with integrated GPS and telemetry link.
Production units are available from the
-[Garbee and Garbee](http://auric.gag.com) web store.
+[Garbee and Garbee](http://auric.gag.com) web
+store. TeleMetrum starter kits are also available from
+[Apogee Components](http://www.apogeerockets.com/Altus_Metrum_GPS.asp)
+and [Australian Rocketry](http://www.ausrocketry.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=111&products_id=4302).
-These are photos of our current production version, which includes an
-integrated GPS receiver with active patch antenna:
+For the latest TeleMetrum firmware and related ground station software, please
+visit the [AltOS](../AltOS) page on this site.
-<a href="v1.0/cimg5972-crop.jpg"> <img src="v1.0/cimg5972-thumb.jpg"></a>
-<a href="v1.0/cimg5974-crop.jpg"> <img src="v1.0/cimg5974-thumb.jpg"></a>
+These are photos of our current production version:
-## Motivation ##
-
-Bdale and Keith both own
-[BeeLine](http://www.bigredbee.com/BeeLine.htm)
-trackers from
-[Big Red Bee](http://www.bigredbee.com), and are pretty happy with them.
-They use a PIC processor and a TI CC1050 transmitter chip, and
-operate in the ham radio 70cm band.
-
-One weekend while attending a conference together, we got to wondering if
-we couldn't adapt one to use as a downlink for the
-[AltusMetrum](../AltusMetrum/) altimeter board in addition to direction
-finding after flight. That caused us to start thinking about other things
-in the design we might want to tweak, and before long we were working on the
-design of a new tracker board derived from the BeeLine design.
-Another friend at the same conference showed us a board he was working on
-using a different part in the same TI series, that integrated a transceiver
-and CPU on the same chip.
-It didn't take us long to realize that with such a part we could combine and
-simplify things by building a new altimeter with integrated RF link! And
-after gaining some experience in 2009 with a first version, we realized we
-always want GPS on board, which lead to our current second generation boards.
+<a href="v1.1/telemetrum-v1.1-thside.jpg"> <img src="v1.1/telemetrum-v1.1-thside-thumb.jpg"></a>
+<a href="v1.1/telemetrum-v1.1-smtside.jpg"> <img src="v1.1/telemetrum-v1.1-smtside-thumb.jpg"></a>
## Features ##
* On-board non-volatile memory for flight data storage
* USB for power, configuration, and data recovery
* Integrated support for LiPo rechargeable batteries
-* Uses LiPo to fire e-matches, optional support for separate pyro battery
+* Uses LiPo to fire e-matches, can be factory modified to support separate pyro battery
* 2.75 x 1 inch board designed to fit inside 29mm airframe coupler tube
### Developer View ###
* 6 12-bit analog inputs (11 bits with single-ended sensors)
* 2 channels of serial I/O
* digital I/O
- * [Atmel AT45DB081D](http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=3819) DataFlash memory
- * 1M x 8
- * 256 byte page size
+ * [Winbond W25Q16](http://www.winbond.com/NR/exeres/A3D21C82-A0B6-4586-A770-2F0883A805FF.htm) serial flash memory
+ * 2M x 8
* SPI interface
- * other parts in this Atmel DataFlash series can optionally be used
* [SkyTraq](http://www.skytraq.com.tw/) Venus634FLPx GPS receiver
* on-board [Taoglas AP.17A.01](http://www.taoglas.com/antennas/GPS_Antennas/Internal_GPS_-_Active_Patch_Modules/)
single-stage active patch antenna
## [Flight Logs](flightlogs) ##
+## Artifacts ##
+
+There is a single manual for TeleMetrum and all other Altus Metrum products,
+which is available in [html](../AltOS/doc/altusmetrum.html) and
+[pdf](../AltOS/doc/altusmetrum.pdf) formats.
+
+The hardware design current gEDA files are available from
+[git.gag.com](http://git.gag.com) in the project
+[hw/telemetrum](http://git.gag.com/?p=hw/telemetrum;a=summary).
+
+Work on the next version proceeds on the master branch, with occasional
+temporary branches created when Bdale is making some major / speculative
+change. Branched with names like 'v0.2' document what we're actually flying
+on the respective PCB revisions. The 'ground' branch has a cut-down schematic
+used to generate the BOM for partially loading v0.1 boards to used on the
+ground. We call the on-the-ground version '[TeleDongle](../TeleDongle)', and
+newer versions have their own PCB design.
