Under active development. Breaking changes expected. APIs, installers, and UI may shift between releases.
Three tiers. Same binary.
Pick a Linux SBC that matches the capability tier you need. Start at the bench, move to Lite when you ship, step up to Pro when you need diversity receive or long-range work. The agent binary is the same on every tier.
Comparison
Pick the tier that matches the mission.
The agent is board-agnostic. Any Linux SBC meeting the capability bar for a tier will run it. The boards listed in brackets are the references our bench and production rigs run on. If your board matches the specs, the same binary works.
| Attribute | Bench | Lite | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| SBC | Quad-core ARM64 Linux SBC, 4 GB RAM (e.g. Raspberry Pi 4B) | Quad-core ARM64 SoM + carrier, 2 GB RAM (e.g. Radxa CM3, RK3566) | Octa-core ARM64 SoM + carrier, 4 GB+ RAM, internal M.2 slot (e.g. Radxa CM4, RK3588S2) |
| RAM | 4 GB | 2 GB | 4 GB |
| Radio card | 1x RTL8812EU USB (ath/rtl88XX driver) | 1x RTL8812EU USB (ath/rtl88XX driver) | 2x RTL8812EU USB (diversity) |
| Diversity receive | No | No | Yes |
| OLED + buttons | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| HDMI out | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 4G modem | Optional USB | Optional USB or internal | Internal M.2 |
| Antennas | 2x 5 dBi | 2x 5 dBi | 2x 5 dBi + high-gain option |
| Typical use | Engineer bench, first build, contributor rig. | Field pilot, single-site operations. | Long-range work, distributed-receive hubs. |
Reference Bench Rig
The verified bench build.
This is the bench rig our team and contributors build on. Every part is commodity hardware available globally. Any SBC that matches the bench tier spec will swap in for the Pi 4B.
| Part | Note |
|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi 4B 4GB | Official 5V/3A PSU required. |
| RTL8812EU dongle (LB-LINK BL-M8812EU2) | Same chip as the air unit. ~25 g. |
| 2x 5 dBi dual-band antennas + SMA pigtails | RP-SMA male to SMA male if the dongle ships RP-SMA. |
| SSD1306 OLED 128x64 0.96 inch I2C | Address 0x3C. Dupont-wired to Pi GPIO. |
| 4x 6mm tactile SPST buttons + Dupont leads | Wired to GPIO 5, 6, 13, 19. |
| 32 GB A2 micro-SD card | A2 class matters for boot time and journald writes. |
| SIM7600G-H 4G LTE modem (optional) | Use only if 4G uplink is in scope. |
Radio Card
RTL8812EU on every tier, on purpose.
Using one radio chipset on the air side and the ground side removes an entire class of driver and FEC calibration mismatch.
WFB-ng works best when both ends of the link run the same driver path on the same chipset. The RTL8812EU is stable, documented, dual-band, and widely stocked globally. Every hardware tier uses it. Your drone and your ground station share one radio code path.
The reference card is the LB-LINK BL-M8812EU2. 25 grams, two SMA connectors, 29 dBm transmit power. Any RTL8812EU-based USB adapter with an external antenna will work, but this one is what our bench rigs and OEM builds have been verified on.
Why not another chipset
- ▶Driver maturity. The RTL88XX family has years of WFB-ng tuning in the open-source kernel tree.
- ▶Monitor mode stability. Other chips drop packets under sustained multicast.
- ▶Regulatory. 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz on one card covers most civilian jurisdictions.
- ▶Spares cost. The drone and the ground use the same SKU. Two become one inventory item.
Antennas
Pick the gain that matches the mission.
Higher gain buys range but narrows the beam. Diversity receive on the Pro tier mitigates beam loss by adding a second independent path.
2 dBi
Rubber duck
Range 1 to 3 km
Bench work, close-range testing.
5 dBi
Dual-band omni
Range 3 to 8 km
General field use. The default for most sites.
8 to 12 dBi
Panel (directional)
Range 10 to 20 km
Long corridors, mapping missions, fixed sites.
Obstructed terrain typically cuts these ranges by 30 to 60 percent. Distributed receive across two or three nodes restores coverage. Full antenna sourcing and gain math at docs.altnautica.com.
Relay and receiver roles carry a second RTL8812EU USB adapter by default. Same chip as the primary, one SKU per node, matched 29 dBm TX on both radios for long corridor deployments. MT7612U or MT7921AU USB adapters work as alternatives when a mainline kernel driver is preferred on the mesh side.
One binary. Three tiers. Order the parts and start building.
Public docs carry the full BOM, install walkthrough, and bringup checklist.
Hardware docs