4 image::altosui.png[width="4.6in"]
6 The AltosUI program provides a graphical user interface for
7 interacting with the Altus Metrum product family. AltosUI can
8 monitor telemetry data, configure devices and many other
9 tasks. The primary interface window provides a selection of
10 buttons, one for each major activity in the system. This
11 chapter is split into sections, each of which documents one of
12 the tasks provided from the top-level toolbar.
16 <subtitle>Receive, Record and Display Telemetry Data</subtitle>
19 Selecting this item brings up a dialog box listing all
20 of the connected TeleDongle devices. When you choose
21 one of these, AltosUI will create a window to display
22 telemetry data as received by the selected TeleDongle
25 .Device Selection Dialog
26 image::device-selection.png[width="3.1in"]
28 All telemetry data received are automatically recorded
29 in suitable log files. The name of the files includes
30 the current date and rocket serial and flight numbers.
32 The radio frequency being monitored by the TeleDongle
33 device is displayed at the top of the window. You can
34 configure the frequency by clicking on the frequency
35 box and selecting the desired frequency. AltosUI
36 remembers the last frequency selected for each
37 TeleDongle and selects that automatically the next
38 time you use that device.
40 Below the TeleDongle frequency selector, the window
41 contains a few significant pieces of information about
42 the altimeter providing the telemetry data stream:
44 * The configured call-sign
46 * The device serial number
48 * The flight number. Each altimeter remembers how
49 many times it has flown.
51 * The rocket flight state. Each flight passes through
52 several states including Pad, Boost, Fast, Coast,
53 Drogue, Main and Landed.
55 * The Received Signal Strength Indicator value. This
56 lets you know how strong a signal TeleDongle is
57 receiving. At the default data rate, 38400 bps, in
58 bench testing, the radio inside TeleDongle v0.2
59 operates down to about -106dBm, while the v3 radio
60 works down to about -111dBm. Weaker signals, or an
61 environment with radio noise may cause the data to
62 not be received. The packet link uses error
63 detection and correction techniques which prevent
64 incorrect data from being reported.
66 * The age of the displayed data, in seconds since the
67 last successfully received telemetry packet. In
68 normal operation this will stay in the low single
69 digits. If the number starts counting up, then you
70 are no longer receiving data over the radio link
71 from the flight computer.
73 Finally, the largest portion of the window contains a
74 set of tabs, each of which contain some information
75 about the rocket. They're arranged in 'flight order'
76 so that as the flight progresses, the selected tab
77 automatically switches to display data relevant to the
78 current state of the flight. You can select other tabs
79 at any time. The final 'table' tab displays all of the
80 raw telemetry values in one place in a
81 spreadsheet-like format.
85 .Monitor Flight Launch Pad View
86 image::launch-pad.png[width="5.5in"]
88 The 'Launch Pad' tab shows information used to decide when the
89 rocket is ready for flight. The first elements include red/green
90 indicators, if any of these is red, you'll want to evaluate
91 whether the rocket is ready to launch:
94 This indicates whether the Li-Po battery powering the
95 flight computer has sufficient charge to last for
96 the duration of the flight. A value of more than
97 3.8V is required for a 'GO' status.
99 Apogee Igniter Voltage::
100 This indicates whether the apogee
101 igniter has continuity. If the igniter has a low
102 resistance, then the voltage measured here will be close
103 to the Li-Po battery voltage. A value greater than 3.2V is
104 required for a 'GO' status.
106 Main Igniter Voltage::
107 This indicates whether the main
108 igniter has continuity. If the igniter has a low
109 resistance, then the voltage measured here will be close
110 to the Li-Po battery voltage. A value greater than 3.2V is
111 required for a 'GO' status.
113 On-board Data Logging::
114 This indicates whether there is space remaining
115 on-board to store flight data for the upcoming
116 flight. If you've downloaded data, but failed to erase
117 flights, there may not be any space left. Most of our
118 flight computers can store multiple flights, depending
119 on the configured maximum flight log size. TeleMini
120 v1.0 stores only a single flight, so it will need to
121 be downloaded and erased after each flight to capture
122 data. This only affects on-board flight logging; the
123 altimeter will still transmit telemetry and fire
124 ejection charges at the proper times even if the
125 flight data storage is full.
128 For a TeleMetrum or TeleMega device, this indicates
129 whether the GPS receiver is currently able to compute
130 position information. GPS requires at least 4
131 satellites to compute an accurate position.
135 For a TeleMetrum or TeleMega device, this indicates
136 whether GPS has reported at least 10 consecutive
137 positions without losing lock. This ensures that the
138 GPS receiver has reliable reception from the
141 The Launchpad tab also shows the computed launch pad
142 position and altitude, averaging many reported
143 positions to improve the accuracy of the fix.
