Planes plugin reactivation

[gzotti]

Description

Recently, we had a discussion about tracking airplane traffic, similar to satellites (https://groups.google.com/g/stellarium/c/F4Z7lTI9C6M). Alexander recalled that in 2013, a plugin to track planes based on the ADS-B system was under development by @bi0ha2ard. Unfortunately it was never merged, and the current developers have no ADS-B hardware to test or update anything in this plugin.

I only rebased this 10-year old code on top of current master (2023-03-08) and added enough updates so that it compiles with Qt5.15.2 and Qt6.4 and then added some obvious updates, e.g. use the StelProperty system, and harmonized the color selection.

It may be possible to extend it based on e.g. data from FlightRadar24, by somebody more familiar with airplane tracking. However I cannot say currently what has to be changed. My time is too limited to continue on that, but maybe somebody else wants to take over?

This is a branch in the main repository. A merge to master is obviously only useful if the plugin demonstrably does something useful. If "conflict" warnings appear, they are usually solved quickly by a rebase from master at the onset of further work.

Fixes # (issue)

Screenshots (if appropriate):

Type of change

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)
• This change requires a documentation update

How Has This Been Tested?

Test Configuration:

• Qt version: 5.15.2, 6.4
• Operating system: Windows 11
• Graphics Card: (Geforce, but irrelevant)

Checklist:

• My code follows the code style of this project.
• I have performed a self-review of my own code
• I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
• I have made corresponding changes to the documentation (header file)
• I have updated the respective chapter in the Stellarium User Guide
• My changes generate no new warnings
• I have added tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works
• New and existing unit tests pass locally with my changes
• Any dependent changes have been merged and published in downstream modules

[bi0ha2ard]

Unfortunately it was never merged, and the current developers have no ADS-B hardware to test or update anything in this plugin.

Hi, I have some test data from back when I was developing this plugin. In case it's useful for testing, I've uploaded it here: https://tocsick.net/stellarium/adsb_test_data.7z

[bi0ha2ard]

@bi0ha2ard could you share info about ADS-B device?

This seems to be the manual for it: https://www.kinetic.co.uk/DownloadFiles/Basestation_183/BaseStationReferenceManual-v3-2-1.pdf (the website seems defunct otherwise?)

@bi0ha2ard thanks for the data, certainly useful to at least restore old functionality. (However I don't see anything :-(

To see anything, your location must be set to Würzburg, Germany, and you need to set the time to the range for which data is available. I don't remember what the "ignoring" means, could just be that the data is in the past.

What was the reason to stop development, was it stuck in finalisation, or just not merged because "nobody" has such receiver? We would definitely need a page or two of instructions for the User Guide.

This was developed for my Bachelor's thesis and deployed at the Uni department. They were running the build I handed in with their receiver hardware there. I don't know if further development happened afterwards.

[alex-w]

@bi0ha2ard thanks for the info! Right now I have RTL-SDR receiver and in theory I can getting the data at 1090 MHz

[gzotti]

OK, a first round of updates is finished, and it creates useful output with the test file. Now someone please create some solution with online access to real-world current flight data! :-)

[alex-w]

I have a perfect news - I have a hardware for this plugin 😆

[gzotti]

Congrats!
However, we should fix #3115 and maybe #3014 before weekend. Not sure about the others. I am pretty much occupied, though.

[alex-w]

@bi0ha2ard did you tested the code with real hardware?

[gzotti]

@bi0ha2ard did you tested the code with real hardware?

He has described above,

This was developed for my Bachelor's thesis and deployed at the Uni department. They were running the build I handed in with their receiver hardware there. I don't know if further development happened afterwards.

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[github-actions]

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