Near Space Technical Payload Official Thread

[Francois Dion]

There is no time like now to get things going. I dont want to wait until the 21st to get things going, there loads of prelim that can be done.

So today, as I was on my recumbent bike, I started to think about this. April is coming fast. Loads to do. So I started to jot down a few points and put them on a wiki here:

https://bitbucket.org/fdion/space-py/wiki/Bullet%20Points

Specifically, the preliminary stuff:

Prelim stuff

• wiki (duh! done)
• repo (done - space-py)
• Project (Jira? Agile?)
• Coding standards
• CI?
• Corpus (URLs, previous flights, etc)
• Regulations
• Team name: This probably needs to be tackled ASAP, so I can create it and people can join the team on http://balloonchallenge.org/
• Launch site: Shouldn't be too hard
• Launch date and time: Has to be in April, between the 10th and 27th
• Weather planning: Depends on site and date
• meetings
• who tackles what

BTW, there is a bunch of software to be written, in case somebody is thinking there is none... Ranging from building web sites, to writing daemons, watchdogs, apis, video control, image capture app, graphs etc.

There is also a question of cost and funds, obviously. I have a lot of the hardware needed, except the lora and aprs stuff. I have gps, gprs etc, plus i've been working on a really unique camera. I'll talk more about this later.

Francois

[Francois Dion]

oh yeah, forgot to ask, who on the list is an HAM? APRS is nice, but you have to be licensed (been procrastinating on this for years). I've seen a few call signs on licenses in the Inmar parking lot, so I'll have to look them up.

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[Francois Dion]

On Sunday, January 11, 2015 at 6:30:48 PM UTC-8, Francois Dion wrote:

There is no time like now to get things going. I dont want to wait until the 21st to get things going, there loads of prelim that can be done.

So today, as I was on my recumbent bike, I started to think about this. April is coming fast. Loads to do. So I started to jot down a few points and put them on a wiki here:

https://bitbucket.org/fdion/space-py/wiki/Bullet%20Points

Made a few updates, particularly in corpus, regulations and transmission (hardware etc).

Dont be shy, the wiki is editable.

[Francois Dion]

I'm about to announce the space balloon project in 30 mins in the Winston Salem / Dash room. Glenn will probably have some video, or at least some photos. Looks like a student group from HPU, some students from Atkins HS, Forsyth Tech on top of PYPTUG members. And we have a HAM (co worker at Inmar) who will lend a hand.

Francois

[Francois Dion]

It was an good meeting tonight, about 20 people or so in all if I counted right.

We had some interesting team names, but in the end, "Near Space Circus" won with the most votes. (linux = penguin, python = snake, so it's almost a circus. plus there's that british flying circus thing, Monty something :)

"Inmartians" was pretty good too, and so were the others. I'll post details and photos (including the voting board) later, too tired right now.

So, with that, I created the team:

http://balloonchallenge.org/teams/159

Go ahead and sign up on http://balloonchallenge.org and join the Near Space Circus team.

[Francois Dion]

Added a tab to pyptug.org, "Team Near Space Circus". Direct link: http://www.pyptug.org/p/team-near-space-circus.html

The above link will always have the info from last meeting.

This will also have its own entry on wiki. Perhaps someone can copy that on to the wiki?

Look at that page, there are a few questions and quite a few tasks to pick up already. Python tasks at this time include finding or writing a module to get aprs data (as visualized on aprs.fi). Another is to use that module and interface with twitter (see the above link for a bit more info). Ideally 2 per tasks.

Francois

[Francois Dion]

Progress, little by little:

https://bitbucket.org/fdion/space-py/wiki/Home

Who would like to investigate options and sourcing of the balloon itself? https://bitbucket.org/fdion/space-py/wiki/Balloon

How about the parachute (or parachute like option)? https://bitbucket.org/fdion/space-py/wiki/Descent

Another interesting one, the rigging: https://bitbucket.org/fdion/space-py/wiki/Rigging

[Francois Dion]

Anchor is done. (there's a picture of it on meetup). I'm working with Chris on the rigging, but if anybody has ideas as far as the attachment of the balloon and the parachute (we are assuming a parachute with 4 strings right now) please speak up. 

Speaking of parachute, we really need somebody to research parachute options and other descent options (including parasail, loads of padding and no chute, a quite underinflated secondary balloon, even props/motors/ESCs/cc3d driver to slow down from terminal velocity at low altitude etc). Main goal is stability.

