Add Stellar StingBee Dual Band Gemini RX

[pkendall64]

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[cvetaevvitaliy]

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[commanderguy3001]

historically, the ELRS project has had a strict stance against military use of the project, due to not wanting to be associated with it.
this makes sense, and is a very reasonable (in my opinion, the only reasonable) approach, and I think it should be kept like this.

Unfortunately, this company, by using the logo of the ukrainian army, directly associates itself with the same in some way. further, their marketing material literally includes images of their receivers lying on top of somw kind of (presumably, and in the eyes of buyers) military crates, which further increases the association with some form of military, potentially even implying endorsement by a military.

this in turn will make an association between elrs and military use, which the project so far has strongly opposed.

official association with any military organization as a whole is a net negative to the majority of elrs users, that being casual FPV pilots (both hobbyists and commercial pilots alike).
how? if the project is officially being associated with military operations, it then associates all companies that are currently producing, or are planning to produce, receivers and transmitters, with the military on a second degree. this will most definitely drive some amount of existing companies to stop producing elrs hardware, because they do not want to be associated with military operations in any way. in the same way, it will stop new companiss from potentially stepping foot into making elrs hardware, because they do not want to be associated either.
in addition to all of that, it will instead attract companies who produce parts specifically targeted towards military use. at military price points, and designed for single use.
I hope that it is pretty obvious why this is bad for normal consumers.

No matter how good the hardware of this specific company might be, and no matter how competitive the pricepoint, I think the project should not condone any association with military use in any way, period.

To end this off, I plead for immediately rejecting this PR, as well as the company in it's entirety, until they stop associating themselves with military operations in any way.

If this does not happen, I would instead like to see some much needed transparency on the whole situation, including what thoughs have been given to potential downsides for casual users, as well as potential downsides to the project in it's entirety.

[cvetaevvitaliy]

historically, the ELRS project has had a strict stance against military use of the project, due to not wanting to be associated with it. this makes sense, and is a very reasonable (in my opinion, the only reasonable) approach, and I think it should be kept like this.

Unfortunately, this company, by using the logo of the ukrainian army, directly associates itself with the same in some way. further, their marketing material literally includes images of their receivers lying on top of somw kind of (presumably, and in the eyes of buyers) military crates, which further increases the association with some form of military, potentially even implying endorsement by a military.

this in turn will make an association between elrs and military use, which the project so far has strongly opposed.

official association with any military organization as a whole is a net negative to the majority of elrs users, that being casual FPV pilots (both hobbyists and commercial pilots alike). how? if the project is officially being associated with military operations, it then associates all companies that are currently producing, or are planning to produce, receivers and transmitters, with the military on a second degree. this will most definitely drive some amount of existing companies to stop producing elrs hardware, because they do not want to be associated with military operations in any way. in the same way, it will stop new companiss from potentially stepping foot into making elrs hardware, because they do not want to be associated either. in addition to all of that, it will instead attract companies who produce parts specifically targeted towards military use. at military price points, and designed for single use. I hope that it is pretty obvious why this is bad for normal consumers.

No matter how good the hardware of this specific company might be, and no matter how competitive the pricepoint, I think the project should not condone any association with military use in any way, period.

To end this off, I plead for immediately rejecting this PR, as well as the company in it's entirety, until they stop associating themselves with military operations in any way.

If this does not happen, I would instead like to see some much needed transparency on the whole situation, including what thoughs have been given to potential downsides for casual users, as well as potential downsides to the project in it's entirety.

What military logo are you talking about? The only thing on the ELRS receivers is the State Emblem of Ukraine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Ukraine

[cvetaevvitaliy]

@commanderguy3001 The Ukrainian Coat of Arms, when affixed to our products, serves as a mark of origin, analogous to the CE marking in the European Union. It confirms that the product is manufactured in Ukraine.

[commanderguy3001]

looking at it some more, it seems I might have misunderstood the use of the symbol.

