RadarTV — Raspberry Pi RF-to-Composite Video Broadcast

Mon, 29 Jun 2026 06:00:00 -0400

A composite video signal generator running on a Raspberry Pi. It reads live aviation radar data (from an RTL-SDR or similar receiver), renders a radar sweep display, and outputs the result as a PAL composite video signal — viewable on any analog TV or monitor with composite input.

Architecture

RTL-SDR (1090 MHz ADS-B)
 → Pi reads aircraft positions
 → radartv.c renders radar sweep + blips in 640×480 framebuffer
 → GPIO composite output (PAL/NTSC via Pi's TV out)
 → Analog TV: real-time radar display

All rendering is done in C with direct framebuffer access. No GPU, no X11, no desktop. The composite output is generated via the Pi’s native TV-out circuitry using pwm_ir_tx pin for video and pcm_clk for audio sync.

Embedded on grainworks

RadarTV — Raspberry Pi RF-to-Composite Video Broadcast

Architecture