Frequently asked questions

The Ident software, plus a step-by-step illustrated build guide and support. You buy the Raspberry Pi, the e-paper display and an SD card yourself, from whichever supplier you like. We don't mark up hardware or hold stock, so you pay the going rate.

We didn't want one. We hate subscriptions too. Ident is designed to be bought once and then you own it. Reading your roster, every display style, the wake-up time, the month calendar — all of it works without paying anything more, for as long as you have it.

Free data or detailed data — your choice. Live tracking comes in two kinds. The free kind uses openly licensed aircraft positions from a network of volunteer receivers: where they have coverage, the board follows your aeroplane at no cost to anyone. But that coverage is patchy in parts of the Mediterranean and North Africa, and it tells you where the aeroplane is rather than when it will land. The detailed kind — a predicted landing time looked up by flight number, and a drive time home in live traffic — comes from commercial providers who charge for every request, every few minutes, for every board. Their terms don't let us pass our access on to you, and asking you to open a developer account with each of them didn't seem reasonable. So the detailed data is an optional subscription, and it pays those providers.

We wanted to leave both routes open. Free tracking is the default. The detailed data is there if you want it. And if you already have your own Flightradar24 API token, you can use that instead.

Your data, your call. Your roster never leaves your display, whichever you choose. With the detailed data switched on, the flight you're on passes through our server to the provider while you're airborne; turn on live drive times and your home location does too. Neither is kept. If you'd rather not share your home location, leave drive times off — Ident uses the commute time you set yourself.

The 7.3″ Inky Impression is the one to get if you're unsure — readable across a room and wide enough for the route maps. The 4.0″ is the budget option and works well on a desk. The 13.3″ is a proper wall piece but costs considerably more.

All of them use Pimoroni's Spectra 6 colour e-paper and all are fully supported.

Yes, fully. That's the panel Ident was originally built on, and it has seven colours rather than six. Pimoroni have discontinued it, so it isn't a sensible choice for a new build, but if you have one it will keep working.

Any Pi with a 40-pin header. The Zero 2 W is the cheapest and smallest and is the usual choice — but only if your Wi-Fi broadcasts on 2.4GHz (see the next question). A Pi 3B+, 4 or 5 will also work and support 5GHz.

If you buy a plain Zero 2 W you'll need to solder a 40-pin header. Buy the pre-soldered Zero 2 WH version and you won't.

The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W has a 2.4GHz-only radio. It cannot see 5GHz networks — this is a hardware limit with no software workaround.

Most home routers broadcast both bands, so it's usually fine. Problems arise when a router publishes a single network name and steers devices onto 5GHz, or when 2.4GHz has been switched off. If that's your setup, either enable 2.4GHz, give the 2.4GHz band its own name, or choose a dual-band Pi.

Usually not with a Zero 2 W. iPhone hotspots default to 5GHz; turning on Maximise Compatibility forces 2.4GHz and generally fixes it. A dual-band Pi avoids the problem entirely.

Very little. A Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W idles at roughly 0.5–1 watt — published measurements put it around 100–120 mA at 5V, rising towards 250 mA with Wi-Fi busy. The e-paper panel draws nothing at all while it's just sitting there showing your duty; it only pulls current during the ~30 second redraw, which happens a handful of times a day.

Call it under 1 watt on average. Left on permanently that's roughly 6 kWh a year — around £1.50–£2 a year at typical UK electricity prices, or about the same as leaving a phone charger plugged in.

Bigger boards cost more to run, though none of it is much. At the current price cap (26.32p per kWh) a continuously-powered watt costs about £2.30 a year, so:

The LED figures depend heavily on brightness and on how much of the panel is lit — Ident's screens are mostly dark, which helps, but a bright board in a hall is the one build where the electricity is worth a thought. Board figures are typical published idle draws rather than our own measurements.

Yes, for updates. E-paper keeps its image without power, so the display doesn't go blank if you unplug it — it simply stops changing. Power draw is very low.

Ident was built and tested against easyJet eCrew calendar feeds. Any roster published as a standard .ics calendar has a good chance of working — either as a live feed, or by uploading the file by hand. Reading eCrew roster PDFs is supported as an optional extra you can install if you need it.

If you fly for another airline, don't buy yet — apply for a free Ident instead. Help us read your airline's roster and the licence is yours free, permanently. If it turns out not to be possible we'll say so rather than take your money.

