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Concorde Edition

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Linar Yusupov edited this page May 12, 2026 · 40 revisions



Concorde Edition is a variant of SoftRF DIY GA proximity awareness device been implemented in a smartphone-like form factor.

The Concorde is a synergy of two leading edge technologies in one portable unit:

  1. SoftRF advanced radio, GNSS and air traffic processing core with data stream output, and
  2. SkyView air traffic visualization engine with voice alerts.

It is supposed to require minimal skills from a user to begin with and gives an opportunity to evaluate if the SoftRF technology is appropriate for your needs.

The Concorde is based on third-party's hardware - LilyGO® T-Display P4 AMOLED product, which is available for direct purchase from manufacturer at more or less reasonable price (100+ USD).

Compatibility 1

Type Protocol FLARM OGN tracker PilotAware Skytraxx SoftRF
Radio FLARM AIR V7

 

OGNTP

 

P3I

 

FANET+

 

SRD 860
ADS-L

 

1090 ES
ADS-B

2

2
Data FLARM NMEA

  Garmin GDL90

 

Dump1090  

1 - it is necessary for a reader to feel the difference between statement "compatible" and statement "fully compatible".
     SoftRF implements only a reasonable minimum of the protocols specs. No "bells and whistles" so far ;
2 - Receive of traffic 'downlink' frames only. Companion ADS-B receiver device is required


Display brightness

The product specs say that



This display brightness value of 500 nits ( cd/m² ) is less than typical 1000+ nits of luminance necessary to counter against direct sun light.

If your use case requires strong resistance to the sun light - think about other SoftRF solutions, such as


AMOLED vs TFT

The SoftRF operates with both variants of LilyGO® T-Display P4 - AMOLED (left) and TFT (right).


TFT variant is a little bit less expensive than AMOLED one.
However, an "eye" of frontal camera installed in the TFT variant gives some obstruction to visibility of data representation on the screen.
TFT technology takes more (in average) of energy from battery source even when display picture is dark. AMOLED power consumptions depends heavily on how bright is a picture shown on the display at this particular moment.


Disclaimer

SoftRF firmware for Concorde Edition is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

In general a lot of Chinese DIY electronics manufacturers are known to behave this way:

  • sometimes they may not apply necessary Q.C. before releasing of a product from factory ;
  • they may arbitrary change schematics and electronic components from one batch to the next one.

Author of SoftRF firmware:

  • will reject any hardware related claims associated with LilyGO® T-Display P4 AMOLED product. Ask for support from seller or manufacturer ;
  • reserves the right to suspend or terminate support of LilyGO® T-Display P4 AMOLED in the firmware at any time.

For the time being ( Feb'26 ) there were no critical hardware issues reported for current version of the T-Display P4 product. However things my change over the time...
If you have issues with bringing up your new LilyGO® T-Display P4 AMOLED or just not happy with the product - be prepared to execute your Purchase Protection plan.


Bill of materials

Required

Number Part Qty Picture Source
1 LilyGO®
T-Display P4
AMOLED 3 		1 LilyGO Store
AliExpress

3 - 868 MHz variant is applicable for these world regions: EU, RU, NZ, SA, IN ;
     915 MHz - US, CA, AU, KR, IL.

Recommended

The following USB 2.0 to TTL UART serial converter and DuPont 4 pin 1 mm to 2.54 mm adapter cable are in use to install or upgrade firmware of the LilyGO® T-Display P4 network (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) co-processor ( Espressif ESP32-C6 ).


Number Part Qty Picture Source
2 CP2102 USB 2.0 to TTL UART serial converter 1 AliExpress
3 DuPont 4pin 1mm to 2.54mm adapter cable 1 AliExpress

Optional

Number Part Qty Picture Source
4 SMA female to MMCX male adapter 1 AliExpress
5 Antenna
868 MHz 4 		1 EBay
AliExpress 1 2

4 - 868 MHz variant is applicable for these world regions: EU, RU, NZ, SA, IN ;
     915 MHz - US, CA, AU, IL, KR ;
     433 MHz - CN .


Quick start

Important

Concorde Edition is currently supported by recent Release 1.9 only.

Use these instructions to start operating with your delivered Concorde device.

Settings

Access to Basic (radio) settings is provided over either Wi-Fi ( WebUI ) or Bluetooth.
Description of Web UI settings is located here.

Important

Access to Concorde AMOLED UI settings is currently provided over Bluetooth or Serial interfaces only.
Make sure that Bluetooth feature is enabled in your device settings.
Please, use SoftRF Tool  or SoftRF Configurator  apps to alter the AMOLED UI settings.



AMOLED UI settings description is located there.

If you are an application developer and you think about to add the Concorde configuration menu into your software, please, use:


Screen pages

You've been able to see a Radar screen layout on top of this Wiki page.

And this is how a Status page looks like.




Power on self test



Touch screen

The SoftRF firmware provides very basic support for the Concorde display touch screen function.

Swipe to the left or to the right makes a change of active screen page.



Swipe up or down makes a change of Radar Screen zoom level.


Important

White colored area in the middle of the screen is not applicable for touch or release actions. Start and end of you touch gesture beyond the white area to get positive effect necessary.



Buttons

Hardware buttons of the LilyGO® T-Display P4 are reserved for system management purposes, such as

  • device reset
  • firmware upgrade

SoftRF firmware is able to sense activity of one button only. This button is marked as "P4 B".
Short press of the button flips pages on the screen. Use long press to proceed into a sleep mode.


Voice traffic alerts

Concorde Edition is able to make voice traffic alerts by use of built-in speaker.

The Voice Alert engine has been inherited from SoftRF SkyView . If you own the SkyView already - there will be no surprises.

Tip

  1. When there are few aircrafts around - the voice alert will be issued for a one that is considered to be the most dangerous ;
  2. Air traffic flying further than 9 kilometers away is reported as "9 km" , air traffic flying higher or lower than 500 meters relative to your altitude is reported as "500 m".

Speech synthesis is made with use of pre-recorded audio files located on a micro-SD card.


Make sure that the card is empty and has been formatted properly.

  1. Create Audio folder in root directory of your card ;

  2. Download this ZIP file from this location ;

  3. Extract files from the ZIP archive into the Audio folder .



Aircrafts database

The Concorde Edition is able to use a micro-SD card storage to operate with 'Aircrafts Database' ( OGN DDB ):



For details, please, read this Aircrafts database page.


ADS-B receiver

An RTL-SDR USB dongle is a companion device for Concorde Edition that helps to receive ADS-B traffic at 1090 MHz.



WebUI of the Concorde has a status line dedicated to the RTL-SDR feature.



Important

  1. There is a USB Type-A port hardware design limitation of the LilyGO® T-Display P4 Version 1.0 - the port can supply power to connected USB device only when an external 5 Volt input power is fed over Type-C connector ;
  2. Hot plug of an RTL-SDR dongle is not supported at this time.

Ethernet

Wired network port ( RJ-45 ) is not supported at this time. Use wireless ( Wi-Fi or Bluetooth ) connection instead.


Battery life

Current consumption from 3.7 Volt battery:

Mode AMOLED TFT
Active

270 mA

380 mA
Off

0 mA

0 mA

Operating time from a full charge depends on your actual battery capacity.


Additional information on T-Display P4

  1. LilyGO® T-Display P4 on GitHub

Hardware

SoftRF

SkyView

Flight Recorder

Adapters

Software

Firmware

Tools

Protocols

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