eggStation - an eggTimer ground station software build thread.

[Charles_McG]

I figured out why the numeric display for altitude was stuck at the max. The indicator I'm using can have multiple needles. I'm using one for altitude, and one for apogee - I thought it would look cool to have a needle that stayed pinned at the max alt. It turns out that each needle can have a 'digital display' - and i had gotten them backwards. Whoops. Fixed in my code - not yet released.

 

[schworer]

I figured out why the numeric display for altitude was stuck at the max. The indicator I'm using can have multiple needles. I'm using one for altitude, and one for apogee - I thought it would look cool to have a needle that stayed pinned at the max alt. It turns out that each needle can have a 'digital display' - and i had gotten them backwards. Whoops. Fixed in my code - not yet released.

That's why we test!

 

[Charles_McG]

@cerving - Have you ever seen an error like this? One (of two) of my Dongle RX is not longer recognized by my Surface. Device Manager says it's not a Prolific device.

 

[cerving]

Unload the newer Prolific driver, and install the one that's on our Support page. The newer drivers don't play well with the cable. FYI, we're not shipping the cable anymore... we're only shipping the USB-Serial "dongle" interface, which uses the SI CP2102 chip instead of the Prolific PL2303TA.

 

[Charles_McG]

Unload the newer Prolific driver, and install the one that's on our Support page. The newer drivers don't play well with the cable. FYI, we're not shipping the cable anymore... we're only shipping the USB-Serial "dongle" interface, which uses the SI CP2102 chip instead of the Prolific PL2303TA.

I’ll try it - but it worked a couple of days ago. And the other one of similar vintage still works.

 

[schworer]

I’ll try it - but it worked a couple of days ago. And the other one of similar vintage still works.

Charles - I had the same problem a few months ago, tried the old driver Cris had posted and it worked. I was using a Dell laptop, long story short is it turns out the installed Dell Support Assist program was causing a lot of CPU % consumptions problems and when I removed the program it that fixed the CPU consumption issues..... and then Windows 10 wanted to reinstall the"newer" Prolific driver so I tried it....and that worked fine again. It was really strange. You might want to check and see if there is something going on with the OS or any other installed programs that run in the background. As my Apple PC son reminds me occasionally....its called "Winblows" for a reason.

 

[Charles_McG]

Unload the newer Prolific driver, and install the one that's on our Support page. The newer drivers don't play well with the cable. FYI, we're not shipping the cable anymore... we're only shipping the USB-Serial "dongle" interface, which uses the SI CP2102 chip instead of the Prolific PL2303TA.

Alas, that wasn't it. It looks like I'll be putting in an order soon.

 

[jordan.jacob]

@Charles_McG, do you happen to have links to a VI version that can be tested on a MacBook Pro. We'd love to help test and utilize this at the Spaceport America Cup.

 

[Charles_McG]

@Charles_McG, do you happen to have links to a VI version that can be tested on a MacBook Pro. We'd love to help test and utilize this at the Spaceport America Cup.

You'll have to get labview for macOS - I don't have any macs. There is a free for non-commercial 'community license' option. And to be honest, I have no idea how the serial COMs will be handled under macOS - but I'd hope the VISA drivers simply 'took care of it'.

DM me your email and I'll send you an invite to the github repo. It's still private for now. The windows EXE is there - but so are all the VIs.

 

[jordan.jacob]

You'll have to get labview for macOS - I don't have any macs. There is a free for non-commercial 'community license' option. And to be honest, I have no idea how the serial COMs will be handled under macOS - but I'd hope the VISA drivers simply 'took care of it'.

DM me your email and I'll send you an invite to the github repo. It's still private for now. The windows EXE is there - but so are all the VIs.

Done!

 

[Charles_McG]

BTW, gentle readers, I did get in my own testing a couple weekends ago. I learned a lot - but got no useful log files. @schworer was much more successful in that aspect.

