EggFinder and OSX

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snrkl

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Anyone here able to suggest software combos that are useful for EggFinders on OSX? I spoke to @Cerving and he's a Window's guy through and through.. He suggested I poke the forum here for suggestion.

A 10min search of the forums didn't reveal anything for me - apologies if my search-fu has missed a useful post already here on the topic...
 
Are you trying to use the USB receiver? Update software?

I haven't had any need to connect the Eggfinder to a computer, but I do run OSX and Linux, so I might be able to help.
 
Are you trying to use the USB receiver? Update software?

I haven't had any need to connect the Eggfinder to a computer, but I do run OSX and Linux, so I might be able to help.

I'm still trying to get my head around capabilities - I'm looking at the handheld receiver for field use but it would also be useful to use my Mac for a live track... I'm assessing options before I finalise my purchase at the moment.

Software update strikes me as an obvious need though.
 
I believe folks are simply taking the latitude and longitude displayed on the screen of the LCD and inputting it into a mapping application manually with Apple products. That said, if there are aprs tracking applications for the iPhone and if you can pipe the NMEA strings to the application, you might be able to get the rocket position displayed on a map to at least see where the rocket is. I don't think there is an iPhone app that allows one to do rocket tracking live. I am a Linux, Android, Windows person in that order. Perhaps someone who uses Apple products more can comment. Kurt
 
I just use my phone for mapping and tracking. My MBP doesn't go to the range with me. :)

If you use the LCD receiver, which you should, and a Bluetooth module. You can connect with anything that speaks serial Bluetooth. That will include OSX. You can also use the USB cable eggtimer sells. Once you have that working, the whole thing looks like a GPS "mouse" to the system. So any mapping software that understands NMEA should be able to work with it.

Software updates are not officially supported on non-windows. I haven't tried the Eggfinder, but it it looks like the standard avrdude software would work. I have used OSX to update a Quantum, and it uses a similar design, just a different software tool. So I don't see any reason it wouldn't work.
 
I have fiddled with attaching an Eggfinder RX to my Mac, but to no avail. Here is a thread about it: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?130450-Eggfinder-RX-Mac&highlight=eggfinder+mac+dongle

I'd love to figure out a solution to this, but for now, I just use the handheld LCD remote for everything. It works great, and I just plug the GPS coordinates into the Motion-X GPS on my iPhone.

I have used my Mac to program my TRS and Quantum via a program called SerialTools. The interface isn't perfect, but it works.

BTW...I downloaded your Airtable base this weekend. It looks great.
 
The OP was looking for apps on OSX, not iOS. You cannot do live tracking with iOS, because it does not support external GPS feeds; the app would have to be specifically written to take a Bluetooth serial feed, too (that's not a native iOS function). OSX should be fine, you just need to find the right software. Google "mac osx live tracking software", there's a lot of potential choices out there. A lot of them are apps that show your track after the fact by downloading the NMEA data, and some of them are commercial products meant for tracking GPS-enable truck fleets, but it looks like there are some out there. I know there are some Eggfinder users using Mac's for this, but I don't know which product(s) they're using.
 
So the OP likely wants to live track from a Mac laptop or whatever they call them? I forgot you mentioned iOS is closed Cris so the easiest solution for a
neophyte is get a used Android device with an internal GPS and 32GB of memory to store maps and go with "GPS Rocket Locator" if they want to live track.

I find this is the easiest for a new flier to configure period. I've jiggered together APRSISCE/32, YAAC, Xastir of various flavors and yeah, it's doable but it's
just a real PITA to setup. It would take pages of instructions but once these apps are setup, they are rock steady. Still they are too hard for casual fliers
to setup. If they work with Linux, Windows, Ham Radio and Android device then o.k. they might be able to pull it off. Sucks, as I'm looking for something
I can point to that does beautiful live map tracking that anyone can easily get going. So far my search comes up with nothing but GPSRL.

A thing about cables. If you want to track from a base station with serial/USB cables fine, go ahead. Triapsing out in the field with a serial/B/T cable, jostle it and
the tracking link will die. (Yeah the LCD remembers the last know position on a reboot but a PITA to go through out in the field).

A cable link to a Kenwood D72A and Garmin GPS is a positive connection and is ok for portable use but that is for APRS Ham trackers and doesn't apply here.

My latest fun and games is Xastir on top of an Android device using GNU/Root Debian and XSDL available at the Play Store. I have Xastir running on
a Nexus 7 2012 3G with a 7.1.2 Nougat AOSP kernel and a stock Nexus 7 2013 LTE with the last stable Lollipop kernel. I can get Xastir to "see" the onboard
GPS with gpsd and a connected keyboard, mouse, Wifi and internet (ie. 3G/LTE) link is transparent to the Debian setup. Once you have all this stuff active on the
Android side, it's automatically "seen" on the Linux side. Except I had to use GPS Share (an Android app) and have it running with a gpsd link before booting Linux. I setup gpsd in Xastir and by golly my local position was see and Xastir is running rock steady in this setup.
Again, the Debian runs "on top" of the Android distro and I didn't have to ditch it to run Debian and Xastir. Close the Xastir and exit out and I'm back on top of my nice 'ol Android screen!

Only task is to see if I can connect other Bluetooth devices on the Android side and get them to appear on the Debian side and oh boy, we'd be going to town!