147 .Monitor Flight Ascent View
148 image::ascent.png[width="5.5in"]
150 This tab is shown during Boost, Fast and Coast
151 phases. The information displayed here helps monitor the
152 rocket as it heads towards apogee.
154 The height, speed, acceleration and tilt are shown along
155 with the maximum values for each of them. This allows you to
156 quickly answer the most commonly asked questions you'll hear
159 The current latitude and longitude reported by the GPS are
160 also shown. Note that under high acceleration, these values
161 may not get updated as the GPS receiver loses position
162 fix. Once the rocket starts coasting, the receiver should
163 start reporting position again.
165 Finally, the current igniter voltages are reported as in the
166 Launch Pad tab. This can help diagnose deployment failures
167 caused by wiring which comes loose under high acceleration.
171 .Monitor Flight Descent View
172 image::descent.png[width="5.5in"]
174 Once the rocket has reached apogee and (we hope)
175 activated the apogee charge, attention switches to
176 tracking the rocket on the way back to the ground, and
177 for dual-deploy flights, waiting for the main charge
180 To monitor whether the apogee charge operated
181 correctly, the current descent rate is reported along
182 with the current height. Good descent rates vary based
183 on the choice of recovery components, but generally
184 range from 15-30m/s on drogue and should be below
185 10m/s when under the main parachute in a dual-deploy
188 With GPS-equipped flight computers, you can locate the
189 rocket in the sky using the elevation and bearing
190 information to figure out where to look. Elevation is
191 in degrees above the horizon. Bearing is reported in
192 degrees relative to true north. Range can help figure
193 out how big the rocket will appear. Ground Distance
194 shows how far it is to a point directly under the
195 rocket and can help figure out where the rocket is
196 likely to land. Note that all of these values are
197 relative to the pad location. If the elevation is near
198 90°, the rocket is over the pad, not over you.
200 Finally, the igniter voltages are reported in this tab
201 as well, both to monitor the main charge as well as to
202 see what the status of the apogee charge is. Note
203 that some commercial e-matches are designed to retain
204 continuity even after being fired, and will continue
205 to show as green or return from red to green after
210 .Monitor Flight Landed View
211 image::landed.png[width="5.5in"]
213 Once the rocket is on the ground, attention switches
214 to recovery. While the radio signal is often lost once
215 the rocket is on the ground, the last reported GPS
216 position is generally within a short distance of the
217 actual landing location.
219 The last reported GPS position is reported both by
220 latitude and longitude as well as a bearing and
221 distance from the launch pad. The distance should give
222 you a good idea of whether to walk or hitch a ride.
223 Take the reported latitude and longitude and enter
224 them into your hand-held GPS unit and have that
225 compute a track to the landing location.
227 Our flight computers will continue to transmit RDF
228 tones after landing, allowing you to locate the rocket
229 by following the radio signal if necessary. You may
230 need to get away from the clutter of the flight line,
231 or even get up on a hill (or your neighbor's RV roof)
232 to receive the RDF signal.
234 The maximum height, speed and acceleration reported
235 during the flight are displayed for your admiring
236 observers. The accuracy of these immediate values
237 depends on the quality of your radio link and how many
238 packets were received. Recovering the on-board data
239 after flight may yield more precise results.
241 To get more detailed information about the flight, you
242 can click on the 'Graph Flight' button which will
243 bring up a graph window for the current flight.
247 .Monitor Flight Table View
248 image::table.png[width="5.5in"]
250 The table view shows all of the data available from the
251 flight computer. Probably the most useful data on
252 this tab is the detailed GPS information, which includes
253 horizontal dilution of precision information, and
254 information about the signal being received from the satellites.
258 .Monitor Flight Site Map View
259 image::site-map.png[width="5.5in"]
261 When the TeleMetrum has a GPS fix, the Site Map tab
262 will map the rocket's position to make it easier for
263 you to locate the rocket, both while it is in the air,
264 and when it has landed. The rocket's state is
265 indicated by color: white for pad, red for boost, pink
266 for fast, yellow for coast, light blue for drogue,
267 dark blue for main, and black for landed.
269 The map's default scale is approximately 3m (10ft) per
270 pixel. The map can be dragged using the left mouse
271 button. The map will attempt to keep the rocket
272 roughly centered while data is being received.
274 You can adjust the style of map and the zoom level
275 with buttons on the right side of the map window. You
276 can draw a line on the map by moving the mouse over
277 the map with a button other than the left one pressed,
278 or by pressing the left button while also holding down
279 the shift key. The length of the line in real-world
280 units will be shown at the start of the line.
282 Images are fetched automatically via the Google Maps
283 Static API, and cached on disk for reuse. If map
284 images cannot be downloaded, the rocket's path will be
285 traced on a dark gray background instead.
287 You can pre-load images for your favorite launch sites
288 before you leave home; check out <<_load_maps>>.
