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I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

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Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#71

Hi! I am the guy behind this, awesome to see it posted here. Happy to answer any questions. To answer a question I saw pop up, I am using the FAA aircraft registration data to pull up the extra information about the planes. It lists who actually owns the plane, vs who is operating it. That is why you see so many banks. Places like Flightaware have much better data, but a pricy to look up.

Why dont you use motion sensing cameras? Could detect UFO

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#72
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should clarify that I’m mostly guessing on your bill of materials. There are only a few obvious choices for this project.

I posted a bit more on what I am using on the About page: http://skybot.cam/about I got all the camera gear on ebay, which was lucky. I figure since it is all based on ADS-B data, there isn't anything too crazy about making it public. I am also still trying to figure out if it is actually useful for anything... besides getting unlimited plane photos!

> I figure since it is all based on ADS-B data, there isn't anything too crazy about making it public.

The only non-public information you're making available is the approximate location of your house!

It's a very high end approach to planespotting though. People used to just tick off serial numbers in books :D

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#73
post #32

Hi! I am the guy behind this, awesome to see it posted here. Happy to answer any questions. To answer a question I saw pop up, I am using the FAA aircraft registration data to pull up the extra information about the planes. It lists who actually owns the plane, vs who is operating it. That is why you see so many banks. Places like Flightaware have much better data, but a pricy to look up.

Are you filtering out military planes?

There's no reason to if they are flying with ADS-B transmitting. They're broadcasting their position and will usually appear on FR24 etc.

If they are flying without ADS-B (which is legal for the military when needed) they won't be picked up by this system so no filtering needed.

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#74

Hi! I am the guy behind this, awesome to see it posted here. Happy to answer any questions. To answer a question I saw pop up, I am using the FAA aircraft registration data to pull up the extra information about the planes. It lists who actually owns the plane, vs who is operating it. That is why you see so many banks. Places like Flightaware have much better data, but a pricy to look up.

Why dont you use motion sensing cameras? Could detect UFO

clouds, birds, leaves, etc.

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#75
A year ago today I launched something similar, but for Great Lakes boats passing my house on the Detroit River (uses AIS rather than ADS-B, and passively tracks the boat crossing the fixed camera rather than pointing the camera):

https://twitter.com/detroitships

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#76
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI if you were able to set this up, it would be trivial for you to share your ADS-B feed with Flightradar24[1]. This would give you a free business plan[2] for as long as you share, which would get you access to that data. [1] https://www.flightradar24.com/build-your-own [2] https://www.flightradar24.com/premium

Instead you should just feed ADSBExchange, which doesn't require premium business plans or other nonsense. They also do not censor the data and will show you planes that the owners don't want you to see. https://www.adsbexchange.com/

Back when I first discovered flightradar24 it seemed like every plane I was curious about came up on there. The curious ones are mostly military planes as they don't follow standard routes and schedules. Then more and more I noticed stuff not appearing. Later I discovered ADSBExchange and things seemed to be on there. But now, again, I regular hear military planes right over my house with not a thing shown on ADSBExchange. I don't think it's a coverage issue as I always see the regular boring cargo planes that come this way. Is it really "uncensored"?

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#77
post #54
post #22

Feels like the website-about page: http://skybot.cam/about is a much better link than a tweet.. loaded with details. For example: - Most planes are passing at over 30,000' - It's using a Costar RISE 4260 camera /w built in heater - It leverages SkyScan by IQT labs[0] - It leverages Azure custom vision API[1] [0]: https://github.com/IQTLabs/SkyScan [1]: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-service...

Unfortunately no HTTPS on the website

[deleted]

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#78

Hi! I am the guy behind this, awesome to see it posted here. Happy to answer any questions. To answer a question I saw pop up, I am using the FAA aircraft registration data to pull up the extra information about the planes. It lists who actually owns the plane, vs who is operating it. That is why you see so many banks. Places like Flightaware have much better data, but a pricy to look up.

What would you have to change to capture helicopters too?

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#79

Hi! I am the guy behind this, awesome to see it posted here. Happy to answer any questions. To answer a question I saw pop up, I am using the FAA aircraft registration data to pull up the extra information about the planes. It lists who actually owns the plane, vs who is operating it. That is why you see so many banks. Places like Flightaware have much better data, but a pricy to look up.

Very cool, how do you get the camera to point to the right place?

Re: I built a system that takes pictures of all the airplanes that fly over my house

#80
As someone living directly below a flight path, I want one of two things: to make enough money to move out, or lobby the FAA to spread the pain more widely. At some point, the so-called NextGen technology enabled the FAA to channel all air traffic along a hyper narrow corridor -- one that's unfortunately right over my street.
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