Flight Tracker Pi

A Raspberry Pi flight tracker that displays overhead aircraft information using FlightRadar24 data on an MHS 3.5" SPI display. When no flights are nearby, it shows the current time, date, and weather.

Features

• Real-time flight tracking via FlightRadar24 public API
• Weather display with multi-page cycling (Open-Meteo, no API key required)
• Touch input to cycle between multiple nearby flights
• Watchlist highlighting for specific aircraft (Red Arrows, BBMF, celebrities, etc.)
• HDMI output mirroring with automatic resolution detection
• Loading screen with IP address display
• Configurable via YAML

Hardware Requirements

• Raspberry Pi 1 Model B (or newer)
• MHS 3.5" SPI Display (480x320, ILI9486 controller)
• Internet connection (for flight and weather data)

Display Connection

The MHS 3.5" display connects via the GPIO header:

Display Pin	Pi GPIO	Function
VCC	3.3V (Pin 1)	Power
GND	GND (Pin 6)	Ground
CS	CE0 (Pin 24)	SPI Chip Select
RST	GPIO 25 (Pin 22)	Reset
DC	GPIO 24 (Pin 18)	Data/Command
SDI/MOSI	MOSI (Pin 19)	SPI Data
SCK	SCLK (Pin 23)	SPI Clock
LED	3.3V	Backlight (always on)

Installation

1. Clone or copy this project to your Pi:

   cd ~
   git clone https://github.com/videojedi/Flight-Tracker-Pi.git
   cd Flight-Tracker-Pi

2. Run the setup script:

   chmod +x setup.sh
   ./setup.sh

3. Edit the configuration:

   nano config.yaml

4. Reboot if SPI was just enabled:

   sudo reboot

Configuration

Edit config.yaml to set your location and preferences:

# Your location
location:
  latitude: 51.5074    # Your latitude
  longitude: -0.1278   # Your longitude
  name: "London"       # Display name

# Search radius for flights (km)
flight_radius_km: 50

# Flight update interval (seconds)
flight_update_interval_seconds: 15

# Display settings
display:
  width: 480
  height: 320
  mirror_hdmi: true    # Mirror display to HDMI output

# Watchlist - aircraft registrations to highlight
watchlist:
  G-ABCD: "Friend's Plane"
  XX202: "Red 1"

Watchlist

The watchlist highlights specific aircraft with a magenta colour scheme when detected. Includes support for:

• Custom aircraft names/descriptions
• Case-insensitive registration matching
• Pre-configured entries for Red Arrows and BBMF aircraft

Usage

Test Mode

Test the display with sample data:

source venv/bin/activate
python main.py --test

Normal Operation

source venv/bin/activate
python main.py

Run as a Service

sudo systemctl enable flight-tracker
sudo systemctl start flight-tracker

View logs:

journalctl -u flight-tracker -f

Display Screens

Loading Screen

Shown during startup:

• Flight Tracker Pi logo with radar rings
• Status messages (Initializing, Fetching weather, etc.)
• IP address in bottom right corner

Flight Screen

When aircraft are detected nearby:

• Flight number and airline
• Route (origin → destination) with city names
• Altitude, speed, and heading
• Distance from your location
• Climbing/descending indicator
• Aircraft type and registration
• Watchlist highlighting (magenta theme with custom name banner)
• Tap screen to cycle between multiple flights

Idle Screen

When no flights are nearby (auto-cycles through 3 pages):

• Page 1: Time, date, temperature, feels like, wind, humidity
• Page 2: Temperature, high/low, precipitation, pressure
• Page 3: Temperature, wind gusts, sunrise/sunset times
• Location name and page indicator

APIs Used

• FlightRadar24 - Real-time flight tracking data (public feed, no API key required)
• Open-Meteo - Weather data (free, no API key required)

Troubleshooting

Display not working

1. Ensure SPI is enabled: sudo raspi-config → Interface Options → SPI
2. Check connections match the pinout table
3. Try running with --test flag

No flights showing

1. Verify your coordinates in config.yaml
2. Increase the flight_radius_km value
3. Check internet connectivity

Weather not updating

• Open-Meteo is free but rate-limited; data updates every 15 minutes by default

HDMI not mirroring

1. Check mirror_hdmi: true in config.yaml
2. Ensure HDMI is connected before starting the application
3. The display auto-detects resolution and bit depth

Project Structure

flight-tracker-pi/
├── main.py              # Application entry point
├── config.yaml          # Configuration file
├── requirements.txt     # Python dependencies
├── setup.sh             # Installation script
└── src/
    ├── display.py       # MHS 3.5" display driver + HDMI mirroring
    ├── flight_tracker.py# FlightRadar24 API client
    ├── weather.py       # Open-Meteo weather client
    ├── airports.py      # IATA airport code lookup
    ├── touch.py         # Touch input handler
    └── ui.py            # UI screens (Loading, Flight, Idle)

Performance Notes

The Raspberry Pi 1 Model B has limited resources. The application is optimised for:

• Minimal CPU usage (1s refresh rate)
• Efficient SPI transfers at 125MHz
• Cached weather data (15-minute intervals)
• Batched flight API requests (15-second intervals)
• NumPy-accelerated framebuffer conversion (when available)

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file