My Airport Departures Board

[DeltaDude]

Since I'm currently taking a programming class at my school where we use Visual Basic, I had the idea to try to program a flight information board for my model airport. I want to make it look just like the ones you see at real airports, and I'm attempting to use my small knowledge of programming to make a departures board for my Kingmont International Airport. I like Visual Basic 6.0 because it's relatively old (late 1990s) so it's pretty simple to use. If I'm successful I might eventually make an arrivals board too.

I just started, so here are some pictures of my progress:


What the board will look like


The programming code for one flight on the board


I figured out how to program it so that the flight status changes as the flight goes from boarding to departed, and I connected the board to the real time at my airport (California time) by putting a digital clock in the program.

It should take me awhile to finish it because I have over 200 departures to do, but I will post more pictures as my progress continues .

[DutchCollector]

Looks very interesting! Good luck with your project!

[DeltaDude]

Originally Posted by DutchCollector

Looks very interesting! Good luck with your project!

Thank you! I'm still trying to figure out how to embed it on my website so everyone can view it.

[ameger]

Wow, just amazing! You have to share to me how to do this when you finish, I know Visual Basic and I have been figuring out how to do this for a long time.

Thanks for sharing!

[DeltaDude]

Originally Posted by ameger

Wow, just amazing! You have to share to me how to do this when you finish, I know Visual Basic and I have been figuring out how to do this for a long time.

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, if you want I could copy some of my code and send it to you so you can get an idea. It's not that difficult actually - probably the hardest part was randomizing it so a flight randomly shows up as "on time" or "delayed" .

[DeltaDude]

I have successfully finished the first section of flights from 4:15am to 8:00am - and it took me over 5 hours ! I think I have around 10 more sections to do (the last flight is at 11:15pm), so I have many more hours of programming to do . Here's a photo:



This is all the flights I can fit on one screen, but I have it programmed so that when the last flight of this section departs then this screen closes and the next section of flights opens .

[ameger]

Originally Posted by DeltaDude

Thanks, if you want I could copy some of my code and send it to you so you can get an idea. It's not that difficult actually - probably the hardest part was randomizing it so a flight randomly shows up as "on time" or "delayed" .

That would be great, if you could send me the info for one flight I could figure out the rest.

Thanks much,
Andy

[DeltaDude]

Originally Posted by ameger

That would be great, if you could send me the info for one flight I could figure out the rest.

Thanks much,
Andy

Sure, I'll PM you.

Also, I've finished 4 sections now, so I'm up to about 12:30pm . I still have probably 6-7 more sections to do. The good thing is it's going a little faster now since I can copy and paste a lot of the code and pictures from the previous sections.

[64jamesg]

That is an amazing piece of work, looks excellent

[Antesyd]

Cool. I really like your work.

Did you connect the real time clock to the program so it updates automatically?
And do you have and interface to easily change flight info without changing directly in the code or a random generator for delays etc.?

//Antesyd

[DeltaDude]

Originally Posted by 64jamesg

That is an amazing piece of work, looks excellent

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Antesyd

Cool. I really like your work.

Did you connect the real time clock to the program so it updates automatically?
And do you have and interface to easily change flight info without changing directly in the code or a random generator for delays etc.?

//Antesyd

Yes I did, there is a real time digital clock that automatically displays the current time. Also yes, I could change the flight information without directly having to change the code. I have a random generator for delays and I tested it and it worked, but it doesn't seem to be working now so I am going to have to tweak my code .

[Haz Baz]

That's really awesome, you must have spent ages on it!

Just one thing though, on a commercial airport departure board, cargo flights aren't usually displayed.

[DeltaDude]

Originally Posted by Haz Baz

That's really awesome, you must have spent ages on it!

Just one thing though, on a commercial airport departure board, cargo flights aren't usually displayed.

Yeah, I know, but it's a model airport so I can do what I want .

[United737]

This looks great! Do you think we'll see Pelter on the list anytime soon?

[DeltaDude]

Originally Posted by United737

This looks great! Do you think we'll see Pelter on the list anytime soon?

No, sorry . I'm not putting any fantasy flights on the board .