• The app stops and the buffers overflow if the laptop goes to sleep while eggStation is running. It's a recoverable error, but annoying. And fixable with the power/sleep setting of the laptop.
• One of two Prolific USB-TTL cables stopped being recognized by the driver sometime between the last test at home and flight day. That caused a telemetry channel error I couldn't fix in the field. Nor could I fix it at home. Removing the driver and reinstalling the eggtimer approved version hasn't fixed the problem. Or Windows 10 is being excessively 'helpful' in a way I can't override. I have switched to these adapters instead. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08JLRP6YV?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
• The little antenna dongle receivers flopping about in the trunk at the field is less than ideal. I'm replacing the wire antenna with SMA connectors and using these mag-mount antennas next time. Stuck nicely to the top of my car. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MRGDTPZ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
• Adding one more [new] thing to a two stage flight prep with 2 eggfinders, a proton, a quantum, and a runcam was just a bit more than I could really handle on my own. For a single flier, eggstation might be useful/fun as part of the post-flight review, but there aren't enough eyeballs to watch it live. A log playback app was already on my list. It might be more useful for a team, where somebody could watch it and call out events.
• I'm going to practice the field setup in my driveway.

 

[Banzai88]

• Adding one more [new] thing to a two stage flight prep with 2 eggfinders, a proton, a quantum, and a runcam was just a bit more than I could really handle on my own. For a single flier, eggstation might be useful/fun as part of the post-flight review, but there aren't enough eyeballs to watch it live. A log playback app was already on my list. It might be more useful for a team, where somebody could watch it and call out events.

I've found that even with simple GPS/telemetry systems that a second 'voice of the machine' is helpful, since, as you succinctly put it,"... there aren't enough eyeballs to watch it live"

• I'm going to practice the field setup in my driveway.

Even with a checklist, this is the best approach. It'll reveal points in your process where you want another hand, or set of hands, or sets of hands and eyeballs!

 

[Charles_McG]

Weather today at Bong was 'variable'. Lots of different types of precipitation. No hail. At the time - I just saw some on the patio at home.

Anyway, I stopped by the launch to test fit my next rocket on the rail, and to practice working out of the truck - and was broadly unsuccessful. Being one eggfinder down, the remaining one is received by an LCD receiver and streamed over bluetooth to the laptop.

AND IT JUST WOULDN'T SHOW UP!!! I MEAN - REALLY?!?

The HC-06 module would pair - but no COM ports appeared. They usually camp out at COM5 and 6. I have no idea why 2 appear. I verified the Eggtimer Telemetry Module was working, and fired up the other dongle receiver whech happened to be programmed for the frequency and channel of the fellow in the next parking spot. Then I got tired of the wind and snow and went to set up the canning line for tomorrow's work. Ans stood up 150 boxes.

I tried again at home - even going so far as to upgrade to Win11. Recall, I'm not using the Prolific USB-UART cables anymore. The Silicon Industries chip is supposed to be fine with Win11.

THE PROBLEM WAS... the fracking COM number of the USB port. Ever since I installed the SI driver, the COM number of the laptop USB ports has been changing every use. Today, it was up to COM7. As a desperate move, I went into the properties and moved it back to COM3. Viola. The HC06 came back and filled in COM4 and COM5.

Things I didn't want to know. Now I need to see of Labview 15 still works.

 

[schworer]

Charles - I had the same com port issue with my laptop using the USB dongles. I just kept a device manager window open with an eye on what com ports were being used and set up the Labview app accordingly. The ports did move around. Bill

 

[Crayok]

The Calgary Rocketry launch yesterday went quite well and I was able to launch the "electronics test" rocket and I got the KML from it but with using the ET Quasar there was no telemetry data gathered or shown because of the different stream protocol. but the EggSation collected the MKL data with no issues, no internet on site so the map function did not work.

Used my son's L3/L2 (cdn thing) cert rocket since his had a large airframe. It was one of those all your egg's in one basket moments, testing 2 protons, 1 quasar, 4 wifi/mini switches and the non eggs was two ravens that actually did the deployment.

While I have the BT module for the TRS receiver I wired in a sparkfun USB module for data gathering.
dB

 

[Charles_McG]

The Calgary Rocketry launch yesterday went quite well and I was able to launch the "electronics test" rocket and I got the KML from it but with using the ET Quasar there was no telemetry data gathered or shown because of the different stream protocol. but the EggSation collected the MKL data with no issues, no internet on site so the map function did not work.

Used my son's L3/L2 (cdn thing) cert rocket since his had a large airframe. It was one of those all your egg's in one basket moments, testing 2 protons, 1 quasar, 4 wifi/mini switches and the non eggs was two ravens that actually did the deployment.

While I have the BT module for the TRS receiver I wired in a sparkfun USB module for data gathering.
dB

I look forward to checking it out tonight. In the middle of canning right now.

 

[Charles_McG]

The Calgary Rocketry launch yesterday went quite well and I was able to launch the "electronics test" rocket and I got the KML from it but with using the ET Quasar there was no telemetry data gathered or shown because of the different stream protocol. but the EggSation collected the MKL data with no issues, no internet on site so the map function did not work.

