. Cheers! N4542V
All of my radio modules are also in full retail packaging, so of course they don’t all fit on the RPi. What is your technique for “shelling” them?
Anxiously awaiting my case and fan… 🙂
Your technique worked great, thanks! I found it easiest to dig in around the antenna connector on the radios. You’re right, the GPS is harder, but digging in near the USB connector worked fine.
Can the Raspberry Pi 3 be use with the same software? With the built in WIFI and Bluetooth and faster CPU.
Yay, my box and fan arrived today! Assembly time. I’ll post again with how it went.
Okay, the box went together perfectly. The assembly video was very clear. Note: I purchased only the box and the fan, since I had everything else already. Or so I thought… The only issue I ran into is that the antennas that came with the radios do not fit into the pigtails that I bought. Fortunately Steve arranged for there to be extra holes perfectly lined up with the radios so that I could temporarily use the antennas, mounts and cables that came with the radios. Steve, could you either sell me just the antennas, or give me part numbers so that I can find them on Amazon? Thanks!
A very happy customer…… 🙂
Video is well done! Looking forward to the assembly.
Perhaps add a bit on connecting to external battery (placement & thoughts)
or charger limitations?
A question – will there be postal tracking when shipped?
Cheers!
I’m hoping mine will arrive before this Saturday, I’ve got a cross country planned and want to play with it.
Hello,
when moving to the Ras Pi 3, will the extra USB slot be used for another feature/option in the near future?
Ordered mine today (I just heard about you guys and I told a friend who also ordered his).
Got my order in for the dual-radio model end of March – hope to see it soon. Re; the -Pi. Any chance you’ll be using the Pi-3 with built-in wi-fi and blue tooth? OR, will the data card work, if I swap out the Pi later? THANKS for doing this!
Cannot get on to the url page that starts with 198 is it working
I would like to purchase a one Chanel unit but I need it to be 1090Mhz ES not the UAT.
Is it possible to Aquire the Flightbox in that configuration?
Thanks Steve,
I am still unsure, do I purchase the dual unit or the single unit with only the 1090Mhz receiver fitted?
Regards Andrew
Steve, I have one of your units. How much amperage do you need from the USB adapter to power the unit?
Gene
Steve,
I talked to you at SnF and now have some questions regarding the Flightbox.
1) Are you planning on upgrading soon to the newer Pi3 instead of the Pi2? Programing problems sorted out yet?
2) Do you need a ground plane in the box for the antennas?
3) Is there a need for a ADS-B filter installed?
4) What method is there for shutdown of the system? Disconnect the power supply the only shutdown? Will that damage the components or corrupt the program?
This is a steep learning curve for me but I am trying to grasp all the technology!
Thanks, Lars
It’s a relief to find sonmoee who can explain things so well
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