Altos1.4

Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:48:15 -0700
tags/rockets

AltOS 1.4 — TeleGPS support, features and bug fixes

Bdale and I are pleased to announce the release of AltOS version 1.4.

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 TeleGPS board and a host of new features and bug fixes

AltOS Firmware — TeleGPS added, new features and fixes

Our new tracker, TeleGPS, works quite differently than a flight computer

Starts tracking and logging at power-on

Disables RF and logging only when connected to USB

Doesn't log position when it isn't moving for a long time.

TeleGPS transmits our digital telemetry protocol, APRS and radio direction finding beacons.

For TeleMega, we've made the firing time for the additional pyro channels (A-D) configurable, in case the default (50ms) isn't long enough.

AltOS Beeping Changes

The three-beep startup tones have been replaced with a report of the current battery voltage. This is nice on all of the board, but particularly useful with EasyMini which doesn't have the benefit of telemetry reporting its state.

We also changed the other state tones to "Farnsworth" spacing. This makes them all faster, and easier to distinguish from the numeric reports of voltage and altitude.

Finally, we've added the ability to change the frequency of the beeper tones. This is nice when you have two Altus Metrum flight computers in the same ebay and want to be able to tell the beeps apart.

AltOS Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug which prevented you from using TeleMega's extra pyro channel 'Flight State After' configuration value.

AltOS 1.3.2 on TeleMetrum v2.0 and TeleMega would reset the flight number to 2 after erasing flights; that's been fixed.

AltosUI — New Maps, igniter tab and a few fixes

With TeleGPS tracks now potentially ranging over a much wider area than a typical rocket flight, the Maps interface has been updated to include zooming and multiple map styles. It also now uses less memory, which should make it work on a wider range of systems.

For TeleMega, we've added an 'Igniter' tab to the flight monitor interface so you can check voltages on the extra pyro channels before pushing the button.

We're hoping that the new Maps interface will load and run on machines with limited memory for Java applications; please let us know if this changes anything for you.

TeleGPS — All new application just for TeleGPS

While TeleGPS shares the same telemetry and data logging capabilities as all of the Altus Metrum flight computers, its use as a tracker is expected to be both broader and simpler than the rocketry-specific systems. We've build a custom TeleGPS application that incorporates the mapping and data visualization aspects of AltosUI, but eliminates all of the rocketry-specific flight state tracking.