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 now available from
+[Apogee Components](http://www.apogeerockets.com/Altus_Metrum_GPS.asp).
+
+For the latest TeleMetrum firmware and related ground station software, please
+visit the [AltOS](../AltOS) page on this site.
These are photos of our current production version, which includes an
integrated GPS receiver with active patch antenna:
-<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 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
-used a voltage regulator with less capacity which we felt was marginal for
-supporting the companion boards we have planned:
-
-<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>
-
-And this is a photo of our original board with serial port for off-board GPS,
-without the big off-board 1000uF cap from the original ejection circuit:
-
-<a href="v0.1/loadedpair.jpg"> <img src="v0.1/loadedpair-thumb.jpg"></a>
-
-## 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
* The hardware is licensed under the [TAPR](http://www.tapr.org) [Open Hardware License](http://www.tapr.org/ohl.html)
* The software is licensed [GPL version 2](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html)
-### v0.2 Differences ###
+## [Production History](../production) ##
-* 100ma LDO regulator instead of the current 150ma part
-* no C38 footprint
-* different value for C36 reset capacitor
+## [Flight Logs](flightlogs) ##
-### v0.1 Differences ###
+## Artifacts ##
-* 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
-* USB connector projected approximately 3mm over the edge of the board
-* Debug connector used 4 IC socket pins on 100 mil centers
-* no companion board interface
-* 50ma LDO regulator on early boards, later boards used a 100ma part
-* [Microchip 25LC1024](http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/Devices.aspx?dDocName=en520389) CMOS serial EEPROM instead of DataFlash
- * 128k x 8
- * SPI interface
-* [Microchip MCP9700A](http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/Devices.aspx?dDocName=en027103) discrete temperature sensor
-* used 1000uF electrolytic capacitor charged to 5V for pyro supply
-* two LEDs instead of one attached to CPU
+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 elimination of the discrete temperature sensor and second LED were
-necessary to support the companion board interface added in v0.2.
+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).
-## [Production History](../production) ##
+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.
-## [Flight Logs](flightlogs) ##
+For those who don't have ready access to the gEDA suite, here are pdf snapshots
+of the files for Production PCB version 1.0 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.
+
+## Future Plans ##
+
+TeleMetrum v1.1 meets all of our expectations, except for one mis-placed
+trace also present in v1.0. The error makes use of a separate pyro battery
+less trivial than intended. We'll fix that for a future production run.
## Problems ##
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.
+## History ##
-## Artifacts ##
+### 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.
+The differences between v1.0 and v1.1 were small:
+
+* different flash memory part due to supplier availability problems
+* 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
+
+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:
+
+* [schematic](v1.0/telemetrum.pdf)
+* [pcb artwork](v1.0/telemetrum.pcb.pdf)
+* [bill of materials](v1.0/partslist.csv)
+
+
+### v0.2 ###
+
+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
+used a voltage regulator with less capacity which we felt was marginal for
+supporting the companion boards we have planned:
+
+<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
+v1.0 boards were really quite small:
+
+* 100ma LDO regulator instead of the current 150ma part
+* no C38 footprint
+* different value for C36 reset capacitor
+
+The schematics and PCB artwork for this version are on the v0.2 branch in
+our git repository, here are pdf copies for easy reference:
-* Production PCB version v1.0:
- * [schematic](v1.0/telemetrum.pdf)
- * [pcb artwork](v1.0/telemetrum.pcb.pdf)
- * [bill of materials](v1.0/partslist.csv)
-* These are from the v0.2 branch:
* [schematic](v0.2/telemetrum.pdf)
* [pcb artwork](v0.2/telemetrum.pcb.pdf)
* [bill of materials](v0.2/partslist.csv)
-* These are as of the working-v0.1 tag:
- * [schematic](v0.1/telemetrum.pdf)
- * [pcb artwork](v0.1/telemetrum.pcb.pdf)
- * [bill of materials](v0.1/telemetrum.bom)
-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.
+### v0.1 ###
-## Future Plans ##
+And this is a photo of our original board with serial port for off-board GPS,
+without the big off-board 1000uF cap from the original ejection circuit:
+
+<a href="v0.1/loadedpair.jpg"> <img src="v0.1/loadedpair-thumb.jpg"></a>
-As of May 2010, version v1.0 is available for sale from the
-[Garbee and Garbee](http://auric.gag.com) web store.
+The differences between v0.1 and later boards were substantial:
-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).
+* 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
+* USB connector projected approximately 3mm over the edge of the board
+* Debug connector used 4 IC socket pins on 100 mil centers
+* no companion board interface
+* 50ma LDO regulator on early boards, later boards used a 100ma part
+* [Microchip 25LC1024](http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/Devices.aspx?dDocName=en520389) CMOS serial EEPROM instead of DataFlash
+ * 128k x 8
+ * SPI interface
+* [Microchip MCP9700A](http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/Devices.aspx?dDocName=en027103) discrete temperature sensor
+* used 1000uF electrolytic capacitor charged to 5V for pyro supply
+* two LEDs instead of one attached to CPU
+
+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:
+
+ * [schematic](v0.1/telemetrum.pdf)
+ * [pcb artwork](v0.1/telemetrum.pcb.pdf)
+ * [bill of materials](v0.1/telemetrum.bom)
projects / web / altusmetrum / blobdiff