My other point still stands though, the marketing material still shows receivers on top of (presumably, and in the eyes of most normal buyers definitely) military related crates of some kind.
(or, at least, showed, I can't seem to find the specific image anymore at this point.)

[cvetaevvitaliy]

@commanderguy3001 I understand that you are from Russia, but I kindly ask that we refrain from discussing the war or the conflict between Russia and Ukraine here.

ELRS, like other open FPV projects, maintains a position of neutrality regarding this conflict. The StingBee team has been contributing to open-source projects since long before the conflict began, and continues to do so regardless of political circumstances.

[commanderguy3001]

I infact am not from russia, but from Germany, thanks for guessing though.

Either way I would appreciate if we could keep this conversation about facts though, and keep personal opinions out.

My only concern in this matter is the future of the elrs project as an independent, neutral and unbiased hobby grade rc link.
For this, by principle, I do not care about any ongoing wars anywhere on this planet.
But ensuring a bright future for the elrs project as a whole unfortunately also includes making sure to stay well clear of any potential military use of the project, and protect it from such as much as possible.
While doing so, I do not take sides, or have preferences. I look at cold hard truths (in this case, official marketing material), and make my judgement based on that.

In this case, my judgement based on official marketing material mainly from the stingbee_official instagram account (linked to from stingbee's official website), which unfortunately has been taken private since my previous comment, concludes that "this company extremely likely has had and potentially still has some amount of ties to a military".
which one, and to what degree/for what purpose? I don't care, and it doesn't matter.
To me, this unfortunately means that stingbee should not be officially supported by ELRS, to keep distance to any amount of potential military use, in order to not run the risk of being called "politically involved" in any way.

In the following, I will try to list as many sources for my conclusion as possible, as well as attach some images of the now private instagram account, as well as their (as of yet) still public facebook account for future reference.

some text:

ELRS вже доступний до продажу з прошивкою, яка буде працювати на стандартних та кастомних частотах. Ви зможете обрати потрібну вам частоту під ваші потреби та завдання.

this translates to pretty much the following:

ELRS is already available with firmware that will operate on standard and custom frequencies. You can choose the frequency you need to suit your needs and tasks.

here, they specifically added "та кастомних" (and custom [frequencies]) to the description. there is no reason to add this statement for any receiver not intended for military use. the only control the user has over the frequency normally is selecting the band (mainly 900M and 2.4G, but also 433M on certain boards). any other "custom" frequencies are unsupported, and, coincidentally, most of the time used in military usecases. better yet, they're generally not legal to use for normal consumers.

source: official facebook, linked to by their website.

some more photos from their official facebook:

now, a picture that I've described more than once in my previous comments. this was on instagram, which has since been privated.

(unfortunately, this somewhat smaller cutout is the only zoomed in backup that I was able to find:)

another very interesting post:

✅Підтримка кастомних частот 380-960MHz та 1.9-2.6GHz. Перевірено в бойових 🔥

which translates to the following:

Supports custom frequencies 380-960MHz and 1.9-2.6GHz. Tested in combat 🔥.

I don't think this needs any further explanation.
(and if you do: they are actively advertising with combat testing, as well as non-standard frequencies.)

source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/uavopengroup/posts/9462714760474062/

archive.org links to all facebook links above:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250716153334/https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=122101322696292101&id=61558763044774
https://web.archive.org/web/20250716153334/https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=122115218678292101&id=61558763044774
https://web.archive.org/web/20250716153325/https://www.facebook.com/groups/uavopengroup/posts/9462714760474062/

(somewhat more opinionated) closing thoughts:
Apart from the hard evidence I've provided here, there are a few more questionable things in regards to this company.
For example, why are they reselling radiomaster nomad transmitters on their site? I'm pretty sure they aren't an official radiomaster outlet. alternative URL
Then we get to what happened earlier. they took their entire instagram account private in response to my message.
This could either be seen as a way to deal with part of the problem properly, or it could be seen as trying to sweep something under the rug. which one I will leave up to the reader's discretion.

I urge the developers to seriously consider the points I've laid out here, and take appropriate action.

