3 AltOS is the name of Keith's firmware "operating system" for
4 [TeleMetrum](../TeleMetrum/) and [TeleDongle](../TeleDongle/).
6 In addition to the firmware for [TeleMetrum](../TeleMetrum) and
7 [TeleDongle](../TeleDongle) boards, the AltOS source tree also includes a
8 number of utilities useful for monitoring and logging telemetry during flight,
9 post-processing flight data for analysis, plus utilities for updating firmware,
10 and developing and debugging new functionality. The first generation of these
11 utilities were Linux-only, but our current second-generation software written
12 largely in [Java](http://java.com) with a small platform-specific library
13 works identically on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems!
15 The firmware and associated software are licensed [GPL version 2](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html)
17 ## Available Versions ##
19 [[!inline pages="./releases/* and !*/Discussion and !*.bz2 and !*.zip and !*.exe" show="10" rss="no" raw="yes" ]]
21 The latest source is always available from [git.gag.com](http://git.gag.com)
22 in the project [fw/altos](http://git.gag.com/?p=fw/altos;a=summary).
26 Version 0.7.1 is the first release containing our new cross-platform Java-based user interface. AltosUI can:
28 * Receive and log telemetry from a connected TeleDongle device. All data
29 received is saved to log files named with the current date and the connected
30 rocket serial and flight numbers. There is no mode in which telemetry data
33 * Download logged data from TeleMetrum devices, either through a direct USB
34 connection or over the air through a TeleDongle device.
36 * Configure a TeleMetrum device, setting the radio channel, callsign, apogee
37 delay and main deploy height. This can be done through either a USB
38 connection or over a radio link via a TeleDongle device.
40 * Replay a flight in real-time. This takes a saved telemetry log or eeprom
41 download and replays it through the user interface so you can relive your
42 favorite rocket flights.
44 * Reprogram Altus Metrum devices. Using an Altus Metrum device connected via
45 USB, another Altus Metrum device can be reprogrammed using the supplied
46 programming cable between the two devices.
48 * Export Flight data to a comma-separated-values file. This takes either
49 telemetry or on-board flight data and generates data suitable for use in
50 external applications. All data is exported using standard units so that no
51 device-specific knowledge is needed to handle the data.
53 * Speak to you during the flight. Instead of spending the flight hunched over
54 your laptop looking at the screen, enjoy the view while the computer tells
55 you what’s going on up there. During ascent, you hear the current flight
56 state and altitude information. During descent, you get azimuth, elevation
57 and range information to try and help you find your rocket in the air. Once
58 on the ground, the direction and distance are reported.
60 AltosUI provides all of these features on the three target operating systems,
61 Linux, Mac OS X (version 10.5 or newer) and Windows (XP, Vista or 7). The bulk
62 of the software is written in Java and is built once and tested and delivered
63 on all three target platforms. A tiny ‘shim’ library is built on each system
64 to provide access to the Altus Metrum devices connected over the USB link.
68 A number of features are implemented or in process in the sources available
69 in our publicly visible repository that are not part of the current stable
70 release. Some of these features are already available in our C utilities,
71 but not yet part of our second-generation Java user interface altosui.
73 * [Google Earth](http://earth.google.com) "KML" file export. The
74 first-generation C program ao-postflight can do this, the implementation
75 in altosui has improvements.
77 * Data plotting. The first-generation C program ao-postflight can output a
78 set of standard plots as an svg file. The plotting code we're integrating
79 into altosui supports direct interaction with the data and is much more fun!
81 * State-dependent display. When the rocket is on the pad, you mostly want to
82 know if it’s ready to fly. When the rocket is descending on a chute, you
83 want to know where it is in the sky and how fast its falling. Presenting a
84 limited amount of information that represents what is most interesting to
85 the user at any given time should make the display easier to read.
87 * Ejection charge testing. The TeleMetrum firmware has the ability to be
88 commanded to fire ejection charges over the USB or radio links. Safely
89 hooking this up to the user interface will allow for wireless ejection
90 system testing. It is possible to do this today with a terminal program,
91 but we want this to be a feature in altosui. The key here is “safely”, of
92 course, which means figuring out a ‘fool proof’ user interface.
94 * A Kalman-filter based approach to apogee detection using more than just the
95 baro sensor, so that we can safely control apogee ejection on flights to
96 altitudes beyond the range of our baro sensor alone. Unlike the other items
97 on the list, this will be a significant change to the in-rocket TeleMetrum
98 firmware. It may therefore be a while before this becomes part of a stable
101 There are any number of additions that could be made to this list; feel free
102 to send along ideas that you’ve got. Of course, all of this software is
103 licensed under the GNU General Public License, so you can get the source and
104 hack on it in the comfort of your own home.
106 ## Platform Specific Notes ##
110 If you use [Debian](http://www.debian.org), then a pre-built package for
111 32-bit x86 is currently available here:
113 wget -O - http://altusmetrum.org/apt/altusmetrum.key | apt-key add -
114 wget -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/altos.list http://altusmetrum.org/apt/altos.list
116 apt-get install altos
118 If you use some other distribution of Linux, then
119 a Linux package of our second-generation Java bits that
120 should run on any distribution with a modern Java version is also
121 available. Unlike the Debian pacakge, which depends on various libraries
122 already part of the Debian distribution, this package includes a "fat" jar
123 file with all of the Java libraries that aren't part of the basic Java runtime
124 environment included, so it should "just work" on any system with
125 Java 6. Development and testing is done with OpenJDK 6, but current
126 downloads from [java.com](http://java.com) should be fine too.
128 If you'd rather build from source, our source tree includes documentation on
129 how to build packages for various
130 Linux systems such as [Arch Linux](http://www.archlinux.org), and the
131 debian/ directory contains all the control
132 files for building the Debian packages on other architectures or derivatives
133 such as [Ubuntu](http://ubuntu.com).
135 Bdale has also created a theme for
136 [GDM](http://projects.gnome.org/gdm/) that he uses on his primary notebook,
138 [Simple Login Manager](http://slim.berlios.de/) that he uses on all of his
139 other machines and which is ideally suited for machines dedicated to AltOS
140 ground station use. It includes a photo of a drag-race between
141 nearly-identical rockets
142 built by Keith and Bdale, that was the first time either of us gave TeleMetrum
143 complete control of a rocket flight without some other backup! See the themes/
144 directory in the source tree (the themes are included in the Debian package).
148 A Mac OS X package that is compatible with
149 versions 10.5 "Leopard" and later (including 10.6 "Snow Leopard") is
150 available. The Mac operating system includes Java, and all Altus Metrum
151 products show up as simple USB serial ports, so this should just work
152 with no additional drivers or other dependency issues. Older versions of
153 the Mac operating system come with Java versions that are too old for use
154 with Altus Metrum software, and we know of no way to update the Java version
155 other than upgrading to a newer operating system.
159 Our Windows package is known to work on at least some flavors of XP, Vista, and
160 Windows 7 Enterprise. If you don't already have Java installed,
161 download and install a current Java 6 version from [java.com](http://java.com)
162 first. Then download our installer and run it. Windows already has
163 the required USB serial device driver, and our package should do the right
164 things to bind it to our devices, but if you get a complaint about the device
165 being unrecognized, try pointing to the copy of the telemetrum.inf file
166 included in the package directory manually. Reports of success or failure
167 with other versions of Windows would be appreciated!