Tools DEMOISELLE – Open-Access E-ink Aircraft Radar

[zdmgs]

Hi everyone!

A few weeks ago I got this idea in my head and decided to try to build it: an aircraft radar running on Kindle, just to keep it looping in my office as an ornament and something to look at when bored/dissociating hahah.

That’s how DEMOISELLE was born (: The whole process was a lot of fun, even with some head-scratching bugs along the last weeks. I’m sharing it here in case anyone else is interested in using it.

I've been testing it on my own device (K7 – WP63GW), and feedback from other models and users would be greatly appreciated! I'm also thinking about making a short video about it ("gameplay", setup, installation, etc.), but that's more of a future thing since I'm in the middle of home renovations right now.

I hope this is in line with the forum rules and everything is okay. If anything needs to be adjusted, just let me know and I’ll happily fix it to be 100% compliant.

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DEMOISELLE – Open-Access E-ink Aircraft Radar

DEMOISELLE turns your Kindle into an always-ready, monochrome aircraft radar for a configured geographic center and radius.
It's easy to install, configure and use: a few steps and you're ready to follow live aircraft above you.

• Version: v0.1.0
• Author: zdmgs
• License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

What Is It?
DEMOISELLE is an open-access e-ink aircraft radar that renders a live, auto-updating monochrome map of the airspace around a chosen point on Earth. It pulls aircraft state data from the OpenSky Network, draws range rings, crosshairs, airport markers and (optionally, beta) aircraft trails, and refreshes the Kindle screen at configurable intervals.

The app is designed as a KUAL extension: you launch it from the Kindle Unified Application Launcher, choose radius and refresh rate, and let it run in the background while you keep an eye on the sky.

Screenshots / App images



Requirements
Your Kindle device must have:

• A jailbroken Kindle with KUAL installed ;
• Python 3 available on the device ;
• Pillow (Python imaging library) ;
• FBInk and its Python bindings for e-ink rendering ;
• A supported touchscreen input device when touch controls are enabled .

You must have as well:

• OpenSky API credentials (client_id and client_secret) .

Project Links:

• Project Page: https://www.luizdomingues.com/demoiselle/
• GitHub: https://github.com/zdmgs/demoiselle

Configuration

• Configuration is a simple key=value that you'll fill inside app/config.ini ;
• Existing keys must retain their names and value formats ;
• You must provide client_id, client_secret, center_lat and center_lon for the app to work ;
• The field touch_device is model-dependent; it is preconfigured to event1 with fallbacks to event0 and event2 .

Installation

1. Install the required Kindle components (jailbreak, KUAL, Python 3, Pillow, FBInk) ;
2. Copy the demoiselle directory to /mnt/us/extensions/ ;
3. Make sure your app/config.ini is filled ;
4. Check the touchscreen device and fallback paths for your model ;
5. Start the application from KUAL .

Project layout

Spoiler:

/mnt/us/extensions/demoiselle/
├── config.xml
├── menu.json
├── README.md
├── bin/
│   ├── start.sh
│   ├── static.sh
│   ├── stop.sh
│   ├── refresh_now.sh
│   ├── set_refresh.sh
│   └── set_radius.sh
└── app/
    ├── demoiselle.py
    ├── demoiselle.log
    ├── config.ini
    ├── fbink
    ├── cache/
    │   ├── cycle.txt
    │   └── token.json
    ├── fonts/
    │   ├── b612Mono.ttf
    │   └── unifontExMono.ttf
    ├── maps/
    │   ├── airports.json
    │   ├── countries.geojson
    │   ├── countries.json
    │   └── states.geojson
    └── out/
         └── radar.png

Runtime files such as demoiselle.log, demoiselle.pid, cache/token.json, cache/cycle.txt, and out/radar.png are created or updated while the application runs.

Credits and third-party components

Spoiler:

DEMOISELLE relies on the following third-party software and data:

• OpenSky Network — aircraft state data and authentication API (https://opensky-network.org) ;
• FBInk — e-ink screen rendering on Kindle devices (https://github.com/NiLuJe/FBInk) ;
• Pillow — image generation and drawing (https://python-pillow.org) ;
• Natural Earth — country and state boundary GeoJSON data (https://www.naturalearthdata.com) ;
• OurAirports — airport coordinates (https://ourairports.com/data/) ;
• UnifontEX Mono — main interface font (https://github.com/stgiga/UnifontEX) ;
• B612 Mono — aircraft icon font (https://github.com/polarsys/b612) .

License

Spoiler:

DEMOISELLE is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International – (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

This means you are free to:

• Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material.

Under the following terms:

• Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
• ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

Full license text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Third-party components bundled with DEMOISELLE retain their respective licenses. Please refer to each component's documentation for its specific licensing terms.

Troubleshooting

Spoiler:

No image appears
Inspect `app/demoiselle.log`, verify that Python, Pillow, FBInk, and the local configuration are available, and confirm that the output directory is writable.

Touch controls do not respond
Check `touch_device` and each path in `touch_fallbacks`. Kindle input-event numbering can vary between models and boot modes. The configured raw coordinate ranges must also match the device.

Authentication fails
Verify the OpenSky credentials and endpoint values. Remove only the cached token after an authentication failure if it is stale; do not expose the token contents.

Map rendering fails
Verify that both configured GeoJSON files exist, are valid JSON, and use the expected geographic coordinate order.

Version history / Change log
Version 0.1.0 (2026-08-19) – Initial public release.

• Basic radar rendering with configurable center and radius ;
• Support for standard radii (50–2000 km) and WORLD view ;
• On-screen controls for refresh, radius, trails, and exit ;
• KUAL integration via menu.json ;
• OpenSky API integration with token caching ;
• Brazilian state boundaries and airport markers ;
• Beta aircraft trails for 50/125/250 km radii .