Tragic Little Aerospace offering Micro GPS telemetry unit

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MARYSVILLE, Washington USA — A new GPS offering from Tragic Little Aerospace allows you to track your rocket from launch to landing with a unit that weighs less than a 9V battery, including the antenna, and is small enough to fit into a 38mm airframe tube with room to space. The Micro GPS unit's receiver plugs into your laptop computer via a USB port and will allow you to record your flight's data as well as viewing the events in real time. And, finding your rocket is easy, simply by entering the last position into your hand-held GPS unit and walk right to it. Best of all, you don not need any kind of license to use it and the unit is less than $300.

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I have considered purchase, but could never find anyone who had one to give me idea on how well it works.
 
I have one and use it. Works well for me.

That is unless I use a bad battery that runs out of juice just after apogee. Seriously, that did happen to me once. Lipo battery ran out of juice during a flight.

Aside from that, it works well and lets you track your rocket during flight on a laptop. Includes everything you need except the battery for the GPS unit. Nice long cable on the ground antenna let's you get inside the car and look at the laptop out of the sun. Magnetic base on the antenna is strong enough that you could drive around with it attached.
 
I love mine... Lots of fun to see your flight in google earth! Easy as 123 to use and set up. I put mine in nose cone on all my rockets. Great company too very helpful when I was looking for a tracker.
 
Yes, I've flown it a number of times Gary. Great little unit for the price. You've actually seen it fly in my 7.5" Little John a number of times and didn't even know it, lol! I have it mounted on a sled I can move between nosecones. It uses a max-6 ublox chipset, and helical GPS antenna which has much better coverage than the ceramic patch antennas many others use. The radio range is supposed to be 5-6 miles, but I have not tested it beyond 2 miles up, and ~1 mile on the ground; has not been a problem.

On my flights, it sometimes looses GPS lock on the way up, but reacquires well before it lands. I have not looked carefully at all my flights to see if it always looses lock on the way up. I think though this is typical for GPS units.

The main issue is that for only $300, you have to hook the receiver to a laptop to collect data. The supplied software is just the demo program from ublox, and while it works fine, it can require hunting through the log if you don't copy the coords before you stop the logger (sometimes don't have contact when on the ground if the rocket drops behind something a ways away). This is one more thing you have to do for a flight; some other GPS's out there have handheld receivers which is simpler, but cost more. Someday in my non-existant spare time I plan to write some better software, more tuned for rocket use to make it a bit easier.

It also does not come with a battery, or battery holder. 9V's are OK, but I've been using 7.4V lipos that for similar weight, give longer run times, but require specialized chargers.
 
Thought a screen shot of my Tragic Little Aerospace Micro GPS telemetry unit in a google earth view might be fun to see. I love seeing my flights in google earth... This one is at Plaster City Ca. great place to launch...

Flight.jpg
 
Love it so far... Great company to deal with and even after the sale still answered my questions and help me out... Made nose cone sleds for most my rockets that I could so I just screw it in and ready to fly.
 
Love it so far... Great company to deal with and even after the sale still answered my questions and help me out... Made nose cone sleds for most my rockets that I could so I just screw it in and ready to fly.

What battery are you using and what type of life are you getting out of it?
 
I just use a 9 volt and get a few flights out of it before I swap it out. But on the bench her at home I think a few hours was it but don't quote me on that. Always use freash batteries... kids toys take the used ones in my house...
 
Thinking about getting one of these, any pictures of the receiver or a more feedback on how it works.
 
Hey Gary
So goods things are the "word", cool. what distance did you use it at?
Any pictures? Mostly the receiver , there web site is lacking, and needs a bit of work.
I will order one after I get back from vacation.
Thanks
 
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I have thought about this vs the big red bee. How do they compare size wise?
 
I'll try and take some photos later and post... But seeing the flight in google earth is cool...!!!
 
Hey Gary
So goods things are the "word", cool. what distance did you use it at?
Any pictures? Mostly the receiver , there web site is lacking, and needs a bit of work.
I will order one after I get back from vacation.
Thanks

I will bring mine to the May launch if I have time to locate it. I think there is a funny in there.
 
Here are some photos... late but here... Doing a 9 volt battery test to see how long it runs...

IMG_1121.jpgIMG_1120.jpg
 
I did ask about iphone etc support and they would love to do it but... not yet. If it runs windows and you can install u-center it will work.
 
That's long enough for me.

I decided to upgrade with the recent arguments on the Garmin Astro.
 
That don't bother me at all, have my laptop with me most the time anyway.
What’s included in the package?
If the receiver’s has software compatibility (XP,Win7,Win8)?
Cost for a replacement Transmitter ? ( just in case, lord knows, I never loss a rocket, Arrrhhggggg ya!)
And here’s a big one, programmable transmitter channels, knowing that someone will have one on the pad same time as me.
As soon as I feel comfy with it, I will order one or two.
 
From their website... comes with transmitter, receiver and antennae. Software is free download. You can also watch flights in Google ea

Micro GPS Telemetry Unit
Track your rocket from launch to landing, weighs less than a 9v battery (including antenna). Small enough to fit in a 38mm airframe with room to spare. The receiver plugs into your laptop via USB and allows you to record the flight data as well as viewing real time. Finding your rocket is easy, simply enter the last position into your GPS and walk right to it. You don't need any kind of license to use it and it's less than $300.

A high performance 50 channel ublox 6 technology chip and a quadrifilar helix antenna. A 32 channel engine with over 1 million effective correlators is capable of massive parallel searches across the time/frequency space. This enables rapid Time To First Fix (TTFF) while long correlation/dwell times make possible the best-in-class acquisition and tracking sensitivity.
Connected to a compact 100mW 900MHz FHSS* transceiver with 25 frequencies and 7 hop sequences. 65,000 unique addresses for each channel guarantee no interference from other units. Outdoor RF line-of-sight range up to 6 miles (9.6 km) with the included dipole antennas.
The transmitter runs on 5-15v, you can expect over an hour of telemetry from a fresh 9v battery. lithium batteries can be used with proper precautions.
*(Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum)

To place an order please click on the Buy Now button below! The cost for the starter kit is $299.00 + shipping and handling.
Please be aware that Washington State residents will be charged sales tax at 9.5%, shipping is normally 1-2 weeks.
 
here is a screen shot in action... 2.5 hr into test... oops 2.4 hours and it just died, but not sure how live my 9volt was to start.

IMG_1125.jpg
 
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