== TeleGPS Application The TeleGPS application provides a graphical user interface for interacting with the Altus Metrum product family. TeleGPS can monitor telemetry data, configure devices and many other tasks. The primary interface window is for displaying data received over the telemetry link. There are additional tasks available from the main window menu bar. === Telemetry Monitoring This is the window brought up when you start the application. If you have a TeleDongle device connected to the computer, it will automatically be selected for telemetry monitoring All telemetry data received are automatically recorded in suitable log files. The name of the files includes the current date and TeleGPS serial and flight numbers. The radio frequency being monitored by the TeleDongle device is displayed at the top of the window. You can configure the frequency by clicking on the frequency box and selecting the desired frequency. The TeleGPS application remembers the last frequency selected for each TeleDongle and selects that automatically the next time you use that device. Below the TeleDongle frequency selector, the window contains a few significant pieces of information about the altimeter providing the telemetry data stream: * The configured call-sign * The device serial number * The flight number. TeleGPS remembers how many times it has flown. * The Received Signal Strength Indicator value. This lets you know how strong a signal TeleDongle is receiving. The radio inside TeleDongle operates down to about -100dBm; weaker signals may not be receivable. The packet link uses error detection and correction techniques which prevent incorrect data from being reported. * The age of the displayed data, in seconds since the last successfully received telemetry packet. In normal operation this will stay in the low single digits. If the number starts counting up, then you are no longer receiving data over the radio link from the flight computer. Finally, the largest portion of the window contains a set of tabs, each of which contain some information about the TeleGPS board. The final 'table' tab displays many of the raw telemetry values in one place in a spreadsheet-like format. ==== Map The Map tab shows the TeleGPS track over time on top of map data making it easy to locate the device. .TeleGPS Map View image::telegps-map.png[width="5.5in"] The map's default scale is approximately 3m (10ft) per pixel. The map can be dragged using the left mouse button. The map will attempt to keep the rocket roughly centered while data is being received. You can adjust the style of map and the zoom level with buttons on the right side of the map window. You can draw a line on the map by moving the mouse over the map with a button other than the left one pressed, or by pressing the left button while also holding down the shift key. The length of the line in real-world units will be shown at the start of the line. Images are fetched automatically via the Google Maps Static API, and cached on disk for reuse. If map images cannot be downloaded, the rocket's path will be traced on a dark gray background instead. You can pre-load images for your favorite launch sites before you leave home; check out the 'Preload Maps' section below. ==== Location The Location tab shows the raw GPS data received from TeleGPS. .TeleGPS Location View image::telegps-location.png[width="5.5in"] ==== Status The Status tab shows data relative to the location of TeleGPS when the application first received telemetry from it. .TeleGPS Status View image::telegps-status.png[width="5.5in"] ==== Table The Table tab shows detailed information about the GPS receiver .TeleGPS Information Table image::telegps-table.png[width="5.5in"] === TeleGPS Menus TeleGPS has three or four menus at the top of the window: File:: New Window, Graph Data, Export Data, Load Maps, Preferences, Close and Exit Monitor:: Connect Device, Disconnect and Scan Channels Device:: Download Data, Configure Device and Flash Device Frequency:: This shows the current monitoring frequency with a drop-down menu listing other configured frequencies. You can change the set of frequencies shown here from the Preferences dialog. This menu is only shown when the TeleGPS application is connected to a TeleDongle or TeleBT device. ==== New Window This creates another telemetry monitoring window, in case you have multiple TeleDongle devices connected to the computer. === Graph Data The Graph tab shows a plot of the the GPS data collected. The X axis is time in seconds; there are a variety of Y axes available for different kinds of data. This window also allows you to see some statistics computed from the data, and an overall map of the entire data record. ==== Data Graph .TeleGPS Graph image::telegps-graph-graph.png[width="5.5in"] ==== Graph Configuration .TeleGPS Graph Configuration image::telegps-graph-configure.png[width="5.5in"] This selects which graph elements to show, and, at the bottom, lets you switch between metric and imperial units ==== Statistics .TeleGPS Statistics image::telegps-graph-stats.png[width="5.5in"] Shows overall data computed from the flight. ==== Map .TeleGPS Map image::telegps-graph-map.png[width="6in"] Shows a map of the area overlaid with the GPS track. As with the telemetry monitoring window, you can select the style of map and zoom level using buttons along the side; you can scroll the map by dragging within the map pressing the left button and you can draw a line to measure distances using either the left button with the shift key, or any other button. === Export Data This tool takes the raw data files and makes them available