All,
The day job has been keeping me exceedingly busy recently. My schedule should lighten up in approximately 2 weeks, at which time I will be doing some more enhancements, as well as adding additional server capacity to handle the ever increasing number of visitors we have been getting.
Thanks,
Dan
Hi, when using adsbex on pc why is the map lost if pc is left running, unlike FR24 ?
On mobile phone, can you hide the ad banner like on pc ? It takes up far too much space.
Suggest you follow FR24’s example and offer monthly subscription to lose the ads.
Best rgds
David Fairbotham
The timeout is 60 minutes for the map screen, simply to preserve resources.
Do you have a need for higher? If so, I will need to start offering an ad free subscription.
As far as the ad on the mobile site, there is a handle at the top of the ad to hide it. Is that not working for you?
I’d love to be able to place markers for waypoints on the map. I haven’t found a decent API for waypoint name to location yet, though lots of sites have the data.
Hi Dan, I became aware of your site from a post on FR24 forums believe it or not! It’s a great resource for tracking biz and mil where FR and PF both suffer to differing degrees. The coverage is still rather poor at the moment outside of the UK but that can only increase once more people become aware of your existence.
A few observations if I may :
1. you would be able to save some resources by losing the plane tags when zoomed out, like what FR does. They don’t serve any purpose at that level of zoom as the tags are all on top of each other and cannot be read, plus even a powerful PC struggles to process them all.
2. it would be nice to have a playback feature of some sort. FR24s playback slider works well so something similar would serve the purpose. The current format of just showing a straight line from the start point & time to the finish point & time is rather basic.
3. when searching the historical data, any query using “starts with”, “contains” etc bascially breaks the site and can take upwards of 15 mins because displaying the results. By default the query seems to search the entire database back to when the site began (Oct/Nov 2015?) so it may be any idea to configure it to show, say, the most recent weeks worth of history and if people want to see more they can use the date selection boxes.
4. still on the historical data theme, I’ve noticed that any “ping” that was picked up on the ground where the plane didn’t actually move does not show the location when you click the log file. For example I monitor the new 737s at Renton which do many transponder tests from the stalls but unless the plane is moving it won’t snap to the location of the ping. FR24 by contrast shows them on the map. I realise this could be down to poor radar coverage of the area but I’ve noticed it for other ground pings too where this is good radar coverage of the airport.
5. I’ve noticed that there isn’t any active updating of the hex database as the vast majority of the hex codes are missing the reg and airframe details. I have noted there is a forum thread to post them but it doesn’t appear to be active/not bothered with. Adding a form box or link on the plane details page where people can submit the reg, type, etc, might be a good idea. You could set it so that data submitted does not get added to the database until it has been screened by an editor. If you want help with the database I could perhaps be persuaded as I was (and still am) a site database administrator for Libhomeradar, although I’m sure you’ll know that site has kinda fallen by the wayside now sadly.
Let me know your thoughts and I’ll contact you directly if you’d like help. 🙂
Rob,
Thanks.
1. Yes, good point. This is on the list, but I don’t think people are leaving the map zoomed out to that level and in the background. 60 mins seems a reasonable amount of time for an idle timeout. Above that, and I could have some type of nominal fee for ad-free and no-timeout version.
2. Yes, agreed. Any volunteers to program this based on JSON files that we can load into a database? http://www.adsbexchange.com/data
3. Yep, will put this on the list.
4. Do these planes have ADS-B or are they MLAT targets? Targets on the ground are very unlikely to get an MLAT position, but if they are ADS-B, they definitely should show up.
5. Agreed on the data submission front. This is (and has been) on the list. However, I think the current DB is pretty up to date. Can you give me some examples of ICAO codes that lack data?
If you want to assist with any of this, just get in touch via the contact form…
Thanks,
Dan
Hi Dan
1. I agree, I doubt people leave the map at that level of zoom out, but when scrolling around the world to make swifter progress to where you want to look you tend to zoom right out and then scroll the map. Because the way the site is set up it tries to load all those planes currently being tracked and all their data tags as well, which nearly brings the page to a freeze even on a powerful PC, so it must be quite painful for those using toasters. In the grand scheme of things it probably save much resources but I think it could perhaps be optimised better (just a suggestion).
2. Unfortunately my programming skills are next to non-existent so hopefully someone else will come forward!
4. Definitely ADS-B. They’re all new build 737s at Renton.
5. It’s mainly bizjets and tin. The airliners are pretty well covered in fairness.
I will shoot you an email directly.
Hi Dan, are you receiving emails? Not received any reply to a couple sent recently.
Hi Dan,
This site is great…I only have one comment and that wud be to provide map orientation…I use flip it but can only orient in 90 degree increments…
Many tks,
Seymour
We use the tracker on a wall mounted TV in our airport restaurant. Is it possible to get the map to not “timeout” after 60 minutes and return to the main front page? I’ve figured out how to keep the TV from going to a screensaver or shutting itself off – but now the tracker is timing out.
Any help would be appreciated.
IFR worldwide chart as a layer will be great