Don and John are looking at the shape of the payload itself, Jeff is still investigating aprs. Dragonlink was a bust, the price was for a data link for remote control, not the FPV video kit.

I'll post many software tasks tomorrow to the wiki. Heartbeat master/slave using GPIO, anyone? 

Some discussion today about the multiplexing system, and Mike will try to track down where he saw a potential solution for the raspberry pi csi. I have the connectors and chips on order. I also have a switcher on order from Europe, but I'm not holding my breath on that unit since it doesn't know anything about frame start/end.

Stay tuned for the announcement of next near space project meeting (before the next project night), and two different raspberry pi sessions for beginners.

Francois

[Johnny]

I've moved to Utah now, however, I might be contributing to the code here and there.
I use Python predominantly now, so fun fun!

Good luck on the balloon! Wish I could see it fly...


John Pacific

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[Brent Wright]

Francois,

I am curious if a rudder or some kind of horizontal drag could provide stability as the balloon rises. It couldn't be too much drag, or it would cause the payload to bounce a lot, but just enough to keep the front of the payload facing "forward".

Also I can look into a gas supplier, unless someone already has an idea/connection.

Also has anyone started a tracking spreadsheet, and do we have a place to store the document for collaboration?

[Christopher Shepard]

I think a rudder could prevent spin.  It would keep the payload facing away from the wind.

A Picavet might help with stability.  It's a rigging method that self levels a platform mainly used for kite aerial photography.  Here is a link showing one being used for balloon photography.  The link on that page showing the method is broken, but I found an instructable for building one.  Most of the build doesn't apply to our project, but step 6 shows the rigging which is what really matters.  

I think we could use small eye screws into our payload, and a balsa wood cross to spread out the line between the payload and the parachute, and then attach the balloon to the top of the parachute.

[Francois Dion]

Really liking this approach. I'd like to get together to finalize a design. Beside Brent, Chris and I, anybody else is interested in working out the design of the rigging? We'll take this offline to try and figure when we can meet (even a google hangout if we dont need to meet in person.

[Francois Dion]

Some updates:

The picavet looks great, just need tweaking.

The switcher for the cameras is not working at this time, still trying to figure out what is wrong. I do have all the camera modules needed in hand.

The cocoon will be a sphere or a bucket, we are still evaluating this based on capacity.

We are investigating the network aspect still. Mike looking at i2c

Parachute will be bought since no one stepped forward to volunteer. 

HPU students working on their experiment.

Missing an update on VHF and radar reflector, i'll email those who were investigating those aspects.

Francois

[Jeff Clouse]

Update on APRS Transmitter research:

   The Byonics Micro-Trak RTG FA High Altitude Combo (http://www.byonics.com/mt-rtg) looks to be our best choice. It is prebuilt and tested, comes with a GPS unit that works all the way up to 84KM, as well as an appropriate antenna. It weighs less then 14oz (w/o batteries), and it costs $250 (which is actually a little cheaper than the two main DIY choices I explored - HABduino and a Raspberry Pi based unit).

      - great track record - lots of other HAB flights used it successfully

      - currently available from a single source (all of the DIYs require purchases from various vendors, and one even requires we get a board etched)

      - since it is assembled, I can start using it as soon as I get it to give our "chase team" the opportunity to practice by tracking me as I drive around (Who wants to be on the "chase team"?)

   In addition to GPS data, the unit will report its battery voltage and the temperature at the board itself.

   Questions, comments, concerns?

Regards,

Jeff

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Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2015 04:40:41 -0800
From: franco...@gmail.com
To: pyp...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [PYPTUG] Re: Near Space Technical Payload Official Thread

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[BrentGWright]

I have built a 9" radar reflector that is covered in foil tape, it currently weighs 223g. I am thinking about trimming it down to 6", any thoughts?

Thanks

Brent

Sent from my iPhone.

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[Francois Dion]

Brent,

Forgot to ask what were the pros/cons for a 6" reflector. Are they common?

The cocoon itself will be a hollow sphere 12" in diameter. I could have gone with 10".

I'm also inching forward on the network to connect the multiple Raspberry Pi model A+. No hub. It's a token ring topology, for those familiar with this older tech. Come and check it out on Wednesday.

Francois

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[Brent Wright]

Great time tonight.

I can't wait to see the token ring network running on 6 pi's.