for external analysis. When you select this button, you are prompted to select a data file, which can be either a .eeprom or .telem. The .eeprom files contain higher resolution and more continuous data, while .telem files contain receiver signal strength information. Next, a second dialog appears which is used to select where to write the resulting file. It has a selector to choose between CSV and KML file formats. ==== Comma Separated Value Format This is a text file containing the data in a form suitable for import into a spreadsheet or other external data analysis tool. The first few lines of the file contain the version and configuration information from TeleGPS, then there is a single header line which labels all of the fields. All of these lines start with a '#' character which many tools can be configured to skip over. The remaining lines of the file contain the data, with each field separated by a comma and at least one space. All of the sensor values are converted to standard units, with the barometric data reported in both pressure, altitude and height above pad units. ==== Keyhole Markup Language (for Google Earth) This is the format used by Google Earth to provide an overlay within that application. With this, you can use Google Earth to see the whole path in 3D. === Load Maps .Load Maps Window image::load-maps.png[width="5.2in"] Before using TeleGPS, you can use Load Maps to load map data in case you don't have access to the internet while receiving telemetry. There's a drop-down menu of rocket launch sites we know about; if your favorites aren't there, please let us know the lat/lon and name of the site. The contents of this list are actually downloaded from our server at run-time, so as new sites are sent in, they'll get automatically added to this list. If the launch site isn't in the list, you can manually enter the lat/lon values There are four different kinds of maps you can view; you can select which to download by selecting as many as you like from the available types: Hybrid:: A combination of satellite imagery and road data. This is the default view. Satellite:: Just the satellite imagery without any annotation. Roadmap:: Roads, political boundaries and a few geographic features. Terrain:: Contour intervals and shading that show hills and valleys. You can specify the range of zoom levels to download; smaller numbers show more area with less resolution. The default level, 0, shows about 3m/pixel. One zoom level change doubles or halves that number. Larger zoom levels show more detail, smaller zoom levels less. The Map Radius value sets how large an area around the center point to download. Select a value large enough to cover any plausible flight from that site. Be aware that loading a large area with a high maximum zoom level can attempt to download a lot of data. Loading hybrid maps with a 10km radius at a minimum zoom of -2 and a maximum zoom of 2 consumes about 120MB of space. Terrain and road maps consume about 1/10 as much space as satellite or hybrid maps. Clicking the 'Load Map' button will fetch images from Google Maps; note that Google limits how many images you can fetch at once, so if you load more than one launch site, you may get some gray areas in the map which indicate that Google is tired of sending data to you. Try again later. === Preferences .TeleGPS Preferences Window image::telegps-preferences.png[width="2.4in"] AltosUI provides voice announcements during flight so that you can keep your eyes on the sky and still get information about the current flight status. However, sometimes you don't want to hear them. Enable:: Turns all voice announcements on and off Test Voice:: Plays a short message allowing you to verify that the audio system is working and the volume settings are reasonable ==== Log Directory AltosUI logs all telemetry data and saves all TeleMetrum flash data to this directory. This directory is also used as the staring point when selecting data files for display or export. Click on the directory name to bring up a directory choosing dialog, select a new directory and click 'Select Directory' to change where AltosUI reads and writes data files. ==== Callsign This value is transmitted in each command packet sent from TeleDongle and received from an altimeter. It is not used in telemetry mode, as the callsign configured in the altimeter board is included in all telemetry packets. Configure this with the AltosUI operators call sign as needed to comply with your local radio regulations. Note that to successfully command a flight computer over the radio (to configure the altimeter, monitor idle, or fire pyro charges), the callsign configured here must exactly match the callsign configured in the flight computer. This matching is case sensitive. ==== Imperial Units This switches between metric units (meters) and imperial units (feet and miles). This affects the display of values use during flight monitoring, configuration, data graphing and all of the voice announcements. It does not change the units used when exporting to CSV files, those are always produced in metric units. ==== Font Size Selects the set of fonts used in the flight monitor window. Choose between the small, medium and large sets. ==== Serial Debug This causes all communication with a connected device to be dumped to the console from which AltosUI was started. If you've started it from an icon or menu entry, the output will simply be discarded. This mode can be useful to debug various serial communication issues. ==== Manage Frequencies This brings up a dialog where you can configure the set of frequencies shown in the various