Keith and I both hope to be able to attend "Thunda Down Under"[1] in
2015, and I've sent the organizers email requesting information on what
it takes to be treated as an on-site vendor.
Of course, it's always more fun to be at a launch when you have something
interesting to fly! Thus, while Keith and I might each show up with a
modest "travel rocket" of some sort... I've started pondering possible
larger "Altus Metrum" group projects. Since transporting a large
airframe to Australia would be a hassle, I wonder if a group project to
build an airframe in-country makes more sense? To that end, I'd be
pleased to know if any of our friends and customers in Australia want to
sign up to help with such a project?
My thoughts would be to engage in some group-think about project scope
and goals, then hope friends in-country would take on the sourcing and
preparation of suitable airframe materials. Depending on who wants to
participate and how tasks get taken up, we might plan to arrive a bit
early to help with any final assembly or other preparations,
installation of suitably fresh Altus Metrum electronics, etc.
So, to all our Aussie friends... does this sound like fun? If so,
please chime in with a reply. I don't expect the email associated with
such a project to be too heavy a load for this list to carry, but we can
always spawn a dedicated lists.gag.com list if I'm wrong.
Regards,
Bdale
[1] http://thunda.com.au/
I flew my TeleMega, serial #1639 with 1.4.1 at Balls in a 2 stager.
Ran into a few problems, as follows:
1. Unable to connect in to TeleDongle in idle mode. I had previously
found that I couldn't get a connection with the TeleMega in channels
7-9, so I was using channel 3 for this flight. I was unable to get a
connection in idle mode in Channel 3. I haven't explored other channel
or tried to re-create this problem.
2. RFI issue with Beelines. The rocket had 4 Beeline trackers in it as follows:
- 1x 100mw 70cm GPS aprox 30" above the TeleMega on 434.350
- 1x 70cm beacon aprox 6" below the TeleMega on 438.850
- 1x 16mw 70cm GPS aprox 48" below the TeleMega on 434.350
- 1x 70cm beacon aprox 48" below the TeleMega on 438.350.
With any combination of the beacons turned on, attempting to startup
the TeleMega in pad mode would result in battery voltage beeps, pad
mode beeps followed by silence, on both the radio (I was listening in
to 434.850 on my FT1DR) and buzzer (ie, no continuity beeps). After
spending an afternoon troubleshooting this, it was determined that
turning on any combination of the Beelines prior to startup would
cause this, but turning them on after the TeleMega was transmitting
didn't result in any adverse affects.
In investigating the manual post-flight, I did note the point about
twisting wires, which I did not do on this flight as I hadn't seen it
previously. I'm not certain that that would have fixed the issue or
not. It would be really really great if there was a separate manual
for each product. It's very easy to miss things when you are
intentionally skipping a significant portion of the manual since it
doesn't relate to the product you are interested in. Additionally,
this is the only time I've seen a suggestion in a manual to twist
wires. This comes in a section of the manual, that in most other
rocket electronics manuals, is reserved for things like "how to attach
wires to screw terminals" and "how to not have battery issues", which
experienced fliers have a tendency to already know and skim.
3. Accel calibration with temp. After spending an afternoon at the pad
troubleshooting the above issue, the rocket sat overnight and was
powered up within 30 minutes of sunrise. I was unable to get the
TeleMega into pad mode until it had been in the sun for 10 minutes, at
which point, it went into pad mode and read a Z accel of -5.1m/s/s. We
left the rocket in the sun for the next 45 minutes and in that time,
the Z accel when it was being held vertically had migrated from -5.1
to -3.3 to -2.2 and was continuing its upward trend. The accelerometer
was previously calibrated at room temp 2 weeks prior to the launch.
4. Angle lockout for staging-not so much a bug as it's probably
exactly what it's designed to do, but I had the telemega setup to do
staging and also staging inhibit on a backup timer. The TeleMega was
to stage if conditions were after burnout, >4 seconds into flight, <25
degrees and >400m/s. I had an additional circuit acting to open the
igniter circuit on a timer I was using for backup. This was to occur
if the angle exceeded 25 degrees at any point. Shortly after the
breakup, the inhibit circuit fired as anticipated. What I didn't
expect was for the fire circuit to fire as the rocket rolled back
within 25 degrees of vertical 2 seconds later. Fortunately the igniter
had already ripped out of the motor, so no harm was done, but this
could have been interesting had it not.
Anyway, hopefully this helps alleviate frustration for at least
someone. I understand the issues now and they're more annoyances that
I can live with than anything. As I hadn't seen them documented
previously, I figured I'd put them out there. Let me know if anyone
has further questions or needs more elaboration.
Thanks,
-Andrew
I plugged the TeleBT into the Win7 Enterprise laptop this morning and it inexplicably did what it was supposed to do. The Teledongle still shows up in device manager under "modems" as Telemetrum and is showing a steady red and green light.
In addition, the altimeters are both still showing all red indicators in Monitor Idle, but working perfectly in Monitor Flight.
What am I missing?
Also, all this plugging/unplugging has now made the micro usb fall off of one the altimeters.
{:-{(
d
----- Original Message -----
Okay...got the doggone gadgets home, installed AltosOS 1.5 on my desktop computer running Win7 Home Premium 64 bit, and plugged up the Teledongle.
It installed the drivers for TeleMetrum instead of Teledongle.
I then plugged in TeleBT and it installed the drivers for TeleBT!! I was able to interface with both of my Telemetrum v2 altimeters through "Configure Altimeter"; HOWEVER, when opening "Monitor Idle" I have all red indicators and no readings being
received from either altimeter. I went back to "Configure Altimeter," stood the units upright and rebooted. Opening "Monitor Flight" I'm getting full readings as expected.
