Featherweight Altimeters News, February 2022

[kjs]

Ok, sorry to say I have a support question.... which I didnt figure out I needed answered till tonight (48 hours before I *was* going to fly it for the first time... so thats probably not happening!), but, I have a nice shiny new Raven 4, and its associated batteries.... but I cant figure out how to connect the battery to the Raven (looks like a super mini JST???) I need to purchase an cable of some sort?

Hey, by the way, any idea when the screw switches will be back in stock?

Thanks!

Oh and your GPS units are completely AWESOME! They work great!

It sounds like you have the batteries that go with the Power Perch or one of the Featherweight Av Bays (which you would connect the Raven to). You could for the launch this weekend just use a 9v batter with the old fashioned clip / wires.

 

[Hyak]

Good Morning,

Yep, those are them. Long, skinny units with a very small JST on one end..

I wasnt sure if I could use the 9v but since you mentioned it, thats what I will do.

Then order a PowerPerch for the future. That looks like a nice way to set things up.
Does the Power Perch *include* a charger for the batteries?

Thnaks for the reply!

 

[Adrian A]

Then order a PowerPerch for the future. That looks like a nice way to set things up.
Does the Power Perch *include* a charger for the batteries?

The charger is separate, as I think you found out. Thanks for your order; I took it to the PO this afternoon.

 

[Hyak]

Cool! Thanks!

I got it up today on a 9v (Bulky) just to play with it.

Do have anouther question though:

How do I convert the units on the FiP from feet/degrees/psi to meters/celsius/"Hg? (Granted I did not reads the entire manual yet, but I did not immediatly find the setting that would get rid of those pesky imperial units!

 

[Adrian A]

How do I convert the units on the FiP from feet/degrees/psi to meters/celsius/"Hg? (Granted I did not reads the entire manual yet, but I did not immediatly find the setting that would get rid of those pesky imperial units!

Sorry, we never got around to adding metric units. But from the plot you cut and paste your flight to a spreadsheet to roll your own if you want.

 

[ShadowSpire48]

Got a question. I bought the Featherweight GPS right before you updated to the current iteration of the ground station but I noticed in the iFIP app, there is an export setting for the flight data but it exports to a CSV and not KML like it's shown as in the list. Is there a way to view the data with the previous ground station version?

 

[Conway Stevens]

Got a question. I bought the Featherweight GPS right before you updated to the current iteration of the ground station but I noticed in the iFIP app, there is an export setting for the flight data but it exports to a CSV and not KML like it's shown as in the list. Is there a way to view the data with the previous ground station version?

The current version can be viewed with a pc as a document as the csv file in something like office etc..if you want a KML file there are several converters to KML. I use GPS Visualizer to convert to KML and then i plot it with google earth.

 

[Chad]

this is awesome news, best of luck! I'm all in on your gps tracker but look forward to updates in the mobile app ( although it functions just fine for me ). Please keep a blog or something about your experiences turning a side thing into a full time thing. I read about software devs doing this all the time but building and selling something in meatspace is very different than software.

 

[plugger]

I'll put up a Blue Raven product development thread with more details once I get a little farther along, but the basic idea is to cram a vast expansion of capability into the same small form factor of the Raven, and give it a Bluetooth 5.0 interface along with a brand new, easy-to-use custom app for both iPhones and Android phones. (yes, Android too; I'm not going to make the mistake of releasing on just one platform again) The Blue Raven will be capable of using Bluetooth to exchange information wirelessly during the flight with a separate GPS tracker that could be in another part of the rocket (e.g. the nosecone), and deliver it to your phone in real-time.

Great news that you're shifting to full time for Featherweight and that you have a new product in the pipeline Adrian! One question though. Is Bluetooth 5.0 really suitable for a real-time flight downlink to a mobile device? A quick google tells me that the maximum range of Bluetooth 5.0 (with direct line of sight) is 800 ft. Seems a bit limiting for a lot of HPR flights.

 

[rocketace]

Is Bluetooth 5.0 really suitable for a real-time flight downlink to a mobile device?

