Hi,

What with all of this NATS ADS-B trial initiative, there should be good ways of detecting and plotting traffic now on Skydemon with a low cost ADS-B Receiver, to give us a very low cost PCAS.

So, working on a Raspberry Pi ADS-B receiver solution (super cheap! ~£50 or less - keep it open source), based on dump1090 or modesdeco2, but wondering if it's possible to adapt the FLARM interface to get traffic data displayed on Skydemon.  There is an ADSB2FLARM software module kicking around in the 'virtual radar' development community.

How does SD handle this?  Is there a better way to feed this data into SD?  Which interface would be recommended?  How about over Bluetooth?  If this is available is there a document describing the message format?

The Air-connect TCP/IP style isn't so attractive, since it's harder/more expensive to set up a WiFi Access Point with the RPi using a USB WiFi dongle.   (EDIT: Seems it's possible with a USB WiFi stick to create an AP, so maybe ok this way)

Cheers
Andy

Yes, you could do this with SkyDemon's existing Flarm over TCP interface. You'd need an access point or adhoc network with a known IP address (this isn't configurable in SkyDemon) and after connection, simply send GPS and Flarm messages interleaved just as the Air Connect does.

Thanks Tim,

Please are you able to point me to the most relevant document that you would have designed to, detailing the interface?

Cheers
Andy

It uses the standard FLARM interface - all the documentation can be found on the PowerFLARM website.

You need to be careful using those 'TV tuner' dongles in the air. They use a local oscillator in the tuner and spit out masses of RF interference spanning from VHF frequencies up past 1.5GHz (GPS) and beyond. One I tried knocked out a GPS receiver from half a metre away. Not good...

Thanks for the heads up. Will check that out!

We have no SkyDemon documentation related to this topic.

Hi All

According the ot butterfly connect it seems to be running a service on
ipaddr 192.168.1.1
port 2000
Is this what skydemon attempts to connect to ?

Thx
Lee

There are a couple of ADS-B receiver apps in the Android Play Store. DVB-T dongle hasn't arrived yet so haven't tried out but looks like feeds position data to mapping app.
Chris

The FUNCube dongle is very interesting as well http://www.funcubedongle.com/?page_id=1073
Apparently the Pi (though perhaps not the newer version) has capability issues with the amount of data is can deal with.
Would love to see someting like this come to fruition. A while ago (before the son arrived!) i had acquired a Pi and FUNcube (the original version) with the intention of coming up with a device that uses GPS signals "validated" (within the tolerance of such old equipment) by VORs etc.

Hi all, I'm new to the forum and am in the process of developing something similar to that described above.

I am essentially trying to emulate the service interface described here http://www.air-avionics.com/support/B104002.pdf to send ads-b positional information from raspberry pi to skydemon using the existing Flarm interface.

I was just wondering if Wobblewing had made any progress? Or if any users have any further insight into this, other than what has already been discussed!

Many thanks, James

I have been testing a Raspberry Pi ADS-B set up using PIAWARE software, which feeds Sky Demon through the CollisionAwAre app on my mini IPad. The tests have been a success, both on the ground (in my car) and in the air. I flew yesterday and picked up an aircraft flying out of Oxford Kidlington 1,400 feet above me and in my 8 o'clock. I turned towards the contact and even though I knew where to look, I did not actually see the aircraft until it was with a couple of seconds away from me. As shown on Sky Demon, the twin was 1,400 feet above me, so I as able to watch it fly safely into the haze of the late afternoon. The Raspberry Pi view of this contact gave me at least 8 nm notice of the proximity of this aircraft. My GPS (installed on the Raspberry PI) worked fine and there was no interference over the intercom.

Everything you need to know is in the document you linked to above (for connectivity) and in the PowerFLARM manual (for protocol).

Don't underestimate my warning earlier though about the massive amounts of RF interference both the RasPi and the DVB-T dongle generate. Neither device belongs in an aircraft!

OK its more than a RasPi would cost but PFLARM core with wifi connect to skydemon also displays Mode S and FLARM (gliders) traffic as well as ADS-B.

I find seeing the gliders the most useful.


Europa farm strip flyer, Bedfordshire, UK

Hi all

I have this all working on a raspi adsb to skydemon, please contact me for details

moorel at ntlworld dot com

Thx
Lee

Hallo Lee

I would be interested in some details.

Curious

Mike

Hi Mike,

please take a look at
www.pilotaware.com

Thx
Lee

Hi Lee,

smart!!!

I visited your site, you only mentioned the availability for IOS, what about Android & SD

-mike

latest skydemon update improves menu navigation for FLARM input - good

changed aircraft icons from green to white - bad

now much less visible, same reason white aircraft are difficult to see!

One thought - could we change the colour of the aircraft icons? White can be hard to spot? Also any chance of having different icons for different types of aircraft?