Under active development. Breaking changes expected. APIs, installers, and UI may shift between releases.
Three tiers. Same binary.
Usable today. Early access — some pieces run behind a feature flag and APIs may shift between releases.
COMPARISON
Pick the tier that matches the mission.
The agent is board-agnostic. Any Linux SBC that meets the capability bar for a tier runs it. The boards in the reference row are what the bench and production rigs run on.
| Bench | Lite | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference board | Raspberry Pi 4B | Radxa CM3 (RK3566) | Radxa CM4 (RK3588S2) |
| CPU class | Quad-core ARM64 | Quad-core ARM64 | Octa-core ARM64 |
| RAM | 4 GB | 2 GB | 4 GB+ |
| Radio card | 1x RTL8812EU | 1x RTL8812EU | 2x RTL8812EU |
| Diversity receive | — | — | ✓ |
| OLED and buttons | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| HDMI out | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 4G modem | Optional USB | Optional USB or internal | Internal M.2 |
| Typical use | Bench, first build, contributor rig | Field pilot, single-site work | Long-range work, distributed-receive hubs |
Reference board
CPU class
RAM
Radio card
Diversity receive
OLED and buttons
HDMI out
4G modem
Typical use
REFERENCE BENCH RIG
The verified bench build.
This is the rig the team and contributors build on. Every part is commodity hardware available worldwide. Any board that meets the bench tier spec swaps in for the reference SBC.
RADIO CARD
RTL8812EU on every tier, on purpose.
Running 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. Every hardware tier uses it. Your drone and your ground station share one radio code path.
The reference card carries two SMA connectors and 29 dBm of transmit power in about 25 grams. Any RTL8812EU-based USB adapter with an external antenna will work. The reference part is what the bench and production builds are 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 under sustained multicast, where other chips drop packets.
- ▶Regulatory reach. 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz on one card covers most civilian jurisdictions.
- ▶Spares cost. The drone and the ground share one radio SKU. Two inventory lines become one.
ANTENNAS
Pick the gain that matches the mission.
Higher gain buys range but narrows the beam. Diversity receive on the Pro tier softens beam loss by adding a second independent path.
- Rubber duck, 2 dBi
- 1 to 3 km
- Dual-band omni, 5 dBi
- 3 to 8 km
- Panel, 8 to 12 dBi
- 10 to 20 km
A dual-band 5 dBi omni is the default for most sites. A directional panel earns its beam narrowing on long corridors, mapping missions, and fixed installations. A rubber duck is a bench and close-range testing tool.
Obstructed terrain typically cuts these ranges by 30 to 60 percent. Distributed receive across two or three nodes restores coverage the terrain takes away.
Distributed RX add-on
Relay and receiver roles carry a second RTL8812EU adapter by default, matched at 29 dBm on both radios, for long-corridor deployments. MT7612U or MT7921AU 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.
The public docs carry the full bill of materials, install walkthrough, and bringup checklist.
Hardware docs