Tag: flightradar24

Categories
Misc

FR24 in Singapore: T-WSAP38

Now running a Flightradar24 receiver in Singapore: T-WSAP38. Range is fairly limited due to surrounding buildings and not having an amplificator on the antenna. Not much I can do about that for now.

Stats here — click on top users: Yeri (#13 atm).

Categories
Hardware Linux Networking

T-EBBR55 antenna (@Flightradar24)

Flightradar24 (T-EBBR55) antenna being installed right next to BRU airport.

2015-01-28

Due to interference (GSM? WiFi (very very unlikely)? High voltage power lines?) we moved it to the side, as seen below.

While it is blind from half a side, it can see all the way up to London and beyond.

IMG_20150204_093522

This is the result:

Screen Shot 2015-02-04 at 15.31.42

Screen Shot 2015-02-05 at 23.27.54

Screen Shot 2015-02-05 at 23.28.48

Screen Shot 2015-02-04 at 15.33.07

As comparison, this is T-EBBR43 (Not placed as high, at my parents’ house):

Screen Shot 2015-02-04 at 15.43.24 Screen Shot 2015-02-04 at 15.44.02

Merged data from EBBR43, EBBR44 and EBBR55:

merged

Categories
Linux Networking Software Virtualisation

Updated @Flightradar24 Ansible cookbook

I had to wait a little while for the ARMv7 version for my EfikaMX devices, but they finally had time to compile it. Yay!

The updated cookbooks are on Github.

Changes (commits):

  • Better key management
  • fr24feed.ini
  • No more separate dump1090 launch
  • newest fr24 version

Download links for Linux & RPi.

Categories
Linux Networking Software Virtualisation

@Flightradar24 Ansible playbook

Here’s my very simple Ansible playbook for Flightradar24 nodes.

While I run it on EfikaMX, it should work on most Debian based devices. Just be sure to modify the FR24 software download URL.

This Ansible playbook is untested on its own. It comes out of a way bigger (private) Ansible playbook, and I kind of just copy pasted this part, as others might benefit from it.

After running Ansible, you should reboot for driver blacklisting to work in cases it’s needed on your device (it is on RPis). And be sure to edit /root/flightradar24.sh with your key.

Categories
Hardware Linux Networking Software

Raspberry Pi & @Flightradar24

In a couple of lines: how to get FR24 (+ dump1090) to work on your Raspberry Pi.

Be sure to have the right hardware: flightradar24.com/dvbt-stick and … obviously … a RPi.

I got a NooElec from Amazon because I didn’t have the patience to wait for something (that might not work) from AliExpress.

As root:

apt-get update && apt-get install cmake gcc pkg-config libusb-1.0 make git-core libc-dev
git clone git://git.osmocom.org/rtl-sdr.git
cd rtl-sdr
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../ -DINSTALL_UDEV_RULES=ON
make && make install
ldconfig
cd ../..

And be sure to Blacklist the normal driver:

echo "blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu" > /etc/modprobe.d/dvb-t.conf

And at this point you should reboot.

As regular user (screen part is no longer needed as the new FR24 program will automatically launch and execute it for you):

git clone https://github.com/MalcolmRobb/dump1090.git
cd dump1090
make
ln -s dump1090 /bin/
screen -dmS dump ./dump1090 --interactive --net --net-beast --net-ro-port 31001 --net-http-port 8888
cd ..

Now get the FR24 software. In case you get a 404, get the latest version here new Raspberry Pi version is here, Linux (AMD64 & ARMv7) is here.
You can get your long & lat here.
Follow the updated howto on the page. The underlying code is no longer relevant.

wget https://web.archive.org/web/20141002002531/https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66906/fr24feed_arm-rpi_242.tgz
tar xvzf fr24feed*
./fr24feed_arm-rpi_242 --signup

I’ll ask a couple of questions (answer them correctly):

Step 1/5 - Enter Latitude (DD.DDDD)
$:50.927358
Step 2/5 - Enter Longitude (DD.DDDD)
$:4.399928
Step 3/5 - Enter your email address ([email protected])
$:[email protected]
Step 4/5 - Enter your the hostname of the data feed (leave empty for localhost)
$:
Step 5/5 - Enter your the port number of the data feed (leave empty for 30003)
$:

Validating form data...OK

The closest airport found is 'Brussels Airport (ICAO:EBBR IATA:BRU)' near Brussels.

Latitude: 50.901379
Longitude: 4.484444
Country: Belgium

Flightradar24 may, if needed, use your email address to contact you regarding your data feed.

Would you like to continue using these settings?

(yes/no)$:yes

[...].

It will give you a key (and e-mail it to you) after a couple of minutes. Keep this key, as it’s important.

That’s it. As dump1090 is already running, all you have to do is start flightradar and you’re good to go.

This is the script I use to start it all (in screen, allowing me to check it). As normal user:

nano -w flightradar.sh

And copy paste the following (+ edit the variables):

#!/bin/bash
KEY=YOUR-KEY-EDIT-THIS
DIR=/home/PATH-TO-YOU-SCRIPT

pro script

cd $DIR

Start dump1090

cd dump1090

I run on port 8888 because 8080 is taken on my rasp

THIS IS NO LONGER NEEDED

#screen -dmS dump ./dump1090 --interactive --net --net-beast --net-ro-port 31001 --net-http-port 8888
cd ..

Start Flightradar24

screen -dmS flightradar24 ./fr24feed_arm-rpi_242 --fr24key=$KEY

And run: chmod +x flightradar.sh

To start the script, simply run ./flightradar.sh, and check what’s happening with screen -r dump or screen -r flightradar.

To auto start this script at boot time, I edit rc.local as root:

nano -w /etc/rc.local

And add the following at the end but BEFORE exit 0:

su yeri -c /home/yeri/flightradar.sh

Obviously, modify the path and the user it should run under (in this case as “yeri”).

PS: Be sure to signup again every time you move your Raspberry around (the coords seem to be hardcoded in the key).
PPS: You can get Premium access here now: flightradar24.com/premium (and check fancy graphs about your “radar”).