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Blipscope Wiki

Blipscope is a tiny open-source desk gadget: an ESP32-S3 driving a round touch display. One piece of hardware, but several Editions — each a separate firmware that turns the same screen into a window onto a different stream of live data, and pings your phone when something notable happens. They all share the same Wi‑Fi setup, web config page, persistent storage, over‑the‑air updates, and ntfy alerts; you just flash the Edition you want.

This wiki is the full reference for everything Blipscope does. Use the sidebar, or jump in below.

The Editions

	Edition	What it shows
📡	Aviation Edition (the original)	A live flight radar — aircraft plotted around your location from public ADS‑B data, with tap‑to‑inspect detail cards, a spotting logbook, and overhead alerts. The feature pages below cover it in full.
📟	STRATCOM Edition	An HFGCS Emergency Action Message monitor — a command‑console ticker of nuclear‑command traffic, an activity gauge, Skyking codewords, an airborne‑command‑post watch, HF propagation, and ICBM‑test windows.
🛰️	Space Edition	Spacescope — live space data: the ISS ground track, a T‑minus countdown to the next rocket launch, and a geomagnetic aurora gauge, straight from free public space APIs.
🌐	Seismic Edition	A live earthquake radar — quakes plotted by bearing and distance from the keyless USGS feed, with magnitude rings, tap‑to‑inspect cards, and alerts for big, nearby, or tsunami‑flagged events.
🐦	Birding Edition	A notable‑sightings radar — birds reported near you from eBird, on a tap‑to‑inspect radar plus rotating screens (notable ticker, day‑list, nearest hotspot, target species), with a ping when a rarity shows up.

More editions are on the roadmap — see the README.

Aviation Edition — features at a glance

	Feature
📡	Radar Display — live radar with sweep, directional aircraft, fading trails, altitude colours, and auto-highlighting of the nearest/highest/fastest contacts
✈️	Aircraft Details — tap any aircraft for a detail card with photo, type, operator, registration, route, and live telemetry; pin one to keep tracking it
🖥️	Screens and Gestures — swipe between the radar, a sortable list, and a stats screen; tap to inspect
🚨	Alerts and Watchlist — on-screen emergency squawk alerts, plus a tail-number watchlist that pings your phone via ntfy when a chosen aircraft flies over
🕑	Clock and Brightness — NTP-synced clock and automatic day/night dimming based on your local sunrise and sunset
⚙️	Configuration Reference — every setting, accessible from any browser on your network
⬆️	Firmware Updates — devices update themselves over the air from GitHub Releases
🌐	Network and Setup — first-boot WiFi setup, per-device naming, multi-device support, and OpenSky accounts
🛰️	Flight Data and Updates — where the data comes from, how often the radar refreshes, and how aircraft positions are predicted between updates
🛒	Choosing an ADS-B Receiver — shopping guide for running your own local receiver: which dongle, antenna, and software to buy

The other editions

• 📟 STRATCOM Edition — the HFGCS / Emergency Action Message console. Its screens, the command‑post watch, alerts, and config are all on its own page.
• 🛰️ Space Edition — Spacescope. The ISS tracker, launch countdown, aurora gauge, alerts, and config are on its own page.
• 🌐 Seismic Edition — the USGS earthquake radar. Its Radar / List / Stats screens, detail card, alerts, and config are on its own page.
• 🐦 Birding Edition — eBird notable sightings. Its hybrid radar + rotating screens, detail card, alerts, and config are on its own page.

They all reuse the same Wi‑Fi setup, web config, alerts, and over‑the‑air updates documented in the reference pages.

New here?

1. Network and Setup — get your Blipscope onto WiFi and pointed at your location.
2. Configuration Reference — tune the display and data options to taste.
3. Browse the feature pages above (Aviation), or the STRATCOM Edition / Space Edition / Seismic Edition / Birding Edition pages, to discover everything your Edition can do.

Get a Blipscope

The easiest way to build one is a kit, which includes the display module and the redesigned enclosure parts in one box. The hardware is the same across editions — you choose which edition to run by the firmware you flash.

👉 Order a Blipscope kit from Valar Systems

Assembly instructions live on the Assembly page.

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Blipscope is built on the original Micro Radar project by Anthony Sturdy, and is maintained by Valar Systems.