plane-spotter

Active Accounts

Twitter Handle	Status	Created	Suspended	Note
https://twitter.com/ElonJetHydra2	ACTIVE	2022-12-22
https://twitter.com/elonjethydra11	SUSPENDED	2022-12-19	2022-12-22	Your account has been suspended for violation(s) of Twitter’s rules, specifically our policy regarding parody, newsfeed, commentary, and fan accounts.

Setup

Installation

[ltclipp@landon-virtualbox plane-spotter]$ python3 --version
Python 3.10.8
[ltclipp@landon-virtualbox plane-spotter]$ python3 -m venv ve
[ltclipp@landon-virtualbox plane-spotter]$ source ve/bin/activate
(ve) [ltclipp@landon-virtualbox plane-spotter]$ pip install -U pip
Requirement already satisfied: pip in ./ve/lib/python3.10/site-packages (22.2.2)
Collecting pip
  Using cached pip-22.3.1-py3-none-any.whl (2.1 MB)
Installing collected packages: pip
  Attempting uninstall: pip
    Found existing installation: pip 22.2.2
    Uninstalling pip-22.2.2:
      Successfully uninstalled pip-22.2.2
Successfully installed pip-22.3.1
(ve) [ltclipp@landon-virtualbox plane-spotter]$ pip install -Ue .[dev]

1. Rename the config/ directory to production_config/. This is done so that the scaffolding provided in config/ doesn't get committed to git and expose your secrets.
2. Populate the production_config/ files with your secret API keys as necessary.
3. Then, source env.sh to initilize your environment
4. Ensure that you have chromum installed in your environment

Note: you can specify alternate config paths by setting the PLANE_SPOTTER_CONFIG_PATH environment variable, or by specifying the value on the command line using --config-path.

Docker

The application may be run in a docker container.

To build the image:

docker build -t planespotter -f docker/Dockerfile .

Then, run the image. Make sure to mount your production_config directory into the container:

docker run \
   -v $(pwd)/production_config:/usr/app/src/production_config \
   -it planespotter run

The docker image has two commands that can be run:

• run - will run the bot using the configuration in production_config
• sh - will open a shell in the container for debugging purposes

Backends

This package allows for different backends to be specified for the ADS-B data and notifications. By default, we use ADSBExchange and Twitter for these backends, respectively. As new backend implementations are created, you can explicitly specify which one you want on the command line like:

python3 -m plane_spotter.scripts.notify +adsb_backend=adsbexchange +notification_backend=twitter

Or by modifying the default values in your notify.yaml config file.

Notification Backends

name	description
twitter_selenium	This backend uses selenium to open a chromium web browser. This is the default choice as using the official Twitter v2 API requires an Elevated Access service account, which are available only under explicit approval from Twitter. Selenium uses the Twitter front-end which only requires a simple user account. This can even be used on your personal account!
twitter_api	This backend has not been created yet. This will use the v2 Twitter REST API

ADS-B Backends

name	description
adsb_exchange	This uses the RapidAPI backend for ADS-B Exchange: https://rapidapi.com/adsbx/api/adsbexchange-com1 This is the best API available for ADS-B data as it's incredibly simple to use and is well-maintained. This is the default choice. Access to the API requires a $10/month subscription.

Example Run

(ve) [ltclipp@landon-virtualbox plane-spotter]$ python3 -m plane_spotter.scripts.notify 
2022-12-19 14:15:04 [info     ] starting                       adsb_backend=adsbexchange notification_backend=twitter
2022-12-19 14:15:04 [info     ] instantiating ADS-B backend    adsb_backend=adsbexchange notification_backend=twitter
2022-12-19 14:15:04 [info     ] instantiating notification backend adsb_backend=adsbexchange notification_backend=twitter
2022-12-19 14:15:04 [info     ] Plane last known location      adsb_backend=adsbexchange lat=55.997177 lon=-60.443698 notification_backend=twitter
2022-12-19 14:15:05 [info     ] Nearest airport info:          adsb_backend=adsbexchange notification_backend=twitter
2022-12-19 14:15:05 [info     ] 
{
    "ident": "CNH2",
    "type": "small_airport",
    "name": "Natuashish Airport",
    "elevation_ft": "30",
    "continent": "NA",
    "iso_country": "CA",
    "iso_region": "CA-NL",
    "municipality": "Natuashish",
    "gps_code": "CNH2",
    "iata_code": "YNP",
    "local_code": "CNH2",
    "coordinates": [
        55.913898,
        -61.184399
    ],
    "distance_to_coordinates": 47.029824474752026
}
 adsb_backend=adsbexchange notification_backend=twitter

Contributing

There are multiple ways you can contribute to the goal of tracking jets on Twitter (or anywhere!)

1. Submit PRs for additional functionality you think would be useful (but please submit an issue to discuss the idea first)
2. Buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elonjethydra This helps with hosting and API costs!
3. Send us credentials for another Twitter account you'd like us to run the bot on: elonjethydra@gmail.com