Discussion Forums  >  Maps, Device Location, Tracking

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SmugWimp
Smugger than thou...
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Posts: 6316
Reg: Nov 07, 2012
Tamuning, GU
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08/24/15 11:46 PM (9 years ago)

Flight Aware/Flight Radar Premium Accounts if you feed them information.

I might have mentioned this before, but like everything I 'want' to do, I don't always have the schedule to do them. Although I purchased the parts long ago, I only recently had time to actually 'do it', and that was to assemble a Raspberry Pi computer configured for use as an aviation 'ADS-B Ground Station', which is a fancy name for radio receiver. I created mine in accordance with Flight Aware requirements, as listed here: http://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/build Flight Radar 24 will send you the equipment to host it: http://www.flightradar24.com/free-ads-b-equipment And upon successful transmission of data, either will provide your account with 'premium' status or equivalent. What is nice about that is, data that would normally cost you $90 or more a month, is now provided for free. Most of the information is json or xml, and easily parsed into usable data. You can add flight arrival and departure information, and interesting graphics that display the flights on your screen. Depending on your app, it could add great value for low initial cost and a few cents in power afterwards. You certainly don't have to, but I live in a tourist center and can see all kinds of advantages of having this information in my app, whereas it's too costly for any competition to duplicate it, or it can allow you to play with the big boys for a far smaller cost. I'll let you know how things develop, and if there is any plugin potential to some of the data available. I just thought it was cool to watch, lol! Cheers! -- Smug Here is a link to a rather short screen capture (about 45 seconds) that shows one plane landing, one plane 'just passing by', and another taking off. This is the kind of data I want to display on the app screen. It's kind of hypnotizing, lol! https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/115208762/flightaware.mov
 
GoNorthWest
buzztouch Evangelist
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Reg: Jun 24, 2011
Oro Valley, AZ
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08/25/15 03:33 AM (9 years ago)
That's pretty darn interesting! While I don't really have a use for tracking flight data like that, the concept in general is intriguing, and I may have to set up a PiAware system just to check it out! Cool stuff! Mark
 
SmugWimp
Smugger than thou...
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Posts: 6316
Reg: Nov 07, 2012
Tamuning, GU
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08/27/15 06:27 AM (9 years ago)
One thing I will say, if you buy a wifi adapter for your setup, make darn sure it's a fairly known brand, specifically RALINK... I bought a generic off of ebay, and although it 'says' it was compatible with everything, it *is* but you have to compile the drivers into the kernel. And arduous task I really didn't want to get into. Subsequently, I dug into my parts bin and found an old wireless adaptor that was easily recognized, and now I have it happily humming along tucked away near the window where I tossed the antenna outside. I am trying to modify my output to be mobile friendly, and am experimenting with the DUMP1090 scripts and stuff. I have to work on my mac, and then copy files over, and then 'place' the files. It's kind of annoying, because you can't FTP directly into the directories; you have to copy them to your user directory, and 'sudo' copy them with the right credentials. But it gets the job done. Sneak a peek at http://114.142.233.123:81 Cheers! -- Smug
 

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