Pro Stick Orange v1.2 issue

That’s covered in the OP
(it’s not a problem)

It’s an entirely new PCB layout (and some component changes) which should, in theory, reduce noise and generally behave better. The prototypes seem to bear that out, though we only have limited results so far - the boards that went astray were meant to be for our next round of testing!

I appreciate the response from the FlightAware team. I got my orange stick from eBay today, looks like it is v1.2. Since I’m running with a Plus stick I’m not personally bothered by the serial issue, and I’ll happily take a small performance increase. Is there anything I can do from my end to assist with testing if that’s what these were meant for? Running it on piaware on the UAT side and feeding to FA, though it is only connected to my discone with no filter atm.

Worst combination.

  • A very wide-band antenna (discone) which picks much less of the desired signal, and a lot of undesired signals.
  • No filter to remove undesired signals picked by discone.

A simple 1/4 wavelength (76 mm at 978 Mhz, and 68 mm at 1090 Mhz) ground plane antenna like Spider will perform much better.

I know it’s nowhere close to ideal, it’s just what I already had up on my mast other than a 2m/70cm antenna and an FA 1090MHz one. I’ll be adding a proper antenna for UAT soon.

Sorry for the ‘detour’.

@obj…is there a new and improved Pro+ in the works, or is the Orange stick it?

We have updated designs for both the Pro Stick and Pro Stick Plus in the works.

We are also working on what we are internally referring to as the Pro Stick v2.0 which will offer significantly better performance than any of our other SDRs. Our second round of prototypes for those will be ordered in the next couple weeks and we hope to have those ready for sale by Q4 2020.

I promise we won’t accidentally ship those prototypes anywhere they shouldn’t go.

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That’s good news, @esmathews, thank you.

I would not mind ‘accidentally’ receiving a Pro Stick v2.0 to test. I promise I won’t raise a ‘stink’ if you make such a ‘mistake’. :wink:

I’m becoming ‘lazier’ and ‘cheaper’, so the more you can ‘pack’ inside the new stick the better. :rofl:

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My guess:
Among other improvements, changes include either an additional saw filter or relocation of saw filter immediately after the input sma connector.

Call me crazy, but what about a stick with bias tee and a new antenna with built-in LNA/filter combo powered by the stick?

This is off topic, but as it has already started, let me complete it.
Till you get a regular 978 antenna, you can add an indoor temporary DIY Quick Spider. It is made of Coax, an F-male connector, and requires an F-male to SMA-male adapter/pigtail to connect it to ProStick.

Even when located indoors near a window or attic, the Quick Spider will perform better than your discone on mast/roof .

For 978 MHz use radials and whip 76 mm. The 69 mmshown in the how-to are for 1090 Mhz

 

@esmathews Amazon was out of stock of the Pro Stick Orange for quite some time, and they are now back in stock. Is it safe to assume that all of the v1.2 dongles are gone from their inventory, and that if I place an order today I would be receiving v1.2.1 dongles?

My application requires me to change the EEPROM serial #, so I need some assurance that I won’t be receiving any v1.2 dongles that have this restriction.

Thank you!

I just spoke with the ADS-B team’s supply chain and logistics folks and we think all of the v1.2 Pro Sticks have been sold. We can’t be 100% sure because there’s been a great deal of disruption due to the pandemic, so we will replace any v1.2’s with v1.0’s if somehow you do receive them.

Thank you for the quick reply! I’m optimistic that the fact that they were out of stock for a few weeks means that they are gone, but it’s nice to know that if I do receive v1.2 I can exchange them. Excellent customer service!

PS- Are there any near future plans for a v2 redesign that features a smaller housing? As much as I love the Pro Stick’s pre-map and the price point being notably lower than the NooElec dongles, the large plastic housing does make it impossible to position multiple dongles right next to each other in closely spaced USB ports. That’s one big advantage with the NooElec design being housed in such a slim aluminum case, although that obviously comes at a cost penalty of just over $10 per dongle vs the FA Pro Stick.

We’re hoping to take a look at a reduced form factor SDR in 2021.

This will be great :+1:

Hope you will take care of heating issue caused by small form factor, and we will not have to drill holes in dongle’s case to keep it cool :slight_smile:

LOL…My RadarBox dongle was ‘naked’ for a while, until an old RTL-SDR Blog v2 died, and the aluminum case shortened to accommodate the RadarBox. I also re-used the thermal pad. In the end the RadarBox dongle was ‘roundfiled’, as it never performed as expected.

The orange stick I ordered through Amazon from FA last week arrived as a ver 1.1 (3 were briefly in stock one morning). Trying again. :sweat_smile:

The two dongles I ordered last week arrived today, and both are v1.1. Thanks.

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