The Easy Mega is a TeleMega without the 70cm GPS tracker that anyone can use. I saw on my club website that 2 stagers above an "I" will not be allowed unless there is some sort of vertical testing involved a' la Raven or RRC3.
The Easy Mega of course is a $300.00 investment and the Tilt-o-Meter is out of production due to an essential part no longer being made.
Now I believe the TeleMega could be tracked via simple APRS for recovery but the rich realtime data would not be available. If one wanted to save money, there are some more economical receiving options..... But if one uses a "native" Altus Metrum receiving device, a whole passel of information is telemetered at a much higher rate than APRS can do. Antennawise? The deal there is how far do you expect the project to go? Many folks use a simple antenna on their receiver for the low powered 16mW Beeline GPS trackers. If one is going to expect the rocket to land several miles away an Arrow yagi could be invested in. I've never had to
use my Arrow to track a BLGPS but my projects have never gone farther than 1.5 miles. Yes I lose the signal when the rocket lands at that distance but the last position is frozen in the map. I proceed to the rocket and open the squelch of the radio and I can
sometimes hear a weak APRS signal coming in. The radio can't decode it but I'm then confident that as I get closer a decodeable packet will arrive for a final "resting place" location.
I will admit, I'm addicted to the HSI (Heading Situation Indicator) on my Garmin 60Cs handheld GPS. Run a single wire from the radio receiver to the serial port on the 60Cs and the rocket (waypoint) is tracked on a map in realtime. I lock the 60Cs to the rocket
while it is on the pad and "command" the unit to "navigate to" the rocket waypoint. The 60Cs computes the "heading to" while the rocket is in flight. I can scroll from the map to the HSI at will. The map will tell me while in flight what direction to look for the main deployment. The screen on the radio will give me the MSL GPS altitude so I can tell by the rate of descent if the apogee event occurred and the drogue is out. Also when the main is out can notice a further slowing in the rate of descent. All this is helpful if
you can't see the rocket. I've had five flights with a Wildman Jr. that were completely nominal and nobody saw any "events". Walk up to the rocket and it's obvious it performed nominally. Incidentally without tracking, the rocket
wouldn't have been "found" all five times so I consider my investment has paid for itself. Yes, APRS is quite an investment but 7 years ago, it was all that was available. The "unlicensed" options were more or as pricey as the
Ham radio APRS devices back then.
My view on tracking with a laptop: A laptop should only be used to record a flight and the data points. There are a variety of APRS tracking programs out there. The only one that will record and playback the flight in real time is
UI-View. It is going to be very difficult to use UI-View as a commercial mapping program that worked with it is no longer available. Xastir will record a flight and replot the saved data points but will not record or playback in real time like UIView.
Laptops should be considered stationary receiving stations. Triapsing about with one would be a real PITA. One needs to consider a portable solution like I outline above so they can actually carry with them to the rocket in case they
need to re-acquire a position packet on the fly to "home-in" on the rocket. PLUS. Hard to read a laptop screen in direct sunlight. I put a magmount antenna on the roof of my SUV and lock the laptop in the vehicle to record the flight if I'm so
inclined that day. Otherwise I just use the handheld tracking station if I don't want to do the hassle of setting up the station.
The EggFinder and EggFinder TRS are a nice economical option that doesn't require a ham license that has one interesting advantage. Instead of a once every 5 seconds update rate that APRS beacons, it sends the position once a second as long as the system isn't locked out due to G forces or high Mach. The disadvantage is the GPS chipset is SIRF4 that is optimized for terrestial use and the altitude values can only be trusted as far as the trending goes.
The unit was designed to be economical so this isn't necessarily a problem because if you find your rocket, you can download the "accurate" data off your electronics. SIRF4 gives nicely accurate lat/long for recovery.
The TRS with the LCD receiver goes one step further and instead of the GPS altitude, once locked, it telemeters the baro altitude from the baro chip corrected for the launcher ground level. So it is a pretty accurate AGL indicator that one can read at the receiver.
There is an Android Ap usable with the EggFinders, GPS rocket locator, that is pretty nice when it works but it helps to have a backup handheld mapping GPS one can manually input the lat/long from an EggFinder LCD receiver.
There is a way to record a flight with Xastir using the EggFinder by using a Python script to convert the incoming EF position data to APRS that can be read by Xastir. A fellow on the Xastir board sent it to me. EggFinders and APRS are not compatible. Think of the EggFinder and TRS as simply a USB GPS receiver without the cable.....hence the 1/sec update rate. I will say the 1/sec data points looks pretty neat on a map.
The 900Mhz BeelineGPS anyone can buy and is turnkey with no building required (as one must do with the EggFinders) . Also the GPS chipset is better suited for rocketry and is accepted for Tripoli altitude records:
https://www.tripoli.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=qM5Rub0u6jM=&tabid=285
The EggFinders weren't designed for record hunting but if one can kit build one can save for more motors.:lol: Kurt
I would certainly like to try, but no HAM and already have 2xRRC3s. I have a few questions in with Jim Amos that will make or break moving forward using one for sustainer ignition. The EasyMini does offer an attractive option, but the Raven seems to have similar features at about half the cost. No doubt in my mind though the telemega is unique in its abilities to perform as a flight computer and GPS tracking beacon. Please set me straight if I am wrong but the Telemega requires a HAM, user supplied antenna (probably easy but something currently an unknown quantity of difficulty and cost) a tele-dongle, and tele-bt to utilize the GPS telemetry and tracking features. If my understanding is accurate that puts the Telemega package@$650+Ground station (laptop & yagi).
https://www.csrocketry.com/store/electronics/alltus-metrum.html
A BRB900 with no HAM required costs ~$380+shipping with LCD ground station or ~$310 if used with a PC.
https://www.bigredbee.com/zc139/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=72&products_id=199&zenid=2gh0sqbj0h2203ebk3ouj1a8s7
Certainly less overall as far as features and more in the way of necessary space but that puts GPS tracking with a BRB900 and flight functions with an RRC3 w/USB interface dongle@~$475+shipping or BRB900/Raven combo@ ~$535+shipping. Both options require only a laptop for setup and the BRB LCD is easy and convenient in the field.
https://www.missileworks.com/store/#!/RRC3-Sport-Altimeter/p/25239688/category=5760485
https://www.featherweightaltimeters.com/The_Raven.php
I have been seriously tempted to ignore the pleas of my wallet since seeing the products in person at your stand then talking with the nice AltusMetrum folks alongside during Airfest last year. So please sir, help me understand how the extra coin is worth it so maybe I can justify the extra money and time studying for a HAM to myself and more importantly my spouse.
Sorry, didn't intend to go so far derailing the RRC3 vs Raven poll/thread just trying to work out the details of a HPR two stage for my first time and don't want to leave any stone unturned in the interest of SAFETY and success.