If this information wasn't known previously, it is now. either way I would like to see an official statement on the situation,

If you want any more proof, please tell me, and I would be happy to dig deeper, I'm sure there's more to find.

[cvetaevvitaliy]

@commanderguy3001 Why are you reacting so aggressively in the comments? Do you actually support the war and wish to see it prolonged?
Accusations like these could be directed at virtually any FPV electronics manufacturer. It’s no secret that Russia uses gear from companies like SpeedyBee and Radiomaster — yet that doesn’t mean those companies endorse or support the war in any way.
You keep commenting and stirring things up — quite the way to demonstrate neutrality, isn’t it?
If you were truly neutral, you probably wouldn’t care this much.

[cvetaevvitaliy]

@commanderguy3001 Interesting approach to neutrality — fueling controversy in every comment.
If you really didn’t take sides, you’d be the last person making a fuss here

[Darkmann12]

Strongly seconding @commanderguy3001 here. I have no idea how this PR ever made it this far. I do not think that proceeding is wise.

[commanderguy3001]

@cvetaevvitaliy

Accusations like these could be directed at virtually any FPV electronics manufacturer. It’s no secret that Russia uses gear from companies like SpeedyBee and Radiomaster — yet that doesn’t mean those companies endorse or support the war in any way.

correct. but you are the only one that actively advertises with it, while trying to be officially supported.
in other words, you are endorsing use of your equipment for such purposes.
if I am mistaken, and there are other companies that are officially supported by the elrs project, while advertising in a similar way to how you do, please let me know.

[cvetaevvitaliy]

@commanderguy3001 With all due respect, your statements seem to create an impression of fear, uncertainty, and doubt — often referred to as FUD.

[marchuks]

Hi @commanderguy3001,

Thanks for raising your concerns. I’d like to add some context so we can keep the discussion technical and consistent with the project's long-standing open, hobby focus.

1. About the symbol on StingBee hardware. The mark is Ukraine's national coat of arms (the Tryzub), used here as a country-of-origin/branding element - not an insignia of a specific military unit. You already noted, after a closer look, that the initial read may have been off. Thanks for rechecking.

2. Civilian product, wartime reality. StingBee builds general-purpose FPV / RC electronics. Because we are a Ukrainian company in a country under attack, some customers naturally use our gear in defense roles - just as radios, batteries, tools, hiking boots, and camera gear from countless global brands end up in military supply chains when wars intrude on civilian life. That downstream usage doesn't retroactively make the hardware "military equipment" nor was it designed to a mil-spec brief.

3. ELRS is not a hardened military link. ELRS prioritizes latency, link performance, and community hackability. Packets are not encrypted; the binding phrase is a collision-avoidance convenience, not crypto; community discussions have long cautioned that it’s unsuitable for security-critical or weaponized command/control. Actors may improvise with whatever is available, but that doesn't change what ELRS is (and isn't).

4. Dual-use everywhere. Off-the-shelf FPV/RC tech is used for search-and-rescue, disaster assessment, humanitarian and underwater demining, agriculture, research, and environmental monitoring - and yes, in conflict zones for ISR or documentation. As you mentioned, there are a few ongoing wars on this planet. Reading intent from background crates in a photo can't scale to that global reality.

5. Open source licensing & non-discrimination. ExpressLRS is GPL-3.0. The Open Source Definition (clauses 5 & 6) prohibits discrimination against persons, groups, or fields of endeavor—including "military" vs "civilian" distinctions. FSF freedom 0 likewise protects the freedom to run the program for any purpose. Conditioning merges on perceived geopolitical alignment or downstream end-use risks conflicting with these bedrock principles.

6. Project policy lever we do have. The ELRS docs and Configurator already encourage lawful/regional RF compliance. Accepting a target has always meant "this builds and works" not "the project endorses how someone might deploy it". If it helps reassure the community, we're happy to include a short, neutral disclaimer in the StingBee target README: "Use only in compliance with local law and regulations; not designed or warranted for weaponized or safety-critical control."

