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My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar

jacobbartlett.substack.com

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Re: My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar

#3

Post by gattr »

SteveNuts wrote: post #2

Another fun project would be to build your own ADS-B receiver! https://www.adsbexchange.com/ways-to-join-the-exchange/

Just a few weeks ago I got interested in this as well ("where does FR24 get its data from?"). I ended up buying a cheap RTL-SDR dongle (R820T2) and a small outdoor antenna. I run the free dump1090 tool (I'm on Fedora) to decode ADS-B messages, then my own simple "radar-like" visualization program ([1]) connects to dump1090's network socket to receive decoded data (SBS1 textual format). Even with the antenna just sitting in my room (on a photo tripod), I typically receive data from 10-20 aircraft, up to 190 km away. I drove to a hilltop this weekend (some 600 m higher) and immediately got >100 aircraft, up to 500 km.

[1] https://github.com/GreatAttractor/plane-tracker

Re: My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar

#6

Post by trackone »

gattr wrote: post #3
SteveNuts wrote: post #2

Another fun project would be to build your own ADS-B receiver! https://www.adsbexchange.com/ways-to-join-the-exchange/

Just a few weeks ago I got interested in this as well ("where does FR24 get its data from?"). I ended up buying a cheap RTL-SDR dongle (R820T2) and a small outdoor antenna. I run the free dump1090 tool (I'm on Fedora) to decode ADS-B messages, then my own simple "radar-like" visualization program ([1]) connects to dump1090's network socket to receive decoded data (SBS1 textual format). Even with the antenna just sitt…

I don't have any experience with it myself, but you can provide your ADS-B data to ADS-B exchange. https://www.adsbexchange.com/ways-to-join-the-exchange/

Re: My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar

#7

Post by blt »

This is great!

Small detail question: Did CRT radar scopes really have scan lines? I would have guessed they were vector displays.

Re. list of extra features: Since the app targets planespotting, it would be cool to show aircraft type, maybe for a few seconds after you tap a blip.

Re: My toddler loves planes, so I built her a radar

#10

Post by jakey_bakey »

ano-ther wrote: post #4

Love it! From the error message it seems that too many HN users are trying it out right now. I will come back later.

Yeah, the API is free and has no guaranteed SLO.

I think for V2 I'll allow people to enter their OpenSky credentials, since it allows for basic auth

V3 (unlikely unless this takes off, pun intended) I might look into paid services.

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