Next Gen Altimeters from Jolly Logic

Yesterday Jolly Logic introduced new versions of AltimeterOne and AltimeterTwo. I thought you guys might appreciate a little behind-the-scenes perspective.




In some respects, these are what I'd like to have designed when the first versions were introduced. We've learned a lot, and it's rolled into these versions.

Here's a partial list of the improvements:

1. Easier to understand displays (fonts, complete words, animated menus)
2. Bigger, more reliable battery
3. Larger, more rugged and convenient tether point
4. Internal cushioning for components
5. User-replaceable parts
6. Stores your last 100 flights
7. Switch from built-in USB plug to universal Micro-B connector

The last item, the addition of a cable, is one that I resisted. But creating a built-in plug wasn't without issues; it didn't fit everywhere, and it could even be mistakenly plugged in upside down. The nice thing about the Micro-B connector is that it's as close to universal as it gets for mobile devices. Odds are you have a Micro-B charger in the house somewhere (if you have a headset or an Android phone, you may have one). If you don't, the included cable fits anywhere, and Micro-B cables and chargers are cheap and widely available.

We will soon introduce a new Snap Mount for these. If your rocket has a payload sled, you can attach the mount to it, then just snap the altimeter in. Makes it easier to move an altimeter from rocket to rocket.



Part of the impetus for moving to a different, shared, form-factor was provided by the upcoming AltimeterThree, which adds a Bluetooth radio, flash storage, and an Apple encryption chip. Stay tuned!

Fantastic stuff, John!

What's this about flight numbers on the displays? Do they now keep a running count of how many times they've been flown (like the Pnut does) or.....?

BEC,
Ha! Thanks for reminding me: they now store your last 100 flights with a new History feature.

I'm at the tipping point where I'll have more altimeters than flyable birds-this is the excuse I need to build more! Thanks John-great upgrades. These are some sexy looking units!

Those look fantastic! I really like the mounting clip. Have the prices been announced?

Will the alt 3 work with android devices?

Those look fantastic. I love my old One and Two, but these new displays are definitely nicer. That's a lot of improvements on something that's always worked flawlessly, nicely done.

Pricing stays the same.
Yes, the AltimeterThree will work with Android. Android is easy. It could have been out already for Android, but I just want to offer a single version, and you can use it on either. Hope that makes sense.

John Beans said:

Pricing stays the same.
Yes, the AltimeterThree will work with Android. Android is easy. It could have been out already for Android, but I just want to offer one version, and you can us it on either. Hope that makes sense.

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Yep. Thanks!

I saw this new display and more specifically the A3 at NARCON and these new units are awesome looking and the added feature set is also a bonus.

Website with more info and where to buy with shipping too the UK??


Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum

Any estimate on when the altimeter 3 will be available?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Rocketry Forum mobile app

Looks like another great product. Now I won't have to carry around the paper to see what all the read outs mean.

crossfire said:

Looks like another great product. Now I won't have to carry around the paper to see what all the read outs mean.

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Yeah, the old AltimeterTwo prompts WERE cryptic, weren't they?
That's a legacy of the original AltimeterOne display, which used a stock blood pressure display. We had seven segments in four characters whose purpose was really only intended to show numbers. Now, the displays are made custom for us to our specs.

Here's a behind-the-scenes nerd-fact: the font used in the new generation was created in Microsoft Excel. Each letter was hand-crafted black bit by black bit, then Excel would compute the c-code needed to generate them. The resulting code was copied from Excel and pasted into the firmware. When I needed a new character, I'd add a row in Excel, design the character, then recopy.

So what new features is the Altimeter 3 going to offer?


Jerome

John Beans said:

Pricing stays the same.
Yes, the AltimeterThree will work with Android. Android is easy. It could have been out already for Android, but I just want to offer one version, and you can us it on either. Hope that makes sense.

Click to expand...

At least one Altimeter 2 reserved! Love the nerd factoid. Wizard, my man, absolutely wizard!

AltimeterThree is controlled from your smartphone or tablet. It automatically uploads the flight and shows you the altitude plot of your flight. You can pinch-zoom and scroll around, and mark points. Then you can share the flight via email, Facebook, etc. I should note that one of the sharing options is a friendly Excel file that has nicely marked columns and even a page with the altitude and acceleration graphs already showing.

Folks at LUNAR launches here in N California are figuring out that when I stand there holding up my phone, I'm not taking pictures--I'm hitting the Record button on my phone.

