Features

Features

FlightScnr Pi shows live aircraft around your location on a circular radar, with rich flight details when you tap a plane. It combines FlightRadar24 (FR24), live positions from adsb.fi (free cloud feed - no local ADS-B dongle), optional local dump1090/readsb, Tomorrow.io weather, and optional AirLabs / FlightAware AeroAPI / OpenSky Network route enrichment. Optional LiveATC audio plays to a USB or Bluetooth speaker.

Settings, API keys, tracking, and updates are managed through the Web Portal. See Data Sources for the full source list.

Round touch display

The UI is designed for a 4″ round LCD with touch (default layout: 720×720).

Screen	How to open	What you see
Radar	Boot / home	Live aircraft, map background, sweep line, compass rose, range label, altitude tags; optional clock HUD
Flight detail	Tap aircraft on radar	Airline logo, route, type, altitude, speed, heading; swipe or footer to cycle aircraft
Tracked flight	Web portal → Track, or swipe right on radar	Route header, progress bar with aircraft icon, LIVE/ETA, vertical speed ticker; pin to keep screen open
Clock and current weather	Swipe down from radar	Time, date, current weather and conditions
Weather Forecast	Swipe right from clock	Multi-day forecast (Tomorrow.io)
Clock settings	Swipe left from clock	Clock format and related options on-device
About / details	Swipe up from radar	Version, network, API status, portal URL
Settings	Swipe left from radar	Brightness, timeouts, color theme, facing direction, display options, ATC audio, system (multi-page)
Wi‑Fi setup	Automatic when offline	QR code to join the FlightScnr setup hotspot, then finish on your phone

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Gestures and controls

• Tap aircraft → flight detail
• Tap range label (top) → cycle zoom presets (2–30 mi / km / nm)
• Two-finger pinch → zoom radar range in and out
• Swipe between screens (see table above)
• Footer buttons on detail, tracked, and settings screens (PREV / NEXT / RADAR / PIN)
• Auto-return to clock when no aircraft are visible (optional, portal setting)
• Off-hours schedule can dim the panel, turn it off, or force the clock screen at night

Radar features

• Animated radar sweep with a configurable accent color (custom RGB for sweep, rings, and labels)
• Optional compass rose, range rings, and sweep line (toggle in portal)
• Facing direction - rotate the radar so “up” on the screen matches how the Pi is physically mounted
• Map tile background - dark / light / Voyager CARTO street maps, or free FAA VFR sectionals (US); cached under /var/lib/flightscnr/maps/
• Optional precipitation overlay (LibreWXR, with RainViewer fallback)
• Optional airport centerlines and airport icons (OurAirports; skipped on VFR charts)
• Optional ground vehicles when ADS-B reports GRND/GVEH/SERV-type codes
• Aircraft-type icons (jet, turboprop, helicopter, military, etc.) with altitude/speed tags
• Minimum altitude floor / ceiling and min-speed filters to declutter traffic
• Alert mode: highlight military aircraft, emergency squawks (7700/7600/7500), or a custom watch list; optionally hide non-alerted traffic
• Distance / speed units: nm+kts, mi+mph, km+kph, and mixed options
• Favorite locations - save up to 10 radar centers; cycle on-device under Settings → Options → Favorite Locations

Radar clock HUD

Optional frosted clock HUD on the radar (portal → Display & screens):

• Time, weather, and wind at a glance
• Position top or bottom; adjustable opacity
• Optional hourly chime (volume independent of ATC); respects off-hours quiet schedule

Compass facing / orientation

By default the radar is north-up. If the display is mounted so the top of the screen does not face north, set a facing direction so aircraft and the compass rose match the real world.

Facing is the real-world direction at the top of the screen: 0 = north, 90 = east, 180 = south, 270 = west (any 0–359° value is allowed).

On the device

1. Swipe left → Settings → Display → tap Facing
2. Traffic drawing and ADS-B refresh pause; drag around the screen to rotate the rose, crosshairs, and map
3. Tap center to save, or tap the rim to cancel

On the web portal

• Radar → Facing direction (degrees) → enter 0–359 → Save radar settings

Stored in /var/lib/flightscnr/round_touch_settings.json and survives updates.

Tracked flight

Pick any callsign in the web portal. The display shows origin → destination, aircraft type, a progress bar with a moving plane icon, and live stats (time remaining, distance, vertical speed). Flights not yet airborne can use AirLabs schedule data when configured. Route enrichment can also fall back to FlightAware and OpenSky (order configurable via ROUTE_SOURCE_ORDER).

Aircraft photos and marine AIS

Flight detail can show a photo of the aircraft when one is available. Lookups use the public planespotters.net API (by ICAO hex / registration), with Wikimedia Commons as a type-based fallback. Photographer credit is shown on screen when the source provides it.

Marine traffic uses live AIS from aisstream.io when enabled (portal → Radar → traffic mode, plus an API key). Vessels appear on the same radar as aircraft. Vessel detail photos are fetched from Wikimedia Commons by ship name / IMO when possible.

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ATC audio

Optional LiveATC streams play through mpv to a USB or Bluetooth speaker:

• Enable and pick airport/channel in the portal (ATC Audio) or on-device (Settings → ATC)
• Pair a Bluetooth speaker on the portal (Bluetooth Speaker); the on-screen ATC page can reconnect quickly
• Channel lists load from a local seed, then refresh via LiveATC search (curl-cffi Cloudflare bypass)
• Playback can resume after reboot when it was left playing; quiet hours block auto-start/resume
• Requires: sudo apt install mpv bluez libspa-0.2-bluetooth pulseaudio-utils (also installed by install-pi.sh when available)

By default audio is gated to a USB (or selected Bluetooth) sink so the Pi does not open HDMI/headphone paths with no usable speaker. See .env.example (FLIGHTSCNR_REQUIRE_SPEAKER, FLIGHTSCNR_AUDIO_ALLOW_BUILTIN).

Wildfires

Optional wildfire markers on the radar:

Region	Source	API key?
California	CAL FIRE	No
Rest of USA / Canada	NIFC WFIGS (AirNow large-fire layer)	No
Outside USA / Canada	NASA FIRMS VIIRS NRT	Free MAP_KEY under portal → API Keys

Fire Details shows name, county, acres, and containment when the source provides them. Enable Show wildfires (Radar card or Settings → Options). Tap a fire icon for details. Data refreshes every 15 minutes and immediately after recenter or boot.