Welcome to Flarmradar

This wiki should become a source of knowledge for the Flarmradar-Project.

Server

... still needs some writing :-)

Client

While the transmission protocol of the FLARM devices are proprietary (and unusable for our purpose), the ​Data Port Specification is public. The client software uses the data available on the devices Data Port, just like any 3rd party product.

The concept of the client software is quite simple. It reads the Data Port from a regular FLARM device (RS232 interface) and streams the data (via the HTTP protocol) to the server which does all computing. Since data streaming does not require much computing power, a mini-computer like the Raspberry PI is sufficient.

Hardware

We use a ​Raspberry PI in our pilot installation. This is a credit-card sized computer that is able to run a Debian-based operating system (Raspbian). The costs for a such a device are around 50$.

Infrastructure & Assembly

We used the following components to build up our client infrastructure. Note that links provided are just proposals for your convenience, other components will also work.

• a FLARM device
• a power adapter and data cable for the FLARM device, we use currently this ​update cable
• a ​Raspberry PI
• a USB charger to power the Raspberry, just make sure it can deliver at least 1000mA
• optional, recommended for a stationary installation: we use currently an ​external antenna

Troubleshooting

• The raspberry-specific issues are collected on a separate page.

Software Installation

Download the client and follow the ​installation procedure to install the client software.

The client software is written in Perl and should therefore be portable on any platform where perl runs.