As a side note, I think it's very reassuring to see the battery level of your altimeter in real time as you stand back from the pad. There's a bunch of other little cool aspects to it, but this isn't supposed to be an announcement...

Subject to change during testing, naturally:

Pyropetepete said:

Website with more info and where to buy with shipping too the UK??


Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum

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You can buy from https://www.jollylogic.com/store. We ship everywhere.

As a side note (if anyone cares), we're pretty agnostic as to where you buy our products. We make a little more money if you purchase directly from our website, but our resellers work for their margin and deserve every bit of it. So we're happy no matter where you buy.

fyrwrxz said:

I'm at the tipping point where I'll have more altimeters than flyable birds-this is the excuse I need to build more! Thanks John-great upgrades. These are some sexy looking units!

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I see nothing wrong with this approach.

John Beans said:

Here's a behind-the-scenes nerd-fact: the font used in the new generation was created in Microsoft Excel. Each letter was hand-crafted black bit by black bit, then Excel would compute the c-code needed to generate them. The resulting code was copied from Excel and pasted into the firmware. When I needed a new character, I'd add a row in Excel, design the character, then recopy.

Click to expand...

I can appreciate what a pain it must have been to get that setup in Excel. I wish I had known what you were trying to do as I might have been able to save you ssome time and effort. The open-source graphics editor "gimp" (GNU image manipulation Program) has the ability to export graphic files as C-style ".c" or ".h" files. I currently use this feature at work, and it makes embedding bitmaps into code a snap!

Anyway, I love the new designs for the altimeters, and I can't wait to get my hands on A3! Also, I think it was a very smart decision to switch to using a micro USB charging cable instead of the molded plug. The tang of the molded plug was too short, and I was never able to use the first gen altimeter with any the USB ports on my Apple hardware. I was forced to use a makeshift USB extension cable. Switching to the charging cable is a sensible and (for me) very welcome change!

Regards,
-Robert

rhildinger said:

I can appreciate what a pain it must have been to get that setup in Excel. I wish I had known what you were trying to do as I might have been able to save you ssome time and effort. The open-source graphics editor "gimp" (GNU image manipulation Program) has the ability to export graphic files as C-style ".c" or ".h" files.

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Thanks for the tip. There are a number of graphics frameworks and utilities that I looked at, including some from Microchip (whose microcontrollers I use). A consumer product needs to be very "down to the metal." So I needed to distill a font down to a multi-dimensional array of bytes that the font engine I wrote could blast onto the LCD. It ended up being very efficient, and can completely update the display in about a millisecond.

To boil it down, I think the product benefits from "doing a lot of design and development work so that it runs fast" versus "using frameworks and tools that make the design stage easy." Hopefully I'm explaining that clearly. My motto is, "put in the time during design and development so that the product and the user have less they have to do all the time." Not very pithy, I know...

John, your customer service is outstanding! I got an A2, and loved it so much I sent my dad one for Christmas! Now I'm anxious for the Altimeter 3! Being able to upload it to my Android just made my day!!

John (or as I like to call him, "Dan") showed me these altimeters at a LUNAR launch a week ago, and they looked great! The fonts are much easier to read. And the AltimeterThree ap is great! I'm looking forward to one of those.

Any hints on pricing for the A3?

Dunno on pricing. Probably $99. Apple exacts a toll. Etc.

John Beans said:

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Wow, that was a late ejection......

Good eye, though you realize you're calling me on something like, 3.5 seconds, right?

For me, that's pretty good...

Dang! Now I'm going to need an Altimeter 3.

It will go nicely with my A1 and A2.

John,

Is it possible to resurrect an altimeter 2 if the battery has worn down to zero? I can't seem to get either of my two A2s to charge up.

Steve

John Beans said:

You can buy from https://www.jollylogic.com/store. We ship everywhere.

As a side note (if anyone cares), we're pretty agnostic as to where you buy our products. We make a little more money if you purchase directly from our website, but our resellers work for their margin and deserve every bit of it. So we're happy no matter where you buy.

Click to expand...

Your here answering my questions and helping me. I can only reward that with thanks and shipping directly. As our local supermarket Tesco's says ''Every little helps''

BEC said:

Wow, that was a late ejection......

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To me, that is the beauty of an altimeter that records this amount of data. You can get data on things like ejection timing, descent rates, etc. and make adjustments for the next flight.