Easy flight tracking, no compromises.
PicoADSB is the world's smallest full-featured ADS-B receiver. Simply plug PicoADSB into power, give it your WiFi information, and you're feeding to your favorite networks with 500km+ range.
PicoADSB will sell for around $99 per unit.
PicoADSB is your window to the skies
PicoADSB is the world's smallest full-featured ADS-B receiver, but what does that mean in practice? For a few grams of weight and a little space, you get
- An Ardupilot/INAV compatible, MAVLink-speaking detect and avoid device for FPV/RC craft
- A 500km+ range WiFi-included home feeder for networks like airplanes.live or adsb.lol, all in one.
- Absolutely no Linux setup, failed SD cards, or 11 page setup guides.
- And it costs less too
PicoADSB was made to bring flight data to everyone. I spent months making your setup take seconds.
Want to use it with PX4, Ardupilot or INAV? PicoADSB detects when it's plugged into a MAVLink port and automatically starts feeding data.
Doing something more interesting? PicoADSB can be extended to speak whatever language you need it to, just get in contact and we'll discuss.
| Size | 22mm x 16mm board, 27mm long with the WiFi antenna (approximately the size of a coin) |
|---|---|
| Weight | 3g |
| Range | 500km+, achieved in the real world |
| Frequency | 1090MHz |
| RF front end | Purpose built high performance L-band complex quadrature tuner, custom DSP algorithms, a high gain LNA, and an integral SAW filter |
| Protocols | Beast, MAVLink, GDL-90, JSON-RPC |
| Autopilots | PX4, Ardupilot, INAV |
| Connectivity | WiFi, on-board web UI with map & radar display, OTA software updates |
| Power | All you need is a USB port for power. |
How does it compare?
PicoADSB is sort of difficult to compare to anything else on the market; it's really three devices in one, meeting two very distinct use cases.
FPV/RC
The uAvionix pingRX Pro is a comparable device for FPV/RC use.
| Spec | PicoADSB | uAvionix pingRX Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $99 | $399 |
| Range | >500kmachieved in the real world | 278kmclaimed |
| Size | 22mm x 16mm, 3g | Small, but still takes up more space than PicoADSB |
| Air Protocols | 1090MHz only... for now | 1090MHz+ |
Feeders
The most comparable setup is a Raspberry Pi + Airspy R2 + LNA + SAW filter... plus an antenna, large enclosure, power supply, micro SD card...
| Spec | PicoADSB | Pi 5 + Airspy R2 + LNA |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $99everything you need to get started | ~$400$110 Pi 5 4GB, $169 Airspy R2, ~$80 everything else |
| Range | Comparable | Winning by a smidge |
| Size | 22mm x 16mm, 3g | Roughly a shoebox |
| Setup | Plug into power, give it your WiFi information | Linux setup, SD card, setup guides |
| Power | A USB port | Power supply |
| Air Protocols | 1090MHz | 1090MHz or 978MHz, not both at onceDual band needs another SDR, LNA, SAW filter, and antenna (~$150) |
Sep 2, 2026
Production Status
Unlike many Kickstarters, we're not starting at "concept". PicoADSB has already undergone several rounds of development and multiple privately-funded, small-scale production rounds. I've been flying PicoADSB on my aircraft for about 2 years now, and there are dozens PicoADSBs deployed all over the United States, in Germany, Japan, Australia, the Czech Republic, and more worldwide.
Over the next couple weeks, we're running a few smallish batches and experiments to ensure our DfM is on point. Minor tweaks to PCB footprints, better PCB thermal design, a few extra test points to make diagnostics & production easier, those sorts of things. To be transparent: this does push our timeline back by "a few weeks" - November rather than October, perhaps December if we identify big DfM changes to make.
A PicoADSB in the field stayed up for 29 days straight and processed 1,024,435,897 messages without a crash. It only went down because the owner had a power outage. Stable as a rock.
The signal processing improvement prompted a whole series of follow-on effects - turns out ~20xing your message rate will expose all the rough edges elsewhere in your code.
The Web UI
We now have a map & radar display on-board. Maps do only work when connected to your home WiFi or a hotspot - unfortunately, map tiles are big and PicoADSB is, well, not big. For the field, you can use the Radar display which shows your closest tracked planes in a circle around you.
Dark mode
For those of us that live with the blinds firmly shut, I added a dark mode to the web UI. Your retinas will thank me.
adsbd
PicoADSB's own ADSB data aggregator software. adsbd can handle peak traffic volume on the big feeder networks using a VM costing just ~$10/month, with room to spare.
iOS app
It's really nice for slow network connections, includes an AR mode, and a really fancy Apple Watch app too. It's in beta to a few testers today, with a planned release to roughly coincide with PicoADSB's launch.
Read the full update on Kickstarter, or come hang out on the Discord.
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