-Brent

[Brent Wright]

Team,

I have created a Google Drive to store any documents we need to keep up with for this project (E.g weight tracking, equipment lists, launch day responsibilities, etc...)

Here is the link:
https://docs.google.com/folderview?id=0B6nMCpneP5VjbEtHdDJMUGN3eVU&usp=docslist_api

I will be adding a spreadsheet for tracking weight, and working on a list of launch day responsibilities. Please feel free to add to these lists.

[Francois Dion]

Thanks Brent

Francois

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 Darkphone
  Original Message  
From: Brent Wright
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2015 05:54
To: pyp...@googlegroups.com
Reply To: pyp...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [PYPTUG] Re: Near Space Technical Payload Official Thread

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[Francois Dion]

So, RTCs are serial. Problem. Plus they have this block that covers +5v, +5v, gnd, tx, rx and that would mess with both our PDU (power distribution) and network. Not liking them at all. I'll use the token ring network to sync the time that will be gotten from a USB GPS. This will happen at power on, but before we launch, so we can confirm the time is getting set. If the network fails later, not a problem.

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[Christopher Shepard]

I've run the numbers for the rigging.  If we attach 1" below the center seam of the sphere, the attachment points will have be 3" out from the sphere in order to clear the sphere and not have the cross be too wide or too tall.  If we attach 2" above the center seam, the points will only have to be 1" out and the cross would be smaller and shorter.  Here is a pdf showing various options for rigging points: Balloon Rigging Choices.  The two options I detailed are the second and the fifth.

If we can come up with a way to securely attach the top of the dome, I would prefer to use the lid for the rigging.  That allows me to run all the lines beforehand.  I think we could use duct tape heavily around the seam, and then tie rope around the sphere vertically to hold everything together.  Let me know what you think.  Thanks,

[Francois Dion]

Yep, I'd go with the fifth. Didn't find any evidence that duct tape would have issues at that temperature. Looked last night at various projects that had used duct tape, and no failure or issues. There are plenty of examples of Canon and Gopros duct tapped to shoe boxes and foam coolers.

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[Francois Dion]

Looks like our APRS tracker is working...

BTW, super simple python code to get data from APRS (anybody wants to make it post to twitter? Please reply to list as soon as possible if you want to do that):

#!/usr/bin/env python

import aprs

# Jeff's callsign

n4cap = aprs.APRS('N4CAP-1')

def callback_func(data):

    print(data)

n4cap.receive(callback=callback_func)

Francois

[BrentGWright]

I would like to have a go at it.

Is there some sample data we can work with?

I can go ahead and start working on a program that will tweet to a Twitter account.

Brent

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<n4cap-1.png>

[BrentGWright]

That's pretty cool how simple the calls are to that system :-) gotta love it when things are that easy to make work.

Brent

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On Mar 25, 2015, at 07:34, Francois Dion <franco...@gmail.com> wrote:

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<n4cap-1.png>

[Francois Dion]

Code is simple, but returned data does need a bit of post processing. Here's a grab I did from early this morning:

2015-03-25 07:25:56,799 INFO aprs.classes.receive:77 - Connected to server=rotate.aprs.net port=14580

N4CAP-1>S6PS9S,WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1,qAR,WD4LSS:`l'@q^U>/'"6w}|!7&:'U|!wAc!|3

N4CAP-1>S6PT3X,KK4NBP-1,WIDE1*,WIDE2-1,qAR,W4DEX:`l)fqA6>/'"6y}|!=&7'W|!w{$!|3

N4CAP-1>S6PT5Y,W4SNA-1*,WIDE2-1,qAR,WD4LSS:`l)oq* >/'"6p}n4...@hotmail.com|!>&9'X|!wCE!|3

N4CAP-1>S6PV3R,W4SNA-1*,WIDE2-1,qAR,W4DEX:`l*)n6\>/'"7$}|!D&:'Z|!w&%!|3

N4CAP-1>S6PV3R,W4SNA-1*,W4SNA-3*,WIDE2*,qAR,AC4ZR:`l*)n6\>/'"7$}|!D&:'Z|!w&%!|3

And you can also access the raw packets for up to 48 hrs in the past here:

http://aprs.fi/?c=raw&call=n4cap-1&limit=50&view=normal

Currently n4cap is tracking on direction change. The balloon will behave a little differently: it will transmit every 2 minutes

Francois

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[Francois Dion]

Also, could someone start simulating runs for pilot mountain and raylen vineyard using:  http://predict.habhub.org ? We will have pretty precise weights starting tomorrow.

