Encrypted, Real-time Plane Spotter with Raspberry Pi + SSL!

Overview

How to monitor air traffic using a $20 dongle and a Raspberry Pi:

One of the most impressive things that are available with any SDR is the ability to decode transmissions directly from the aircraft. Did you ever wonder how real-time airplane apps work? Basically, airplanes send out a beacon which can be analyzed and decoded with RTL SDR.

With beame-insta-ssl you can make this service accessible from any web browser in the world and you don't even need a public IP. One feature worth showcasing is the ability to create multiple sets of credentials that can be used for hosting multiple different services on the same device or multiple devices.

$ wget https://github.com/mutability/mutability-repo/releases/download/v0.1.1/mutability-repo_0.1.1_armhf.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i mutability-repo_0.1.1_armhf.deb

Then, you can install and upgrade packages via apt-get as needed:

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install dump1090-mutability
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure dump1090-mutability                           detailed configuration
$ sudo apt-get install lighttpd && sudo lighty-enable-mod dump1090    

This is actually ridiculously easy. There is even a nice configuration utility. At the end of this you should be able to access your Pi.

http://<

Using Beame-insta-ssl

So this is pretty good, now let's use beame-insta-ssl to generate a special new credentials just for this web service. You can think of a cert almost like a port. But first if you have not installed beame-insta-ssl, please follow this tutorial to install it here.

You should register at: https://ypxf72akb6onjvrq.ohkv8odznwh5jpwm.v1.p.beameio.net/insta-ssl

You should already know your FQDN, or find it out using:

beame-insta-ssl creds list 

Then you are ready for your new credentials:

beame-insta-ssl creds getCreds --fqdn YOUR_FQDN --name raspiat

Now using this FQDN you can set up beame-insta-ssl:

beame-insta-ssl tunnel make --dst localhost:8080 --proto http --fqdn YOUR_FQDN

To install as system service in Linux:

cd /usr/lib/node_modules/beame-insta-ssl/install/ 
BEAME_INSTA_SSL_USER=pi BEAME_INSTA_SSL_ARGV='tunnel 5555 http --fqdn SOMETHING.beameio.net' BEAME_INSTA_SSL_DIR=/usr/lib/node_modules/beame-insta-ssl sudo -E ./systemd-service.sh 

Last (slightly annoying) step: Go to https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/get-api-key

Google Maps does not support anonymous without a key.

vim /usr/share/dump1090-mutability/html/gmap.html 

Line 8:

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=YOUR_GOOGLE_KEY&sensor=false&amp;libraries=geometry"></script> 
sudo service beame-insta-ssl status 

Open your browser to

HTTPS://<youfqdn>

and you should see a live feed!