Packet Info

[Zac Manchester]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the packets! Keep them coming. Here's some quick info on what's contained in the packets we've been getting so far:

P4C,783,0,0,0,

In the example above, the first three letter code (P4C) indicates that the satellite is in charging mode. The next number is the battery voltage in units of 1/100 volt, so 783 corresponds to a battery voltage of 7.83 volts. The next number (zero) is the number of main flight computer resets (in our case a Nexus S smartphone thanks to the PhoneSat team). The next number is the number of watchdog microcontroller resets. The last number (zero) is a status byte indicating if the ChipSats have been deployed yet.

These packets are being transmitted by the watchdog microcontroller every 150 seconds (2.5 minutes). When the main flight computer is on, the rate is once every 30 seconds and more data will be included in the packets. I haven't gotten any of these longer packets yet.

If you've posted packets to the mailing list, send me an email (kic...@gmail.com) with your mailing address to claim your prize - I have mission patches and Sprite boards to give out!

Thanks,

Zac