planeMapper

ADS-B radar display on a Waveshare 7.3" 6-colour e-ink screen, driven by a Pi 5 + RTL-SDR dongle.

Project goal

Render a live ~100nm radius radar map centred on home airfield, with aircraft positions, headings, altitudes, and callsigns. Refresh every 60 seconds.

Stack

dump1090 — ADS-B decoder, JSON feed at http://localhost:8080/data/aircraft.json
Python + Pillow — fetches JSON, renders map image
OpenStreetMap tiles — base map, pre-cached locally
Waveshare Python library — SPI driver for the e-ink HAT

Hardware

Raspberry Pi 5
Nooelec NESDR Smart v5 RTL-SDR dongle (SMA, 0.5PPM TCXO)
FlightAware 1090MHz antenna (5.5dBi)
Waveshare 7.3" 6-colour e-ink HAT (E-Ink Spectra 6, 40-pin GPIO, SPI, driver board included)

Design decisions

Aircraft icons: rotated triangle/arrow aligned to heading, short track line behind
Colour-coded by altitude band (6 colours available on display)
Callsign + altitude label per aircraft
Home airfield marked on map
Potential: differentiate commercial/GA/helicopter, highlight own squawk code

Full spec

See README.md in this directory.

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