Directions for ground station tracking SW

[Radiocose]

Hello group, I'm following an interesting thread here about ground station tracking SW. I and a small team are planning a HAB launch for May 2027 from NW Italy (Livorno is the place), so plenty of time for making decisions, etc.. We have collected a bunch of info but I think an up-to-date recap with experts could really help.

Anyway, current choice for the payload would be a recovered RS41 with its original parachute and RS41ng as the firmware. Thus data transmission would happen using Horus v3. The capture and recirding of images would be demanded to a GoPro-like camera plus two or three ESP32-CAMs (e g. a shot every 10 seconds or so). No provision for real-time transmission of images.

Now my questions:

1) what woulb currently recommended as the tracking SW for the team' ground station(s)? And what about landing site prediction?

2) any suggestion for the GoPro-like camera? The original GoPro's are rather expensive...

Thanks a lot in advance.

Daniele Tincani 

IZ5WWB 

[Nick McCloud]

On Monday, 25 May 2026 at 14:34:24 UTC+1 Radiocose wrote:

 

The capture and recirding of images would be demanded to a GoPro-like camera plus two or three ESP32-CAMs (e g. a shot every 10 seconds or so).

That's going to make for a fairly heavy payload = more gas & bigger balloon = far more expensive.

What is the requirement for all the cameras?

 

Now my questions:

1) what woulb currently recommended as the tracking SW for the team' ground station(s)?

Horus-GUI - pretty much the only thing in town.

 

And what about landing site prediction?

This doesn't directly relate to tracking software, but you've plenty of time to learn about prediction - there are a number of options but almost everyone uses https://predict.sondehub.org/

The tracking site, https://amateur.sondehub.org/, will do a real-time landing site prediction if you tell it the appropriate flight parameters.

 

2) any suggestion for the GoPro-like camera? The original GoPro's are rather expensive...

Mostly people don't fly these due to weight & battery life so some research on what you can get locally to evaluate. 

I do have one, still not flown, as the upgrade  the batteries is still work in progress, it was a low cost clone from Amz and a nightmare to get in to the case. I'll probably start over again after some better research on lens & environmental proofing - temperature & condensation.

Nick

[Radiocose]

Hello Nick, thank you for your reply.

What is the requirement for all the cameras?

The idea behind installing the ESP32-CAMs (in addition to a GoPro-like camera) is to capture static images (for example every 10 seconds) from different perpectives/angles wrt the main camera (the GoPro) which should record a video clip of the launch. The ESP32-CAM devices are programmabke CCD sensors with a very little form factor, more or less ths sice of a post stamp. Yes they would add some weight but I think almost negligible in comparison with the GoPro and batteries.

Horus-GUI - pretty much the only thing in town.

Got it,thanks.

This doesn't directly relate to tracking software, but you've plenty of time to learn about prediction - there are a number of options but almost everyone uses https://predict.sondehub.org/

The tracking site, https://amateur.sondehub.org/, will do a real-time landing site prediction if you tell it the appropriate flight parameters.

Good, I think I will go for it, thanks.

Mostly people don't fly these due to weight & battery life so some research on what you can get locally to evaluate. 

I do have one, still not flown, as the upgrade  the batteries is still work in progress, it was a low cost clone from Amz and a nightmare to get in to the case. I'll probably start over again after some better research on lens & environmental proofing - temperature & condensation.

OK, I will go deeper into this to avoid the risk of taking too a simplistic decision.

73, Daniele IZ5WWB

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[Mark Jessop]

Horus-GUI is more intended for home/stationary receiver stations.

For tracking while *driving*, a better option is to set up a RPi (or some other linux box) running Chasemapper: https://github.com/projecthorus/chasemapper

I have a bit of a guide on setting up a RPi with chasemapper and the 'headless' horusdemodlib utilities here: https://github.com/projecthorus/chasemapper/wiki/Setting-up-a-Horus-Binary-Chase%E2%80%90Car-Raspberry-Pi

73

Mark VK5QI

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[Radiocose]

Thank you mark, I had already had a glance to your GitHub pages. Any suggestion about a RaspeberryPi hardware + required peripherals (e.g. the SDR, the display, etc.) to build a suitable "track-while-driving" solution? Thanks.

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[Mark Jessop]

That's mostly on the page I linked - https://github.com/projecthorus/chasemapper/wiki/Setting-up-a-Horus-Binary-Chase%E2%80%90Car-Raspberry-Pi

I don't typically add a display to the RPi, though I know others have, and I'm sure theres plenty of valid options around for that.

Instead, I view the chasemapper interface on a separate tablet on a shared wifi hotspot, or on a laptop. That way the screen isn't tied to the rpi, cabling, etc, and can be moved around. It's quite useful to be able to walk up to a landowner with a tablet and show them ron the map where your payload is!

73

Mark

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[Radiocose]

Yes, I see, a clever as well as simpler and cheaper solution. Thanks again.

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[Nick McCloud]

On Tuesday, 26 May 2026 at 14:02:58 UTC+1 Radiocose wrote:

Thank you mark, I had already had a glance to your GitHub pages. Any suggestion about a RaspeberryPi hardware + required peripherals (e.g. the SDR, the display, etc.) to build a suitable "track-while-driving" solution? Thanks.

Re-read Mark's reply to you - the second link gift-wraps the whole thing for you.

 

On Tue, May 26, 2026 at 2:06 PM Mark Jessop <lennieth...@gmail.com> wrote:

Horus-GUI is more intended for home/stationary receiver stations.

Different interpretation of "Ground Station" 😉

 

[Nick McCloud]

I interleave old style UKHAS LoRa with the HorusBinary so the chase car can just use a Heltec Tracker or T-Beam as a super compact wire free device using a phone as a hot spot to upload if desired.

The phone then runs the tracker site to show to people where we want to pick up the payload if need be!