Yes. Set how long before report you need — 90 minutes by default — and the wake time appears on days off and while the board counts down to report. Because it's worked out from your roster, a change to your report time moves the alarm with it.

If you commute, there's an option to add that day's travel to report on top, so the first day of a block shows the genuinely early time rather than the one that assumes you're already at base. Set the wake time to 0 in settings to hide it.

Yes. Tick "I commute to base" in settings and you get three numbers instead of one: the ordinary commute for mid-block days — the ten minutes from a crashpad or hotel — plus separate times for travelling to base on the first day of a block and getting home after the last one.

Ident works out which day is which from your roster, so a two-hour flight home is only counted on the day you actually take it. The home time stays on screen for the whole journey, not just until the last sector lands.

Yes. Add the flight number and date in the control panel and Ident looks up the route and times itself. Living in Amsterdam with a Gatwick base, you'd add the morning AMS–LGW: the board follows you out of Amsterdam and then hands over to your roster duty when you report, so the people at home see one continuous day rather than a gap.

The same works for anything off-roster with a flight number — deadheading, positioning home, or a holiday flight. (Route lookup needs a free AeroDataBox key, set once in Advanced.)

You paste your crew calendar link into the control panel once. Ident then re-checks it every 30 minutes, so roster changes appear without you doing anything.

Ident needs a web address that serves your calendar, not a calendar file you've downloaded — a file is a snapshot, an address keeps up. Providers name it differently — secret address, private address, subscription link, ICS link — but it's the same thing: a long, unguessable URL, usually ending .ics.

In your crew portal, look for subscribe, export to calendar or iCal feed, and take the link rather than the download. If it will only give you a file, upload that in the control panel instead.

Google Calendar: on a computer, Settings → Settings for my calendars → the calendar → Integrate calendar → copy Secret address in iCal format. There's a Reset button beside it if the link ever gets out. (Google's instructions)

iCloud: iCloud.com/calendar → the info button beside the calendar → turn on Public Calendar → Copy. The link starts webcal:// — paste it exactly as given, Ident understands it. (Apple's instructions)

Outlook.com / Microsoft 365: Settings → Calendar → Shared calendars → Publish a calendar, choose the calendar and the option showing all details, publish, then copy the ICS link — not the HTML one. (Microsoft's instructions)

Check it before you paste it. Opened in a browser, the right link downloads or displays text beginning BEGIN:VCALENDAR. A login page or a normal-looking calendar means you've got the view, not the feed.

And treat it as a password. Anyone holding that link can read your whole roster, indefinitely, without signing in to anything. Don't email it, post it, or send it to support — Ident keeps it out of its own diagnostics export for exactly that reason.

Yes. It recognises standby, training and non-flying codes and shows the right screen. On a day off it shows your next duty — the date, report time and where you're going.

All destinations are shown, not just the first. A four-sector day reads as NTE/BOD, and a button press gives report time and sector count.

Yes — personal flights can be added by flight number and are tracked the same way, with the report time set for leisure travel rather than duty.

On your device, and nowhere else. It is fetched by your Raspberry Pi, from your airline, over your own internet connection. We never receive it, cannot see it, and don't operate a service that holds it.

No. There's no sign-up, no cloud login and no telemetry. The only outbound connections your device makes are to your roster feed, an optional flight-tracking service, and a daily check for software updates.

Worth checking your own company's IT and data policies — some airlines have rules about where crew data may be processed. Because Ident keeps everything on your own hardware, it's a far easier conversation than a cloud service, but the responsibility is yours.

Flash the SD card, plug the display onto the Pi, power it up, and open the setup page in your browser. It walks you through your base, airline, roster link and a password. Allow an unhurried hour for a first build.

If the display can't find a network it knows, it puts up a Wi-Fi network of its own called Ident-Setup. Join that from your phone — the password is identsetup, the same on every display — and it will ask you to pick your home Wi-Fi. Once it's on your own network you carry on with setup there. It won't take your roster link or your panel password over its own hotspot, because that hotspot's password is printed here for anyone to read.

From the Ident icon on your phone. The first time you open the control panel at ident.local:8080, add it to your home screen (Share, then Add to Home Screen on an iPhone; the ⋮ menu on Android) and it opens full screen with its own icon, like an app. From there you can change the display style, timing, timezone and roster source. Any browser on your home network works too.

