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Raspberry Pi Build & Install Guide

This walks you through building a FlightBagX Ground Station on your own Raspberry Pi. The installer builds the firmware from source and sets it up to be claimed in the FlightBagX app — no screen or keyboard on the Pi required.

What you’ll need

  • A Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (2 GB+), power supply, and microSD card (16 GB+).
  • Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit (Debian 13 / Trixie).
  • One or two RTL-SDR dongles — one for 1090 MHz, optionally a second for 978 MHz — and a suitable antenna.
  • A Wi-Fi network, and the FlightBagX app on your phone or tablet.
1

Flash Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit

Use Raspberry Pi Imager to write Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) to your SD card. Enable SSH and set a username/password if you like, then boot the Pi and connect it to the internet (Ethernet or Wi-Fi) for the install.

2

Run the installer

On the Pi (or over SSH), run:

curl -fsSL https://flightbagx.com/groundstation/install.sh | sudo bash

This installs the dependencies and builds both ground-station services from source, then enables them to start on boot. It takes a few minutes on a Pi 4.

To pin a specific firmware version: curl -fsSL …/install.sh | sudo FBX_GS_VERSION=v1.2.0 bash

3

Reboot and claim it in the app

sudo reboot

On first boot the Pi generates its own secure identity and starts advertising over Bluetooth. In the FlightBagX app, go to Ground Stations → Add, connect to the unit over Bluetooth, join it to your Wi-Fi, and claim it to your account. Its status LED goes solid green once it’s online.

Troubleshooting

The Pi doesn’t appear in the app
Make sure Bluetooth is on and you’re near the unit. The status LED breathes blue while it’s waiting to be provisioned. If it’s already been set up, hold the reset button for 5 seconds to return it to setup.
No aircraft after setup
Confirm the RTL-SDR dongle is seated and the antenna is connected. Coverage depends on antenna placement and line-of-sight.

See the firmware release history for what’s new in each version.