SpotterBoard is a real-time flight tracker built around a Raspberry Pi and a Waveshare 64×64 HUB75 RGB LED matrix panel. It pulls live ADS-B data from the open adsb.lol API and displays nearby aircraft information directly on the panel — no cloud subscription, no proprietary hardware, just open-source software running locally on a Pi.
Each detected aircraft is shown with:
SpotterBoard leans on two separate, completely free public data sources:
Live aircraft positions — altitude, speed, climb/descent, updated every few seconds. Comes from a worldwide network of volunteers running ADS-B receivers at home, picking up the signals every commercial aircraft broadcasts. No account needed.
Route information — the BRS → DUB style display. A crowd-sourced database matching callsigns to known routes, so callsign RYR35TJ resolves to wherever that Ryanair flight usually flies.
Position, altitude, speed, and climb data are always accurate — that comes straight from the aircraft itself. The route is best-effort: usually spot-on for major commercial flights, sometimes missing or wrong for charter flights, private jets, military, cargo, or a plane flying a one-off non-standard route.
Written in Python 3, using the hzeller rpi-rgb-led-matrix library for panel driving. An included installer handles all the dependencies and service setup for you. Compatible with Raspberry Pi 4, Pi 5, and Pi Zero 2 W — no code changes needed between them.