I ran a simulation launched at sunrise (plug in the correct sunrise time for a specific day), 33km burst altitude, guesstimated the weight and used a standard kaymont 1000 balloon. Ended up near windsor... Way too close to the Albemarle sound and the coast.

Once simulation is calculated, export KML and load into google earth or google maps for visualization

[Francois Dion]

So, we are right around 2Kg lift weight - Brent has entered the weights in a spreadsheet (https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B6nMCpneP5VjbEtHdDJMUGN3eVU&usp=docslist_api&ddrp=1#), not counting the weight of the balloon or the parachute.

As far as the parachute is concerned, a guesstimation (from a rocket calculator, but it's close enough) provides:

Descent Rate Calculator Results

You entered:

• Rocket mass: 70.5478 ounces
• Parachute shape/type: circular
• Parachute size: 60 inches measured by diameter

Calculation Results

Descent rate:

• 15.47 ft/sec
• 4.71 meters/sec
• 16.97 km/hr
• 10.54 mph

Estimated descent time, assuming ejection at 108267 feet: 6998 seconds

Recommended parachute diameter for a landing @ 15 ft/sec: 58.8 inches

The above is with a 5ft parachute and a burst altitude of 33KM. That's almost 2 hours of descent. A 4ft parachute sounds like it would be big enough, impact to ground would be about 13mph instead of 10.5mph and still 1.5 hr descent...

Opinions?

As for the balloon, I was thinking a HAB-1000 initially

BALLOON PART NO:  HAB-1000 (1000 gram) ----IN- STOCK!!!

These balloons are recommended for individuals or groups who have had experience in HAB launches and are trying to progressively attain higher altitudes after each launch. Best performance is achieved when balloons are used with payloads of 2 to 4 lbs (900 to 1800 grams) and inflated to achieve an ascent rate* of 270 to 300 meters/min (890 to 1000 feet/min). Typical burst altitudes of these balloons with the stated payload and ascent rate is 100,000 to 110,000 feet.

But we are heavier than I thought we'd be, even if all 6 raspberry pi and 6 cameras with lens weigh less than 1 gopro... So perhaps we would need a HAB-1200?

BALLOON PART NO:   HAB-1200 (1200 gram) ----IN- STOCK!!!

Similar to the HAB-1000, these balloons are recommended when using payloads of 2 to 5 lbs (900 to 2300 grams). When launching this type balloon, and payloads of this weight, it is assumed that the operators have had experience and are familiar with launch procedures and FAA requirements. Inflating the balloons to achieve an ascent rate of 270 to 300 meters/min (890 to 1000 feet.min) will result in typical burst altitudes of 105,000 to 115,000 feet. 

Amazon only has the HAB-1200. Again, thoughts and suggestions?

Francois

[Francois Dion]

Battery harness and power distribution system:

https://twitter.com/f_dion/status/583314412334878720

Two 5V UBECs providing plenty of juice for the 7 Raspberry Pi A+ and 8 cameras. The Y harness not only connects the two LiPo batteries together in parallel, but also provides another XT60 connector. The APRS transmitter will connect directly to that (since it does expect 12V (pre UBECs).

I'll post a picture of the octopus harness (7 micro usb to the 2 UBECs) later.

All 7 Pis are installed, 6 of the 7 cams are in the bottom half sphere. Chris is working on a mounting solution for the cam in the top sphere. That USB cam in the end is heavier than a Raspberry Pi A+ and a camera module, even after gutting the board out of the casing, thanks to the full size USB plug... Oh well.

[Brent Wright]

Well, the tweeting script is working as it should. I can now post statuses to my twitter account.

Once I get the access information for the PYPTUG account, we can set this piece up and test it.

There is a rate-limit for posting to accounts, but the best that I can understand it, you get 15 calls every 15 minutes.

So as long as we don't exceed that limit, we can post as often as we would like.

Here is a screen shot from my account:

On Sunday, January 11, 2015 at 9:30:48 PM UTC-5, Francois Dion wrote:

There is no time like now to get things going. I dont want to wait until the 21st to get things going, there loads of prelim that can be done.

