Network and Setup

Network and Setup

Everything about getting Blipscope onto your WiFi, naming, and the OpenSky data account.

First boot

On first boot Blipscope broadcasts its own WiFi hotspot. Each device's hotspot has a unique name like Blipscope-A1B2C3 (derived from the board's MAC address) — the exact name is shown right on the screen during setup, so you always know which one to join.

1. On your phone or laptop, connect to the Blipscope-XXXXXX hotspot shown on screen.
2. A configuration page opens automatically (if it doesn't, open a browser).
3. Enter your home WiFi credentials and save.
4. Blipscope restarts and joins your network.

Blipscope's ESP32-C3 is 2.4 GHz only and cannot see 5 GHz networks. If your router uses one name for both bands, that's fine — it'll use the 2.4 GHz band.

If the hotspot doesn't appear right away, give it a moment; if it's still missing after ~30 seconds, leave and re-enter the WiFi settings on your device to force a refresh.

Mesh / Nest / eero networks

Mesh systems often reject the first few association attempts while they steer a new client between nodes. Blipscope accounts for this by retrying the connection several times with a timeout, so it keeps trying until one sticks rather than giving up and falling back to setup mode.

Finding it on your network

Each board registers a unique hostname on your network, so it appears distinctly in your router's device list and is reachable at:

http://<device-name>.local

for example http://blipscope-a1b2c3.local — the same name shown on screen. From there you reach the Configuration Reference page.

Running several Blipscopes

Because every board derives a unique name from its hardware, you can run multiple Blipscopes on the same network with no extra setup — each gets its own setup hotspot, its own .local address, and its own distinct entry in the router's device list.

Reset WiFi

To move a Blipscope to a different network, use the red Reset WiFi button on the config page. It forgets the stored credentials (after a confirmation prompt) and reboots into the setup hotspot, so you can connect it somewhere new.

OpenSky account (recommended)

Blipscope gets its flight data from the free OpenSky Network API.

• Without an account it works fine, but anonymous access is limited to ~400 requests per day.
• With a free account that rises to ~4,000 per day, which means much more frequent updates and a noticeably more accurate live view.

To use one: create an account at opensky-network.org, find your client ID and client secret in your account settings, and enter them on the Configuration Reference page. The secret is stored on the device and shown masked afterwards.

For exactly how the daily limit translates into refresh rate — and why aircraft keep moving between updates — see Flight Data and Updates.

Using your own ADS-B receiver

If you run your own ADS-B receiver — a Raspberry Pi with dump1090-fa, readsb, PiAware, tar1090, or an ADS-B Exchange feeder image — Blipscope can read directly from it instead of OpenSky. Local data has no daily limit and refreshes about once a second, so the radar is smoother and more accurate, and keeps working even if OpenSky is down.

On the Configuration Reference page, set Data source to My own ADS-B receiver and enter the receiver's address in Receiver URL. You can type just the device's IP (for example 192.168.1.50) and Blipscope assumes the usual /data/aircraft.json path, or paste the full URL if yours serves it elsewhere. dump1090-fa / PiAware serve the feed on port 8080, so use http://<receiver-ip>:8080 for those. The receiver must be on the same network as Blipscope.

See Flight Data and Updates for how the two sources compare, or Choosing an ADS-B Receiver if you don't have a receiver yet and want to build one.

Related

• Configuration Reference — all settings
• Flight Data and Updates — data sources, limits, and update behaviour
• Choosing an ADS-B Receiver — buying guide for the DIY receiver path
• Firmware Updates — how the device stays current