sdrangel/plugins/feature/map

Map Feature Plugin

Introduction

The Map Feature plugin displays a world map. It can display street maps, satellite imagery as well as custom map types. On top of this, it can plot data from other plugins, such as:

• APRS symbols from the APRS Feature,
• Aircraft from the ADS-B Demodulator,
• Ships from the AIS Demodulator,
• Satellites from the Satellite Tracker,
• The Sun, Moon and Stars from the Star Tracker,
• Beacons based on the IARU Region 1 beacon database and International Beacon Project,
• Radio time transmitters,
• GRAVES radar.

It can also create tracks showing the path aircraft, ships and APRS objects have taken, as well as predicted paths for satellites.

Interface

1: Find

To centre the map on an object or location, enter:

• An object name.
• Latitude and longitude. This can be in decimal degrees (E.g: -23.666413, -46.573550) or degrees, minutes and seconds (E.g: 50°40'46.461"N 95°48'26.533"W or 33d51m54.5148sS 151d12m35.6400sE).
• A Maidenhead locator (E.g: IO86av).
• An address (E.g: St Katharine's & Wapping, London EC3N 4AB)

2: Map Type

Allows you to select a map type. The available types will depend upon the Map provider selected under Display Settings (7).

3: Maidenhead locator conversion

When checked, opens the Maidenhead locator converter dialog, which allows conversion between addresses, latitude and longitude and Maidenhead locators.

4: Display Beacon dialog

When clicked, opens the Beacon dialog. Initially, no beacons will be listed. To download the IARU Region 1 beacon list, click the download button in the top right. The beacons will then be displayed in the table and on the map.

• Double clicking in a cell in the beacon table in the Callsign or Location columns, will centre the map on that beacon.
• Double clicking on the Frequency column will set the Device center frequency.

5: Display IBP Beacon Project Dialog

When clicked, opens the International Beacon Project dialog. The IBP consists of 18 HF beacons around the world, that each transmit once on each of the frequencies 14.100, 18.110, 21.150, 24.930 and 28.200MHz every 3 minutes, for 10 seconds. The IBP dialog shows which of the beacons should currently be transmitting.

• Double clicking in a cell in the Callsign column will centre the map on that beacon.
• Double clicking in a cell in the Frequency column will set the Device center frequency.

More details of the IBP can be found at: https://www.ncdxf.org/beacon/beaconfaq.html

6: Display Radio Time Transmitters dialog

When clicked, opens the Radio Time Transmitters dialog.

• Double clicking in a cell in the table in the Callsign or Location columns, will centre the map on that transmitter.
• Double clicking on the Frequency column will set the Device center frequency.

7: Display Names

When checked, names of objects are displayed in a bubble next to each object.

8: Display tracks for selected object

When checked, displays the track (taken or predicted) for the selected object.

9: Display tracks for all objects

When checked, displays the track (taken or predicted) for the all objects.

10: Delete

When clicked, all items will be deleted from the map.

11: Display settings

When clicked, opens the Map Display Settings dialog, which allows setting:

• Which data the Map will display.
• The colour of the taken and predicted tracks.
• Which Map provider will be used to source the map image.
• API keys, required to access maps from different providers.

Free API keys are available by signing up for an accounts with:

• Thunderforest
• Maptiler
• Mapbox

If API keys are not specified, a default key will be used, but this may not work if too many users use it.

When OpenStreetMap is used as the provider, a custom map URL can be entered. For example, http://a.tile.openstreetmap.fr/hot/ or http://1.basemaps.cartocdn.com/light_nolabels/

Map

The map displays objects reported by other SDRangel channels and features, as well as beacon locations.

• The "Home" antenna location is placed according to My Position set under the Preferences > My Position menu. The position is only updated when the Map plugin is first opened.
• To pan around the map, click the left mouse button and drag. To zoom in or out, use the mouse scroll wheel.
• Single clicking on an object in the map will display a text bubble with additional information about the object.
• Right clicking on a object will open a context menu, which allows:
  • To set an object as the target. The target object will have its azimuth and elevation displayed in the text bubble and sent to the Rotator Controller feature.
  • Setting the Device center frequency to the first frequency found in the text bubble for the object.
  • Changing the order in which the objects are drawn, which can help to cycle through multiple objects that are at the same location on the map.

Attribution

IARU Region 1 beacon list used with permission from: https://iaru-r1-c5-beacons.org/ To add or update a beacon, see: https://iaru-r1-c5-beacons.org/index.php/beacon-update/

Mapping and geolocation services are by Open Street Map: https://www.openstreetmap.org/ esri: https://www.esri.com/ and Mapbox: https://www.mapbox.com/

Icons made by Google from Flaticon https://www.flaticon.com

API

Full details of the API can be found in the Swagger documentation. Here is a quick example of how to centre the map on an object from the command line:

curl -X POST "http://127.0.0.1:8091/sdrangel/featureset/0/feature/0/actions" -d '{"featureType": "Map",  "MapActions": { "find": "M7RCE" }}'

And to centre the map at a particular latitude and longitude:

curl -X POST "http://127.0.0.1:8091/sdrangel/featureset/0/feature/0/actions" -d '{"featureType": "Map", "MapActions": { "find": "51.2 0.0" }}'