So today, as I was on my recumbent bike, I started to think about this. April is coming fast. Loads to do. So I started to jot down a few points and put them on a wiki here:

https://bitbucket.org/fdion/space-py/wiki/Bullet%20Points

Specifically, the preliminary stuff:

Prelim stuff

• wiki (duh! done)
• repo (done - space-py)
• Project (Jira? Agile?)
• Coding standards
• CI?
• Corpus (URLs, previous flights, etc)
• Regulations
• Team name: This probably needs to be tackled ASAP, so I can create it and people can join the team on http://balloonchallenge.org/
• Launch site: Shouldn't be too hard
• Launch date and time: Has to be in April, between the 10th and 27th
• Weather planning: Depends on site and date
• meetings
• who tackles what

BTW, there is a bunch of software to be written, in case somebody is thinking there is none... Ranging from building web sites, to writing daemons, watchdogs, apis, video control, image capture app, graphs etc.

There is also a question of cost and funds, obviously. I have a lot of the hardware needed, except the lora and aprs stuff. I have gps, gprs etc, plus i've been working on a really unique camera. I'll talk more about this later.

Francois

[Brent Wright]

Oh, and I almost forgot, the call to this script is this.

python Tweet.py "This is my status"

It will return "The tweet has been successfully posted."

Otherwise, you will get this error:

"You must wait, the rate limit was reached."

[Francois Dion]

How about a logo for Team Near Space Circus?

I was sent the following for review. What do you think? comments?

[Don Jennings]

On Apr 2, 2015, at 4:59 PM, Francois Dion wrote:

> How about a logo for Team Near Space Circus?
>
> I was sent the following for review. What do you think?

I like version C.

Take care,
Don

[BrentGWright]

Can we use all three?!?

I can't decide on only one, but I could narrow it down to, B and C. 

Maybe we could use one as a main logo, and another as a header on some documents or flyers.

Just my .02

Brent

Sent from my iPhone.

On Apr 2, 2015, at 16:59, Francois Dion <franco...@gmail.com> wrote:

How about a logo for Team Near Space Circus?

I was sent the following for review. What do you think? comments?

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<PythonTeamLogo_r1.pdf>

[Christopher Shepard]

I like C the best.  I took a deeper look at the aprs parsing, and it turns out it's pretty simple.  Here is a short script that makes use of the aprslib module.  It will print out the location, altitude, and speed and exit.  If you remove the 'raise StopIteration' at the bottom it will run until a keyboard interrupt.

import aprslib
CALLSIGN = 'N4CAP-1'
APRS_SERVER = 'lga.aprs2.net'
APRS_PORT = 14580


def connect_aprs_is(callsign=CALLSIGN, host=APRS_SERVER, port=APRS_PORT):
    """
    Creates an aprslib_IS object, assigns a prefix filter with callsign,
    and connects to an aprs-is server
    returns the created object
    callsign (str): callsign used to login to aprs-is server and filter packets
    host (str): net location of aprs-is server
    port (int): port to connect to aprs-is server
    """
    ais = aprslib.IS(callsign=callsign, host=host, port=port)
    ais.set_filter('p/%s' % callsign)
    ais.connect()
    return ais


def callback(packet):
    """
    Function called when APRS packet is received
    packet (dict): A parsed APRS packed.  Keys may vary, but should include
        at least 'latitude', 'longitude', 'altitude', and 'speed'.
    """
    #Change below to tweet what you need
    default = 'NaN'
    print 'PACKET INFO\n-----------------------------'
    print 'My Latitude is %s' % packet.get('latitude', default)
    print 'My Longitude is %s' % packet.get('longitude', default)
    print 'My altitude is %s meters' % packet.get('altitude', default)
    print 'My speed is %s kmph' % packet.get('speed', default)
    # remove raise to make function repeat forever
    raise StopIteration

aprs_is = connect_aprs_is()
aprs_is.consumer(callback)

[Francois Dion]

Very nice. We might have to use this and some kind of mapping library for python in order to track, google just disabled aprs.fi's access to the maps api: https://twitter.com/f_dion/status/584047361258840065

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[BrentGWright]

That looks great, I will have to run it when I get home.

If we are getting GPS data, we can make a second call to a KML script that will add it to Google maps.

Brent

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[Francois Dion]

It'll work great until they cut us off mid flight... Good thing we'll also have a Spot as secondary. I've found also: http://tracker.habhub.org/ and I was tweeted http://ufind.com but I cant figure out at first glance

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[Brent Wright]

Hey Chris,

Help me understand the APRS script better. I tried running it on Saturday and Sunday, but it doesn't print anything. Is it waiting for the APRS to post something new while the script is running?