frequency menus. You can add as many as you like, or even reconfigure the default set. Changing this list does not affect the frequency settings of any devices, it only changes the set of frequencies shown in the menus. === Close This closes the current window, leaving any other windows open and the application running. === Exit This closes all TeleGPS windows and terminates the application. === Connect Device Selecting this item brings up a dialog box listing all of the connected TeleDongle devices. When you choose one of these, AltosUI will display telemetry data as received by the selected TeleDongle device. .Device Selection Dialog image::device-selection.png[width="3.1in"] === Disconnect Disconnects the currently connected TeleDongle or TeleBT === Scan Channels .Radio Scanning Dialog image::telegps-scan.png[width="3.1in"] Scans the configured set of frequencies looking for telemetry signals. A list of all of the discovered signals is show; selecting one of those and clicking on 'Monitor' will select that frequency in the associated TeleGPS application window. === Download Data TeleGPS records data to its internal flash memory. On-board data is recorded at the same rate as telemetry but is not subject to radio drop-outs. As such, it generally provides a more complete and precise record. The 'Download Data' menu entry allows you to read the flash memory and write it to disk. Select the 'Download Data' menu entry to bring up a list of connected TeleGPS devices. After the device has been selected, a dialog showing the data stored in the device will be shown allowing you to select which entries to download and which to delete. You must erase flights in order for the space they consume to be reused by another track. This prevents accidentally losing data if you neglect to download data before starting TeleGPS again. Note that if there is no more space available in the device, then no data will be recorded. The file name for each data log is computed automatically from the recorded date, altimeter serial number and flight number information. === Configure Device .TeleGPS Configuration Dialog image::telegps-configure.png[width="3.6in"] Select this button and then select any connected TeleGPS device from the list provided. The first few lines of the dialog provide information about the connected device, including the product name, software version and hardware serial number. Below that are the individual configuration entries. At the bottom of the dialog, there are four buttons: Save:: This writes any changes to the configuration parameter block in flash memory. If you don't press this button, any changes you make will be lost. Reset:: This resets the dialog to the most recently saved values, erasing any changes you have made. Reboot:: This reboots the device. Use this to switch from idle to pad mode by rebooting once the rocket is oriented for flight, or to confirm changes you think you saved are really saved. Close:: This closes the dialog. Any unsaved changes will be lost. The rest of the dialog contains the parameters to be configured. The rest of the dialog contains the parameters to be configured. ==== Frequency This configures which of the frequencies to use for both telemetry and packet command mode. Note that if you set this value via packet command mode, the TeleDongle frequency will also be automatically reconfigured to match so that communication will continue afterwards. ==== RF Calibration The radios in every Altus Metrum device are calibrated at the factory to ensure that they transmit and receive on the specified frequency. If you need to you can adjust the calibration by changing this value. Do not do this without understanding what the value means, read the appendix on calibration and/or the source code for more information. To change a TeleDongle's calibration, you must reprogram the unit completely. ==== Telemetry/RDF/APRS Enable Enables the radio for transmission during flight. When disabled, the radio will not transmit anything during flight at all. ==== Telemetry baud rate This sets the modulation bit rate for data transmission for both telemetry and packet link mode. Lower bit rates will increase range while reducing the amount of data that can be sent and increasing battery consumption. All telemetry is done using a rate 1/2 constraint 4 convolution code, so the actual data transmission rate is 1/2 of the modulation bit rate specified here. ==== APRS Interval How often to transmit GPS information via APRS (in seconds). When set to zero, APRS transmission is disabled. This option is available on TeleMetrum v2 and TeleMega boards. TeleMetrum v1 boards cannot transmit APRS packets. Note that a single APRS packet takes nearly a full second to transmit, so enabling this option will prevent sending any other telemetry during that time. ==== APRS SSID Which SSID to report in APRS packets. By default, this is set to the last digit of the serial number, but can be configured to any value from 0 to 9. ==== Callsign This sets the call sign included in each telemetry packet. Set this as needed to conform to your local radio regulations. ==== Logging Trigger Motion If TeleGPS moves less than this distance over a long period of time, it will not log that location, saving storage space. ==== Position Reporting Interval This sets how often TeleGPS reports position information via telemetry and to the on-board log. Reducing this value will save power and logging memory consumption. === Flash Device This reprograms TeleGPS devices with new firmware. Please read the directions for flashing devices in the Updating Device Firmware chapter below.