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Hardware Setup

Bill of Materials

Following is the recommended hardware list for the full Whitebox setup. Direct links to the products are provided for convenience, we do not endorse any specific sellers.

1. Compute & Storage

  • Single Board Computer (SBC)
    • Orange Pi 5 Plus
  • MicroSD Card – 64GB or larger (V30, A2 rated or better)

2. Connectivity & Networking

  • M.2 Wi-Fi Card
    • Intel AX210NGW
    • Note: This card requires an antenna to be connected. The antenna is not always included with the M.2 card and may need to be purchased separately.
  • Ethernet Cable – for connecting to router with internet access when setting up
  • USB Wi-Fi Adapter
    • Dual-band (2.4GHz + 5GHz)
    • Plug-and-play Linux compatibility
    • Preferably Intel chipset
    • A few examples:

3. Radio & GPS Modules

4. Power & Cabling

  • Portable Power Bank – compact, sufficient to power Orange Pi with minimum 22W output.
  • USB Power Cable – USB-A → USB-C or USB-C → USB-C (for powering Orange Pi from a power bank).
  • USB Extension Cables (x4) – 15 cm each, for SDR modules and accessories

5. Camera

  • Insta360 Camera
    • X3 and X4 models are currently supported

Minimal hardware setup

Whitebox is best with full hardware setup, but you can quickly start with just an Orange Pi, a supported Wi-Fi dongle, an Insta360 camera, and a powerbank that can run the Orange Pi for the duration of your flight. You will not have any location or traffic data, but you'll be able to view and record camera feeds, annotate the flight, or record key moments for more convenient playback.

Setting up the Orange Pi 5 Plus

  • Install the M.2 Wi-Fi card into the Orange Pi.

  • Download the OS to flash to your MicroSD card

  • Flash the file to your MicroSD card

    • Download a tool for flashing SD cards, like Balena Etcher
    • Connect your MicroSD card to the PC
    • Run Balena Etcher and flash the previously downloaded .img.xz file to the SD card

      • If you are using Balena Etcher on Mac, you might get a message like this when the flashing finishes:

        The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.
        This message is safe to ignore, just click Eject.

  • After the installer has written the image on the MicroSD card:

    • Put the card in your Orange Pi
    • Plug the Orange Pi to your internet router using an ethernet cable. Internet connection will be required to set up the Whitebox for the first time, but Whitebox will function without internet afterwards.
    • Finally, connect your Orange Pi to power using a USB-C power cable

  • Either connect a screen and keyboard to your Orange Pi, or find its IP to access it from another computer using the following command, which will list all the IPs open for connection on the SSH server port, which should include your Orange Pi:

    sudo nmap -p 22 --open 192.168.1.0/24

    replacing 192.168.1.0/24 with your local network IP range. You can SSH into your Orange Pi using:

    ssh ubuntu@192.168.1.120

    replacing 192.168.1.120 with the IP identified via nmap. The default username is ubuntu and password is ubuntu. You will be prompted to change the password on first login.

Installation

This method sets up the full Whitebox system automatically on an Orange Pi 5 Plus.

First, reconnect to the Orange Pi server, as you will get disconnected after changing the password:

ssh ubuntu@192.168.1.120

Then run the Whitebox installation command on the Orange Pi:

curl -fsSL https://install.whitebox.aero | sudo bash

If you wish to install a specific branch, use the branch parameter:

curl -fsSL https://install.whitebox.aero/?branch=feature/whitebox-409 | sudo bash

If you wish to install whitebox manually without the script, see the Manual Installation Guide.

Important: On the first run, the installation script will:

  1. Clone the Whitebox repository to /whitebox
  2. Create a .env configuration file from .env.example
  3. Exit and prompt you to edit the .env file with your configuration (especially geographic coordinates for map data)

After editing /whitebox/.env with your settings, re-run the same installation command. The script will then proceed with the full system installation, including Docker, system updates, and service deployment.

The installation script will automatically set the hostname to whitebox.

Post-Installation

After the installation completes:

  • Before restarting, make sure to connect the USB Wi-Fi adapter, two SDR devices and the GPS device to the Whitebox.
  • Then restart the Whitebox (while connected through SSH) 
    sudo reboot
  • After the reboot, connect to the new whitebox Wi-Fi network (served through the M.2 card's antenna)
  • Connect via SSH over the Wi-Fi, using the new whitebox user (password whitebox, note the different IP address over the Whitebox Wi-Fi): 
    ssh whitebox@10.42.0.1
  • Open your browser and go to http://10.42.0.1
  • Unplug the ethernet cable, and take the Whitebox offline with you
  • Optionally, build cardboard enclosure for easy transport (see Cardboard Enclosure Guide)

Starting Whitebox

After completing the installation and post-installation steps above, Whitebox should be running and accessible.

You can access Whitebox by: 1. Connecting to the whitebox Wi-Fi network (password: whitebox) 2. Opening your browser and navigating to http://10.42.0.1

Alternative Installation Method

If you prefer not to use the automated installation script, see the Manual Installation Guide for step-by-step instructions on setting up Whitebox manually.

Further Reading