I am pretty impressed with how few lines of code are needed in a python script to do things :-)

On Fri, Apr 3, 2015 at 1:20 PM, Christopher Shepard <cssh...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Brent Wright]

Also, in the interest of feedback, here is the script for tweeting in python.

The "python-twitter" package is required to run.

import sys
import twitter
from twitter import TwitterError

# Get the 2nd argument, which should be the status.
# Example: python Tweet.py "foo bar"
if len(sys.argv) > 1:
  status = sys.argv[1]
else:
  raise Exception("Please include a string \"status\" when calling this script.")

# This is the API for Brent's twitter account.
api = twitter.Api(consumer_key='consumerKey',
consumer_secret='consumerSecret',
access_token_key='accessTokenKey',
access_token_secret='accessTokenSecret')


# Try first to access the account, then try posting the update.
try:
  state = api.PostUpdates(status)
  print "The tweet has been successfully posted."
except TwitterError as e:
  print str(e)
  print "You must wait, the rate limit was reached."

On Fri, Apr 3, 2015 at 1:20 PM, Christopher Shepard <cssh...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Francois Dion]

On the data question, n4cap-1 is not broadcasting right now. It should be broadcasting its position tomorrow morning. Made a new cable with a ps2 connector, saves a lot of weight, but haven't had a chance to try it yet.

Secondly, for handling arguments, check out docopt: http://docopt.org/

For example, for the token ring, I wanted to pass as argument which node a specific raspberry pi was. So I define a usage docstring, and import docopt (you have to first install it):

#!/usr/bin/env python3

"""

Usage: token.py <address>

"""

from docopt import docopt

Then I wrap my script as a main function, with the args passed to it:

def main(args):

    my_addr = int(args['<address>'])

    # more stuff to do here

And then at the bottom of the script I call the main function:

if __name__ == "__main__":

    arguments = docopt(__doc__)

    main(arguments)

This gets even better (more obvious and easier to code) as you grow the number of required and optional arguments, subcommands etc.

Francois

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[Brent Wright]

Wow, well, I have moved the twitter script into a main function, and used docopt to present arguments in a dictionary (I had forgotten that python allows string literals to be used indexes).

I have posted a hello world message on the Pyptug twitter account to test it.

Here is the meat of the changes:

"""Tweetie-Py
Usage: Tweet.py <Status>
"""

def main(Arg):

  # Setup API connection

  state = api.PostUpdates(Arg['<Status>'] + " #NCS01")

if __name__ == "__main__":
  arguments = docopt(__doc__)
  main(arguments)

Can't wait to give it a try with some telemetry from the APRS.

-Brent

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[Francois Dion]

When I held the antenna outside the car, in the parking lot, window open, I got one telemetry recorded:

http://aprs.fi/telemetry/a/N4CAP-1?range=day

Pretty much dead on as far as position (parking lot of inmar):

http://aprs.fi/#!addr=EM96VC15KC

Last telemetry:	2015-04-06 17:58:06 EDT (4h21m ago) 2015-04-06 17:58:06 EDT local time at Winston-Salem, United States [?]
Altitude:	883 ft
Values:	Bat: 11.954 Volts (TLM: 408 EQN: 0,0.0293,0) Tmp: 84.170 Deg.F (TLM: 618 EQN: 0,0.88,-459.67000)

11.954 Volts, that's correct. That's from my LiPo battery pack. And we get ambient temp too. 

Raw packets:

2015-04-06 17:57:45 EDT: N4CAP-1>APT314,W4SNA-1*,WIDE2-2,qAR,WD4LSS:>MicroTrak FA v1.42
2015-04-06 17:58:06 EDT: N4CAP-1>S6PV2W,W4SNA-1*,WIDE2-2,qAR,WD4LSS:`l*7l z>/'"6n}|!"%M'i|!w{y!|3
2015-04-06 17:58:06 EDT: N4CAP-1>APT314,W4SNA-1*,WIDE2-2,qAR,WD4LSS:>n4...@hotmail.com

But that was it. Inside the car, it is not picked up by anything. Hopefully it works better with the HAB... Once we enable 2 min transmits, we should walk around with the payload and see if we get more hits. In the interim, you need to see if you can access historical data and use that for your twitter script...