The Bluetooth is just so you don't have to use a USB cable. No telemetry involved. It will also enable you to; 1) Easily get the data after it lands without taking the rocket apart. 2) Reconfigure or check the settings while its still in the rocket. 3) Do simple ejection testing. Having used the bluetooth FlightSketch Mini and the wifi Eggtimer products, it is so nice having a wireless interface. I cant wait for the Blue Raven!!

 

[plugger]

The Bluetooth is just so you don't have to use a USB cable. No telemetry involved. It will also enable you to; 1) Easily get the data after it lands without taking the rocket apart. 2) Reconfigure or check the settings while its still in the rocket. 3) Do simple ejection testing. Having used the bluetooth FlightSketch Mini and the wifi Eggtimer products, it is so nice having a wireless interface. I cant wait for the Blue Raven!!

I guess my reading comprehension skills aren't really up to par then, as when I read this:

The Blue Raven will be capable of using Bluetooth to exchange information wirelessly during the flight with a separate GPS tracker that could be in another part of the rocket (e.g. the nosecone), and deliver it to your phone in real-time.

I can't help but think that's real time telemetry.

 

[Neutronium95]

That sounds to me like it's just passing it's data through the existing link on the GPS tracker, not communicating directly to the ground.

 

[GrouchoDuke]

I just saw this - wow. Congrats, Adrian! Go, go, go!

 

[plugger]

That sounds to me like it's just passing it's data through the existing link on the GPS tracker, not communicating directly to the ground.

Maybe, and I hope you're right. But if that is the case, then you'll pair with the Blue Raven while it's on the pad and then you'll have to drop that pairing and then have the Blue Raven pair autonomously with a Featherweight GPS and hope that works (while checking for full telem via the GPS app). IDK about you, but getting Bluetooth devices to successfully and repeatedly pair with more than one device whilst remaining powered often ends in sadness and frustration.

If you've not picked up by now, I abhor Bluetooth.

 

[Adrian A]

Maybe, and I hope you're right. But if that is the case, then you'll pair with the Blue Raven while it's on the pad and then you'll have to drop that pairing and then have the Blue Raven pair autonomously with a Featherweight GPS and hope that works (while checking for full telem via the GPS app). IDK about you, but getting Bluetooth devices to successfully and repeatedly pair with more than one device whilst remaining powered often ends in sadness and frustration.

If you've not picked up by now, I abhor Bluetooth.

I hear you on the Bluetooth reliability issues. It has been a recurring challenge for the Featherweight GPS Tracker. If it weren't for the fact that Bluetooth LE is a universal feature on today's cell phones I would be looking hard for an alternative. I'm hiring pro mobile app developers with BLE experience for the phone side of the interface, and I'm sure I'm going to be learning a lot about BLE over the next few months for the embedded side that I'll be handling myself.

The Blue Raven will use a Bluetooth chip that allows multiple simultaneous connections. The current GPS tracker hardware supports one BLE connection at a time, however. So yes, the challenge will be having different devices each with their direct BLE connections to the phone and then supporting a 1-hop BLE data path for the tracker once it is switched over to being BLE connected with the Blue Raven. At that point it doesn't need much of a BLE connection to the phone, since it's transmitting almost all of its telemetry over LoRa to the ground station, but the LoRa radio channel selection, etc. is data I still want to send over BLE rather than LoRa. The goal will be to make this work reliably and transparently; this is a complication that the user shouldn't be bothered with if it works as planned. But if I need to disable changing of LoRa channels while the GPS Tracker is BLE-connected to the Blue Raven, that wouldn't be the end of the world.

 

[firemanup]

Great news, best wishes

 

[rcode]

Does this mean the FW GPS tracker will be avilable for andriod

 

[Adrian A]

Does this mean the FW GPS tracker will be avilable for andriod

Yes, eventually. The Blue Raven will come first and then I hope to extend the new app to GPS tracking functionality.

 

[Conway Stevens]

Yes, eventually. The Blue Raven will come first and then I hope to extend the new app to GPS tracking functionality.

Adrian, definitely not to rush anything... more so curious. What kind of timeline do you expect the Blue Raven to be released for public use? Do i also understand correctly that the Blue Raven will communicate to the tracker on the rocket and transfer its data, events etc then transmitted to the base station via LoRa? And lastly will current Featherweight trackers work with it or will there be new addition needed or different tracker?