Used my son's L3/L2 (cdn thing) cert rocket since his had a large airframe. It was one of those all your egg's in one basket moments, testing 2 protons, 1 quasar, 4 wifi/mini switches and the non eggs was two ravens that actually did the deployment.

While I have the BT module for the TRS receiver I wired in a sparkfun USB module for data gathering.
dB

That looks like a nice straight flight up.

I had to edit 2 points out of the KML. The last one, and a weird one in the middle.

 

[Crayok]

I had to edit 2 points out of the KML. The last one, and a weird one in the middle.

I edited that after I posted too. It was the straightest flight of the day! winds stopped just in time.

 

[Charles_McG]

I've uploaded a new .exe and updated VIs to github. Mostly small changes - trapping empty GPS messages from getting to the .KML file and adding a column to the telemetry file that makes explicit which tokens were decoded out of the telemetry stream.

I probably need to re-upload main.vi - but I need to strip my home location out of it first

 

[Art Upton]

I’ll try it - but it worked a couple of days ago. And the other one of similar vintage still works.

It is a new thing in windows that detects cloned Prolific chips that most every cable sold was using them and refused to work with them. Best to get a new cable with a FTDI chip in it. It happens after a windows update.

 

[cerving]

Or if you have the cable use the older driver that's on our Support page. The cables we use are genuine... but the new Prolific drivers won't work with them. The Windows driver NEVER worked right... even back in 2013 when we started shipping Eggtimer Classics.

 

[Art Upton]

Weather today at Bong was 'variable'. Lots of different types of precipitation. No hail. At the time - I just saw some on the patio at home.

Anyway, I stopped by the launch to test fit my next rocket on the rail, and to practice working out of the truck - and was broadly unsuccessful. Being one eggfinder down, the remaining one is received by an LCD receiver and streamed over bluetooth to the laptop.

AND IT JUST WOULDN'T SHOW UP!!! I MEAN - REALLY?!?

The HC-06 module would pair - but no COM ports appeared. They usually camp out at COM5 and 6. I have no idea why 2 appear. I verified the Eggtimer Telemetry Module was working, and fired up the other dongle receiver whech happened to be programmed for the frequency and channel of the fellow in the next parking spot. Then I got tired of the wind and snow and went to set up the canning line for tomorrow's work. Ans stood up 150 boxes.

I tried again at home - even going so far as to upgrade to Win11. Recall, I'm not using the Prolific USB-UART cables anymore. The Silicon Industries chip is supposed to be fine with Win11.

THE PROBLEM WAS... the fracking COM number of the USB port. Ever since I installed the SI driver, the COM number of the laptop USB ports has been changing every use. Today, it was up to COM7. As a desperate move, I went into the properties and moved it back to COM3. Viola. The HC06 came back and filled in COM4 and COM5.

Things I didn't want to know. Now I need to see of Labview 15 still works.

Com port on SI drivers will change depending on the physical port you plug them into. Won't work on my lower right port but works fine on my upper right port where I installed the Driver for my Radio , a ham radio I use the SI port with. Unless I go in and change things like you did.

USB<> Fun

 

[cerving]

Com port on SI drivers will change depending on the physical port you plug them into. Won't work on my lower right port but works fine on my upper right port where I installed the Driver for my Radio , a ham radio I use the SI port with. Unless I go in and change things like you did.

USB<> Fun

I recommend marking THE USB Port that you use, and ONLY use that one. However, if you change the port number in Device Manager it should "stick"... I have one for COM2 and COM255.

 

[Charles_McG]

Or if you have the cable use the older driver that's on our Support page. The cables we use are genuine... but the new Prolific drivers won't work with them. The Windows driver NEVER worked right... even back in 2013 when we started shipping Eggtimer Classics.

Cris, I tried to revert and re-install the drivers that you point to, but was still unsuccessful.

So far I'm pretty happy with the SI cables I got. I like the marked wires at the other end. I'll keep an eye on COM number creep on the HC06, but it won't be the first time. I've had simple USB-RS232 adapters do the same thing for instruments in the lab. I didn't know the HC06 driver couldn't go above a certain COM number - but I've also seen that in the lab. It's not a complete surprise.

 

[Ibnu12]

How did you decose the rockets radio telemetry, like what is the modulation format and how do you convert it to ASCII data logging text ?

