Does anyone have experience with using ADS-B (or any other method) to track their location on (commercial) flights? I have seen varying and not-so-clear info as to whether receiving ADS-B from within a (commercial) aircraft does/doesn’t/should/shouldn’t work.
Sure. Haven’t done it for a while, but it certainly works (unless you are on a 787)
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Aha, the good old adsbScope.
I still have it on my Windows Desktop.
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You mean some people may not? 
Must be youngsters.
S.
There is the portable stand-alone ADS-B receiver from Stratux ADS-B with the source for the project at Stratux github site. This project is actually how I got started in this hobby many years ago. DISCLAIMER: I have no connection to Stratux other than a user of the project.
It would not work at all on a 787?
I was able to track the plane I was on, but never saw another.
The busier the sky, the better your chance, but long range is not likely.
That’s perfect, because I’m only looking to track the plane that I’m on (if I could track other ones that would open up tons of cool opportunities, but for what I am looking to do I only need my current location).
When you say you were only able to track the plane that you were on, are you referring to on a 787? Or on a 787 it wouldn’t work at all, even for the 787 that I would be on.
I was refering to the 787 “I was on” - I was able to receive the ADS-B Tx from ‘my’ aircraft no problem.
On any other aircraft (I’ve been on), I used to use a Magellan GPS, but now use “GPS Test” app on an android phone. Any other offline mapping / navigator will work too.
Phone GPS engines arn’t great, so getting a First Fix while in flight can take a long time.
Obviously you don’t have that problem when receiving ADS-B
For the own position, why not using GPS with a locally installed map on any of your devices?
I am doing this frequently using my smartphone where a local map is installed.
From what I’ve seen online GPS on a commercial flight is very spotty at best.
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What OS do you run on your laptop?
Linux (I’d be using a Raspberry Pi).
You can just run everything directly on the laptop, no need to use an rpi.
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GPS is working fine as long as you are aside a window. Inside the cabin you won’t get a signal. But that might be pretty much the same with ADS-B.
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Couple of years ago, sdrplay has released Windows version of dump1090-mutability with Open-Street map. Last month I cheked sdrplay site, but it is no more available now.
At the time when it was available, I have downloaded it and saved on my Windows Desktop. Last month after finding it is no more available at sdrplay site, I uploaded my saved copy to my Github site. Anyone who wants to use or try it can download it by clicking following link:
https://github.com/abcd567a/md2/releases/download/v1/windows-dump1090-mutablity-sdrplay.zip
I am refering to being inside the cabin on a commercial flight. And regarding ADS-B that was my question, @geckoVN said that in his experience you are able to receive the ADS-B data from the plane you are in.
I basically want to make a small device that calculates some stuff based off of the planes location and then displays it on a screen, and then I can just have a small suction cup on the back and stick it to the in flight entertainment screen or something. So a laptop would overall be the smarter solution, but for my specific use case I want to use something very small like a Pi Zero.
Thanks! I use a Windows laptop, so this will be pretty useful to play around with.
For consideration: https://pantsforbirds.com/adsbee-1090/
It can provide a wifi AP you can connect to for some basic info.
Otherwise you can probably have a pi zero 2 create a hotspot and serve the usual webinterface (readsb/tar1090 or dump1090-fa).
That just needs an SDR, you could for example get this one:
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005005466363998.html
If you don’t mind running Virtualbox, you can actually pass through USB and run an image like this as a VM: https://adsb.im/
That will give you a local webinterface and even give you the option to send data to aggregators (probably not happening on a plane just in general).
I know you don’t run MacOS but maybe some other readers are interested, someone made my readsb work on MacOS, you still need homebrew to install the rtl-sdr library and compile it but it works fine:
https://github.com/wiedehopf/readsb?tab=readme-ov-file#apple--macos--os-x