Eiswolfs Flightradar (CYD)

A live ADS-B flight radar running on the ESP32 "Cheap Yellow Display" (CYD, ESP32-2432S028), showing nearby aircraft on a rotating radar screen with altitude/speed/model/route details and a proximity LED alert.

Getting Started

You can flash the firmware directly from your browser to your CYD display without installing any development tools — just open the Web Flasher (requires Chrome, Edge, or Opera).

Option 1: Quick Web Installation (Recommended)

1. Connect your "Cheap Yellow Display" to your computer using a USB cable.
2. Click the Web Flasher link above.
3. Click the Install button on the web page, select your USB/COM port, and follow the instructions.

Option 2: Manual Compilation (For Developers)

1. Open and compile the project using PlatformIO (platform = espressif32, board = esp32dev, framework = arduino).
2. Insert a FAT32-formatted microSD card into your display.
3. On first boot: Calibrate the touchscreen and configure your Wi-Fi via the built-in on-screen keyboard.

---

Features

• Live radar screen – circular radar view, sized to the full screen width, with a rotating green sweep line; each aircraft marker's heading line ends in a small arrowhead, so its direction of travel is unambiguous at a glance
• Real ADS-B data via the free adsb.fi API, refreshed every 8 seconds
• Color-coded aircraft by altitude (green <10k ft, yellow 10-30k ft, red >30k ft) with an on-screen legend
• Tap an aircraft to open a detail panel: callsign, airline, aircraft model (via hexdb.io), altitude/speed/distance/heading in both metric and aviation units, estimated seat count
• Bearing indicator – with an aircraft selected, a dotted line plus a heading-in-degrees label points from the radar center to the compass edge, showing exactly which direction to look to spot it in the sky (not to be confused with the aircraft's own heading arrow)
• Empty-sky timer – when no aircraft are currently in range, the info bar counts up how long the sky's been empty instead of showing the usual "tap for details" hint
• Adjustable range (10/25/50/100 km) via on-screen button
• Aircraft list view – a sortable list (by distance, altitude, or callsign) of every aircraft currently in range, tap any row to jump straight to its detail panel (see Aircraft List below)
• Touch-driven WiFi setup and on-screen keyboard for first-time configuration, with up to 3 saved networks (see WiFi Manager below)
• Location presets – save up to 3 fixed locations, or point the radar at any place in the world (see Location Presets below)
• Aircraft watchlist – track up to 5 specific flights by callsign, with a cyan radar ring and blue LED alert when one appears (see Watchlist below)
• Night dimming – automatically dims the backlight, plus the radar's aircraft markers and sweep line, to a softer (but still readable) look between 22:00 and 06:00 local time (see Night Dimming below)
• History chart – a simple 7-day bar chart of logged aircraft counts, right next to the plain logbook file list (see History Chart below)
• Web export – a small built-in web page (reachable via the device's IP while on the same WiFi) to download the complete flight logbook as one merged CSV file (see Web Export below)
• IP-based geolocation (no GPS module needed) to center the radar on your location
• Proximity LED alert – the onboard RGB LED blinks green when an aircraft is within 3 km (no speaker on this board, so this replaces an audible alert)
• Dual-core design – all networking (WiFi, ADS-B polling, aircraft detail lookups) runs on Core 0, while the display and touch input run on Core 1, so the UI never freezes during a network request
• Data (airline names, aircraft-type seat estimates) loaded from CSV files on the SD card, auto-seeded on first boot
• 6 languages (English, German, French, Turkish, Spanish, Italian), selectable on first boot or anytime from the menu
• Adjustable brightness (10-100% in 10% steps, Menu → System → "Brightness") with a live preview as you tap
• About screen (Menu → System → "About") shows the project name, a short description, and the current firmware version

Feature Deep-Dive

📍 Location Presets

By default the device figures out where it is automatically (via IP geolocation). Under Menu → Flight Options → Location Presets you can additionally save up to 3 fixed locations and switch between them.

Good to know: only one location is ever active at a time – either "Auto" or exactly one of the 3 presets. Tap an entry to make it the active one.

The actual trick: you don't have to enter your own location there – you can enter the coordinates of any place in the world and the radar will show the live air traffic there instead, regardless of where your device physically is.

Examples:

• Enter the coordinates of Milan-Malpensa Airport (45.6306, 8.7281) and watch the traffic there while sitting at home.
• Save home, workplace, and a holiday house as 3 presets and switch between them with a single tap, without waiting for IP geolocation to re-run each time.
• More precise than IP geolocation (which is often only accurate to city level) – handy if the device lives permanently at one fixed spot and you know its exact coordinates.

