Radarcape Software Features (Major Release 2)

Since May 2017 we provide Major Release 2. Currently this page describes the differences to Software Features of Major 1. All features of Major 1 are still included into Major 2, however some, for example the JSON lists and KML output, with some changes or enhancements.

Listed here are a lot of add-ons and enhancements. Please read across Software_Features for a first overview. See more about installations in the bottom.

You can identifiy our Major 2 release with a ".02", ".02D" or ".02A" at the end of the version string while Major 1 is ".01", ".01D", ".01A" or nothing.

How to perform update

It is strongly recommended to update to the latest version of Major 1 before updating to Major 2.

Until now the update has been done on some 50 devices without problems or assistance, most of them even remote. However, if your device is in a barely accessible, remote location or otherwise not easy to handle if something fails, please wait until some more experience was gained. We do not take over guarantee that it works in any strange situation.

If you want to update, simply go to the Settings - Software Maintenance and overwrite the default version given with the string

radarcaped-170521.1100.02

and then press submit. Thats it.

Key Features

This is a brief summary of all new features.

Jetvision MLAT

We now have our own multilateration network operating stable with very good results.

high precision location of Mode-S and ADS-B aircraft
independent from any other sources, one shot position estimation
update rate to clients 1/sec (if raw data is available)
latency app. 1.5 seconds on client side

New features within Radarcape web interface

New responsive web design optimized for web browsers on desktop, tablets and mobile devices
Aircraft list can be sorted for any column
Openlayers based maps
ATC-Scope professional map style
Filters for the 2D maps and KML output, e.g. altitude, type, flight, ICAO hex id, registration. Some of them with wildcards.

New features within Radarcape software

Aircaft location and flight data are stored and accessible separately for ADS-B, Jetvision MLAT and other location sources
Radarcape is now able to support native piAware from FlightAware in the background as fully featured feeder and can read back MLAT results in order to display them in aircraft list, 2D maps and KML output
Full performance feeder for Opensky Network
PiAware from FlightAware can be loaded into the background as a full performance feeder for their network.
Automatic update of flight route and aircraft type (basestation) database
BDS register data (Extdata) free of extra charges
Signal level available converted to dBm

Sharing groups (to come)

Several Radarcapes can be combined into a sharing network

Support for Planeplotter Mobile

PPm can be used to display single Radarcape or sharing groups data through local connection or connection using our MLAT server

2 Channel Radarcape

Antenna Diversity
Dual Antenna systems

Radarcape Video-Out

for verification purposes, a buffered video out of the demodulated Mode-A/C and Mode-S signal is provided on a back side SMB or SMC connector

Changed License Conditions

With Major 2 firmware, we are introducing 3 classes of software licenses. Major 1 software (versions yymmdd.hhmm.01) are not affected by this change.

Private Users

For private users, there are no changes, they can use the Radarcape in their private environment as always before! With Major 2 release, the license type is shown in the browser title. Default license type is "non commercial".

Commercial License

For business purposes, when using Major 2 release, you need a commercial license key in case you use our Radarcape to generate commercial value (excluding value generated by using the built in feeders). For non profit organisations it is further free without a payable license. Please contact Jetvision support for a feature key.
The feature key key is available also in the shop, please provide your Status - System: Download TXT file with your request.

OEM License

This license is for using the Radarcape with Major 2 software for OEM purposes. This license key allows to customize the browser interface, use own logos and style sheets. Radarcape and all interface data can be used for business purposes in a customized environment.
The feature key is available also in the shop, please provide your Status - System: Download TXT file with your request.

Jetvision Multilateration Server

High precision location estimation for any Mode-S and ADS-B aircraft

Mulitlateration position estimation is possible with at least 3 Radarcape that share a common air space

High precision MLAT results returning location, speed, track and vertical rate
MLAT results are ditributed within a private sharing group
Very low latency: Results are returned once per second with an latency of app. 1.5sec.
No need for ADS-B aircraft as calibration references
High accuracy for even a single position estimation, enhanced with a highly sophisticated, self adapting Kalman filter.
MLAT results can be calculated for ADS-B aircraft, for example to verify their actual position or in case of spoofing
Server/client connection is authorized and encrypted by TLS key pairs
- intrusion avoidance
- allow access control

MLAT server provides JSON, Port 30003 and JSON streaming services in the same way and format as every Radarcape

Any software which reads Radarcape data can read a combination of several on the server

