BRB 900 GPS Transmitter / Receiver

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bigredbee

bigredbee

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The final round of boards has arrived, so I'm preparing to take orders, but have no idea what the demand for this will be.

Raise your hand and send me an email ([email protected]) if this is something you might be interested in.


1) Base model: Everything you need for both the transmit and receive side, but requires a PC on the receive side, no data storage on the rocket side. Price, about $325, and includes rechargeable battery, battery charger, and USB interface to change transmit parameters.

2) LCD version: Complete handheld solution. No PC required. Handheld receiver includes 3x16 line LCD, USB interface for logging data on your computer if you wish, Battery and integrated charger. Rocket side contains microcontroller for data logging (~ 20 minutes at 1 Hz, viewable in Google Earth) , and G_switch for launch detection. Price, about $450.

Both utilize a 100 mw 900 Mhz spread spectrum transmitter (no license required!)

I've got a bunch of work to do regarding documentation, and a bit of firmware, but things are far enough along that I know the will work.

Questions?

A preliminary web-page is here:

https://bigredbee.com/brbxb.htm

Greg Clark TRA 7960 K7RKT BigRedBee, LLC
 
$325 plus a household laptop seems reasonable enough to know where an expensive project ended up.

How smart does the laptop (or user) have to be? Does it need to have an internet/cell connection in the field?

When will these be de-bugged and ready to ship?

Scott
 
Nothing special required.

At a minimum, you need to display the serial data stream using something like Hyperterm to view the raw NMEA sentences that contain Lat/Lon/altitude.

other programs like "Visual GPS" will do a better job of parsing and displaying the data, but it's not necessary.

No internet connection is required.
 
Thanks to everyone that has expressed an interested in this product, I've even had some inquiries for some really strange non rocketry applications. Funny what people come up with.

I just learned that the radio modules are on back order until mid-November. All the other hardware is up and running, so I guess I have a couple of weeks to get my documentation in order!

If you're interested in getting on "the list", please let me what configuration you would like, and I'll ship things out on a first come, first served basis. I'll notify you and accept payment when I'm ready to ship.

Product pricing details are available here under "Mega Deals" in the shopping cart, and the interface software can be downloaded from the link below it (after I get the page changed)

https://www.bigredbee.com/brbzc/
https://bigredbee.com/brb900.htm

-- Greg
 
bigredbee said:
The final round of boards has arrived, so I'm preparing to take orders, but have no idea what the demand for this will be.

Raise your hand and send me an email ([email protected]) if this is something you might be interested in.


1) Base model: Everything you need for both the transmit and receive side, but requires a PC on the receive side, no data storage on the rocket side. Price, about $325, and includes rechargeable battery, battery charger, and USB interface to change transmit parameters.

2) LCD version: Complete handheld solution. No PC required. Handheld receiver includes 3x16 line LCD, USB interface for logging data on your computer if you wish, Battery and integrated charger. Rocket side contains microcontroller for data logging (~ 20 minutes at 1 Hz, viewable in Google Earth) , and G_switch for launch detection. Price, about $450.

Both utilize a 100 mw 900 Mhz spread spectrum transmitter (no license required!)

I've got a bunch of work to do regarding documentation, and a bit of firmware, but things are far enough along that I know the will work.

Questions?

A preliminary web-page is here:

https://bigredbee.com/brbxb.htm

Greg Clark TRA 7960 K7RKT BigRedBee, LLC
Click to expand...
Hey Greg
On the LCD version how do you tell if the receiver is currently receiving data.
 
It would appear the BRB, Marsa 4 and TLA GPS units are having the same issues - shortage of parts.
 
lmt56 said:
Hey Greg
On the LCD version how do you tell if the receiver is currently receiving data.
Click to expand...

The screen will flash as the new info is received. A portion of the timestamp is also displayed, so you'll see the "seconds" portion of the GPS time update every time a new packet is received.
 
cwbullet said:
It would appear the BRB, Marsa 4 and TLA GPS units are having the same issues - shortage of parts.
Click to expand...

Yes -- interesting, eh? BRB and TLA use the same RF module, whereas the other two use the same GPS modules for what it's worth. There have been a lot more component shortages in the last year or so compared to any other time I've been doing this, and it's not just complicated parts, either. I've seen voltage regulator and crystal shortages that have lasted for months.
 
bigredbee said:
The screen will flash as the new info is received. A portion of the timestamp is also displayed, so you'll see the "seconds" portion of the GPS time update every time a new packet is received.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that info.
What kind of range does the transmitter/reciever combo have if the tramsmitter is lying on the ground?
ie. once the rocket has landed.
I know terrain factors come into play.
Lets say you are flying at a site like Argonia and loose GPS lock/data during flight.
On recovery how close would you need to be to reaquire the signal?
 
Well, that depends a lot on the terrain, and the soil composition. Worst case on 'lake bed conditions', I'd give it a mile or two. But, I'd certainly expect that you'd re-gain lock on the way down, making this a purely academic discussion.

-- Greg
 

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