 

[Charles_McG]

How did you decose the rockets radio telemetry, like what is the modulation format and how do you convert it to ASCII data logging text ?

I'm using eggtimer receivers. Two TTL-USB 'dongle' receivers and 1 LCD receiver (like the one you are having problems with in your thread) with an HC06 bluetooth serial module that repeats the received data on a bluetooth COM port.

 

[schworer]

Have successfully installed and tested the latest eggStation build on a used ($250 Ebay purchase - original price $2-3$K) Dell 7212 Rugged Extreme Win10 tablet (I5, 8GB Ram, 256GB SSD). No issues with the USB & 3 port hub (2 for receiver dongles and 1 for the small wireless keyboard/track pad).

The reason I bought the used tablet is the anti-reflective display at full brightness is ~1000 nits, photos below show the very easy viewing in the bright shade (at full brightness most laptops do poorly) and in the direct sun where most laptop displays are useless. Its great for using the eggStation and other altimeter & rocket applications at the field. Dual battery life at full brightness is ~3 hours according to the Win10 battery monitor, dimmed down for indoor use its ~12 hours.

Test data display in the photos is using a Proton w/70cm for telemetry and a Quasar 915 Mhz for GPS tracking, Google Map connection via an iPhone WiFi tether. Will use for a few flights at Potter w/screen video capture of the eggStation display for replay.

Cropped indoor reduced brightness:



Bright shade, connected to the Proton via WiFi. Screen is touch, wireless keyboard/trackpad makes it quicker to enter data than using the onscreen keyboard:



Full sun:



Tablet side view:

 

[Charles_McG]

The reason I bought the used tablet is the anti-reflective display at full brightness is ~1000 nits, photos below show the very easy viewing in the bright shade (at full brightness most laptops do poorly) and in the direct sun where most laptop displays are useless. Its great for using the eggStation and other altimeter & rocket applications at the field. Dual battery life at full brightness is ~3 hours according to the Win10 battery monitor, dimmed down for indoor use its ~12 hours.

That's a fine looking setup. I just checked the screen brightness of my various Surfaces, which range from 400 for the Book 3 to 450 for the Pro 5. 1000 must be impressive. I look forward to future flight reports.

Life took over my life recently. We've been pushing hard through bottling season, which has left me too tired to do much rocketry. We're past the big batches, so I'm hoping to get a little free time and energy back.

 

[Charles_McG]

I got a test flight in - and got my own data!


This is post flight - I was using 1 phone for a lot of functions. B for Booster, S for sustainer - and I walked right up to them.

The sustainer main DID fire. The channel status is correct - I just didn't have the channel to drogue/main set correctly. The telemetry file was pretty interesting - the new column with what parts of the packet were decoded, especially. Now I have my own file, I'll play with an eggStation Player to play back the log. One thing that's got to go on the list to improved are the Range/Bearing/Azimuth plots. It looks like they build up like a stack of images. I'm trying to get it to merge the prior images, not play them like a shuffle animation.

The other thing that needs some work is writing the .KML file when there's more than one tracker. The Booster .KMl has Sustainer datapoints.

The Sustainer just looks clipped.


The Booster looks weird.


Until you overlay them, and can see the way the booster hops to the sustainer.


It was a pretty good day. Now I got some more to work on. I can a couple buffer overflows, too - not sure what's generating them. But it's mostly right at the start of acquisition.

 

[schworer]

Successful operational test of the Dell Win10 tablet with eggStation software setup (see previous post on this thread) at URRG/Potter, NY on Saturday 10 June. Dual deploy, 4" diameter flown on a A/T J415. Proton w/70cm telemetry and Quasar on 915 MHz for GPS position. Proton was primary, Quasar was back up for drogue and main charges. Because of poor cell service with spotty map display the range and bearing plot was selected. Due to better than expected rocket performance and high winds the recovery was slightly off field and extended beyond the selected outer range circle display. The Eggtimer handheld GPS receiver was used to retrieve the rocket.

Photo below and a YouTube link to the eggStation screen capture video from launch to touchdown. Audio telemetry was via a 70cm receiver with the voice module recorded on an iPhone and merged with the video. If you watch the entire 3 min video you will see the rocket track across the range and bearing plot with each position update. Inserted at the end is the received .kml file ground track overlaid on Google Maps/Satellite, this is roughly what would have been displayed if cell phone service was reliable. Telemetry and .kml files are also attached.

Note "Eggtimer Inside" sticker