Private sharing groups

Provides services for sharing of data from multiple Radarcape among each other and sharing group data on any web based desktop or mobile device

Web interface to the server (commercial)

Access to flight data of all connected Radarcapes including ADS-B data and BDS registers (commercial)
Client status monitoring provided as JSON files
XML configuration file for sharing groups

MLAT Server operational modes

Public Jetvision Mlat server
Jetvision Dedicated Mlat server, closed network
Licensed operation on a private server provided by operator

Flexible hardware platform

Written in native C++, our MLAT server can operate on any Linux platform on x86, amd64 or even ARM. (on special request and charges only)

Radarcape Software Features

Sharing Groups (planned)

A number of Radarcapes can be combined through our server forming a sharing group, e.g. for wide area supervision or local hot spot precision observation.
Radarcape MLAT results are shared within such a Sharing Group (third party sources are not)

Filters for 2D or KML

Altitude, Type (with wildcard), and more
Fleetwatch Filter:
- Filtering for ICAO HEX ID or registration (wildcards permitted)

FlightAware no compromise feed including multilateration results

FlightAware sharing supported with no compromises
MLAT results from FlightAware feeder can be read back into the Radarcape in addition to MLAT results from Radarcape network. The border of aircraft symbols indicates the source
- black: ADS-B
- red: Jetvision MLAT
- green: FlightAware MLAT

Location and flight paths of different sources are stored and output separately

ADS-B, Radarcape-MLAT, FlightAware-MLAT and Sharing Group results may be observed separately
These data are also available within the JSON data outputs
A new field was added to aircraftlist.json which contains the location, altitude, heading, speed and vertical rate for each of the location sources

New feeder for Opensky Network

Opensky network feeder with no compromises
How to install is explained in the Settings - Radarcape Feeder Settings - Opensky Network page

Automatic update of routes and aircraft type database

Flightroutes database and basestation database are updated automatically (internet connection required), however manual update is still possible.
Manual upload service for systems without internet

GPS data is provided to Chrony or NTPD

The Radarcape becomes a stratum 1 time server

Optimized TCP streams

In order to decrease network load, network streams became buffered

Signal level in dBm

The signal level at the antenna connector is indicated in dBm
(note that this is not foreseen for measurement purposes)

Second-of-Day mode selectable

The value range of the second-of-day field in the GPS timestamp is selectable, the current setting is reported in status frame

legacy mode: value range is 1…86400
true UTC mode: value range is 0 … 86399

Status Frame 0x34 contents were extended with GPS and UTC information

Status frames are triggered by 1PPS pulse when GPS timestamps are selected and triggered randomly in case of legacy 12MHz timestamps.
Status frames contain a valid timestamp
The signal level value is zero

Byte #0 of the message part contains a mirror of the FPGA switch settings. These settings have direct effect on the raw data ports 10002-10006 and indirect effect due to eventually missing or differently available data to the high level functions:

FPGA switch settings
		'0'	'1'
Bit 0:	Data output mode (port 10002 only)	Binary	AVR hexdump
Bit 1:	Raw data frame types	DF17 only	no pre-filtering
Bit 2:	Timestamps within AVR format	enabled	disabled
Bit 3:	not used
Bit 4:	Timestamp mode	GPS	Legacy 12MHz
Bit 5:	FPGA/USB handshake	disabled	enabled
Bit 6:	1 bit forward error correction (FEC)	disabled	enabled
Bit 7:	Mode-A/C decoding	enabled	disabled

Byte #1 of the message part in GPS timestamp mode contains the offset of the nanosecond timer at the 1PPS event in units of 15.625ns. Normal value range is -3 … +3.

Byte #2 of the message part contains information about GPS

GPS status information
		'1'	'0'
Bit 0:	Antenna status	good	fail
Bit 1:	Tracking at least 1 satellite	true	false
Bit 2:	Tracking at least 3 satellites	true	false
Bit 3:	Time value base	UTC time	GPS time (8sec offset)
Bit 4:	unused
Bit 5:	unused
Bit 6:	unused
Bit 7:	Daysec value range	0 ... 86399	1 ... 86400

Web Interface

New responsive web design

Optimized for web browsers, mobile devices and tablets

Configuration and filters stored in local browser

Filters are provided for serval properties, like altitude, hex code, registration and type (with wildcards), speed, and more
Views and filters from different browsers and devices can have individual settings, e.g. different map styles and filters