+
+For those who don't have ready access to the gEDA suite, here are pdf snapshots
+of the files for Production PCB version 1.1 in more easily readable form.
+
+* [schematic](v1.1/telemetrum.pdf)
+* [pcb artwork](v1.1/telemetrum.pcb.pdf)
+* [bill of materials](v1.1/partslist.csv)
+
+Rockets we know of flying with TeleMetrum boards have exceeded 50g acceleration,
+been well above Mach 1, and reached altitudes
+greater than 25k feet AGL with great results. Keith's second generation
+ground station program called AltosUI works on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems
+and logs telemetry to disk, displays current and max values for key parameters
+during flight, includes voice synthesis during the flight so that
+our eyes can stay on the rockets, and even includes live display of rocket
+position over moving maps! After flight, altosui can extract the
+complete flight log from TeleMetrum, can display plots of the data from either
+the telemetry received by radio or the onboard flight log, can output a kml
+file for use with [Google Earth](http://earth.google.com), and can also
+output all the flight data as a csv file for easy import to spreadsheet
+programs or other analysis tools allowing you to perform whatever
+custom analysis you can envision! More details on the software,
+including full source code and pre-built packages
+can be found on the [AltOS](../AltOS) page on this site. Feel free to
+download the software and try it before purchasing our hardware!
+
+## Future Plans ##
+
+TeleMetrum v1.2 is now out for production. The significant user-visible
+change is that we've moved to a 70g accelerometer by default, due to poor
+availability of the part we previously used due to damage to the Freescale
+facility in Sendai caused by the Japan earthquake / tsunami. Boards should
+be in stock again shortly before Christmas 2011, and full details will be
+posted here at that time.
+
## Problems ##
* The CC1111F32 is a 36-pin QFN package, which necessitates reflow
place parts! Without an inspection microscope, loading and testing these
boards might be impossible.
-* The addition of on-board GPS in v0.2 means that the total power consumption
+* The addition of on-board GPS in v0.2 and later boards means that the total
+ power consumption
can exceed the rate at which we draw power from the USB interface,
particularly when the GPS is in cold start mode. This means a battery must
be attached during operation, and also that the battery will only charge
effectively from USB when the board is turned off.
-* The v0.1 artwork had three issues, two of which required physical rework
- on each board. All of these issues were fixed in v0.2.
-
- * The USB connector footprint was placed wrong, so that the
- connector hung out over the edge of the board instead of being
- flush.
- * We needed chip select on the SPI memory. To fix that, we gave up the
- ability to put the accelerometer into self-test mode and used that
- GPIO line to pull chip select on the memory, which required two
- cuts and two jumpers.
- * The igniter sense circuits each needed a second resistor to
- complete the voltage divider so our 3.3V CPU ADC could read the
- 5V ejection voltage. This was fixed by changing two resistor
- values, and tacking two additional resistors onto the board
- with jumpers to ground.
-
-## Artifacts ##
+## History ##
-The user manual for TeleMetrum is available in
-[html](doc/telemetrum-doc.html) and [pdf](doc/telemetrum-doc.pdf)
-formats.
+### v1.0 ###
-The hardware design current gEDA files are available from
-[git.gag.com](http://git.gag.com) in the project
-[hw/telemetrum](http://git.gag.com/?p=hw/telemetrum;a=summary).
+These are photos of our third version, which was the basis of our first
+production build. These were sold between April and December 2010, and
+performed very well.
-Work on the next version proceeds on the master branch, with occasional
-temporary branches created when Bdale is making some major / speculative
-change. The 'v0.2' and 'v0.1' branches document what we're actually flying
-right now on the two respective PCB revisions. The 'ground' branch has a
-cut-down schematic used to generate the BOM for partially loading v0.1 boards
-to used on the ground. We call the on-the-ground version 'TeleDongle'.
+<a href="v1.0/cimg5972-crop.jpg"> <img src="v1.0/cimg5972-thumb.jpg"></a>
+<a href="v1.0/cimg5974-crop.jpg"> <img src="v1.0/cimg5974-thumb.jpg"></a>
-For those who don't have ready access to the gEDA suite, here are pdf snapshots
-of files in more easily readable form.
