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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

#51

Post by filterfiber »

trackone wrote: post #6
gattr wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

Heads up - IIRC ADSB-exchange was sold out, an alternative might be adsb.fi

Regardless you can send your ADS-B data to all of them - ADSB-exchange, adsb.fi, flightradar, flightaware, etc.

That way you get all of the benefits and contribute community data.

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

#52

Post by sertbdfgbnfgsd »

HumblyTossed wrote: post #24
sertbdfgbnfgsd wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, phones are addicting and getting a toddler hooked seems like a disservice. There's so many educational things the author could be giving their toddler and they're teaching them to have their eyes glued to their screen from such a young age...

> I don't know, phones are addicting and getting a toddler hooked seems like a disservice. Phones are not addicting. Algorithmically manipulated services are addicting. > There's so many educational things the author could be giving their toddler and they're teaching them to have their eyes glued to their screen from such a young age... Like how to use one's skills and passions to develop a product for their beloved…

I believe you're missing the crux of the problem.

What's new about phones is NOT that things are manipulated so that we want more of it. "News" have been around for centuries and they've always been manipulated to give most people outrageous stuff to consume.

What's new about phones is that A) they are an effectively infinite source of stuff and B) it takes 2 seconds to get them from our pocket.

So you're blaming addiction on optimization by evil services, but in reality the problem are the phones themselves: they make it too easy to "get more".

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

#53

Post by jakey_bakey »

jefftk wrote: post #35

Nice! Minor nits: * It takes me out of the immersion a bit when planes move after having been drawn. It would feel more realistic if the blips were "painted" by the sweep and then static until the next sweep. * To make it a bit more realistic you could extrapolate from previous data points so each plane would make consistent progress from sweep to sweep.

Thank you :)

Both very valid points. I think if I was clever with timing and angles the first one is definitely doable. The second one woudl be even simpler - the API returns flight velocity so I can even calculate this from one data point

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

#54

Post by [deleted] »

blt wrote: post #7

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.

[deleted]

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

#55

Post by jakey_bakey »

niccl wrote: post #40
JacobBartlett24 wrote: post #32

Off topic but you have my exact name (first and last). I wonder what the chances are on that.

numerically, quite low, but given the number of people on the internet, it happens routinely. I'd guess most English speaking people have used for their name and found duplicates So: guess maybe 100 million English names on the internet, between 2 and 100 matches, so around 1 in 10 million BTW. I got bored counting the matches for Jacob Bartlett on facebook. definitely more than 10

Jacob and Bartlett are both relatively common names, I'd say aggregating over a lifetime one can expect to coincidentially bump into quite a few over the years (since the advent of the internet at least!)

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

#56

Post by filterfiber »

jakey_bakey wrote: post #37
michaelmior wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not as fun as building your own, but note that you can apply for a free receiver from FR24. https://www.flightradar24.com/apply-for-receiver

That's incredible, whats the catch!? I reckon if I shelled out for a business plan I could start doing some simple stuff with free tier / extra paid features

> That's incredible, whats the catch!?

They prioritize low-coverage areas (no idea how generous they are for covered areas).

Nearly all of their position data is from these receivers, so you're providing them with more coverage/redundancy for the plane positions.

The hardware is relatively cheap (under 50$) and I don't imagine the business tier costs them much money.

> I reckon if I shelled out for a business plan I could start doing some simple stuff with free tier / extra paid features

You don't need to they'll give it to you for free.

sidenote: You can build your own with an rtl-sdr and a raspberry pi/cheap computer. If you do this you can forward the data to all of the commercial sites for the free perks, and to all of the community sites.

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

#57

Post by jakey_bakey »

mbowcut2 wrote: post #26

This is perfect. We need more hobbyist apps. Minimalist design, simple and solid functionality, and no ads in sight. Shake off the shackles of the advertising dystopia!

This comment is perfect :)

I think certianly the toddler-based inspo made it easier to turn into a simple toy

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

#59

Post by ghewgill »

blt wrote: post #7

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.

They were vector displays. But possibly not quite in the way you're thinking.

The original radar displays would scan from the center outward along a radial. The timing of the scan was predefined to scale for distance. The beam intensity signal was directly the (amplified) radar return signal. So a stronger returned signal would cause a more visible "blip" on the long-phosphor display.

The interesting part is to make the radar beam scan around the CRT display, the whole cathode tube emitter assembly would be driven by a motor synchronized with the spinning radar dish. This rotation would have to match the speed and direction of the radar dish at all times, otherwise the blips would show in the wrong place.

The fixed radial and distance lines would be printed either on the CRT tube itself or on a transparent cover. Displays like this were used for decades, probably well into the 1980s or even early 1990s. Newer versions were able to use simple electronics to scan in the X and Y direction independently, to avoid the more complex rotating beam emitter assembly.

More info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_display#Plan_position_in...

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

#60

Post by jakey_bakey »

m4tthumphrey wrote: post #9

Slightly off topic: I went to download this and it said I needed iOS17. Out of pure curiosity what from iOS17 does it need? Apologies if it’s mentioned in the article, I just skipped ahead to final product.

Not off-topic at all, happy to answer!

- Map Annotations - SwiftUI Metal Shaders (for the CRT effect) - SFSymbol Animations

If I remember anything else I'll mention :)

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