292 .Monitor Flight Additional Igniter View
293 image::ignitor.png[width="5.5in"]
295 TeleMega includes four additional programmable pyro
296 channels. The Ignitor tab shows whether each of them has
297 continuity. If an ignitor has a low resistance, then the
298 voltage measured here will be close to the pyro battery
299 voltage. A value greater than 3.2V is required for a 'GO'
304 The altimeter records flight data to its internal
305 flash memory. TeleMetrum data is recorded at a much
306 higher rate than the telemetry system can handle, and
307 is not subject to radio drop-outs. As such, it
308 provides a more complete and precise record of the
309 flight. The 'Save Flight Data' button allows you to
310 read the flash memory and write it to disk.
312 Clicking on the 'Save Flight Data' button brings up a
313 list of connected flight computers and TeleDongle
314 devices. If you select a flight computer, the flight
315 data will be downloaded from that device directly. If
316 you select a TeleDongle device, flight data will be
317 downloaded from a flight computer over radio link via
318 the specified TeleDongle. See the chapter on
319 Controlling An Altimeter Over The Radio Link for more
322 After the device has been selected, a dialog showing
323 the flight data saved in the device will be shown
324 allowing you to select which flights to download and
325 which to delete. With version 0.9 or newer firmware,
326 you must erase flights in order for the space they
327 consume to be reused by another flight. This prevents
328 accidentally losing flight data if you neglect to
329 download data before flying again. Note that if there
330 is no more space available in the device, then no data
331 will be recorded during the next flight.
333 The file name for each flight log is computed
334 automatically from the recorded flight date, altimeter
335 serial number and flight number information.
339 Select this button and you are prompted to select a flight
340 record file, either a .telem file recording telemetry data or a
341 .eeprom file containing flight data saved from the altimeter
344 Once a flight record is selected, the flight monitor interface
345 is displayed and the flight is re-enacted in real time. Check
346 the Monitor Flight chapter above to learn how this window operates.
350 Select this button and you are prompted to select a flight
351 record file, either a .telem file recording telemetry data or a
352 .eeprom file containing flight data saved from
355 Note that telemetry files will generally produce poor graphs
356 due to the lower sampling rate and missed telemetry packets.
357 Use saved flight data in .eeprom files for graphing where possible.
359 Once a flight record is selected, a window with multiple tabs is
365 image::graph.png[width="5.5in"]
367 By default, the graph contains acceleration (blue),
368 velocity (green) and altitude (red).
370 The graph can be zoomed into a particular area by
371 clicking and dragging down and to the right. Once
372 zoomed, the graph can be reset by clicking and
373 dragging up and to the left. Holding down control and
374 clicking and dragging allows the graph to be panned.
375 The right mouse button causes a pop-up menu to be
376 displayed, giving you the option save or print the
381 .Flight Graph Configuration
382 image::graph-configure.png[width="5.5in"]
384 This selects which graph elements to show, and, at the
385 very bottom, lets you switch between metric and
388 ==== Flight Statistics
391 image::graph-stats.png[width="5.5in"]
393 Shows overall data computed from the flight.
398 image::graph-map.png[width="5.5in"]
400 Shows a satellite image of the flight area overlaid
401 with the path of the flight. The red concentric
402 circles mark the launch pad, the black concentric
403 circles mark the landing location.
407 This tool takes the raw data files and makes them
408 available for external analysis. When you select this
409 button, you are prompted to select a flight data file,
410 which can be either a .eeprom or .telem. The .eeprom
411 files contain higher resolution and more continuous
412 data, while .telem files contain receiver signal
413 strength information. Next, a second dialog appears
414 which is used to select where to write the resulting
415 file. It has a selector to choose between CSV and KML
418 ==== Comma Separated Value Format
420 This is a text file containing the data in a form
421 suitable for import into a spreadsheet or other
422 external data analysis tool. The first few lines of
423 the file contain the version and configuration
424 information from the altimeter, then there is a single
425 header line which labels all of the fields. All of
426 these lines start with a '#' character which many
427 tools can be configured to skip over.
429 The remaining lines of the file contain the data, with
430 each field separated by a comma and at least one
431 space. All of the sensor values are converted to
432 standard units, with the barometric data reported in
433 both pressure, altitude and height above pad units.
435 ==== Keyhole Markup Language (for Google Earth)
437 This is the format used by Google Earth to provide an
438 overlay within that application. With this, you can
439 use Google Earth to see the whole flight path in 3D.
441 === Configure Altimeter
443 .Altimeter Configuration
444 image::configure-altimeter.png[width="3.6in"]
446 Select this button and then select either an altimeter or
447 TeleDongle Device from the list provided. Selecting a TeleDongle
448 device will use the radio link to configure a remote altimeter.