7. Let’s stay on the technicals. You clarified your goal is to keep the project neutral - not to single out any nationality. Appreciated. Let's keep the review on hardware quality, documentation, regulatory domain settings, and the proposed wording of a neutral-use disclaimer. Let's ship good hardware and good code, and leave personal background speculation out of it.

Thanks again for the careful review; let me know what remaining technical blockers you see.

[Relys]

So once a PR is merged, it becomes part of the official ExpressLRS repository, hosted on GitHub, a U.S.-based platform owned by Microsoft. Microsoft is subject to U.S. export control regulations such as:

ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations),
EAR (Export Administration Regulations), and
OFAC sanctions and compliance rules.

While ExpressLRS is clearly not designed as a military-grade system, the act of officially integrating and promoting hardware that is publicly marketed as “combat-tested,” with support for non-ISM, tactical-use bands (such as 380–960 MHz and 1.9–2.6 GHz), It creates a much clearer “dual-use” paper trail, which makes GitHub risk more concrete. Regulators or GitHub’s own legal/compliance teams could reclassify the project as dual-use technology. This is not hypothetical GitHub has taken down or restricted access to projects for much less.

ExpressLRS doesn't have to “endorse” how someone might use the hardware merging the PR already becomes an endorsement by association, because it gives the appearance of official integration and support.

Projects like ArduPilot have already dealt with this risk by explicitly forbidding contributions that are knowingly tied to weaponized applications, even under a GPL license. That doesn't contradict the license—it simply protects the project and its hosting by enforcing governance boundaries.

That is a technical and legal blocker, because if this PR contributes to a takedown or legal scrutiny of the ExpressLRS project on GitHub, it would materially harm the software and community.

I would urge the maintainers to consider this as more than just a licensing or ethics issue it is a risk to the continued ability of this project to exist on GitHub, which is a concrete technical concern.

Finally, I would like to address the false statement made above regarding "Open source licensing & non-discrimination". Non-discrimination means the end user can use the code for whatever they want. Copyleft means they have to publish their source. These are terms that the end user accepts and are bound to, they do not apply to the original copyright holder. There is absolutely no obligation as the source maintainer to merge any commit. Under GPL-3.0 you could refuse a merge based on something as petty as discrimination of the contributor liking pineapple on pizza.

[commanderguy3001]

@marchuks

Thanks for your reply, every input is appreciated.

2. Civilian product, wartime reality. StingBee builds general-purpose FPV / RC electronics. Because we are a Ukrainian company in a country under attack, some customers naturally use our gear in defense roles - just as radios, batteries, tools, hiking boots, and camera gear from countless global brands end up in military supply chains when wars intrude on civilian life. That downstream usage doesn't retroactively make the hardware "military equipment" nor was it designed to a mil-spec brief.

again, this is not about what actually happens in the real world, we all know that. instead, this is about the official marketing material, clearly marketing it for military use, in plenty of places. This is the problematic part.

3. ELRS is not a hardened military link. ELRS prioritizes latency, link performance, and community hackability. Packets are not encrypted; the binding phrase is a collision-avoidance convenience, not crypto; community discussions have long cautioned that it’s unsuitable for security-critical or weaponized command/control. Actors may improvise with whatever is available, but that doesn't change what ELRS is (and isn't).

correct, and discussed to no end in multiple other github issues, on discord, on reddit, etc.
I think the consensus about this is pretty clear amongst all people here.
I would argue that it doesn't matter for this, since this isn't another thread about elrs security.

4. Dual-use everywhere. Off-the-shelf FPV/RC tech is used for search-and-rescue, disaster assessment, humanitarian and underwater demining, agriculture, research, and environmental monitoring - and yes, in conflict zones for ISR or documentation. As you mentioned, there are a few ongoing wars on this planet. Reading intent from background crates in a photo can't scale to that global reality.

and in general, dual use is perfectly fine. search-and-rescue, disaster assessment, agriculture, research, environmental monitoring - all of those are not in direct control of human lives, and therefore free enough of potential controversies.
This however, is not the case with any kind of military use. there, it is generally in direct control of human lives, which has a high likelyhood of leading to controversies at some point.

