Polite request for Developers

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

Could you please consider adding a feature to the ADS-B feeder page to allow users to arrange the order of the site tabs? There are probably quite a few of us with multiple receivers and perhaps our favorite, or primary, feeder is not the one with the lowest number.

Example: I recently replaced my primary feeder with a Pi 2. That feeder now has the highest site number, but it’s the one I would like to be my default site on my feeder page. It would be great to have the option to choose the default site for the feeder page. Thanks!

2

I like this idea. Perhaps there’s also an opportunity to intelligently show the most “active” site by default.

3

I have the idea (from somewhere) that the feeder ID is derived from the Pi’s MAC address.

If this is indeed true, the Pi MAC address is easy to override, by placing:

smsc95xx.macaddr=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

at the end of /boot/cmdline.txt (replacing xx: with your desired MAC address)

(I use this to associate IP addresses assigned by my router DHCP based on what image a Pi is running)

cheers–

bob k6rtm

4

The feeder ID is indeed derived from the Pi’s MAC address. It would be great if FlightAware would adopt the practice of using a “sharing key” like FR24. The new PlaneFinder client uses a “sharecode” that looks about the same as FR24’s key. This way your feeder is “portable” and can be associated with any receiver you like. I don’t like spoofing the MAC of my primary feeder because then I’ll have to spoof the MAC of the other Pi. And then, any time I boot a different distro on either Pi - well, you get the picture. Thanks for the suggestion though.

5

It can be problematic to MAC spoof with DHCP when you accidentally have more than one box with the same MAC on the same network… Really wish they would allow us to name and/or rename each feed so that could override the MAC address if present.

Cheers!
LitterBug

6

Oh, I agree – having an above-board mechanism for identification - association with an account would be the best way to go, particularly for those of us who are experimenting (and trying to advance the state of the art).

–bob

7

Here’s an interim solution to the question I posed: how to default to your favorite/primary feeder.

If you click the My ADS-B link at the top of the page, you’ll be routed to a link like this:


http://flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/jepolch

To go to your preferred feeder stats, just add #stats-XXXX where XXXX is your feeder site number. So then you’ll have a link like this:


http://flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/jepolch#stats-7259

Bookmark that link and you’ll always go to your favorite feeder. From that page you can still click the tab to see your other site(s).

8

Based on your feedback, the developers are working on a number of solutions to improve this.

9

That’s wonderful news – I only need one solution…

bob k6rtm

10

Thanks!