3 AltOS is the name of Keith's firmware "operating system" for
6 In addition to the firmware for hardware products like
7 [TeleMetrum](../TeleMetrum), [TeleMini](../TeleMini), and
8 [TeleDongle](../TeleDongle), the AltOS source tree also
9 includes AltosUI, which provides for flight monitoring, post-flight
10 analysis, device configuration and firmware updating. AltosUI runs on
11 Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. It's written in [Java](http://java.com)
12 and offers the same functionality and interface on all three
13 platforms. A small platform-specific library communicates with the USB
14 interface on the Altus Metrum devices.
16 There are also Linux-specific tools that provide lower level access to
17 the devices which are useful for developing firmware for the devices.
19 We maintain a list of [launch site GPS coordinates](launch-sites.txt). If
20 your favorite launch site isn't included, please let us know!
22 ## Available Versions ##
24 There is a single manual for most Altus Metrum products, which is available
25 in [html](doc/altusmetrum.html) and [pdf](doc/altusmetrum.pdf) formats.
27 We also have an AltOS internals document for programmers
28 in [html](doc/altos.html) and [pdf](doc/altos.pdf) formats, and a
29 document describing the AltOS over the radio protocol
30 in [html](doc/telemetry.html) and [pdf](doc/telemetry.pdf) formats.
32 [[!inline pages="./releases/* and !*/Discussion and !*.html and !*.bz2 and !*.zip and !*.exe" show="10" rss="no" raw="yes" ]]
36 The latest source, which may include unreleased work in progress, is always
37 available from [git.gag.com](http://git.gag.com)
38 in the project [fw/altos](http://git.gag.com/?p=fw/altos;a=summary).
40 If you need to debug code on an Altus Metrum product, or want to do custom
41 development, you need a 2.X version of SDCC. Version 3.X adds features that
42 bloat the code generated on 8051 enough to overflow the available flash memory
43 size. As a result, we maintain a fork of SDCC we call 'cc1111' that is based
44 on the last upstream version of SDCC 2.X, plus a highly modified sdcdb with
45 support for the cc1111 debugging interface. This is avilable as a package in
46 Debian, or you can find the sources on [git.gag.com](http://git.gag.com)
48 [debian/cc1111](http://git.gag.com/?p=debian/cc1111;a=summary). This is
49 not necessary if you just want to rebuild AltOS and use it.
53 Bug reports, feature requests, and planning for AltOS releases happens
54 on the [Altus Metrum Trac Site](http://trac.gag.com/altusmetrum).
56 A number of features are implemented or in process in the sources available
57 in our publicly visible repository that are not part of the current stable
60 * Motor characterization. Because TeleMetrum contains a
61 high-resolution, high-frequency accelerometer, it is possible to
62 take the data from that and compute an accurate thrust curve for
65 * Comprehensive PDF and/or HTML -based flight report. Construct a
66 complete report of the flight suitable for publication on the web
67 that includes graphs of the flight and details about motor
70 * Publish flight data to the Altus Metrum web site. This will allow
71 you to share your flight data with others, and let you download
72 flights published by others.
74 There are any number of additions that could be made to this list; feel free
75 to send along ideas that you’ve got. Of course, all of this software is
76 licensed under the GNU General Public License, so you can get the source and
77 hack on it in the comfort of your own home.
79 ## Platform Specific Notes ##
83 If you use [Debian](http://www.debian.org), you can simply install the 'altos'
84 package from any Debian mirror, like so:
89 If you use [Ubuntu](http://ubuntulinux.org), pre-built packages are available
90 from [this PPA](https://launchpad.net/~sconklin/+archive/altos/)
91 maintained by Steve Conklin and friends.
93 If you use some other distribution of Linux, then
94 a Linux package of our second-generation Java bits that
95 should run on any distribution with a modern Java version is also
96 available. Unlike the Debian pacakge, which depends on various libraries
97 already part of the Debian distribution, this package includes a "fat" jar
98 file with all of the Java libraries that aren't part of the basic Java runtime
99 environment included, so it should "just work" on any system with
100 Java 6. Development and testing is done with OpenJDK 6, but current
101 downloads from [java.com](http://java.com) should be fine too.
103 If you'd rather build from source, our source tree includes documentation on
104 how to build packages for various
105 Linux systems such as [Arch Linux](http://www.archlinux.org), and the
106 debian/ directory contains all the control
107 files for building the Debian packages on other architectures or derivatives
108 such as [Ubuntu](http://ubuntu.com).
110 Bdale has also created a theme for
111 [GDM](http://projects.gnome.org/gdm/) that he uses on his primary notebook,
113 [Simple Login Manager](http://slim.berlios.de/) that he uses on all of his
114 other machines and which is ideally suited for machines dedicated to AltOS
115 ground station use. It includes a photo of a drag-race between
116 nearly-identical rockets
117 built by Keith and Bdale, that was the first time either of us gave TeleMetrum
118 complete control of a rocket flight without some other backup! See the themes/
119 directory in the source tree (the themes are included in the Debian package).
123 A Mac OS X package that is compatible with versions 10.5 "Leopard" and
124 later. The Mac operating system includes Java, and all Altus Metrum products
125 show up as simple USB serial ports, so this should just work with no
126 additional drivers or other dependency issues. Older versions of the Mac
128 system, and even newer versions for PowerPC-based machines, come with
129 Java version 5 or older, which is too old for use with Altus Metrum
130 software. We know of no way to update the Java version other than
131 upgrading to a newer operating system (for Intel based macs) or
132 purchasing new hardware (for PowerPC based macs).
134 If you have trouble installing on a Mac, and are getting errors about the
135 package being corrupt, you may not be configured to allow installation of
136 software from arbitrary sources. One customer running 10.8.1 reported that
137 he was able to work around this by going to "System Preferences", "Security
138 & Privacy", "General", and then clicking the "Anywhere" radio button where
139 it askes "Allow applications downloaded from:".
143 Our Windows package is known to work on at least some flavors of XP, Vista, and
144 Windows 7 Enterprise. If you don't already have Java installed,
145 download and install a current Java 6 version from [java.com](http://java.com)
146 first. Then download our installer and run it. Windows already has
147 the required USB serial device driver, and our package should do the right
148 things to bind it to our devices, but if you get a complaint about the device
149 being unrecognized, try pointing to the copy of the telemetrum.inf file
150 included in the package directory manually.
152 Note that on some Windows 7 systems, it may be necessary to install AltOS using
153 'compatibility mode'. You can set this mode by
154 [changing the properties](http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/316-compatibility-mode.html)
155 of the installer .exe.
159 The firmware and associated software are licensed [GPL version
160 2](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html)