[web/altusmetrum] / TeleMetrum / index.mdwn

# TeleMetrum

This is a recording dual-deploy altimeter for high power model rocketry 
with integrated GPS and telemetry link.  

For the latest TeleMetrum firmware and related ground station software, please
visit the [AltOS](../AltOS) page on this site.

These are photos of the previous production version (we haven't taken good
pictures of v2.0 yet):

<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 ##

### User View ###

* Recording altimeter for model rocketry
* Supports dual deployment (can fire 2 ejection charges)
* 70cm ham-band transceiver for telemetry downlink
* Barometric pressure sensor good to 100k feet MSL
* 1-axis 105-g accelerometer for motor characterization
* On-board, integrated GPS receiver
* 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, can be made to support separate pyro battery
* 2.75 x 1 inch board designed to fit inside 29mm airframe coupler tube

### Developer View ###

* Hardware Features of v2.0
        * ST Micros [STM32L151](http://www.st.com/internet/mcu/product/248821.jsp) ARM Cortex M3 based Microcontroller
        * TI [CC1120](http://www.ti.com/product/cc1120) High Performance RF Transceiver for Narrowband Systems 
        * 150mA 3.3V LDO regulator
        * [Winbond W25Q64CV](http://www.winbond.com/hq/enu/ProductAndSales/ProductLines/FlashMemory/SerialFlash/W25Q64CV.htm) serial flash memory
        * [u-blox](http://www.u-blox.com/) MAX-7Q GPS receiver
                * on-board passive patch antenna
                * async serial interface
        * Measurement Specialties [MS5607](http://www.meas-spec.com/product/t_product.aspx?id=8499) Micro Altimeter Module
                * Wide range — 120kPa to 1kPa (approximately -1500m to 31000m)
                * High precision — 2.4Pa resolution (approximately 20cm at sea level)
                * Factory calibrated.
        * Freescale [MMA6555](http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=MMA65xx&fsrch=1&sr=1) Single Axis SPI Intertial Sensor
                * +- 105g full-scale
                * on-chip 12-bit digitizer
* Software Features
        * Written mostly in C with some ARM assembler
        * Runs from on-chip flash, uses on-chip RAM, stores flight data to serial flash
        * USB serial emulation for "console" interface
* Tools Used
        * [gEDA](http://www.gpleda.org/) for schematic capture and PCB layout
* Licenses
        * 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)

Compared with the v1 series, v2 includes a better GPS (uBlox vs
Skytraq), higher power radio (40mW instead of 10mW), wider range and
more precise pressure sensor (100k' MSL vs 45k' MSL), larger on-board
storage (8MB vs 2MB), more precise, wider range accelerometer (12 bits instead of
10 bits, 105g instead of 70g) and faster processor (32-bit ARM instead
of 8-bit 8051).

## [Production History](../production) ##

## [Flight Logs](flightlogs) ##

## Videos ##

There are a number of TeleMetrum customer and other 
[videos on YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=telemetrum)

## 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 'v2.0' document what we're actually flying 
on the respective PCB revisions.  

For those who don't have ready access to the gEDA suite, here are pdf snapshots
of the files for Production PCB version 2.0 in more easily readable form.  

* [schematic](v2.0/telemetrum-sch.pdf)
* [pcb artwork](v2.0/telemetrum-pcb.pdf)
* [bill of materials](v2.0/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 ##

Prototypes of v2.0 were flown at Airfest 2013 and everything worked
great, except that we're not satisfied with the performance of the GPS
antenna chosen.  We hope to resolve that issue soon and should have
TeleMetrum v2.0 boards for sale shortly.

## [History of TeleMetrum](history) ##