GoKawiilThis project made for a perfect lazy Saturday unwind, after a busy week giving a talk at Devrelcon in NYC. Makerworld had this thing as one of their featured models about a week or two ago, and the parts came in while I was away.
GitHub repository ESP32-Plane-Radar Open-source ESP32 firmware for a 1.28″ round display that shows live ADS-B aircraft around your location as a sonar-style plane radar.
Plane radar is a neat little project that turns an ESP32-C3 and a 1.28-inch round display into a live aircraft radar. It pulls nearby ADS-B traffic, plots each aircraft by distance and bearing, and shows the details directly on the screen.
It was an easy build, although it did require a little soldering. I always enjoy doing that as it reminds me of my days building racing drones. Thin, silicone based wires made quick work of the cabling. And after about 15 minutes, we were ready to go.
It is insanely easy to flash firmwares to a fresh esp32 these days using the browser-based ESPHome web flashing tool. Under 30s and you’re done.
A quick note about the 3d model
The original model was featured on Makerworld, because it looks great. Reality though was, in practice, it’s not actually that great.
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Original 3D model ESP32 Plane Radar Live ADS-B on a Round Display
Unfortunately the tolerances are just too tight to be usable with the batch of boards I got. So I’m likely going to model my own replacement at some point, but for now I ended up printing this model instead.
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