A "?" info button right on the Location Presets screen explains all of this again directly on the device.

The screen also shows the nearest known airport (from a built-in list of ~34 major airports worldwide) to whichever location is currently active - handy to see exactly where a foreign preset points to, or why a location has a lot of air traffic. If the airport name doesn't fit on one line, it scrolls horizontally like a marquee.

📶 WiFi Manager (up to 3 saved networks)

Under Menu → WiFi/Network you can save up to 3 WiFi networks at once (not just one). On boot, the device automatically connects to whichever one it can currently see.

Why would you need 3 networks if you're only ever in one place?

• Portable use: take the device to the office, a friend's place, or a holiday home, and it connects automatically everywhere without re-entering passwords each time.
• Guest network + main network: many routers offer separate guest and main WiFi networks – save both, and the device just uses whichever is reachable.
• Multiple access points/repeaters: if you have several access points around the house (e.g. living room + workshop), the device automatically connects to whichever saved network it can currently reach.

Any saved network can be removed again at any time via the red "X", freeing up a slot for a new one.

🌙 Night Dimming

Between 22:00 and 06:00 local time, the backlight automatically dims to a softer brightness level - still perfectly readable, but easier on the eyes if the device sits in a bedroom or living room around the clock. This is separate from (and gentler than) the existing inactivity timeout dimming, which kicks in after a period of no touch input regardless of time of day.

Toggle it under Menu → System → "Night dimming". When you tap the screen while it's night-dimmed, it wakes back up to the soft night level (not full brightness) if it's still within the night window - no sudden bright flash in a dark room.

Since this update, the same night window also softens the radar screen itself — aircraft markers and the rotating sweep line switch to darker green/yellow/red tones, so the whole display is easier on the eyes at night, not just the backlight. No separate toggle needed - it uses the same Night dimming setting.

✈️ Flight Options — every function in detail

All the functions below are found under Menu → Flight Options.

📋 Aircraft List

Menu → Flight Options → "Aircraft list" (top entry) shows every aircraft currently visible on the radar as a scrollable, sortable list instead of dots — handy for a quick text overview instead of parsing the radar view. Shows callsign, altitude (color-coded the same way as the radar: green/yellow/red), and distance for each entry. A button at the top cycles the sort order through distance → altitude → callsign. Emergency squawks get a red border, watched aircraft (see Watchlist) a cyan one, matching the radar's own markers. Tap any row to jump straight back to the radar with that aircraft's detail panel already open.

📊 Statistics

Shows at a glance:

• Aircraft logged today – number of distinct aircraft first seen today
• Aircraft logged all-time – total across the entire runtime (all days combined)
• Days with sightings – how many days anything was logged at all
• Average per day – total count divided by number of days
• Uptime – how long the device has been running since the last restart
• Highest flight today – callsign and altitude of whichever aircraft was logged at the greatest altitude today (the altitude at first sighting, not necessarily its current one), e.g. "DLH441 (38000 ft)"

The "Reset logbook data" button (tap twice to confirm) permanently deletes all logged data.

📈 History Chart

Shows the last up to 7 days from the flight logbook as a simple bar chart – a quick visual complement to the plain number list in Logbook files. Bar height is relative to the busiest day shown, with the exact count printed above each bar and the day-of-month printed below it.

Good for: spotting at a glance which days were busier than others, without having to compare numbers row by row.

A "?" info button on the History chart screen explains how it works directly on the device.

📁 Logbook files

Lists the last several days from the logbook individually, with date and the number of aircraft logged that day. Handy for tracing the history over multiple days instead of only seeing the grand total. Each file has its own red "X" to delete it individually.

🌐 Web Export

In addition to viewing the logbook on the device itself, a small built-in web page lets you export the complete flight logbook as a single merged CSV file – handy for opening in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets. It starts automatically in the background as soon as the device connects to WiFi. Deliberately export-only, no live radar tracking over the web – that would just burn resources for little benefit.

How to use it: while your computer or phone is on the same WiFi network as the device, open a browser and go to the device's IP address (e.g. http://192.168.1.42/). The page lists every logged day with its aircraft count and a download link for the merged CSV.

Don't know the device's current IP? The "?" info button on the Logbook files screen shows it live on the device.

📖 Flight logbook (ON/OFF)

When enabled, the device logs every newly sighted aircraft (timestamp, hex code, callsign, registration, type, distance, altitude) into a CSV file on the SD card. An aircraft is only logged once per activation, even if it crosses the radar multiple times.

