Release Notes for Version 1.0.1
Copyright © 2011 Bdale Garbee and Keith Packard
Version 1.0.1 is a major release, adding support for the
TeleMini device and lots of new AltosUI features
AltOS New Features
-
Add TeleMini v1.0 support.
-
Support operation of TeleMetrum with the antenna pointing
aft. Previous firmware versions required the antenna to be
pointing upwards, now there is a configuration option
allowing the antenna to point aft, to aid installation in
some airframes.
-
Ability to disable telemetry. For airframes where an antenna
just isn’t possible, or where radio transmissions might
cause trouble with other electronics, there’s a
configuration option to disable all telemetry. Note that the
board will still enable the radio link in idle mode.
-
Arbitrary frequency selection. The radios in Altus Metrum
devices can be programmed to a wide range of frequencies, so
instead of limiting devices to 10 pre-selected channels,
the new firmware allows the user to choose any frequency in
the 70cm band. Note that the RF matching circuit on the
boards is tuned for around 435MHz, so frequencies far from
that may reduce the available range.
AltOS Fixes
-
Change telemetry to be encoded in multiple 32-byte
packets. This enables support for TeleMini and other devices
without requiring further updates to the TeleDongle
firmware.
-
Kalman-filter based flight-tracking. The model based sensor
fusion approach of a Kalman filter means that AltOS now
computes apogee much more accurately than before, generally
within a fraction of a second. In addition, this approach
allows the baro-only TeleMini device to correctly identify
Mach transitions, avoiding the error-prone selection of a
Mach delay.
AltosUI New Features
-
Add main/apogee voltage graphs to the data
plot. This provides a visual indication if the
igniters fail before being fired.
-
Scan for altimeter devices by watching the defined
telemetry frequencies. This avoids the problem of
remembering what frequency a device was configured
to use, which is especially important with TeleMini
which does not include a USB connection.
-
Monitor altimeter state in "Idle" mode. This
provides much of the information presented in the
"Pad" dialog from the Monitor Flight command,
monitoring the igniters, battery and GPS status
withing requiring the flight computer to be armed
and ready for flight.
-
Pre-load map images from home. For those launch
sites which don’t provide free Wi-Fi, this allows
you to download the necessary satellite images
given the location of the launch site. A list of
known launch sites is maintained at altusmetrum.org
which AltosUI downloads to populate a menu; if
you’ve got a launch site not on that list, please
send the name of it, latitude and longitude along
with a link to the web site of the controlling club
to the altusmetrum mailing list.
-
Flight statistics are now displayed in the Graph
data window. These include max height/speed/accel,
average descent rates and a few other bits of
information. The Graph Data window can now be
reached from the Landed tab in the Monitor Flight
window so you can immediately see the results of a
flight.
AltosUI Changes
-
Wait for altimeter when using packet mode. Instead
of quicly timing out when trying to initialize a
packet mode configuration connection, AltosUI now
waits indefinitely for the remote device to appear,
providing a cancel button should the user get
bored. This is necessary as the TeleMini can only be
placed in "Idle" mode if AltosUI is polling it.