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Prime Edition MkIII

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Linar Yusupov edited this page Nov 16, 2024 · 79 revisions


Prime Edition Mark III is a direct successor of SoftRF Prime Edition Mark II.

It is supposed to require minimal skills from a builder to begin with and gives an opportunity to evaluate if the SoftRF technology is appropriate for your needs.

Prime Edition Mark III is based upon a partner's hardware - LilyGO® T-Beam Supreme board, which is available for direct purchase from manufacturer at more or less reasonable price.


Compatibility 1

Type Protocol FLARM OGN tracker PilotAware Skytraxx SoftRF
Radio FLARM AIR V6

 

OGNTP

 

P3I

 

FANET+

 

SRD 860
ADS-L

Data FLARM NMEA

  Garmin GDL90

 

Dump1090  

1 - it is necessary for a reader to distinguish the difference between statement "compatible" and statement "fully compatible".
     SoftRF implements only a reasonable minimum of the protocols specs. No "bells and whistles" so far.

Certificates

Effective from August 20 of year 2024 the LilyGO T-Beam Supreme has the following certificate of compliance :

and effective from August 21 of year 2024 the product has these certificates as well :

Supreme vs Classic

These are the pictures of a T-Beam Classic and T-Beam Supreme, side by side.

Front view


Rear view


T-Beam Classic Supreme
First appearance 2018 2023
SoC ESP32 ESP32-S3
LF clock source 32K XTAL
Flash memory 4 MB 8 MB
PSRAM 8 MB 8 MB
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.2 Classic and LE 5 LE only
sub-1GHz radio SX1276 or SX1262 SX1262
PMU AXP192 AXP2101
Battery 18650 Li-Ion 18650 Li-Ion
GNSS Ublox NEO-6 or NEO-8 Ublox M10 or Quectel L76K
Display optional 0.96" OLED built-in 1.3" OLED
USB 2.0 FS
Client/Host
Air pressure sensor BME280 2
IMU QMI8658
Magnetometer QMC6310
RTC PCF8563
Card micro-SD (SPI only)

2 - some of the LilyGO® T-Beam product variants may not have the pressure sensor. If you need it - make sure that the option is selected in your order.

Air pressure option

SoftRF operates with Pressure Altitude that belongs to the International Standard Atmosphere (ISA) definition.

The values from (optional) Bosch air pressure sensor are in use for:

  1. reporting of your aircraft climb or descent rate over radio. So other traffic will be able to anticipate convergence with you and make an avoidance maneuver well in advance ; 3
  2. reporting of your aircraft Pressure Altitude and climb/descent rate over NMEA or GDL90 data protocols to an application software connected to your Prime MkIII, such as: XCSoar, LK8000, ForeFlight, Avare, SkyDemon, etc... ;
  3. reporting of your aircraft Pressure Altitude on the Baro screen. This value can be used as the altitude backup source when your primary instrument is inoperative ;
  4. reporting of the atmosphere pressure value on the Baro screen. You can monitor it while on the ground to anticipate any upcoming weather change.

Is it a lot? Probably, not much...
However, the sensor option costs only a fraction of the T-Beam full price. It is up to you to decide - does this option has a worth for you or it does not.

3 - some of the radio protocols do not support climb/descent rate reporting.

Disclaimer

SoftRF firmware for Prime Edition Mark III is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Author of SoftRF firmware:

  • will reject any hardware related claims associated with TTGO T-Beam board. Ask for support from seller or manufacturer ;
  • reserves the right to suspend or terminate support of TTGO T-Beam in the firmware at any time.

For the time being ( Feb '23 ) there were no critical hardware issues reported for current version of the T-Beam board. However things my change over the time...
If you have issues with bringing up your new T-Beam or just not happy with the board - be prepared to execute your Purchase Protection plan.

Bill of materials

Required

Number Part Qty Picture Source
1 LilyGO®
T-Beam Supreme
V3.0 4 5 		1 AliExpress 1 2 3
Banggood
LilyGO Store
Alibaba
Taobao

4 - 868 MHz variant is applicable for these world regions: EU, RU, NZ, SA, IN ;
     915 MHz - US, CA, AU, IL, KR ;
     433 MHz - CN .
5 - avoid purchasing of the T-Beam Supreme with pre-installed 'Meshtastic' unless you want to install the SoftRF firmware by yourself.

Recommended

Number Part Qty Picture Source
2 Antenna
868 MHz 4 		1 EBay
AliExpress 1 2
3 Samsung 18650 Li-Ion battery 1 AliExpress 1 2 3
4 micro SD card 1 AliExpress

4 - 868 MHz variant is applicable for these world regions: EU, RU, NZ, SA, IN ;
     915 MHz - US, CA, AU, IL, KR ;
     433 MHz - CN .

