The detail that caught me off guard: there is no receiver hardware in this build at all. The maker, Ryder Calm Down, leans on a network of more than 9,400 crowdsourced receiver stations instead of building one. Aircraft broadcast ADS-B packets at 1090 MHz carrying position, altitude, heading, speed and hex identifiers, and the project simply taps into that shared stream. It is a very different shape of project from the usual antenna-on-the-roof approach, and I think that is what makes it so approachable.
Putting it together is mostly software. The maker registers an account at toasty.so from a phone, entering geographic coordinates, then installs the Toasty app on a white cylindrical smart projector and scans a QR code projected on the ceiling to pair the two. After that the ceiling fills with live flight vectors, altitude figures and callsigns relative to the user's spot. There are also alternate visuals on offer, such as pixel art rainbows, simulated cabin windows and ambient lighting. The pixel art rainbow option is a charming touch for what is otherwise a data display.
This is actually a second attempt. An earlier DIY version paired a Raspberry Pi 4 or 3 Model B+ with an ADS-B tuner and a projector, and the maker still points people to that older guide, suggesting an AI coding helper for anyone working through it. An open source project called Skylight is also linked for anyone wanting to roll their own. The one loose end: the specific projector model has not been named, and plenty of people want to know. I would like that detail too, since picking a projector seems like the hardest shopping decision here.
Project by Ryder Calm Down. Watch it on their YouTube channel: