3 The TeleGPS application provides a graphical user interface for
4 interacting with the Altus Metrum product family. TeleGPS can
5 monitor telemetry data, configure devices and many other
6 tasks. The primary interface window is for displaying data
7 received over the telemetry link. There are additional
8 tasks available from the main window menu bar.
10 === Telemetry Monitoring
12 This is the window brought up when you start the
13 application. If you have a TeleDongle device connected
14 to the computer, it will automatically be selected for
17 All telemetry data received are automatically recorded
18 in suitable log files. The name of the files includes
19 the current date and TeleGPS serial and flight
22 The radio frequency being monitored by the TeleDongle
23 device is displayed at the top of the window. You can
24 configure the frequency by clicking on the frequency
25 box and selecting the desired frequency. The TeleGPS
26 application remembers the last frequency selected for
27 each TeleDongle and selects that automatically the
28 next time you use that device.
30 Below the TeleDongle frequency selector, the window
31 contains a few significant pieces of information about
32 the altimeter providing the telemetry data stream:
34 * The configured call-sign
36 * The device serial number
38 * The flight number. TeleGPS remembers how many times
41 * The Received Signal Strength Indicator value. This
42 lets you know how strong a signal TeleDongle is
43 receiving. The radio inside TeleDongle operates down
44 to about -100dBm; weaker signals may not be
45 receivable. The packet link uses error detection and
46 correction techniques which prevent incorrect data
49 * The age of the displayed data, in seconds since the
50 last successfully received telemetry packet. In
51 normal operation this will stay in the low single
52 digits. If the number starts counting up, then you
53 are no longer receiving data over the radio link
54 from the flight computer.
56 Finally, the largest portion of the window contains a set of
57 tabs, each of which contain some information about the TeleGPS
58 board. The final 'table' tab displays many of the raw telemetry
59 values in one place in a spreadsheet-like format.
63 The Map tab shows the TeleGPS track over time
64 on top of map data making it easy to locate
68 image::telegps-map.png[width="5.5in"]
70 The map's default scale is approximately 3m
71 (10ft) per pixel. The map can be dragged using
72 the left mouse button. The map will attempt to
73 keep the rocket roughly centered while data is
76 You can adjust the style of map and the zoom
77 level with buttons on the right side of the
78 map window. You can draw a line on the map by
79 moving the mouse over the map with a button
80 other than the left one pressed, or by
81 pressing the left button while also holding
82 down the shift key. The length of the line in
83 real-world units will be shown at the start of
86 Images are fetched automatically via the
87 Google Maps Static API, and cached on disk for
88 reuse. If map images cannot be downloaded, the
89 rocket's path will be traced on a dark gray
92 You can pre-load images for your favorite
93 launch sites before you leave home; check out
94 the 'Preload Maps' section below.
98 The Location tab shows the raw GPS data
99 received from TeleGPS.
101 .TeleGPS Location View
102 image::telegps-location.png[width="5.5in"]
106 The Status tab shows data relative to the
107 location of TeleGPS when the application first
108 received telemetry from it.
111 image::telegps-status.png[width="5.5in"]
115 The Table tab shows detailed information about
118 .TeleGPS Information Table
119 image::telegps-table.png[width="5.5in"]
123 TeleGPS has three or four menus at the top of
128 New Window, Graph Data, Export Data, Load Maps,
129 Preferences, Close and Exit
133 Connect Device, Disconnect and Scan Channels
137 Download Data, Configure Device and Flash Device
141 This shows the current monitoring frequency with a
142 drop-down menu listing other configured
143 frequencies. You can change the set of frequencies
144 shown here from the Preferences dialog. This menu is
145 only shown when the TeleGPS application is connected
146 to a TeleDongle or TeleBT device.
151 This creates another telemetry monitoring window, in case
152 you have multiple TeleDongle devices connected to the
157 The Graph tab shows a plot of the the GPS data
158 collected. The X axis is time in seconds; there are a
159 variety of Y axes available for different kinds of
160 data. This window also allows you to see some
161 statistics computed from the data, and an overall map
162 of the entire data record.
167 image::telegps-graph-graph.png[width="5.5in"]
169 ==== Graph Configuration
171 .TeleGPS Graph Configuration
172 image::telegps-graph-configure.png[width="5.5in"]
174 This selects which graph elements to show, and, at the
175 bottom, lets you switch between metric and imperial
181 image::telegps-graph-stats.png[width="5.5in"]
183 Shows overall data computed from the flight.
188 image::telegps-graph-map.png[width="6in"]
190 Shows a map of the area overlaid with the GPS track. As with
191 the telemetry monitoring window, you can select the style
192 of map and zoom level using buttons along the side;
193 you can scroll the map by dragging within the map pressing
194 the left button and you can draw a line to measure
195 distances using either the left button with the shift key,
200 This tool takes the raw data files and makes them
201 available for external analysis. When you select this
202 button, you are prompted to select a data file, which
203 can be either a .eeprom or .telem. The .eeprom files
204 contain higher resolution and more continuous data,
205 while .telem files contain receiver signal strength
206 information. Next, a second dialog appears which is
207 used to select where to write the resulting file. It
208 has a selector to choose between CSV and KML file
211 ==== Comma Separated Value Format
213 This is a text file containing the data in a
214 form suitable for import into a spreadsheet or
215 other external data analysis tool. The first
216 few lines of the file contain the version and
217 configuration information from TeleGPS, then
218 there is a single header line which labels all
219 of the fields. All of these lines start with a
220 '#' character which many tools can be
221 configured to skip over.
223 The remaining lines of the file contain the
224 data, with each field separated by a comma and
225 at least one space. All of the sensor values
226 are converted to standard units, with the
227 barometric data reported in both pressure,
228 altitude and height above pad units.
230 ==== Keyhole Markup Language (for Google Earth)
232 This is the format used by Google Earth to provide an overlay
233 within that application. With this, you can use Google Earth to
234 see the whole path in 3D.
239 image::load-maps.png[width="5.2in"]
241 Before using TeleGPS, you can use Load Maps to load
242 map data in case you don't have access to the internet
243 while receiving telemetry.
245 There's a drop-down menu of rocket launch sites we
246 know about; if your favorites aren't there, please let
247 us know the lat/lon and name of the site. The contents
248 of this list are actually downloaded from our server
249 at run-time, so as new sites are sent in, they'll get
250 automatically added to this list. If the launch site
251 isn't in the list, you can manually enter the lat/lon
254 There are four different kinds of maps you can view;
255 you can select which to download by selecting as many
256 as you like from the available types:
259 A combination of satellite imagery and road data. This
263 Just the satellite imagery without any annotation.
266 Roads, political boundaries and a few geographic
270 Contour intervals and shading that show hills and
273 You can specify the range of zoom levels to download;
274 smaller numbers show more area with less
275 resolution. The default level, 0, shows about
276 3m/pixel. One zoom level change doubles or halves that
277 number. Larger zoom levels show more detail, smaller
280 The Map Radius value sets how large an area around the
281 center point to download. Select a value large enough
282 to cover any plausible flight from that site. Be aware
283 that loading a large area with a high maximum zoom
284 level can attempt to download a lot of data. Loading
285 hybrid maps with a 10km radius at a minimum zoom of -2
286 and a maximum zoom of 2 consumes about 120MB of
287 space. Terrain and road maps consume about 1/10 as
288 much space as satellite or hybrid maps.
290 Clicking the 'Load Map' button will fetch images from
291 Google Maps; note that Google limits how many images
292 you can fetch at once, so if you load more than one
293 launch site, you may get some gray areas in the map
294 which indicate that Google is tired of sending data to
295 you. Try again later.
299 .TeleGPS Preferences Window
300 image::telegps-preferences.png[width="2.4in"]
302 AltosUI provides voice announcements during
303 flight so that you can keep your eyes on the
304 sky and still get information about the
305 current flight status. However, sometimes you
306 don't want to hear them.
309 Turns all voice announcements on and off
312 Plays a short message allowing you to verify
313 that the audio system is working and the volume settings
318 AltosUI logs all telemetry data and saves all
319 TeleMetrum flash data to this directory. This
320 directory is also used as the staring point
321 when selecting data files for display or
324 Click on the directory name to bring up a
325 directory choosing dialog, select a new
326 directory and click 'Select Directory' to
327 change where AltosUI reads and writes data
332 This value is transmitted in each command
333 packet sent from TeleDongle and received from
334 an altimeter. It is not used in telemetry
335 mode, as the callsign configured in the
336 altimeter board is included in all telemetry
337 packets. Configure this with the AltosUI
338 operators call sign as needed to comply with
339 your local radio regulations.
341 Note that to successfully command a flight
342 computer over the radio (to configure the
343 altimeter, monitor idle, or fire pyro
344 charges), the callsign configured here must
345 exactly match the callsign configured in the
346 flight computer. This matching is case
351 This switches between metric units (meters)
352 and imperial units (feet and miles). This
353 affects the display of values use during
354 flight monitoring, configuration, data
355 graphing and all of the voice
356 announcements. It does not change the units
357 used when exporting to CSV files, those are
358 always produced in metric units.
362 Selects the set of fonts used in the flight
363 monitor window. Choose between the small,
364 medium and large sets.
368 This causes all communication with a connected
369 device to be dumped to the console from which
370 AltosUI was started. If you've started it from
371 an icon or menu entry, the output will simply
372 be discarded. This mode can be useful to debug
373 various serial communication issues.