Openlayers Map introduced in parallel to Google Maps

Supports different map styles based on gmap and Openlayers
Border of aircraft symbols and color of tracks shows the source of data
- Black: ADS-B
- Red: Radarcape-MLAT
- Green: FlightAware
Track is colored by source or altitude (partly implemented)
Professional Radar map style
- providing only navigatorial data
- free of unwanted map contents
- Track and vector displayed of each aircraft
  - border color is data source: black=ADS-B, red=Radarcape MLAT green=FlightAware MLAT
  - fill style blue=climbing, yellow: leveling, brown=ascending

KML output for 3D external viewers

KML output has got 3 filter banks within the Radarcapes, which can be selected in a KML browser separately or even in parallel. Unlike the 2D maps, common KML browsers like Google Earth do not permit adding user specific menues, so this way was choosen. However, these filters are updated without the need of reloading in the KML browser, just submit the new filter and it applies at the next reload.

KML output provides aircrafts in different colors:

Outer rim:
- Black: localized by ADS-B
- Red: Jetvision MLAT location
- Green: FlightAware MLAT location
Inner color:
- Yellow: no change in altitude
- Brown: descending
- Blue: Climbing

The color of the track is selected by altitude, and ground tracks are colored in yellow.

Chrony and NTPD Support

Radarcape software provides interfaces for Chrony and NTPD so they can access the GPS data properly. With these, Radarcape becomes a Stratum 1 NTP standard.

Changed Output Formats

JSON files can be controlled by a number of parameters

Token	Type	Description	aircraftlist.json	flightpath.json	deltadb.txt
vpn	float	View point north limit	X	-	-
vps	float	View point south limit	X	-	-
vpw	float	View point west limit	X	-	-
vpe	float	View point east limit	X	-	-
select	avail locs bds	avail: only list of available ICAO locs: output all available location sources as array bds: output some selected BDS registers	X	-	-
knownposonly	0 .or. 1	Output only aircraft with known position	X	-	-
since	unix-time	Output since of those which got updates since <unix-time>	X	-	X
tracklength	integer	Track length in seconds	-	X	-
src	a .or. m .or. f	Override automatich location selection: a: ADS-B, m: Jetvision MLAT, f: FlightAware MLAT	X	-	-
lookback	integer	deltadb.txt: Time in seconds from now to history which data is output flightpath.json: track length	-	X	X

Examples:

The html parameters in the aircraftlist.json and flightpath.json can be used together.

aircraftlist.json

The location, altitude, track, vrate and speed given for the aircraft in the base level follows a priority: ADS-B -> Radarcape-MLAT -> FlightAware MLAT, whichever has provided more results during the last 5 seconds
The values of the currently three location sources (ADS-B, Radarcape-MLAT, FlightAware-MLAT) can be requested in a separate array with an additional URL parameter &select=loc. Each of them contains a field "tsz" for its track length. Base level elements "tsa" and "tsz" were removed
Value "dbm" was added, which contains the signal level at the antenna connector in dBm. Note: This is not for measurement purposes
The values itself are formatted as their native data type (integer, string, float). No longer for example floats as a string. Unknown values are marked as JSON 'null'

sorted_aircraftlist.json

removed without replacement

fligthpath.json

now outputs a JSON array with the capability to request several flight paths in one call
used with parameter "&icao=<hex>" will return the flight path by default priority ranking ADS-B -> Jetvision MLAT -> FlightAware MLAT, an additional parameter "&src=<char>" with char either 'a', 'm' or 'f' will select the flight path from selected location source
parameter "&icao=<hex>" may be either repeated or either be filled with a comma separated list (e.g. <hex1, hex2>) to request several flight paths
instead of <hex> it may also contain registratioin, this can be mixed, so for example these are valid requests: &icao=3f1234,D-AQUI or &icao=3f1234&icoa=d-aqui. Using registration requires a loaded aircraft type database and the presence of the aircraft in this database.

mapinfo.json

contains information about own location and some more

deltadb.csv

parameter "&loc=" was removed, own location can be read within mapinfo.json
parameter "&lookback=<seconds>" introduced to look back for a certain amount of seconds

flightpath.json

This is now a JSON array because it collects several aircraft in one list

UDP Output and Formats

The configuration of all UDP ports was separated from General settings into a streaming output configuration page
A new UDP format which contains a periodic output of changed data in the same format as aircraftlist.json is now provided.
The time interval between each output can be configured.

Radarcape:Software Features Major2