December 2, 2025
Flight fights and LED delights
An LED panel that shows the aviation around you
Builders are hyped, decor hacks are brewing, and 6AM neighbors are grumbling
TLDR: Open-source LED wall tracks planes above your home in real time using public flight data. Commenters split between ecstatic DIYers proposing mirror and photo upgrades, practical users asking for alerts and logs, and sleep-deprived neighbors hoping it brings clarity to those 6AM wake-ups.
A viral DIY turns your wall into a live flight board: an open‑source LED display that shows planes flying over your home in real time using public signals (ADS‑B) via OpenSky and flight details via FlightAware. The makers shared code, parts, and a build video, plus an official product for non‑tinkerers—and the comments instantly took off.
The loudest reaction: pure maker joy. “Holy crap—I had the same idea!” gushes one user, while another calls it a dream builder project. Aesthetic crowd chimed in with a spicy upgrade: hide it behind a mirror so it looks like slick art by day, flight board by night. Practical minds want features, too—text alerts and logs with timestamps for every flyover, and one user is already cooking a version that pulls photos of the actual plane for full aviation trading‑card vibes.
But the surprise subplot? Noise fatigue. A London commenter, regularly jolted awake by 6AM flights, says this could be the one thing worth looking at when the engines roar. The thread teeters between “calming data aquarium” and “reminder of my insomnia”. Meanwhile, nerds cackle that this wall won’t run games—“no 60FPS, just 600mph”—and split between build it or buy it energy. Either way, the sky is suddenly living room content.
Key Points
- •TheFlightWall is an open-source LED wall that visualizes live nearby flights using aviation data APIs.
- •Hardware uses 20 16x16 LED panels and an ESP32 dev board, with a single data line causing low refresh rates.
- •Data sources include OpenSky for ADS-B positions/callsigns and FlightAware AeroAPI for flight metadata.
- •Setup involves obtaining API keys, configuring Wi-Fi and location (lat/lon, radius), and building with PlatformIO in VS Code.
- •Customization options include display brightness and text color, with planned airline logo lookup and an official product available.