-
-* Production PCB version v1.0:
- * [schematic](v1.0/telemetrum.pdf)
- * [pcb artwork](v1.0/telemetrum.pcb.pdf)
- * [bill of materials](v1.0/partslist.csv)
-
-Our [AltOS](../AltOS) firmware works well enough that we now routinely fly
-TeleMetrum with no backup. Rockets with v0.1 boards have exceeded 50g
-acceleration, been above Mach 1, and reached altitudes greater
-than 12k feet AGL with great results. Keith's ground station program
-called ao-view logs telemetry to disk, displays current and max values for
-key parameters during flight, and even includes voice synthesis
-during the flight so that our eyes can stay on the rockets! We have post
-flight analysis software that makes it easy to extract data from the board,
-analyze it, and even generate KML files for viewing flights in GoogleEarth!
-More details on the software, including full source code and pre-built packages
-can be found on the [AltOS](../AltOS) page on this site.
+The differences between v1.0 and v1.1 were small:
-## Future Plans ##
+* different flash memory part due to supplier availability problems
+* updated reset circuit to improve reliability at temperature extremes
+* changed the GPS antenna footprint to eliminate the large through-hole
+ originally intended for use with a passive patch
+* irq line eliminated from the companion port
+* an additional resistor divider added to allow sampling the 5V supply
-As of May 2010, version v1.0 is available for sale from the
-[Garbee and Garbee](http://auric.gag.com) web store.
+The schematics and PCB artwork for this version are on the v1.0 branch in
+our git repository, here are pdf copies for easy reference:
-Because we understand that not everyone uses Linux, development of a new
-cross-platform ground station program written in Java is underway for use with
-[AltOS](../AltOS).
+* [schematic](v1.0/telemetrum.pdf)
+* [pcb artwork](v1.0/telemetrum.pcb.pdf)
+* [bill of materials](v1.0/partslist.csv)
-## History ##
### v0.2 ###
-* 100ma LDO regulator instead of the current 150ma part
-* no C38 footprint
-* different value for C36 reset capacitor
-
These are photos of our second version, which included the integrated Venus
GPS receiver, but with a passive patch antenna that turned out to have
disappointing performance due to our many PCB geometry constraints. It also
<a href="v0.2/cimg5164-cropped.jpg"> <img src="v0.2/cimg5164-thumb.jpg"></a>
<a href="v0.2/cimg5171-cropped.jpg"> <img src="v0.2/cimg5171-thumb.jpg"></a>
-Other than cleaning up the silkscreen, the differences between v0.2 and our
-current v1.0 boards were really quite small:
+Other than cleaning up the silkscreen, the differences between v0.2 and
+v1.0 boards were really quite small:
* 100ma LDO regulator instead of the current 150ma part
* no C38 footprint
<a href="v0.1/loadedpair.jpg"> <img src="v0.1/loadedpair-thumb.jpg"></a>
-The differences between v0.1 and later boards were more substantial:
+The differences between v0.1 and later boards were substantial:
* 2.5 x 1 inch board with all parts mounted on one side
* 4-pin PicoBlade serial port connector for attachment of external GPS module
The elimination of the discrete temperature sensor and second LED were
necessary to support the companion board interface added in v0.2.
+The v0.1 artwork had three issues, two of which required physical rework
+on each board. All of these issues were fixed in v0.2.
+
+* The USB connector footprint was placed wrong, so that the
+ connector hung out over the edge of the board instead of being
+ flush.
+* We needed chip select on the SPI memory. To fix that, we gave up the
+ ability to put the accelerometer into self-test mode and used that
+ GPIO line to pull chip select on the memory, which required two
+ cuts and two jumpers.
+* The igniter sense circuits each needed a second resistor to
+ complete the voltage divider so our 3.3V CPU ADC could read the
+ 5V ejection voltage. This was fixed by changing two resistor
+ values, and tacking two additional resistors onto the board
+ with jumpers to ground.
+
The schematics and PCB artwork for this version as of the working-v0.1 tag
are available here are pdf copies for easy reference:
projects / web / altusmetrum / blobdiff