Flightbox AHRS and Foreflight

Will the Flightbox AHRS integrate with Foreflight?

The GPS and Baro Altimeter will, but the AHRS will not since Foreflight uses a proprietary protocol for their AHRS. Maybe later if Foreflight allows it.

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Who should we contact at Foreflight.

If Foreflight insist on being incompatible, I may change from Foreflight to something that does support FlgithBox AHRS.

I just emailed Foreflight about this. I think the more people that contact them the better. If they start hearing people are going to leave Foreflight due to them only using only Status, they may make a change. You can contact them directly at team@foreflight.com.

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I got a response from ForeFlight. They mentioned the problem isn’t with their application, it has to do with Statux software working with their application. They sent the following response:

ForeFlight’s stance on Stratux is neutral at the moment. If you want to use it, that’s great. We have no plans to block it from connecting to ForeFlight Mobile, but we also don’t have a formal agreement or partnership with the Stratux developers so you’ll need to look to the Stratux community for support resolving Stratux-related issues.
Regarding AHRS, the Stratux AHRS implementation still has quirks and is actually discouraged in the official wiki (FAQ · cyoung/stratux Wiki · GitHub) and that’s a safety issue. We don’t compromise on safety, so the Stratux AHRS data isn’t currently displayed by ForeFlight Mobile. We’ll reevaluate AHRS if or when that situation changes.

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I got the exact same response from Foreflight…snippy.

“ForeFlight’s stance on Stratux is neutral at the moment. If you want to use it…”

Keep bothering them, or go to another EFB.

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Stratux cuts into sales of Stratus which is the brainchild of Sporty’s and Foreflight. Don’t hold your breath waiting for Foreflight to open up their walled garden.

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I have gone from enthusiastically suqbscribing to ForeFlight to reluctantly this year because the AHRS issue not working with the Open Flight Solutions box. This may be a year of transition for me to another software that supports the Open Flight AHRS.

Any updates on the Open Flight AHRS working with ForeFlight? Supposedly there is a Beta software build of Stratux that will allow the AHRS data to be passed to ForeFlight?

I would love to upgrade my Flightbox with the AHRS board; however, as I am tied to ForeFlight, I hesitate to do so until I know there is a way to actually use the data.

A friend reminded me of the fact that ForeFlight does not function with AHRS. So I just sent the following message to ForeFlights Feed Back:
==========
Hello - As you know there are a growing number of pilots who use an OpenFlight ADSB receiver. Foreflight insists on using a proprietary protocol to transfer the AHRS data that is not compatible with Openflight. For this reason, AHRS will not function when an OpenFlight type device is used. We realize the reason for doing this is to drive sales to Stratus systems.**

**Myself and many other loyal Foreflight subscribers will be defecting the Foreflight brand and moving to a brand of flight planning software that supports AHRS with OpenFlight type ADSB receivers. This is not a threat but a fact and when it happens there will be be waves of customers leaving Foreflight. **

We respectfully request you reconsider your business model and change the AHRS protocol to allow it to function with ADSB receivers like OpenFlight Systems.
===========

I am sure the message will be ignored or some goofy reason will be given for the need to keep the AHRS protocol restricted. However if ForeFlight resists changing, I for one will not be renewing my subscription. In addition, I will encourage others to abandon the brand. This situation is reminiscent of the same path that IBM computers, Yahoo search engine, Blackberry and Motorola cell phones. These were all brands that started an industry but lost the lead because of loosing touch with the customers. The people who pay their salaries!

Well - I was wrong. Below is a quick response I just received from ForeFlight:

=====
Hello Bret,

Albert here -Thanks for checking in. I’ll add your vote for Flight Box. Was it working with ForeFlight before, but not now?

Although the Flight Box is not supported by ForeFlight, we have been seeing a number of issues with ADS-B receivers such as this. Once again, we do not officially support the Flight Box but we are working on a fix for some other connectivity issues which may resolve this issue in our next software update.

Screenshots are always easiest to send to portray the problem but if you could also explain what you see, that would be helpful.

Diagnostic Files
Please open ForeFlight Mobile and then go to MORE > SETTINGS. Tap the word “Settings” in the top menu bar 3 times in quick succession. This will create a Diagnostic email that you can send to us (NOTE: It can take up to 30 seconds to create the email, depending on your iPad). In the body of the email, please add “Ticket #225828” so it ties to this one and then send that to us and we’ll take a look.

