PixelRadar ADS-B Flight Tracking Displays
A dad, two kids, and a question about planes.
PixelRadar didn’t start in a boardroom. It started at a kitchen table in Dorset, UK, with a ten-year-old pointing at the sky and asking “Dad, can we see that on a screen?”
It’s a family business — built by hand, shipped with love, and powered entirely by curiosity.
HOW IT STARTED
My son Theo has always been obsessed with aircraft, although I may have been guilty of encouraging that myself. From a very young age he’d stop mid-sentence, point upward, and identify whatever was overhead before the rest of us had even looked up. His go-to app was Flightradar24 — he knew how to use it before he knew his times tables.
I’m Rob — a dad with a habit of tinkering. In my spare time I’d been messing around with ESP32 microcontrollers, building temperature sensors, humidity monitors, and even a GPS speed tracker for Theo. One weekend, Theo sat down next to me at the workbench and we built an ADS-B receiver together — a small radio antenna that listens to aircraft transponders and pulls their real-time data out of the air.
Theo’s eyes went wide when the first aircraft appeared on the laptop screen. Then he looked up at me and asked the question that started all of this.
We spent the next few weekends soldering, coding, and arguing about where to put the antenna. The result was a small, clean display that showed live aircraft overhead — no app, no subscription, no fuss. We quickly realised we didn’t even need the antenna — we could connect to free ADS-B feeds already available online, and simply set our location. Friends started asking if they could have one. So we made more.
— Rob, founder & builder
THE BIGGER PICTURE
I wanted my kids to see what it’s really like to run a business.
I’ve built a few businesses over the years, and the thing I’ve always wished I’d learned earlier is that entrepreneurship isn’t something you study, it’s something you do. The earlier you start, the better. And with AI taking over so many jobs, I believe teaching children how to think and act entrepreneurially from a young age has never been more important.
Elyssa and Theo already had a head start. They’d previously set up a 3D printing shop at school, designed products, handled orders, dealt with the occasional unhappy customer. They knew more about running a business at 12 and 8 than most adults give kids credit for.
PixelRadar became the next chapter. A real product. Real customers. Real decisions. And two young people learning what it means to build something people actually want.
THE SCHOOL BUSINESS
Elyssa and Theo ran a 3D printing shop at school — designing, pricing, and selling to classmates and teachers. Their first real taste of enterprise.
ELYSSA’S VINTED STORE
Elyssa runs her own Vinted shop and frequently tries to sell items in the house that are not nailed down. As a typical teenager she also has a natural talent for social media. She already knew how to build an audience — PixelRadar just gave her a bigger stage.
THEO’S FLIGHTRADAR OBSESSION
Theo can tell you the aircraft type, airline, and likely route of any plane overhead within seconds. He’s the reason PixelRadar exists.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Small team. Real product. Genuine people.
Every PixelRadar that ships is one Rob tested himself, packed by Theo, and promoted by Elyssa. There’s no warehouse, no call centre, no outsourced anything. Just us.
— Rob, Elyssa & Theo, Dorset, UK
HANDMADE IN THE UK
Every unit is assembled, tested, and packed by hand in Dorset. When you buy a PixelRadar, a real person built it.
CURIOSITY-DRIVEN
ISS tracking mode? Theo’s idea. Tracking a specific flight? Inspired by a customer wanting to watch a loved one’s flight land. Every feature comes from a real question.
BUILDING THE NEXT GENERATION
PixelRadar is also a lesson in what it means to build something real — for Elyssa, Theo, and hopefully a few of our customers too.
