Dear flight fanatics,
I've been working (or mostly ordering and waiting..) on a air/flight radar project for a while now. And I've come back with some great results, for an insane low amount of money! I've been able to hit planes up to 250KM above the North Sea. Let me share with you how and what I've done...
First, let's start with the hardware of the project. I'm running this all on a Raspberry Pi Zero (more), which has more than enough processing power to do all the decoding. My setup is running at max. 30% load for dump1090-mutability, and fr24feed isn't popping above 5% load. Let's sum it up:
After loading it with Raspbian Jessie Lite (2016-05-10-raspbian-jessie-lite.img), I SSH into it, and it went something like this:
Raspi-config
Update the system
Install necessary programs
RTL-SDR drivers
Now you can connect your DVB-T USB receiver stick to the USB hub.
Install mutability repository (for stable releases and updates)
Choices...
From here on you have two choices, you can install the latest stable version of DUMP1090-mutability, or the latest developtment version from the github. I went with the latest.
If you want the latest stable from the repository, do so like this:
Build and install the latest development version of dump1090-mutability
Install and activate external webserver (lighttpd)
Wait, that's it?
YUP! That's it. You should have a fully functional air/flight radar for under €25,-!
Check it out, with the IP of your Raspberry Pi:
How about FR24feeder?
I've been working (or mostly ordering and waiting..) on a air/flight radar project for a while now. And I've come back with some great results, for an insane low amount of money! I've been able to hit planes up to 250KM above the North Sea. Let me share with you how and what I've done...
| IMG_20160529_202847_HDR.jpg | IMG_20160529_202621_HDR.jpg | Selection_051.png |
| Raspberry Pi Zero setup with USB hub + ethernet and DVB-T USB receiver stick | Little standard antenna that came with the DVB-T USB receiver stick | Result of my personal LoS (Line of Sight) situation |
First, let's start with the hardware of the project. I'm running this all on a Raspberry Pi Zero (more), which has more than enough processing power to do all the decoding. My setup is running at max. 30% load for dump1090-mutability, and fr24feed isn't popping above 5% load. Let's sum it up:
| Item | Cost | Source |
| Raspberry Pi Zero | £4,00 (+ £4,00 shipping) | ThePiHut.com (example) |
| 8GB Micro SD card | €2,50 | AliExpress.com (example) |
| USB hub with ethernet | €3,00 | AliExpress.com (example) |
| DVB-T USB receiver stick | €7,00 | AliExpress.com (example) |
| Micro USB phone charger (min. 1A) | (€1,00) | laying arround |
After loading it with Raspbian Jessie Lite (2016-05-10-raspbian-jessie-lite.img), I SSH into it, and it went something like this:
Raspi-config
Code:
sudo raspi-config- Expand filesystem
- Reboot
Code:
sudo raspi-config- Set your hostname under advanced options
- You could turn down the video memory split to 32 or 16, since the video chip doesn't need to do much
- You could change the administrator password to your liking
- Under localisation settings, change it to your correct settings
- Reboot
Update the system
Code:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo rebootInstall necessary programs
Code:
sudo apt-get install git-core
sudo apt-get install git
sudo apt-get install cmake
sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get install debhelper
sudo apt-get install rtl-sdr
sudo apt-get install librtlsdr-dev
sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev
sudo apt-get install pkg-config
sudo apt-get install fakeroot
sudo apt-get install curl
sudo apt-get install cron
sudo rebootRTL-SDR drivers
Code:
git clone git://git.osmocom.org/rtl-sdr.git
cd rtl-sdr
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../ -DINSTALL_UDEV_RULES=ON
make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
cd ~
sudo cp ./rtl-sdr/rtl-sdr.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo rebootInstall mutability repository (for stable releases and updates)
Code:
wget https://github.com/mutability/mutability-repo/releases/download/v0.1.1/mutability-repo_0.1.1_armhf.deb
sudo dpkg -i mutability-repo_0.1.1_armhf.deb
sudo apt-get updateChoices...
From here on you have two choices, you can install the latest stable version of DUMP1090-mutability, or the latest developtment version from the github. I went with the latest.
If you want the latest stable from the repository, do so like this:
Code:
sudo apt-get install dump1090-mutability
sudo dpkg-reconfigure dump1090-mutabilityBuild and install the latest development version of dump1090-mutability
Code:
git clone https://github.com/mutability/dump1090.git
cd dump1090
sudo dpkg-buildpackage -b
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i dump1090-mutability_1.15~dev_armhf.deb (check version!)
sudo dpkg-reconfigure dump1090-mutability- You can basicly keep all the default settings, except for your location
Install and activate external webserver (lighttpd)
Code:
sudo apt-get install lighttpd
sudo lighty-enable-mod dump1090
sudo /etc/init.d/lighttpd force-reload
sudo rebootWait, that's it?
YUP! That's it. You should have a fully functional air/flight radar for under €25,-!
Check it out, with the IP of your Raspberry Pi:
Code:
http://x.x.x.x/dump1090/How about FR24feeder?
Code:
wget http://repo.feed.flightradar24.com/rpi_binaries/fr24feed_1.0.18-5_armhf.deb (check version!)
sudo dpkg -i fr24feed_1.0.18-5_armhf.deb (check version!)
sudo fr24feed –-signup- Use auto detect to detect running instances of dump1090.
- For everything else; you can basicly keep the default settings for everything, except for the closest airport.