Francois

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[BrentGWright]

Hmm, I guess antennas don't like metal enclosures (I.e cars). Would we want to perform another test? I have some errands to run today, and could find a way to strap it outside my sun roof.

Brent

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[Christopher Shepard]

aprslib.IS.consumer(callback) is a blocking function.  It will hang forever until a new packet is received and sent to callback.  If you don't manually stop the function by raising StopIteraton, it will continue to block until another packet is received.  Without raising StopIteration, the only way to exit the function is through a keyboard interrupt.

I don't think there is a way to access old packets using an aprs-is server directly.

For testing purposes, you can change the CALLSIGN used to create the aprslib.IS.  When I was testing I used whatever was the youngest on aprs.fi/moving/.

Also, I set up a site over the weekend to run and track the launch simulations from predict.habhub.com.  It's located at near-space-circus.herokuapp.com.  I have it running predictions for launches from Raylen Vineyards and Pilot Mountain at sunrise.  It's interesting how much range there is for landing sites.

[Francois Dion]

On Tuesday, April 7, 2015 at 4:46:57 PM UTC-4, Christopher Shepard wrote:

aprslib.IS.consumer(callback) is a blocking function.  It will hang forever until a new packet is received and sent to callback.  If you don't manually stop the function by raising StopIteraton, it will continue to block until another packet is received.  Without raising StopIteration, the only way to exit the function is through a keyboard interrupt.

I don't think there is a way to access old packets using an aprs-is server directly.

For testing purposes, you can change the CALLSIGN used to create the aprslib.IS.  When I was testing I used whatever was the youngest on aprs.fi/moving/.

Also, I set up a site over the weekend to run and track the launch simulations from predict.habhub.com.  It's located at near-space-circus.herokuapp.com.  I have it running predictions for launches from Raylen Vineyards and Pilot Mountain at sunrise.  It's interesting how much range there is for landing sites.

Very cool. Very nice that it is a python web app too. 

And very disconcerting how wildly varying this is... I see at least twice from Raylen it would have landed near PTI airport, not a good thing! In 4 days we should start seeing the simulation for the 20th. And we should get weather forecast for the 20th starting tomorrow. Currently the 18th looks like sunny and 7mph, the 19th 50% precipitation but 4mph winds.

Francois

[BrentGWright]

Good morning guys,

I will be out of the country on a cruise starting today. I have uploaded the Tweet.py script to the Google drive for use.

I will be back on Sunday the 19th.

I had started on a script to return system info on the pi's, but didn't have a script to pull it. I was mostly looking at the bash command "vcgencmd" command. Here is a link for the command: http://elinux.org/RPI_vcgencmd_usage

Have we decided on the date of the launch, or is it still between the 19th and 20th?

-Brent

Sent from my iPhone.

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[Francois Dion]

Thanks Brent. The 20th is the planned launch. 30% chance rain in PM. We should have recovered the payload by then. Low winds. Partly cloudy, which is fine. Waiting on the forecast for the 21st. The 18th is out of the question, thunderstorms. 19th is still a possibility.

Francois

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[Christopher Shepard]

Tomorrow's looking good for the launch.  Sunrise is at 6:42, should we plan to meet at 6?  Since we are getting to Raylen so early, they've requested we go in through the back gate.  From 158, turn onto Boger Rd, and then veer left at the fork.  Here is a map with the road highlighted:

I've almost got the tracking page done for tomorrow.  I plan on having 3 maps on it.  The first is a Google map that is updated used the APRS data I am getting directly.  The second is an embedded aprs.fi map.  The third is an embedded Spot map.  I need the share page feed ID for the Spot we are using before I can add that one though.

[Martin DeWitt]

Here is the link to the SPOT GPS tracking page.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0idvSjJkFWabudE2RfoTxMTyn8On56zMX

I'm excited to see this thing finally get off the ground!!

-Martin

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[Francois Dion]

Posted this on Friday:  http://raspberry-python.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-computer-network-in-space-part-1.html

Saw it topping raspihub over the weekend, and it showed up also on:

http://www.recantha.co.uk/blog/?p=12417

Francois

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[BrentGWright]

That's great, I can meet at 6am over there.

So we are confirmed for RayLen vineyard @ 6am on the 21st?

Thanks,

Brent

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[John Wheeler]

Been watching the group with enthusiasm guys, awesome work! Touch the sky tomorrow! Wish I could be there :)

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