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Blipscope Wiki

Blipscope is a tiny open-source flight radar for your desk. It sits on a 1.28" round touchscreen and shows live aircraft around your location in real time — pulled from public ADS-B data — so you can glance over and see what's flying overhead, where it came from, and where it's going.

This wiki is the full reference for everything Blipscope does. Use the sidebar, or jump in below.

Features at a glance

	Feature
📡	Radar Display — live radar with sweep, directional aircraft, fading trails, altitude colours, and auto-highlighting of the nearest/highest/fastest contacts
✈️	Aircraft Details — tap any aircraft for a detail card with photo, type, operator, registration, route, and live telemetry; pin one to keep tracking it
🖥️	Screens and Gestures — swipe between the radar, a sortable list, and a stats screen; tap to inspect
🚨	Alerts and Watchlist — on-screen emergency squawk alerts, plus a tail-number watchlist that pings your phone via ntfy when a chosen aircraft flies over
🕑	Clock and Brightness — NTP-synced clock and automatic day/night dimming based on your local sunrise and sunset
⚙️	Configuration Reference — every setting, accessible from any browser on your network
⬆️	Firmware Updates — devices update themselves over the air from GitHub Releases
🌐	Network and Setup — first-boot WiFi setup, per-device naming, multi-device support, and OpenSky accounts
🛰️	Flight Data and Updates — where the data comes from, how often the radar refreshes, and how aircraft positions are predicted between updates
🛒	Choosing an ADS-B Receiver — shopping guide for running your own local receiver: which dongle, antenna, and software to buy

Also: the EAM Monitor

Blipscope has a second personality. Flash the EAM monitor firmware and the same device becomes a desk readout for HFGCS Emergency Action Messages — a scrolling ticker, an activity gauge, Skyking codewords, an airborne-command-post watch, HF propagation, and an idle Zulu clock. It reuses the same Wi-Fi setup, web config, alerts, and over-the-air updates.

👉 EAM Monitor

New here?

1. Network and Setup — get your Blipscope onto WiFi and pointed at your location.
2. Configuration Reference — tune the display and data options to taste.
3. Browse the feature pages above to discover everything it can do.

Get a Blipscope

The easiest way to build one is a kit, which includes the display module and the redesigned enclosure parts in one box.

👉 Order a Blipscope kit from Valar Systems

Assembly instructions live on the Assembly page.

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Blipscope is built on the original Micro Radar project by Anthony Sturdy, and is maintained by Valar Systems.