Off by default, with a safety net: because an unnoticed, permanently running logbook can quietly fill up the SD card and slow down the logbook menus, this is disabled by default and comes with two safeguards:

• Turning it on shows a full-screen warning explaining the behavior below, which you have to confirm.
• Once on, it automatically switches off again after 24 hours – and stays off after a restart unless it was actually turned on with a valid timestamp (so it can never silently keep running forever, even across power cycles or firmware updates).

Each time you turn it on, a new CSV file is created for that session (e.g. 2026-08-06.csv, or 2026-08-06_2.csv for a second activation on the same day) instead of endlessly appending to one growing file – see Logbook files above for deleting them individually. Turning it off saves SD card write cycles if you don't care about the statistics/history.

💚 LED heartbeat (ON/OFF)

A brief green flash of the RGB LED on every successful ADS-B data fetch (every 8 seconds) – a quick visual confirmation that the device is actively receiving data and hasn't frozen. Automatically overridden by an active proximity or emergency alert (which take priority), so the indicators never mix.

🔔 Proximity LED (ON/OFF)

The RGB LED blinks green whenever an aircraft comes within 3 km (straight-line distance to the currently active location, see Location Presets). Since the CYD board has no speaker, this replaces an audible alert. Handy for noticing something interesting flying nearby without having to watch the screen.

🚨 Emergency alert (ON/OFF)

Continuously monitors all visible aircraft for one of the three international emergency squawk codes:

• 7500 – hijacking
• 7600 – radio failure
• 7700 – general emergency

If the device detects one of these codes, the RGB LED blinks red rapidly (noticeably faster/more urgent than the green proximity blink), and a flashing red banner appears in the radar header showing the callsign and squawk code. Takes priority over all other LED indications (proximity, heartbeat).

🎯 Watchlist

Track up to 5 specific flights by their exact callsign (e.g. DLH441) - unlike the Airline Filter, which matches whole airlines, this targets one specific flight. As soon as a watched aircraft appears anywhere within the current radar range, it gets a cyan ring on the radar and the RGB LED blinks blue - handy for spotting a particular flight, e.g. when someone you know is arriving. Takes priority over the normal proximity alert, but not over an emergency squawk. Menu → Flight Options → "Watchlist" / "Watchlist alert".

📍 Location Presets

See the dedicated section above: Location Presets – save up to 3 fixed locations, or enter any place in the world to watch the air traffic there.

🏢 Airline filter

Completely hides aircraft from specific airlines from the radar (they're also excluded from counts/logging). Up to 10 airlines can be entered (by ICAO code, e.g. DLH for Lufthansa, RYR for Ryanair). Handy if you live near an airport and don't want certain high-frequency airlines cluttering the radar.

🚗 Hide ground vehicles (ON/OFF)

ADS-B data doesn't only contain aircraft – it can also include airport ground vehicles (follow-me cars, pushback tugs, etc., flagged by the API under a separate "C" category). This option hides them so the radar stays focused purely on air traffic.

📶 WiFi Manager

See the dedicated section above: WiFi Manager – save up to 3 WiFi networks at once.

---

Technical notes for the curious:

• Flight data is re-fetched from adsb.fi every 8 seconds.
• Altitude color coding is fixed: green < 10,000 ft, yellow 10,000–30,000 ft, red > 30,000 ft.
• Radar radius is switchable between 10 / 25 / 50 / 100 km.

Hardware

• ESP32-2432S028 ("Cheap Yellow Display", CYD) – ILI9341 2.8" 240x320 touch TFT
• microSD card (FAT32) for settings, WiFi credentials, and lookup tables
• No GPS, no speaker required – uses IP geolocation and the onboard RGB LED

Pinout used

Function	Pins
TFT (VSPI)	MISO=12, MOSI=13, SCLK=14, CS=15, DC=2, BL=21
Touch (XPT2046)	CLK=25, CS=33, MOSI=32, MISO=39, IRQ=36
microSD (HSPI)	CLK=18, MISO=19, MOSI=23, CS=5
RGB LED (active-low)	R=4, G=16, B=17

Data sources

• Aircraft positions: adsb.fi (free, no API key)
• Aircraft model lookups: hexdb.io (free, community-maintained, rate-limited)
• Location: ip-api.com (free IP geolocation)

Disclaimer

Aircraft model and seat-count data are estimates from community databases and local lookup tables, not live/official figures. This project is for hobby use and is not intended for navigation or safety-critical purposes.

License

MIT (or add your preferred license here)