Altos1.5

Sat, 13 Sep 2014 11:47:42 -0700
tags/rockets

AltOS 1.5 — EasyMega support, features and bug fixes

Bdale and I are pleased to announce the release of AltOS version 1.5.

AltOS is the core of the software for all of the Altus Metrum products. It consists of firmware for our cc1111, STM32L151, LPC11U14 and ATtiny85 based electronics and Java-based ground station software.

This is a major release of AltOS, including support for our new EasyMega board and a host of new features and bug fixes

AltOS Firmware — EasyMega added, new features and fixes

Our new flight computer, EasyMega, is a TeleMega without any radios:

9 DoF IMU (3 axis accelerometer, 3 axis gyroscope, 3 axis compass).

Orientation tracking using the gyroscopes (and quaternions, which are lots of fun!)

Four fully-programmable pyro channels, in addition to the usual apogee and main channels.

AltOS Changes

We've made a few improvements in the firmware:

The APRS secondary station identifier (SSID) is now configurable by the user. By default, it is set to the last digit of the serial number.

Continuity of the four programmable pyro channels on EasyMega and TeleMega is now indicated via the beeper. Four tones are sent out after the continuity indication for the apogee and main channels with high tones indicating continuity and low tones indicating an open circuit.

Configurable telemetry data rates. You can now select among 38400 (the previous value, and still the default), 9600 or 2400 bps. To take advantage of this, you'll need to reflash your TeleDongle or TeleBT.

AltOS Bug Fixes

We also fixed a few bugs in the firmware:

TeleGPS had separate flight logs, one for each time the unit was turned on. Turning the unit on to test stuff and turning it back off would consume one of the flight log 'slots' on the board; once all of the slots were full, no further logging would take place. Now, TeleGPS appends new data to an existing single log.

Increase the maximum computed altitude from 32767m to 2147483647m. Back when TeleMetrum v1.0 was designed, we never dreamed we'd be flying to 100k' or more. Now that's surprisingly common, and so we've increased the size of the altitude data values to fit modern rocketry needs.

Continuously evaluate pyro firing condition during delay period. The previous firmware would evaluate the pyro firing requirements, and once met, would delay by the indicated amount and then fire the channel. If the conditions had changed state, the channel would still fire. Now, the conditions are continuously evaluated during the delay period and if they change state, the event is suppressed.

Allow negative values in the pyro configuration. Now you can select a negative speed to indicate a descent rate or a negative acceleration value to indicate acceleration towards the ground.

AltosUI and TeleGPS — EasyMega support, OS integration and more

The AltosUI and TeleGPS applications have a few changes for this release:

EasyMega support. That was a simple matter of adapting the existing TeleMega support.

Added icons for our file types, and hooked up the file manager so that AltosUI, TeleGPS and/or MicroPeak are used to view any of our data files.

Configuration support for APRS SSIDs, and telemetry data rates.