Also, I did successfully update the firmware on both altimeters to version 1.5.
I never had any problems at all like this before. I'm going to go back to the shop in the morning and try getting my Win7 Enterprise 32 bit laptop to recognize the TeleBT.
I will update you accordingly.
d
Altus Metrum <altusmetrum(a)lists.gag.com> on Thursday, December 11, 2014 at 1:59 PM -0600 wrote:
>Dennis Oubre <dennis.oubre(a)wacoisd.org> writes:
>
>> I'm baffled.
>
>Me too. You're welcome to send them along to me and I can poke at them
>to see if I can't figure out what happened...
>
>-keith
>_______________________________________________
>altusmetrum mailing list
>altusmetrum(a)lists.gag.com
>http://lists.gag.com/mailman/listinfo/altusmetrum
Hmm, mine battery was DOA. Casey gave me his battery, removed the current
protector, seemed nominal 3.7V.
However, after leaving it on charge for about 4 hours, there was no led
showing.
I turn it on I get a red LED and some beeps (sounds like its going ok), but
no radio signal picked up by base station.
Sounds like: dash-dash-dash LONG PAUSE dash-dash PAUSE dit-dit
When I put it into charge again though it shows a yellow/orange color --
which the manual says is a bad battery?
Any ideas, or do I need to just order some new batteries?
Cheers,
Winton
On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 10:33 AM, Winton H. E. Davies <
wdavies(a)cs.stanford.edu> wrote:
> Cool!
>
> Thanks so much Casey!
>
> W
>
> On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 10:30 AM, Casey Barker <casey(a)barkerzone.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Yeah, 2pm is fine. I'm at US-MTV-CYD-1, which is at 1300 Villa Street.
>> Take the first entrance off of Villa, then drive back and around the east
>> end of the campus to find the 1300 door. You should have access to that
>> lobby, but the rest of the building is locked down. Ping me on IM when you
>> get here.
>>
>> If a charger is going to work, it should only take a few minutes. If not,
>> we might have a cell that you can use.
>>
>> Casey
>>
>> On Fri Dec 05 2014 at 9:57:48 AM Winton H. E. Davies <
>> wdavies(a)cs.stanford.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Casey,
>>>
>>> No joy with the USB charging over-night. :-(
>>>
>>> What's your office location - will 2pm work?
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Winton
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 10:41 PM, Winton H. E. Davies <
>>> wdavies(a)cs.stanford.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Cool - I'll have my car with me if this thing doesn't boot in the
>>>> morning, I'll ping you after lunch. I have a pre-existing lunch appointment
>>>> in MTV tomorrow.
>>>>
>>>> W
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 10:12 PM, Casey Barker <casey(a)barkerzone.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hey Winton,
>>>>>
>>>>> Definitely try what Keith suggests. In my limited experience, LiPos
>>>>> usually perk back up just fine unless you actually drain them too low with
>>>>> a load.
>>>>>
>>>>> Failing that, I just moved to an off-campus lab, where we have a whole
>>>>> rack of beefy LiPo chargers. :) It's not far, though. Ping me tomorrow
>>>>> afternoon and we can meet up. There's even a shuttle, if you'd like to
>>>>> swing by. Or maybe I could make LUNAR lunch...
>>>>>
>>>>> Casey
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu Dec 04 2014 at 9:55:13 PM Winton H. E. Davies <
>>>>> wdavies(a)cs.stanford.edu> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> ew, I don't have a regular charger. Any chance you have one I could
>>>>>> borrow from you tomorrow (Im down in MTV).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> W
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 9:38 PM, Casey Barker <casey(a)barkerzone.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi Winton,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Not sure if this is the issue or not, but I've several times had
>>>>>>> LiPos fall below the minimum voltage needed to satisfy the charge circuit.
>>>>>>> Usually, you just need to "jump start" it, either with a "real" lipo
>>>>>>> charger, or a current-limited bench supply, or even just a big
>>>>>>> resistor and another 3.7V lipo cell. Once there's enough charge in the
>>>>>>> cell, the regular charge circuit will work again.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Casey
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Thu Dec 04 2014 at 9:22:44 PM Winton H. E. Davies <
>>>>>>> wdavies(a)cs.stanford.edu> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hi, I haven't used my Altusmetrum for a year or so. Battery seems
>>>>>>>> completely flat. When I connect to the USB cable no LEDs come on, unless I
>>>>>>>> press the on-switch, at which point I get a red and yellow flashing at the
>>>>>>>> same time and a constant be-be-be-be-be-be-be-be-be -- Any ideas? Scared it
>>>>>>>> might have died!! Have a launch Saturday morning!
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Winton
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> (also copied to Facebook).
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> altusmetrum mailing list
>>>>>>>> altusmetrum(a)lists.gag.com
>>>>>>>> http://lists.gag.com/mailman/listinfo/altusmetrum
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> altusmetrum mailing list
>>>>>>> altusmetrum(a)lists.gag.com
>>>>>>> http://lists.gag.com/mailman/listinfo/altusmetrum
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> altusmetrum mailing list
>>>>>> altusmetrum(a)lists.gag.com
>>>>>> http://lists.gag.com/mailman/listinfo/altusmetrum
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> altusmetrum mailing list
>>>>> altusmetrum(a)lists.gag.com
>>>>> http://lists.gag.com/mailman/listinfo/altusmetrum
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>
Hi, I haven't used my Altusmetrum for a year or so. Battery seems
completely flat. When I connect to the USB cable no LEDs come on, unless I
press the on-switch, at which point I get a red and yellow flashing at the
same time and a constant be-be-be-be-be-be-be-be-be -- Any ideas? Scared it
might have died!! Have a launch Saturday morning!
Winton
(also copied to Facebook).
