GPS Drift, Rocket Landing Predictor and visualizer Spreadsheet

[dvdsnyd]

***BIG UPDATE****

TRF member, @MarsLander contacted me a week or so ago with some pretty big updates to the GPS drift spreadsheet.
1.) There was an error in the way the drift was calculated at the main altitude that has been resolved
2.) MarsLander figured out how to add weathercocking to the spreadsheet using Rocksim or OpenRocket to get the upwind distance. The user will need to approximate the ascent wind angle. Which can be achieved by averaging Windy directions over the ascent.

The latest version, now H is attached.
Please provide any feedback you have.
Again, big thanks to MarsLander for digging into the spreadsheet, pointing out the errors and pushing the progression and capabilities.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Buckeye]

Nice upgrade! Thanks for sharing.

Manually gathering the data from Windy is still problematic to me. I made a casual search for alternatives and found this:

https://windsaloft.us/

At the bottom is a simple text file of wind vs. altitude for viewing or download. With a little formatting, it can easily copy and paste into your spreadsheet, and save a lot of time.

The site uses the NOAA RAP (HRRR) model, which is one of the options in Windy. I find the ECMWF model to be the most accurate. I went to the ECMWF website, and there are APIs for accessing data. Not sure if there is a cost.

Anyway, it seems feasible that a developer could make a nifty webpage app or implement the drift into OpenRocket.

Edit: I looked at Rocksim Visualizer, and it provides for a user-supplied wind table. Meh, a subscription service like that should not require manual entry.

 

[dvdsnyd]

Nice upgrade! Thanks for sharing.

Manually gathering the data from Windy is still problematic to me. I made a casual search for alternatives and found this:

https://windsaloft.us/

At the bottom is a simple text file of wind vs. altitude for viewing or download. With a little formatting, it can easily copy and paste into your spreadsheet, and save a lot of time.

The site uses the NOA RAP (HRRR) model, which is one of the options in Windy. I find the ECMWF model to be the most accurate. I went to the ECMWF website, and there are APIs for accessing data. Not sure if there is a cost.

Anyway, it seems feasible that a developer could make a nifty webpage app or implement the drift into OpenRocket.

Edit: I looked at Rocksim Visualizer, and it provides for a user-supplied wind table. Meh, a subscription service like that should not require manual entry.

Morning Buckeye,
I agree, the manual gathering data is problematic for me as well, and I haven't actually went through the exercise with one of my flights. This update does make it more attractive though. I may spend some time trying to cludge a file download together.

I'll take a look at the link you provided.
I also did a little digging yesterday when I was updating the spreadsheet and found this:

https://github.com/jeroentvb/wind-scrape
I haven't tried it at all yet, but the disclaimers make it a little erm...suspect.... With that, I'd be willing to try it nonetheless if it makes it easier and more automated.

I also found some open source GFS API's that could potentially work.
Problem with all that is...I'm just a spreadsheet hack...

My ultimate goal is to have a utility like the High Altitude Ballooners.
They have some nifty webpages, that I'm guessing they aren't spending 1000's on a Windy API subscription...

Really need someone with some real software / integration experience to help take this to the finish line.

I'm not impressed with Launch Visualizer. I love Rocksim. I've been using it for 25 years, going back when it came on a floppy disk I think. I'll stay true to it as long as the visualizer stays it's own thing, and the base Rocksim program stays away from a subscription model.

Unless.... @neil_w, Could the GPS drift concept be made to be part of OpenRocket? Could the wind profiles be grabbed automatically from a server at runtime? I'm not talking about a 6DOF solution for ascent. More simply, estimate the apogee GPS coordinates in 3d space and then the descent profile. Very similar to what the spreadsheet is doing, just more automated.

Dave

 

[neil_w]

Unless.... @neil_w, Could the GPS drift concept be made to be part of OpenRocket? Could the wind profiles be grabbed automatically from a server at runtime? I'm not talking about a 6DOF solution for ascent. More simply, estimate the apogee GPS coordinates in 3d space and then the descent profile. Very similar to what the spreadsheet is doing, just more automated.

Pretty much anything could be added to the program, if there are developers inclined to do it. As to whether it could be done with an extension... that I'm not really sure. I believe there is at least one extension to incorporate static wind data, but I don't know of anything that can live-grab the data via API, and I'm also not aware of any extensions that interact directly with GPS data.

It would make for a good feature request, if you'd like to create one. https://github.com/openrocket/openrocket/issues/new/choose

 

[dvdsnyd]

Pretty much anything could be added to the program, if there are developers inclined to do it. As to whether it could be done with an extension... that I'm not really sure. I believe there is at least one extension to incorporate static wind data, but I don't know of anything that can live-grab the data via API, and I'm also not aware of any extensions that interact directly with GPS data.

It would make for a good feature request, if you'd like to create one. https://github.com/openrocket/openrocket/issues/new/choose

HI Neil, Just tried logging into my github account, and it won't send me the verification to my email. I will add a feature request once I'm granted back my account.
Looks like github is having issues sending out verification emails right now.

In the meantime, take a look at GPS DriftCast, my latest release of my spreadsheet for landing location prediction based on winds aloft forecasts grabbed off an API pull from the internet. Essentially, I'd like Open Rocket to do this as part of the simulation.

GPS DriftCast Link

Looks like there may be a few extensions/pluggins that could be used as a jumping off point. Biggest thing that I am requesting/bringing to the table is the use of an API to grab the rucsounding data in real-time.