stellarium Planes plugin reactivation

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)
[x] New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
[ ] Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)
[x] 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

Mar 09 '23 10:03 gzotti

I only rebased this 10-year old code on top of current master (2023-03-08) and added enough updates so that it compiles, at least with Qt5.15.2. However, the plugin does not appear in the list of available plugins, so I obviously have overlooked something important. I hope Alexander can add this missing line of code/config (?), and then we can update it further to also compile with Qt6 and add the obvious updates, e.g. use the StelProperty system.

But it compiled and loaded without problems (Qt5)

stellarium-001 stellarium-002

Mar 09 '23 12:03 alex-w

Aargh, yes. Too many "start me" links here - I kept launching my Qt6-based build... :-o OK, I fix the description.

Mar 09 '23 12:03 gzotti

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

Mar 09 '23 18:03 bi0ha2ard

stellarium-001

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

Mar 09 '23 18:03 alex-w

@alex-w do you see a tool button? I can still only call up the config dialog via Config menu/plugins tab. I now tried to modernize the UI and interface utilizing StelProperties. @bi0ha2ard thanks for the data, certainly useful to at least restore old functionality. (However I don't see anything :-(

I see in the logfile: Parsed "D:/Stellarium/modules/Planes/adsb_test_data/Test Data/BaseStation Recording File/20131114-114822.bst" , contained 395 flights. Ignored 1673 lines. Is that OK?

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.

Mar 09 '23 19:03 gzotti

@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.

Mar 09 '23 19:03 bi0ha2ard

@alex-w do you see a tool button? I can still only call up the config dialog via Config menu/plugins tab. I now tried to modernize the UI and interface utilizing StelProperties.

Yes, but the button is very small, because original texture is not very good ;)

Mar 09 '23 19:03 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

Mar 09 '23 19:03 alex-w

Ah, that button! OK. --- Ahhh, and finally I see the traces! Cool!

Mar 09 '23 19:03 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! :-)

Mar 09 '23 20:03 gzotti

I have a perfect news - I have a hardware for this plugin :satisfied:

Mar 21 '23 15:03 alex-w

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

Mar 21 '23 17:03 gzotti

@bi0ha2ard did you tested the code with real hardware?

Mar 24 '23 10:03 alex-w

@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.

Mar 24 '23 10:03 gzotti

This pull request has conflicts, please resolve those before we can evaluate the pull request.

Mar 28 '23 05:03 github-actions[bot]

Conflicts have been resolved. A maintainer will review the pull request shortly.

Apr 03 '23 07:04 github-actions[bot]

This pull request has conflicts, please resolve those before we can evaluate the pull request.

Sep 11 '23 03:09 github-actions[bot]