Skip to content

Updates

Introducing Copilot Control

You can now create and send custom messages (and more!)

  • Create and send messages with any available GPS data
  • Create and send messages by using your own sensors (via I2C, ADC)
  • Send up to 5 custom messages in every 10 minute window

Overview

Copilot Control makes makes these new features available, and the Enhanced Telemetry Dashboard will automatically graph and tabulate the data you send.

In addition to lots of documentation explaining the details, there is a Walkthrough that covers the basics in a front-to-back example.

This new functionality does not change the way you use Jetpack today.

Continue to use Jetpack as you have, and use the additional functionality if/when you like.

Maiden Flight

Here (link) is the maiden flight of the new system, using both a BME280 and BMP280, sending 2 custom messages within each 10 minute window, following Basic Telemetry.

GPS Analysis from First Airborne ET Flight

Overview

I wanted to share some very interesting GPS data collected during the first flight of an Extended Telemetry UserDefind message set carrying GPS stats.

The results challenge some of my established beliefs about GPS performance relating to lock time. Some more epxeriments will shed more light on this.

The results have provided new insight and evidence into an ongoing mystery about why my tracker almost always has a 1-hour blackout period on initial launch before transmissions are received.

Major Takeaway Summary

Summary

  • The GPS appears to have a huge problem with getting locks while rising
    • Compared to, say, staying at ground level, or floating at altitude
    • Not seemingly correlated with ground speed
  • There is approximately a 1 hour period of time from launch in my area (NYC area) to first transmission, seemingly due to GPS inability to get a lock
  • The number of Chinese GPS satellites visible in flight rises significantly during flight

Telemetry's Future

Overview

Common telemetry questions:

  • Where is telemetry documented? (For implementation or curiosity)
  • Can telemetry be extended? And to what?
    • Who decides these things?

This change aims to answer those questions and provide a path forward.

Short answer -- it's documented here, we can extend it, and we all get to decide how.

Bar Chart of daily metrics

This entry is based on a converted groups.io post, put here for any documentation value.

Update, new graph available showing daily counts.

eg total spots per day:

It is found under the Detailed Graphs section, so not visible by default without a click on first page load.

You can look at the count for a number of metrics:

You can also see in local or UTC time:

I found it interesting in general, but also due to my father's flight (link) which repeatedly has been so far North that it's getting 24 hours of sun. Looking at the spot counts, multiple days have received the maximum number of spots possible (144). Nice!

As usual, this, and all other changes, work for old flights, too, so feel free to look at old flights which might be interesting!

Thanks.

Doug

Data Column cleanup (order, colors)

This entry is based on a converted groups.io post, put here for any documentation value.

Small update -- the column headers of the data table on the dashboard are now colored and grouped more intelligently for easier reading.

Map and DateTime columns remain in the same order and color, but the times are partitioned off from the Map column.

The Regular message is now Green, and partitioned.

The Encoded message is now LightPink and partitioned along with some (not all) of the decoded values from the Encoded message.

In short, you can ignore everything in LightPink unless you have a reason to look at it. Everything in the LightPink will be reflected in other columns in some actually-useful way or another, so there's unlikely to be anything here you want to look at on a regular basis.

Grid and Voltage are colored and partitioned away from the other metrics because they aren't metric/imperial values, they are a single unit we all understand.

The altitude, temperature, tracker-reported speed, gps speed, and distance traveled are now colored and partitioned, each now grouped within that set of data where the units are metric or imperial.

The same approach is done for the channel-less mode, which has far fewer columns.

Thanks.

Doug

Receving Station support

This entry is based on a converted groups.io post, put here for any documentation value.

Update - initial support for receiving station data.

Wondering which stations received your transmission? The map now indicates (purple dots).

By default, the latest spot rx stations will be visible.

You can mouse over any spot, though, and its receiving stations will become visible.

If you click on a spot, the spot popup appears, and freezes the rx stations on the map until you close the popup.

If you want to see behind the popup, you can actually just scroll the map to the left or right, and when the world wraps around, all the spots and rx stations are visible, but no popup. (this is kind of a hack).

If you don't want to see rx stations, there is a new "R" button in the upper-right corner. Click it to disable all rx spots. Click again to re-enable.

For the moment, the R-button affects all search pages together, and is remembered after you close and re-open the page. So it's basically a site-wide on/off switch. Let me know if that matches your desire or not (and what you'd rather see for functionality).

There are two new columns added, counting the number of rx stations which heard your regular and encoded transmission.

Note -- the number of rx stations heard can/will differ from the number of points on the map. The columns show how many of each were heard. For a telemetry spot, though, the fingerprinting must match up the regular and encoded. The number of stations where fingerprinting was effective is what is shown on the map.

At the moment this functionality isn't yet implemented for channel-less search.

Thanks.

Doug

Show/Hide units, encoded data

This entry is based on a converted groups.io post, put here for any documentation value.

Update, you can now select fewer columns to show in the data table (since it's so wide now).

Before:

After:

This is controlled by a new (initially hidden) Data Table Control, found directly above the Data Table. Click the title to reveal the control panel.

Raw Columns - Hide: hide all the columns which aren't directly useful, since they are just the inputs for computing the actually-useful columns.

The Raw Columns are:

  • DateTimeUtc
  • EncCall
  • EncGrid
  • EncPower
  • GpsValid
  • Grid56
  • AltMRaw
  • Knots

The Units selector lets you decide between the metrics being displayed in Metric, Imperial, or Both.

Both of the selections apply to any balloon you track, and are remembered when you close and reopen any search page.

Downloads from the Data Table still have the full contents, this is just a display feature, the data is all still there.

Thanks.

Doug