Skyracer Avionics & Engineering

Skyracer Avionics & Engineering was founded in early 2021 and is a hobby project that turned in to a company. Learning electronics in high school the DIY, creating and inventing has always been in progress and being introduced to internet of things in the mid 00-ies, the possibilities is only limited by the time available for inventing.

This website is under construction and will be updated along the way.

The NMEA-splitter

The NMEA-splitter is a highly configurable hub for interconnecting devices such as Flight Recorders, FLARMs, PDA/PNA, displays, navigation/variometer systems. The splitter admits you to provide data from one source to multiple devices.

It´s sold as a ready device or a kit if you rather do the assembly yourself. In the manual you will find instructions of how to assemble and configure the splitter. Please find the manual here.

This is one of the first prototypes where the Butterfly feeder is mounted on a Raspberry Pi zero.
This is one of the first prototypes where the Butterfly feeder is mounted on a Raspberry Pi zero.

The tests showed great potential however, two major points of improvement was identified. A Raspberry Pi is a excellent but very complicated piece of hardware. A more robust processor was needed and was found in the Micropythons PyBoard. 

The second thing the initial trials showed was that whenever the software failed due to a bug, the information to the FLARM display stopped. So the second iteration of the butterfly feeder is equipped with a hardware watch dog. If the microprocessor stops due to software or hardware issue, the Butterfly feeder will opt out and bypass the information.

Setting up a Raspberry Pi is a complex duty and a never ending source of … challenges. The PyBoard´s required level of knowledge is a fraction compared to a Raspberry Pi.  

The butterfly feeder

The idea behind the Butterfly feeder was brewed a few years during several close encounters with light sports aircrafts. Since most of them isn´t equipped with FLARM, the idea of presenting ADS-B traffic in the Butterfly display started to grow. After finding a miniature ADS-B receiver from Aerobits, a PCB-hat for a Raspberry Pi was created and soon the prototype was tested in the air.

The schematic principles of the Butterfly Feeder.
The schematic principles of the Butterfly Feeder.
From left, the first two are the main board of the Butterfly feeder. Next is a booted Butterfly feeder connected to a FLARM and to the right PyBoard and a OLED-display.
From left, the first two are the main board of the Butterfly feeder. Next is a booted Butterfly feeder connected to a FLARM and to the right PyBoard and a OLED-display.

Yet-another-simulator-chair

The internet is flooded with different contraptions acting as joystick interface to flight simulators. This is yet another one. 

What makes this design different is the dual control functionality. This allows the possibility to train students in for example Condor flight simulator. From the basic flight training, to fine tuning the art thermalling and cross country. 

It´s open source and in reach for the reasonable DIY-handy individual. Please find out more at the projects GitHub-page.

Please leave a message below if wish to get in contact.