375 ==== Manage Frequencies
377 This brings up a dialog where you can
378 configure the set of frequencies shown in the
379 various frequency menus. You can add as many
380 as you like, or even reconfigure the default
381 set. Changing this list does not affect the
382 frequency settings of any devices, it only
383 changes the set of frequencies shown in the
388 This closes the current window, leaving any other windows
389 open and the application running.
393 This closes all TeleGPS windows and terminates the
398 Selecting this item brings up a dialog box listing all
399 of the connected TeleDongle devices. When you choose
400 one of these, AltosUI will display telemetry data as
401 received by the selected TeleDongle device.
403 .Device Selection Dialog
404 image::device-selection.png[width="3.1in"]
408 Disconnects the currently connected TeleDongle or
413 .Radio Scanning Dialog
414 image::telegps-scan.png[width="3.1in"]
416 Scans the configured set of frequencies looking for
417 telemetry signals. A list of all of the discovered
418 signals is show; selecting one of those and clicking
419 on 'Monitor' will select that frequency in the
420 associated TeleGPS application window.
424 TeleGPS records data to its internal flash memory.
425 On-board data is recorded at the same rate as
426 telemetry but is not subject to radio drop-outs. As
427 such, it generally provides a more complete and
428 precise record. The 'Download Data' menu entry allows
429 you to read the flash memory and write it to disk.
431 Select the 'Download Data' menu entry to bring up a
432 list of connected TeleGPS devices. After the device
433 has been selected, a dialog showing the data stored in
434 the device will be shown allowing you to select which
435 entries to download and which to delete. You must
436 erase flights in order for the space they consume to
437 be reused by another track. This prevents accidentally
438 losing data if you neglect to download data before
439 starting TeleGPS again. Note that if there is no more
440 space available in the device, then no data will be
443 The file name for each data log is computed
444 automatically from the recorded date, altimeter serial
445 number and flight number information.
449 .TeleGPS Configuration Dialog
450 image::telegps-configure.png[width="3.6in"]
452 Select this button and then select any connected TeleGPS
453 device from the list provided.
455 The first few lines of the dialog provide information
456 about the connected device, including the product
457 name, software version and hardware serial
458 number. Below that are the individual configuration
461 At the bottom of the dialog, there are four buttons:
464 This writes any changes to the configuration parameter
465 block in flash memory. If you don't press this button,
466 any changes you make will be lost.
469 This resets the dialog to the most recently saved
470 values, erasing any changes you have made.
474 This reboots the device. Use this to switch from idle
475 to pad mode by rebooting once the rocket is oriented
476 for flight, or to confirm changes you think you saved
481 This closes the dialog. Any unsaved changes will be
484 The rest of the dialog contains the parameters to be configured.
486 The rest of the dialog contains the parameters to be configured.
490 This configures which of the frequencies to use for
491 both telemetry and packet command mode. Note that if
492 you set this value via packet command mode, the
493 TeleDongle frequency will also be automatically
494 reconfigured to match so that communication will
499 The radios in every Altus Metrum device are calibrated
500 at the factory to ensure that they transmit and
501 receive on the specified frequency. If you need to
502 you can adjust the calibration by changing this value.
503 Do not do this without understanding what the value
504 means, read the appendix on calibration and/or the
505 source code for more information. To change a
506 TeleDongle's calibration, you must reprogram the unit
509 ==== Telemetry/RDF/APRS Enable
511 Enables the radio for transmission during
512 flight. When disabled, the radio will not
513 transmit anything during flight at all.
515 ==== Telemetry baud rate
517 This sets the modulation bit rate for data
518 transmission for both telemetry and packet
519 link mode. Lower bit rates will increase range
520 while reducing the amount of data that can be
521 sent and increasing battery consumption. All
522 telemetry is done using a rate 1/2 constraint
523 4 convolution code, so the actual data
524 transmission rate is 1/2 of the modulation bit
529 How often to transmit GPS information via APRS
530 (in seconds). When set to zero, APRS
531 transmission is disabled. This option is
532 available on TeleMetrum v2 and TeleMega
533 boards. TeleMetrum v1 boards cannot transmit
534 APRS packets. Note that a single APRS packet
535 takes nearly a full second to transmit, so
536 enabling this option will prevent sending any
537 other telemetry during that time.
541 Which SSID to report in APRS packets. By
542 default, this is set to the last digit of the
543 serial number, but can be configured to any
548 This sets the call sign included in each
549 telemetry packet. Set this as needed to
550 conform to your local radio regulations.
552 ==== Logging Trigger Motion
554 If TeleGPS moves less than this distance over
555 a long period of time, it will not log that
556 location, saving storage space.
558 ==== Position Reporting Interval
560 This sets how often TeleGPS reports position
561 information via telemetry and to the on-board
562 log. Reducing this value will save power and
563 logging memory consumption.
567 This reprograms TeleGPS devices with new
568 firmware. Please read the directions for flashing
569 devices in the Updating Device Firmware chapter below.