Radarcape:About the Radarcape

About the Radarcape

After the big success of the Mode-S Beast we saw that there is a big demand for a more sophisticated unit with a special focus on

• remote operation
• standalone data processing
• network feeding
• low power consumption
• easy maintenance and SW update

and not at least

• enhanced multilateration

Application Features

The idea realized with the Radarcape is a combination of the Mode-S Beast and an embedded Linux board. Later are now available for a reasonable price and community support.

Example features

• Raw data streams in various qualities and with different filtering
• Web interface data access and maintenance
• The networking can support all kind of protocols you know. Currently there is only TCP support, but based on the Linux systems others are no problem. For example, we have already set up a network based on SSH tunneling which solves some firewall issues.
• There no longer are DIP switches, instead the configuration can be changed just using an web browser.

and more...

Not at least the Radarcape incorporates some improvements we've leared from the Mode-S Beast, further enhancing range and frame rate.

Multilateration

For enhanced multilateration, the Radarcape is equipped with a GPS synchronized clock with an accuracy in the nanosecond level. This is completly processed in the FPGA without any influence through the Linux system.

The Radarcape provide Multilateration (MLAT) with Jetvision MLAT Server. It works as public, dedicated or private server.

Network Feeding

There are sharing networks for aircraft data. Flightradar24 is using a branded version of the Radarcape as their device that feeds data into their servers. The Radarcape as delivered from us also contains a way how to share data with Flightradar24, either anonymously or with a sharing key provided by them. We have also built-in feeders for FlightAware and OpenSky Network.

Easy Usage

With its small size and the low power consumption the Radarcape is ideal for running all time without a PC behind and collecting data. The application SW on the Radarcape will output collected data in several ways, like

• raw data formats for second level software on PCs
• HTML tables for personal viewing or computer postprocessing
• KML files for mapping software, such as Google Earth

Custom Software running on the Radarcape

The Radarcape runs a off the shelf Linux Distribution (Debian). As a advanced user you might add your own software for any custom use cases.