Matt Edholm
65 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
65 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
# planeMapper
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A wall-mounted ADS-B radar display in a picture-frame form factor. Receives live aircraft positions via RTL-SDR, renders them on an OpenStreetMap base map centred on a home airfield (~100nm radius), and refreshes a 6-colour e-ink display every 60 seconds.
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Designed to sit on a desk or hang on a wall — always on, no interaction required, no glare.
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## Hardware
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| Item | Notes |
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|------|-------|
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| Raspberry Pi Zero 2W | Deployment target. Build and test on Pi 5 first. |
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| Nooelec NESDR Smart v5 RTL-SDR dongle | 0.5PPM TCXO, SMA input. Needs micro-USB OTG adapter on Zero 2W. |
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| FlightAware 1090MHz ADS-B antenna | Purpose-built for 1090MHz, 5.5dBi |
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| Waveshare 7.3" 6-colour e-ink HAT | E-Ink Spectra 6, 800×480, 40-pin GPIO, SPI |
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## Software Stack
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- **dump1090** — decodes ADS-B from RTL-SDR, serves JSON at `http://localhost:8080/data/aircraft.json`
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- **Python + Pillow** — fetches JSON, renders map image
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- **Waveshare Python library** — SPI driver for the e-ink HAT
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- **OpenStreetMap tiles** — base map, pre-cached for the local area
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## Pipeline
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```
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RTL-SDR dongle
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→ dump1090
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→ JSON feed (positions, headings, altitudes, callsigns)
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→ Python renderer (Pillow)
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→ map image
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→ Waveshare SPI driver
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→ e-ink display
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```
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Refresh loop runs every 60 seconds.
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## Map Design
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- Centred on home airfield, ~100nm radius
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- OpenStreetMap base tiles (pre-cached)
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- Aircraft plotted as rotated arrows aligned to heading
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- Short track line behind each aircraft
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- Callsign and altitude label per aircraft
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- Colour-coded by altitude band (6 colours match display palette)
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- Home airfield marked
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## Colour Bands (altitude)
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The Waveshare E-Ink Spectra 6 supports black, white, red, yellow, blue, and green — mapped to altitude bands TBD during development.
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## Build Order
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1. RTL-SDR + dump1090 — confirm aircraft visible in JSON feed
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2. Base map — render OSM tiles at correct scale, 100nm radius
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3. Aircraft overlay — pull live positions, draw heading arrows and labels
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4. E-ink output — push image via Waveshare library, set 60s refresh loop
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5. Polish — airspace overlays, altitude colour coding, frame and mount
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## Notes
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- E-ink only draws power on refresh — very low idle draw, suits always-on use
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- Pi Zero 2W runs the full stack comfortably given the relaxed 60s refresh cycle
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- OTG adapter required to connect RTL-SDR dongle to the Zero 2W's single micro-USB port
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- Lat/lon to pixel coordinate conversion is the trickiest part of the renderer
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