The Project How it works The Station What's next Get Involved
The project

A personal
experiment

Lisbon Finals started as a simple question: could a Raspberry Pi on a terrace automatically photograph every plane that flies overhead — and post it to Instagram without any human input?

The answer, after months of iteration, is yes. What began as a weekend project became an independent autonomous station — local evidence, not official airport data — tracking noise levels, flight routes, airline patterns and atmospheric data from a Lisbon terrace facing the LPPT approach path.

3 May 2026
Recording since
—
Flights tracked
—
Photos published
24/7
Autonomous operation
0
Human triggers per post
How it works

Three layers,
zero human triggers

01 📡
Detect & Measure

A small radio receiver picks up the signals every commercial aircraft is required to broadcast — giving us the flight number, altitude, speed and exact position in real time. A microphone simultaneously measures the noise level on the terrace. The system only triggers when both conditions are true: a plane is close enough, and loud enough.

RTL-SDR ADS-B 1090 MHz readsb dB SPL 5 km · 5,000 ft
02 👁
Capture & Score

A 4K camera continuously streams footage of the approach path. Every frame is instantly rated by an intelligent scoring system — only shots where a plane is clearly and sharply visible make the cut. The best frame is then paired with live flight data and sent to an AI to write the caption.

Reolink 4K RTSP YOLO v8 Claude Haiku 0.30 threshold
03 ✦
Enhance & Publish

The chosen photo is processed by an AI image enhancer that reconstructs fine detail at 4× the original resolution — about 15 minutes on the station's small onboard computer. It is then automatically scheduled, avoiding quiet hours at night (11pm–7am). Everything goes live on @lisbon.finals with the AI-written caption and flight data — no human involved.

Real-ESRGAN ×4 ONNX Runtime Cloudinary Meta Graph API Raspberry Pi 4
Full automation pipeline · end to end · zero human trigger
RTL-SDR
1090 MHz
→
ADS-B
decode
→
Acoustic
trigger
→
RTSP
capture
→
YOLO v8
scoring
→
Telegram
validation
→
Real-ESRGAN
4K upscale
→
Haiku
caption
→
Instagram
Graph API
The station

Hardware
in service

🖥
Raspberry Pi 4 — 2GB
Central brain — runs all services 24/7: ADS-B decode, capture trigger, YOLO scoring, scheduler, Flask admin server.
● EN SERVICE
📡
Nooelec NESDR Smart v5
RTL-SDR dongle receiving ADS-B signals at 1090 MHz. Replaced June 2026 after thermal failure — now fitted with heatsinks.
● EN SERVICE
📷
Reolink 4K PTZ TrackMix
4K camera streaming over RTSP. Aimed at the LPPT approach path — every frame analyzed by YOLO v8 in real time.
● EN SERVICE
🔊
GAIN EXPRESS SPL Meter + ADS1115
Professional sound level meter (30–130 dB). DC output wired to ADS1115 ADC → I²C → Pi. Live outdoors since June 2026 — measuring real SPL peaks during every aircraft pass.
● EN SERVICE
🌬
GY-SGP30 Air Quality Sensor
eCO₂ and TVOC monitoring. I²C → Pi. Tested and calibrated — will go live with the outdoor enclosure.
◎ TESTED · SOON IN SERVICE
🌀
MPU-6050 Dual IMU — Vibration
Two accelerometers (AD0→GND + AD0→VCC, addresses 0x68/0x69) on the same I²C bus. Detects ground vibration from passing aircraft — a dimension beyond sound.
● EN SERVICE
🏭
PMS5003 — Fine Particle Sensor
Laser particle counter measuring PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10 in real time. UART → Pi. Correlates each aircraft pass with a concrete air quality reading.
● EN SERVICE
📦
Outdoor Plexiglass Enclosure
Custom-cut 4mm PMMA box (20×40×30cm) with angled lid, ventilation holes, cable gland and internal shelf. Laser-cut at Fab Lab Lisbon — laser-engraved logo included.
✓ COMPLETED — June 2026
What's next

Upgrades
in progress

The station is continuously evolving. New sensors are still being integrated to capture even more — from live ATC communications to real-time air quality monitoring.

Support the project
All hardware is self-funded. If you find this project useful or just enjoy watching planes, a coffee goes a long way toward the next sensor.
Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com
🌬
Air Quality Station

An environmental sensor will measure CO₂ and volatile organic compounds over the terrace in real time — correlating each aircraft passage with a concrete air quality reading. A first for a private monitoring station in Lisbon.

Environmental · SGP30
📡
Live ATC Listening

A second radio receiver tuned to Lisbon tower's frequency will capture live communications between pilots and air traffic control — linking each aircraft to the exact instructions they received in real time.

RTL-SDR · 118.1 MHz
Get involved

Open the record
to everyone

🔍
Flag an error
Spotted a wrong flight ID or a noise reading that looks off? Every correction helps validate the automated pipeline.
📡
Host a node
Live under a flight path yourself? The build is documented and designed to be replicated — even partially, starting with just a sound meter. Get in touch to join the network.
📊
Request the raw data
Beyond the public dashboards and monthly reports, the full flight-level dataset is available on request to researchers and citizens who reach out directly.
All published data (dashboards, monthly reports, imagery) is released under CC BY 4.0 — free to reuse, including commercially, with attribution.
Contact the Captain →