Screenshots - Instructions found below.
-Maps page with the Radar (composite) and Traffic layers selected. Have the instrument panel showing with Altitude and Accuracy.
-More > Devices > Stratus - take screenshots of any device tiles there. Then, tap the device tile and capture that info as well.

Data Logging -
If you had Data Logging enabled when you encountered the issue, please send us those logs. If not, please enable Data Logging and when the issue presents itself you can send us those logs for our reference.

To take a screenshot of a page you are viewing in ForeFlight Mobile EFB, press and hold the Sleep/Wake/Power button on the top or side of your device and the round Home button on the front of your device at the exact same time and then release the buttons. You will see a white flash on the screen and hear a camera shutter sound.

To find your screenshot, go to the Photos app > Albums and tap Camera Roll. Once you find the picture, simply attach that image to the email you send back to us. You can reference Case #225828

For more detailed instructions, please see this article:

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance and thank you for being a loyal ForeFlight customer,

Kind regards,

Albert
Pilot Support Team
team@foreflight.com

I replied to ForeFlight with the following message and will report back here on my findings.

============

Albert:

Thank our for your prompt reply.

My AHRS does not work with the OpenFlight. The last time I inquired about it I was just told that AHRS was not supported with any other ADSB receiver than Stratus and have not tried again.

I will test again.

Thank you.

Bret C

Guys: For the information for others, I will document my discoveries, successes and failures. I DID get the Flightbox to function with ForeFlight with the Beta firmware V1.4r4. I have yet to fly with it, but here is what I did:

  1. Messed up updating the firmware - I used the ipad version of the flight-box utility in an attempt to update the firmware. HOWEVER, this does NOT work. It caused a situation where I had to completely dissemble the flight box to access the SD card. (What a PAIN - so I carved a hole in the box to more easily access the micro SD card next time)
  2. Updated the SD card - I found the instructions to do this VERY confusing. The instructions on the FlightBox support page directs you to Raspberry Pie where it is suggested to install a Raspberry Pie application. I could not figure it out. So I poked around Youtube and found this video: How to Reflash Stratux ADS-B Software on MicroSD card - YouTube . These instructions and the use of https://etcher.io/ to install the image file was much clearer and simpler to follow.
  3. Etcher - Using https://etcher.io/ the SD card was very simple to update. I used the Beta file on Flightbox that supported AHRS.
  4. WiFi to computer - I hooked my Mac to the WiFi on flightbox using the - http://10.26.36.1/#/ and found the artificial horizon functioning well on the html application.
  5. No Joy on ForeFlight - The AHRS on Foreflight on the iPad was still unresponsive. So, just for kicks I tried to view the Flightbox settings on the iPad using http://10.26.36.1/#/. Everything appeard OK there.
  6. ForeFlight AHRS worked - After using the http://10.26.36.1/#/ on the iPad, I noticed then the AHRS on Foreflight was finally working.
    7, AHRS heading is INOP - The compass on the AHRS side of Foreflight has a big X through it ad there is not compass heading. I suspect because there is no compass in the AHRS, the compass heading will come from the GPS once it begins to move.

Also I want to applaud Foreflight for FINALLY supporting Flightbox and other open source systems. I was not going to renew my subscription because they originally did not support the AHRS on the open source devices. But for now, I will stick with them.

I hope this helps others.
Bret C

OK - test flew and the AHRS works with Foreflight.

The compass X disappears as soon as the sensors see motion.

My only disappointment is the jerky motion the AHRS produces in Foreflight. I observed the http://10.26.36.1 link during flight and it observed it is very smooth. So there must be some sore of filtering that Foreflight is producing to create the jerky motion. It is not too bad.

I took the old Stinson up to 5,000 for some smooth air to calibrate the gyros.

AOK now.

Thanks

Bret C

All -

First, my thanks to OpenFlight Solutions and the Stratux community for integrating AHRS with ForeFlight.

I have noticed however, that the AHRS is extremely jerky in ForeFlight (as reported above too). According to some online posts (Stratux AHRS and Foreflight | Pilots of America), the Dangerzone patch of Stratux solves this jerkiness.

If this patch does truly fix the jerky AHRS in ForeFlight, is there a plan to implement it into the next FlightBox build? Alternatively, is there a way to apply the Dangerzone patch to the FlightBox software version?

I’m currently running v1.4r4.

Thanks in advance!

Jordan