Aeronear: an ambient device showing nearby aircraft #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi
One of the only things I really use Siri for is asking “what planes are over-head?” John Graham-Cunning created this super nifty desktop display to always feed flight data. Not content with just an io screen they added lights, a moving model plane for bearing!
This uses a Raspberry Pi Model 3, PiTFT 3.5″ touch screen (which is kind of wasted because I don’t use the touch functionality), a 24 LED NeoPixel ring, 28BYJ-48 stepper motor, and the ULN2003 driver, and a small model aircraft. It’s all contained in an acrylic pot that I got from Muji.
The screen shows flight information and model aircraft and LED show the current direction the aircraft is flying (the track) and where to look for the aircraft. The first time the device is started the direction of north needs to be calibrated by holding down the blue button on the back until the LED points to north, releasing the blue button and then holding it down once again until the model aircraft points in the same direction. Once done the code keeps track of the calibrated position in planes_position.py so that unless the device is moved to a different location no further calibration is needed.
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