Yes, and it's optional. The simplest route is a free Cloudflare tunnel, which gives you a web address you can open from anywhere without installing anything. Tailscale is the other option and gives a permanent private address. Both are free for personal use and neither requires opening ports on your router.

Left switched off, your display is reachable only from your own home network.

Yes, and not optionally: you set a username and password during setup, minimum six characters. The panel shows your roster and holds your calendar link — which is effectively a password for your whole schedule — so it isn't something to leave open, even on a home network. Passwords are stored only as a salted hash.

Forgotten it? Take the SD card out, put a file called ident-reset.txt on the small drive that appears when you plug the card into a computer, put it back and switch the display on. It clears the password and deletes the file — nothing to install, no reflashing. It needs the card in your hand, which is the point.

If you expose the panel to the internet, use one of the tunnel options above so the connection is encrypted.

Yes. Point each one at the same roster link and they'll stay in step by themselves — no server in the middle. Give each a name (Kitchen, Study) so you can tell them apart.

Colour e-paper takes roughly 30 seconds to redraw, so Ident refreshes when something meaningful changes rather than continuously. It's a duty board, not a clock.

While it redraws, the screen flashes — a colour panel runs through its colours several times before it settles. That is normal for this kind of display, not a fault.

Your display checks for new versions once a day. A new version installs itself, but only after it has been published for three days, and never mid-duty — a bad release sits on our own wall for three days before it can reach yours. The control panel shows what you're running, an install now button if you'd rather not wait, and a switch to turn the automatic part off. Every update is checksum-verified and your working version is backed up first.

Almost always a network problem. A Raspberry Pi has no battery-backed clock, so if it can't reach the internet it keeps the last time it knew. Reconnect it to Wi-Fi and the clock corrects itself within a minute or two.

Check the band first — if you're on a Zero 2 W, it must be 2.4GHz. Then check the password and that the network name is exactly right, including capitals. You can pre-load extra networks (a hotel or crashpad) from the control panel while you're still on a working connection.

After two minutes offline the display gives up and raises its own Ident-Setup network so you can rescue it from a phone. The password for that is identsetup.

Colour e-paper is muted by nature — it reflects light rather than emitting it. Cold rooms make it worse; the panel likes normal room temperature. There's also a contrast toggle — hold the third button for two seconds.

While a sector is airborne, Ident can show a QR code that opens that flight on a live tracking site. Press the third button and it fills the screen, big enough to scan from across the room; it goes back to the duty after twenty seconds. You can also leave a small one in the corner of any display style — turn it on under Display in the control panel, and pick which corner.

The code only exists while a duty is running. On days off, standby and between duties there's nothing to track, so nothing is shown. Panels without buttons can still use the corner option.

Not unless you ask it to. These are hidden by default and shown as an ordinary day off, in three groups: fitness and absence (SICK, S/L, MED, LOL, UNFT, FTGD, NSO, UNCT, NAVB); work and HR (MEET, INT, SOC, DISC, GRV, SUSP, TERM, RESN); and leave and family (COMP, CMPU, MAT, PAT, PARL, UNPD).

You choose which. Setup lists them by group, with a select all / none, and you tick any you'd rather see. The same list is in settings. Nothing is revealed unless you ask.

Hidden codes aren't merely kept off the screen — they're discarded when your roster is parsed, so the original never reaches the device's storage. Nothing that isn't kept can appear later through a new display style, a diagnostics export, or a screenshot you send to support. The trade-off: revealing a code only affects rosters read afterwards, so saving the setting re-reads your feed.

Yes, two ways. Under Days off in the control panel, tick Show the month calendar on days off: on a day off the wall shows the whole month as a grid — destinations on flying days, standby and days off marked, today boxed. Or set one of the buttons to Month calendar to bring it up for a minute at any time. Either needs a 7″ panel or larger, where there's room to read it.

Yes. Upload a picture in the control panel and it takes over the screen on days off only, cropped to fill the panel. You can keep a single line across the foot showing your next duty, or switch that off. Photos are re-saved when uploaded, which strips EXIF — so location tags don't travel with them.

Yes — see the terms at checkout for the statutory cancellation period on digital purchases. If Ident won't work with your airline's roster, tell us and we'll sort it out.