450 The first few lines of the dialog provide information about the
451 connected device, including the product name,
452 software version and hardware serial number. Below that are the
453 individual configuration entries.
455 At the bottom of the dialog, there are four buttons:
458 This writes any changes to the configuration parameter
459 block in flash memory. If you don't press this button,
460 any changes you make will be lost.
463 This resets the dialog to the most recently saved
464 values, erasing any changes you have made.
468 This reboots the device. Use this to switch from idle
469 to pad mode by rebooting once the rocket is oriented
470 for flight, or to confirm changes you think you saved
475 This closes the dialog. Any unsaved changes will be
478 The rest of the dialog contains the parameters to be configured.
480 include::config-device.raw[]
483 === Configure AltosUI
485 .Configure AltosUI Dialog
486 image::configure-altosui.png[width="2.4in"]
488 This button presents a dialog so that you can
489 configure the AltosUI global settings.
491 include::config-ui.raw[]
493 === Configure Groundstation
495 .Configure Groundstation Dialog
496 image::configure-groundstation.png[width="3.1in"]
498 Select this button and then select a TeleDongle or
499 TeleBT Device from the list provided.
501 The first few lines of the dialog provide information
502 about the connected device, including the product
503 name, software version and hardware serial
504 number. Below that are the individual configuration
507 Note that TeleDongle and TeleBT don't save any
508 configuration data, the settings here are recorded on
509 the local machine in the Java preferences
510 database. Moving the device to another machine, or
511 using a different user account on the same machine
512 will cause settings made here to have no effect.
514 At the bottom of the dialog, there are three
518 This writes any changes to the local Java
519 preferences file. If you don't press this
520 button, any changes you make will be lost.
523 This resets the dialog to the most recently
524 saved values, erasing any changes you have
528 This closes the dialog. Any unsaved changes
531 The rest of the dialog contains the parameters
536 This configures the frequency to use for both
537 telemetry and packet command mode. Set this
538 before starting any operation involving packet
539 command mode so that it will use the right
540 frequency. Telemetry monitoring mode also
541 provides a menu to change the frequency, and
542 that menu also sets the same Java preference
547 The radios in every Altus Metrum device are
548 calibrated at the factory to ensure that they
549 transmit and receive on the specified
550 frequency. To change a TeleDongle or TeleBT's
551 calibration, you must reprogram the unit
552 completely, so this entry simply shows the
553 current value and doesn't allow any changes.
557 This lets you match the telemetry and packet
558 link rate from the transmitter. If they don't
559 match, the device won't receive any data.
563 This reprograms Altus Metrum devices with new
564 firmware. TeleMetrum v1.x, TeleDongle v0.2, TeleMini
565 and TeleBT are all reprogrammed by using another
566 similar unit as a programming dongle (pair
567 programming). TeleMega, EasyMega, TeleMetrum v2,
568 EasyMini and TeleDongle v3 are all programmed directly
569 over their USB ports (self programming). Please read
570 the directions for flashing devices in the Updating
571 Device Firmware chapter below.
576 image::fire-igniter.png[width="1.2in"]
578 This activates the igniter circuits in the flight
579 computer to help test recovery systems
580 deployment. Because this command can operate over the
581 Packet Command Link, you can prepare the rocket as for
582 flight and then test the recovery system without
583 needing to snake wires inside the air-frame.
585 Selecting the 'Fire Igniter' button brings up the
586 usual device selection dialog. Pick the desired
587 device. This brings up another window which shows the
588 current continuity test status for all of the pyro
591 Next, select the desired igniter to fire. This will
592 enable the 'Arm' button.
594 Select the 'Arm' button. This enables the 'Fire'
595 button. The word 'Arm' is replaced by a countdown
596 timer indicating that you have 10 seconds to press the
597 'Fire' button or the system will deactivate, at which
598 point you start over again at selecting the desired
603 .Scan Channels Window
604 image::scan-channels.png[width="3.2in"]
606 This listens for telemetry packets on all of the
607 configured frequencies, displaying information about
608 each device it receives a packet from. You can select
609 which of the baud rates and telemetry formats should
610 be tried; by default, it only listens at 38400 baud
611 with the standard telemetry format used in v1.0 and
614 include::load-maps.raw[]
619 image::monitor-idle.png[width="5.2in"]
621 This brings up a dialog similar to the Monitor Flight
622 UI, except it works with the altimeter in “idle” mode
623 by sending query commands to discover the current
624 state rather than listening for telemetry
625 packets. Because this uses command mode, it needs to
626 have the TeleDongle and flight computer callsigns
627 match exactly. If you can receive telemetry, but
628 cannot manage to run Monitor Idle, then it's very
629 likely that your callsigns are different in some way.
631 You can change the frequency and callsign used to
632 communicate with the flight computer; they must both
633 match the configuration in the flight computer
projects / fw / altos / blob