Optional

When wired RS232 connection to some legacy NMEA or GDL90 equipment is necessary - one may consider to use this type of adapters.



It was also mentioned above that the new T-Beam is a Bluetooth LE only device. To maintain compatibility with:

one may consider to purchase an HC-05 Bluetooth Classic module as well.


Number Part Qty Picture Source
5 DuPont 4pin 1mm to 2.54mm adapter cable 1 AliExpress
6 MAX3232 RS232
TTL adapter		 1 AliExpress
7 Bluetooth
HC-05		 1 AliExpress

Quick start

Use these instructions to start operating with your delivered Prime MkIII board.

Settings

Description of Web UI settings is located here.

Hardware components

SoftRF Prime Mark III is an assembly of three major components:

  • LilyGO® T-Beam Supreme V3.x Main board ;
  • LilyGO® T-Beam S3 Core V3.x board ;
  • an acrylic chassis.

GNSS receiver

The T-Beam Core board is supplied with either:

  • the world superior Ublox MAX-M10S GNSS module or
  • a budget Quectel L76K GNSS module.




One may see the GNSS receiver model on a WebUI page:



Tip

'Time-To-First-Fix' is the best when the 18650 battery is connected. If it is not - be ready for the GNSS subsystem to execute 'Cold Start' every time you supply power to the T-Beam from an external source.

One may try this page out to troubleshoot the GNSS related issues if any.


Buttons

Power (PWR) button function

When unit is Off:

  • press, wait then release Power button to turn the unit On.

When unit is On:

  • press and release Power button to scroll onto next OLED information page, or
  • press and keep holding Power button (until the the OFF message will appear on the OLED) to turn the unit Off, then release the button.


To enforce power Off for the device at any time - press and keep holding the Power button for more than 6 seconds. This event will be handled directly at the T-Beam Supreme hardware level (AXP2101 PMU silicon).


BOOT button function

Button(s) Function
BOOT cycle between aircraft info pages in OLED Text screen
BOOT with RESET enter into Espressif Service Mode
BOOT short after RESET enter into bootloader mode

Screen pages

Even though the built-in OLED display is not bright enough to operate against direct sun light - it is still very useful as the system diagnostic tool.

There are five different screens available:

6 - 'Baro' page is not available when the air pressure sensor is missing ;

One can use Power button to switch between these screens.

The screens are better explained on this page.

LEDs

System LED Power status
ON Supply power is ON and good
OFF Supply power is OFF
Flashing Low battery voltage

User LED flashes when built-in GNSS module has proper satellites fix.

Serial port

3.3 Volt logic serial data is available on

  • a dedicated port (1 mm spacing) or
  • the pin header (2.54 mm spacing)

One can use the WebUI Settings page to redirect NMEA/GDL90/D1090 output onto the Serial port/pins.

Parts from 'optional' BoM list can be used to build the following adapters:

Bluetooth SPP adapter


Use the HC-05 Wiki page to configure the Bluetooth module prior to it's first use.


RS232 adapter


Aircrafts database

The Prime Edition Mark III is able to use internal flash memory storage to operate with 'Aircrafts Database' ( OGN DDB ):

For details, please, read this Aircrafts database page.


Flight Recorder

Release 1.4 version of the SoftRF firmware for Prime Mark III contains a new Flight Recorder feature.




For details, please, read the Flight Recorder page.


Enclosure

There are few options for the enclosure to choose from:

  1. Making a Case for the Lilygo T-Beam SUPREME V3.0 video on YouTube. The design files on Thingiverse.


  1. 3MF files of another 3D printable enclosure are available at this location.


Battery life

Approximate current consumption from 3.7 Volt battery:

T-Beam variant Ublox M10 Quectel L76K
Active mode

105 mA

120 mA
Power off

30-40 uA

30-40 uA

Operating time from a full charge depends on your actual battery capacity.

When battery charge level is getting low - the System LED will start flashing to indicate that charging is necessary.
When battery charge level is almost "zero" - the system will indicate "LOW BAT" message on OLED display for a few seconds then will turn power off completely.


Optional equipment

SkyView EZ is a DIY companion device for SoftRF Prime Mark III.

   


SkyView Pico 

   


Additional information on T-Beam Supreme board

  1. LilyGO® product info
  2. Schematics: V3.0 
  3. LilyGO® GitHub
  4. LilyGO® PCB&A video 
  5. Bootloader: binary , source code
  6. u-blox MAX-M10S datasheet
  7. Quectel L76K GNSS Protocol Specification
  8. Articles:

Hardware

SoftRF

SkyView

Flight Recorder

Adapters

Software

Firmware

Tools

Protocols

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