Excited huge for you and the future of Featherweight as a current user of Raven and the Featherweight tracking systems.

Conway

 

[Adrian A]

Adrian, definitely not to rush anything... more so curious. What kind of timeline do you expect the Blue Raven to be released for public use?

I'm hoping to complete the flight testing and app development for the Blue Raven by early fall, which is also around when I'm expecting to run out of Raven4s.

Do I also understand correctly that the Blue Raven will communicate to the tracker on the rocket and transfer its data, events etc then transmitted to the base station via LoRa? And lastly will current Featherweight trackers work with it or will there be new addition needed or different tracker?

Excited huge for you and the future of Featherweight as a current user of Raven and the Featherweight tracking systems.

Conway

Yes, that's the plan. It will also enable the Blue Raven to receive and use GPS data to, for example, improve its flight angle estimate. Doing this with the existing trackers is theoretically possible, but it's complicated by the fact that the Bluetooth module in the GPS tracker isn't as advanced as the one going into the Blue Raven. I'm going to give it a shot after getting the Blue Raven done.

Thanks for your support.

 

[Neutronium95]

Yes, eventually. The Blue Raven will come first and then I hope to extend the new app to GPS tracking functionality.

It's nice to see that an android app for the tracker is still on the roadmap. I'm looking forward to not needing to bring two phones to a launch.

 

[Hyak]

Today I launched a IQSY 2.36" Tomahawk, on an H242 out in the Eastern Oregon high desert (All Sagebrush)

It landed ~7,000'+ feet away over undualting hills, and on the low side of a rise, quite literally buried in sagebrush. (Tip: Don't use Grey/Bue chutes like I did! )

No one saw it come down due to distance away and no one would have ever found this thing as where to even start looking.

I had a Featherweight GPS tracker in the nose.

Drove to the CPA, and walked another ~1,800' cross country up sandy, sagebrush hills .

Went right to it. No searching, no mis-steps, This thing was dead on. (although the phone was annoying, as it kept trying to sleep).
Didn't matter how the tracker unit was held either. In the car, held high, in my pocket... It never hiccuped. And it was definatly NOT LOS to the rocket from the launch point

I can not say enough about how well this thing worked.

And I can say with confidence that I will NEVER fly a rocket again without one of these aboard!

 

[jbr]

put your phone on always on, no sleeping for tracking
I don't even bring the walston anymore and probably need to sell it

 

[Brent]

Question regarding the Featherweight GPS. I am an Android phone user with the exception of my company phone that is an I Phone. If I were to purchase an I Pad for use at the field would it connect and would it have to have a wireless plan?

 

[rhoward99]

Question regarding the Featherweight GPS. I am an Android phone user with the exception of my company phone that is an I Phone. If I were to purchase an I Pad for use at the field would it connect and would it have to have a wireless plan?

My son, who is a devout Android user, bought a used IPhone from Walmart (!) for $60, and it works great! He ONLY uses it for tracking.

EDIT: Like jbr said below, no wireless plan is necessary for the phone to work with the Featherwight.

 

[jbr]

no wireless plan needed, it communicates with bluetooth and LORA

 

[Chad]

Question regarding the Featherweight GPS. I am an Android phone user with the exception of my company phone that is an I Phone. If I were to purchase an I Pad for use at the field would it connect and would it have to have a wireless plan?

I believe it will work and a wireless plan isn't required but I would read this thread and make sure you don't end up with another possible gotcha related to GPS on non-cellular equipped ipads

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threa...ve-a-gps-so-cant-be-used-for-tracking.164936/

 

[jbr]

any news on the updates for multi trackers on the same field?

 

[Adrian A]

any news on the updates for multi trackers on the same field?

The Featherweight GPS tracking system already supports multiple trackers for each user and ground station. The ground stations from different users at a launch also already tell each other what channels they are using, and what lost rocket information they have received, and this data is passed to the phone. (It's also available through the GS 2.0 USB interface if you want to use a terminal program). However, displaying this information in the app will require more app development than Kevin has the availability to do, so my plan is to make that part of the new and improved tracking app that will come after the Blue Raven.

 

[jbr]

will this app support the old and blue raven systems?