SwadeWhite has put together a really cool ADS-B plane tracker with a built-in weather station and home automation features.
We've seen our fair share of Raspberry Pi plane tracking projects but this one definitely has a little bit extra. Maker and developer SwadeWhite, as they're known over at Reddit, has put together a cool ADS-B plane tracker and added some bonus features that elevate it way beyond your typical tracking project. In addition to scanning the sky for planes, it also tracks weather and provides a handful of home automation tools using a variety of sensors.
If you're not familiar with the term ADS-B, it stands for automatic dependent surveillance broadcast. This is a protocol used to detect aircraft positions using satellites. As we mentioned before, we've seen a handful of ADS-B plane-tracking projects before. According to SwadeWhite, this creation was also inspired by another one put together by a Reddit user known as Basedrifter. However, SwadeWhite definitely took some creative liberties in his build.
The weather station portion is comprised of a selection of sensors to monitor things like temperature and humidity. It can also monitor air quality, pressure, and even wind speed. As a bonus, SwadeWhite decided to throw in an ambient light sensor. This makes it possible to track how bright the light is outside and automatically adjust the lighting inside the house depending on the level detected outside.
You can find a full list of parts in the project thread shared on Reddit. In it, SwadeWhite explains that components have slowly been added over time to bring the project to where it is today. One useful component is a Camera Module V3 which is currently set up to capture images twice a minute for a cool time-lapse effect. This module is protected by a weather-proof enclosure which is necessary seeing as the unit is mounted outside on a balcony.
Many of the components are operated using a Python script put together by SwadeWhite. They've incorporated a handful of tools like Grafana for creating a visual dashboard, Home Assistant for the home automation tools, and FlightAware for the ADS-B functions. The unit receives power using a power over Ethernet (PoE) HAT.
If you want to read more about what went into this Raspberry Pi project, you can check it out in greater detail over at Reddit where SwadeWhite shared plenty of details and pictures of the setup in action.
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Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.