5. Open source licensing & non-discrimination. ExpressLRS is GPL-3.0. The Open Source Definition (clauses 5 & 6) prohibits discrimination against persons, groups, or fields of endeavor—including "military" vs "civilian" distinctions. FSF freedom 0 likewise protects the freedom to run the program for any purpose. Conditioning merges on perceived geopolitical alignment or downstream end-use risks conflicting with these bedrock principles.

Yes, ELRS is indeed licensed under GPLv3. GPLv3 complies with the OSI, so there is no "discrimination against persons, groups, or fields of endeavor" here. and the OSI (especially clause 5 and 6) SPECIFICALLY are about the license only.
about FSF freedom 0 - yes, correct. you are allowed to "run the program as you wish, for any purpose." - having the GPLv3 as a license implies this, and we can not nor will stop you from doing that.
and the license, GPLv3, also doesn't restrict any of the other 3 primary freedoms the FSF lays out. you are welcome to fork the code, and do whatever you want with it.
HOWEVER, what neither the GPLv3 NOR the OSI osd NOR the FSF freedoms cover is how that code is created/maintained, and what rules/restrictions might apply in one place for this purpose.
again, if you were to fork this repository, you are free to merge whatever you want into it. but this DOES NOT MEAN that any other instance of this project (including this official one) has to accept a merge request from you. and this is exactly why you are allowed to copy, modify, and redistribute the code as you want.

[marchuks]

Hi @commanderguy3001, @Relys - thanks for the continued discussion. A few clarifications and concrete actions from the StingBee side so you can judge the PR on facts:

1. Personal post vs. official communication. The screenshot with language roughly translating to "custom frequencies" and "tested in combat" came from a personal social account, not an official StingBee channel. It was informal, context-missing, and not company messaging. Please don't read it as our official position.

2. Official channel clean‑up (in progress). We're auditing all official StingBee outlets (Instagram, Facebook page, website) and stripping language or imagery that could be read as militarizing our products. Once done, we'll drop a note in this PR with what was changed. Community reposts are harder to control, but we'll request they avoid implying endorsement by any armed force.

3. Frequencies / regulatory domains clarification. We ship and support only stock ExpressLRS regulatory domains (EU_868, FCC_915, ISM_2400, etc.). The "custom frequency" phrasing in the personal post was sloppy wording on our side-intended to mean "choose the domain that matches your region/needs," not "program arbitrary off‑band tactical channels." We'll make that explicit in our official docs.

4. Civilian product, dual‑use reality. We're a Ukrainian company building general‑purpose FPV / RC electronics used by hobbyists. In wartime, civilian gear inevitably shows up in defense roles-same story for radios, batteries, tools, or camera gimbals from many brands. That downstream fact doesn't change the upstream design intent. And as noted earlier: there are a few ongoing wars on this planet, not only in Ukraine; trying to police every background object in a customer photo doesn't scale.

5. Export / hosting risk awareness. We understand the sensitivity around hosting material that could be interpreted as weapons tech (GitHub/Microsoft trade controls, EAR/ITAR optics, etc.). This PR adds only a target definition (pin map + metadata) and references upstream ELRS behavior; no restricted waveforms or tooling. Cleaning up our official messaging (2) and clarifying legal‑band use (3) should reduce any perceived risk. If maintainers prefer an additional short governance note repo‑wide ("ExpressLRS does not accept code whose primary function is weapons employment"), we'd support that discussion.

6. Path forward. There are no per‑target READMEs in ELRS; instead, we'll publish a compliance & intended‑use statement on the official StingBee site and link it in our product materials. Please let us know if you want that link referenced in this target's metadata comment.

Thanks again for the careful review. Looking forward to resolving the optics so we can get back to the technical work.

[UsernameUserpost]

A quad with a receiver like this on board attacked a civilian car in the Belgorod region. StingBee TrueD G reads well here.