Contact — 7 aircraft within 40 km
A tiny radar
for your desk.
There are aircraft over your house right now. You have never seen them. DesktopRadar sits on your desk and sweeps — live callsigns, altitudes and routes, on a real map of your own coastline.
Limited run — first batch ships October 2026
- Display
- 480 × 480 round
- Range
- 5 – 80 km
- Antenna
- None needed
The enclosure
Everyone else puts these in a box.
A bare panel on a bracket is a project. This is an instrument: a deep round body with a vented flank, a bezel that sits square to the glass, and a low stand that puts it at reading height. It is the part everybody comments on, and the part nobody else bothers with.
It comes off a Bambu Lab H2D Pro in matte black PLA — a machine that holds the tolerance the glass needs, layer after layer. Each one is finished and assembled by hand before it ships.
It holds the glass at twenty degrees, the angle you read a desk instrument at without moving your head. The cable runs inside it and out underneath. Nothing trails.
Made on
Bambu Lab
H2D Pro
- Material
- Matte black PLA
- Rake
- 20°, fixed
- Grip
- TPU feet
- Cable
- Concealed, exits underneath
- Ships
- Assembled and tested
It arrives as one object. There is nothing to print, wire or screw together.
The instrument
This is not a flight tracker.
It does one thing. It shows the sky above your desk, beautifully, and then it stops. If you want to follow a flight across the Pacific there are websites for that, and they are very good. This is a radar. For your desk.
Nor is it a screen showing a website. It is a self-contained object with a knob, a glass button and a stand. Nothing to install, no app to open. It is simply on, and it is simply right.
Weston-super-Mare · 51.35 N, 2.98 W · 40 km
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01
The sweep
Thirty frames a second, flicker-free, aircraft drawn as proper silhouettes. Airliners, rotor icons for helicopters, military flagged in red. Smooth enough that you stop noticing it is a screen.
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02
Your sky, anywhere
Set any town from your phone. The device builds a real land-and-sea map for that location and centres itself there. Weston-super-Mare to Wellington — if there is a coast, it draws it.
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03
The knob
The whole front glass rotates to zoom the rings from 5 to 80 km, and the whole glass face clicks as a button. No bezel buttons, no menus you have to hunt for.
Tap a plane
Then the aircraft tells you about itself.
Callsign, route, altitude, speed, heading, distance — and a photograph of that specific airframe, faded in behind the callsign. Not a stock picture of the type. That tail number, photographed by someone, somewhere.
- Route resolved from the callsign — Bristol to Faro, not “EZY6483”.
- Follow mode: the map chases that one aircraft, world scrolling beneath it.
- Tap the glass again and you are back on the scope.
EZY6483
BRS>FAO
- ALTITUDE
- FL320
- SPEED
- 448kt
- HEADING
- 194
- DISTANCE
- 18.4km
A20N G-UZHV
Your town, your map
It knows where it lives.
Type a town on your phone — live autocomplete, no account. The device fetches the coastline for that spot, rasterises land and sea, and re-centres. From then on, the shape on the glass is the shape outside your window.
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Step 01
Join the Wi-Fi on the glass
Network list and an on-screen keyboard, right on the touchscreen. No captive portal, no app, no pairing dance.
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Step 02
Name your town
Autocomplete from your phone's browser. Anywhere with ADS-B coverage — the map builder does not care which country.
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Step 03
Leave it alone
Night schedule dims it while you sleep, touch wakes it, and new firmware arrives over the air on its own.
Specification
What it is, precisely.
| Display | 2.1″ round IPS, 480 × 480, capacitive touch |
|---|---|
| Input | Rotary glass bezel (zoom) + full-glass push button + touch gestures |
| Brain | ESP32-S3 dual-core 240 MHz, 8 MB PSRAM, 16 MB flash |
| Hardware | Elecrow CrowPanel 2.1 (CE-marked module) |
| Connectivity | 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi · USB-C power (5 V, ~2.5 W) |
| Flight data | adsb.fi community ADS-B network — no antenna or receiver at home |
| Routes, photos, maps | adsbdb · planespotters.net · OpenStreetMap coastline |
| Stand | 3D printed in matte black PLA on a Bambu Lab H2D Pro · 20° tilt · TPU grip · concealed cable routing |
| Supplied | Complete unit — assembled, flashed and tested. No kit, no soldering, no printing. |
| Support | Software updates and support guaranteed for two years from delivery |
| Footprint | 116 × 84 mm base · ~150 mm tall assembled · ~300 g with device |
| Shipping | First batch from October 2026 · limited run |
| Updates | Over the air from desktopradar.co.uk/firmware/ |
Updates
It updates itself.
Every device checks this site shortly after boot and every six hours after that. When there is something new, a green Update button appears in Settings. Tap it: download, MD5 check, flash, reboot. That is the whole ceremony.
Questions
What everyone asks first.
When can I get one?
The first batch ships in October 2026. It is a limited run, built and tested by hand, so registering an address is how you hear when the next one is ready — there is no queue to jump and nothing to pay now.
Can I track a flight on the other side of the world?
No — deliberately. This is a radar, not a flight tracker. It shows the sky above your own desk, out to eighty kilometres, and that is the whole idea. To follow one aircraft across a continent, use one of the excellent websites that already do it.
Do I need an antenna?
No. The aircraft data comes over your Wi-Fi from adsb.fi, a community network of thousands of receivers. There is no radio in the device and nothing to mount on the roof.
Does it work where I live?
Anywhere with Wi-Fi and ADS-B coverage, which is most of the inhabited world. The map builder draws a coastline for any location you give it — inland towns simply get an empty sea layer and the same rings and traffic.
Will it work indoors?
Yes. Because the data arrives over the internet rather than by radio reception, it works on a desk in the middle of a building just as well as by a window.
What does it need to run?
Any USB-C supply. It draws about 2.5 W — roughly a nightlight. A night schedule dims it between the hours you choose, and touch wakes it.
What about privacy?
ADS-B is a public broadcast: aircraft transmit their position openly and anyone may receive it. DesktopRadar reads that data and sends nothing about you or your home anywhere.
Who is behind it, and what if something goes wrong?
DesktopRadar is designed and written by the CTO of several technology companies, one of which listed on the NASDAQ in 2022. Software updates and support are guaranteed for two years from delivery, over the air, at no extra cost.
A limited run · shipping October 2026
Made in small numbers.
DesktopRadar began as a passion project and has stayed one. Everybody who has seen it on a desk has asked where to get one, so a limited number are being built — each a complete unit, assembled, flashed and tested before it leaves. The first batch ships in October 2026.
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Built by
The CTO of several technology companies, one of which listed on the NASDAQ in 2022.
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Guaranteed
Software updates and support for two years from delivery, over the air, included.
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Shipping
From October 2026. One object, assembled and tested — set the Wi-Fi and your town on the glass, and that is all.
Leave an address to be told when the next batch is ready. It will be the only thing it is ever used for.