It's been a busy time since Airfest... hence, time to decloak this project a bit more:
Introducing the RTx System (Rocket Telematics)
From Wikipedia:
Telematics as an interdisciplinary field encompasses telecommunications, vehicular technologies, road transportation, road safety, electrical engineering (sensors, instrumentation, wireless communications, etc.), and computer science (multimedia, Internet, etc.).
We're applying all of the above disciplines to rocketry... simply substitute "air" for "road" and you'll get the notion as to what the RTx system is about.
I've finally completed my top-down scrub of the RTx System. I'll finally be sending out Alpha hardware evaluation systems to a select few who will start the Phase 1 Beta Tests of the RTx firmware. These may be coming to a lunch near you, and if so you can take a look at the system and its capabilities:
Midwest Power XIII - CJ Hendricksen and the Wildman Rocketry team will be testing.
Tripoli Vegas Oktoberfest - Jon Skuba and the Moto-Joe team will also be testing.
I should also be able to put together a 3rd system for handoff, and I'm not sure at this point where it will land... (pun intended)
As mentioned, this is "Phase 1" of my beta tests... Phase 2 will entail use of new Beta Hardware along with a new mDACS app and a new RRC3 Firmware release (more details to come soon on the specifics for these new releases).
The RTx System goes way beyond the notion of a radio downlinked GPS stream... it provides operation in it's simplest form as a non-radio GPS logging device, to it's most complex operations that support multiplexed GPS/RRC3 status that can marry up in dozens of configurations to best suit your projects and your budget. One board operates "in rocket" or as a "base station" with nothing more than the flip of 3 DIP switches.
This produces 8 unique modes of operation:
ROCKET - Comm Modes
0 GPS Only Logger
1 GPS Only Downlink
2 GPS RRC3 Downlink
BASE - Comm Modes
3 RRC3 Only Base (RRC3 modem only)
4 GPS Only Base
5 GPS RRC3 Base
6 GPS Only AutoNAV Base
7 GPS RRC3 AutoNAV Base
The RTx system utilizes the extremely capable uBlox 7 GPS chipset operating at a 10Hz refresh rate, while also utilizing the new "high dynamics" mode of operation for quick re-acquisition once you coast back into the sonic region (<1000 fps). The RTx also supports multiple orientations of its specially detuned patch antenna (tuned for embedding), conventionally lying flat on the main board, or oriented skyward for the most optimal satellite constellation reception using our specially designed 3D-printed support brace:
The RTx System is 100% plug and play ready with the RRC3 and all the existing m3 modules. We're also adding a new combination Bluetooth/RF Modem module to further enhance the function and operations of the RRC3 and RTx systems. The RTx system uses the standard 250mW XBee 900 MHz ISM Radio system, and will also support the 1W Laird 900 MHz ISM radio (via the modem board) to provide booming, interference free downlink capabilities.
The RTx board supports (6) unique multi-format live data stream outputs via our USB-IO or new Bluetooth module and is ready to operate with Google PlayStore apps like "
Rocket Locator" and "
Bluetooth GPS", and our upcoming Android "RTx" app.
If you have an existing LCDT module, the RTx system also displays (5) live LCD "stream screens" using our LCDT module:
- Rocket Lat/Lon
- GPS Detail (sats, elevation, velocity, course and speed over ground)
- RRC3 Status screen (elevation, events, velocity, temperature, mission clock, and
battery voltage)
- AutoNAV screen (distance/bearing to rocket with your current bearing/speed over ground)
- Battery & Up Time (rocket and base unit)
The base station RTx board also supports its own ground based GPS for a 100% autonomous real-time navigational solution, or use it in tandem with your smart phone, tablet, or handheld GPS system for navigation to the landing area. GPS coordinate data is provided in (4) unique formats so there's no fumbling when entering data into a 3rd party app or your handheld GPS. We even let you select imperial or metric units as well!
DECIMAL MINUTES // ddmm.mmmmm
DEGREES / MINUTES // dd mm.mmmm
DECIMAL DEGREES // dd.dddddd
DEGREES / MINUTES / SECONDS dd mm ss.sss
That's what I got for now... one final note, the price will also be very likeable when you stack up all that this system will able to deliver.