Xastir can do the Ham Radio APRS stuff a.k.a. Beeline GPS Ham band (and others) along with the NMEA trackers a.k.a. Eggfinders/Missileworks (and others)
NMEA stuff requires a little script to work but one gets a beautiful icon with data displayed right next to the icon like bearing, position, horizontal speed and GPS
altitude. Also one can pull up a window at anytime that shows all the saved positions and altitudes PLUS one can save everything to a .kml or any kind of logfile they want! Kurt
 
Personally, I think the best option is the LCD receiver + BT module with an Android phone or tablet for the tracking part. You can get new Android devices for $50 that will do this. You can probably get a used one for free from someone that upgraded. It doesn't take much in the way of hardware to do it. The Android device doesn't even need cellular access. You can pre-download maps for your launch sites with the Rocket Locator app. The only things the device needs are internal GPS and bluetooth. Make the dots line up, and there you are. :)

The tricky part with Windows/OSX applications is that most of them just aren't set up for dual GPS inputs. So you can see where you are, or where the rocket is, but not both. Quantum tracking principle. :)
 
BTW...I downloaded your Airtable base this weekend. It looks great.

That's awesome!

I'll take a look at your eggfinder OS X thread and I guess with the rest I'll have to just play once I've got my hands on some gear...
 
Personally, I think the best option is the LCD receiver + BT module with an Android phone or tablet for the tracking part. You can get new Android devices for $50 that will do this. You can probably get a used one for free from someone that upgraded. It doesn't take much in the way of hardware to do it. The Android device doesn't even need cellular access. You can pre-download maps for your launch sites with the Rocket Locator app. The only things the device needs are internal GPS and bluetooth. Make the dots line up, and there you are. :)

The tricky part with Windows/OSX applications is that most of them just aren't set up for dual GPS inputs. So you can see where you are, or where the rocket is, but not both. Quantum tracking principle. :)

If one goes that route, get an Android device with an onboard GPS chipset. You have a cheap device without an onboard GPS, even if you have a B/T GPS paired with the device, the Android store will not let you download GPS Rocket Locator as
it will say your device is not compatible. I have a cheap Android device and tried it and that's the result. Yeah, I know stupid but I can't control what they allow us to download. Kurt
 
I did say it needs internal GPS... :)

If you can enable "Other Sources", you can sideload the APK file. I have no idea if it will work with 2 external GPS streams, but that's a way to get the program installed anyway.
 
I did say it needs internal GPS... :)

If you can enable "Other Sources", you can sideload the APK file. I have no idea if it will work with 2 external GPS streams, but that's a way to get the program installed anyway.

........ Or lift the .apk executable from a rooted device that has it on there and install it on the one without the onboard GPS. Problem is you will not be able to even download the program in the first place so how can you sideload it unless you can
download it from another source? Kurt
 
Source is on github, compile it. :)

I bet if you ask the author nicely, he would post it.

My devices are rooted, want a copy? I can export it easily.
 
Anyone here able to suggest software combos that are useful for EggFinders on OSX? I spoke to @Cerving and he's a Window's guy through and through.. He suggested I poke the forum here for suggestion.

I think it really depends on just what you're looking for. Are you simply looking to record the log, or are you hoping for real-time mapping? Something in-between?

Personally, I just use Terminal and the command-line 'screen' program (comes with OS X) and the Prolific serial driver (download from their site), and save the raw NMEA stream from the Eggfinder to a file after the flight. I do have a script that will convert that file to a .kml (using GPSbabel), and I save all of the .kml's I've generated in Google Earth (noting that my Eggfinder tracks have never had useful altitudes, so it doesn't come out as pretty as some of the other .kml's you may see on this forum coming from devices like Kate or Altus Metrum's products).

I have seen that Google Earth has a mode that is supposed to take NMEA input, but I've never gotten it to work (forget how hard I tried). I don't know if there's anything else on the Mac that might input NMEA streams for a real-time map overlay.
 
There is this app for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=googoo.android.btgps&hl=en You scroll across the top from right to left you see "main" "status" "NMEA" like in the pictures and there is a Google map and position seen.
As long as you have a live internet link on your phone, you can get your rocket position displayed.

You install the app, allow mock locations in your devices setup (you did become a developer right?) Now, you pair your Bluetooth receiver say an EggFinder. Now you fire up the "Bluetooth GPS" and it will allow you to bond to the HC-06 or -05
board that's bringing in your rocket's position. Click on it and your device will ignore your internal GPS and you can see the rockets position on the map if you keep scrolling in this app.

Now, if you minimize the "Bluetooth GPS" app (You'll see a little blue ball in the upper left pulldown) any GPS app you call up will be using this stream you have coming into your device, ie. your rocket and ignore the internal GPS of your Android device.

You can see where your rocket is but you can't navigate. It's a fun trick to mess with it.

I've been messing with 3DR radios in another thread and discovered with a $6.25 Neo-M8N clone I can send combined GPS/Glonass strings over Rf and have more accurate plotting of a rocket's position. Problem is "GPS Rocket Locator" can't read these
strings. But............ Fire up the "Bluetooth GPS" Android app, it can read these strings and show a 16 - 20 satellite lock. Wow, very stable with little jitter here. Now, minimize "Blue tooth GPS" and fire up GPS Rocket Locator and you'll get the blue dot
as the rocket location. For some weird reason, GPS Rocket Locator cannot read the raw GPS/Glonass strings UNLESS they are going through the "Bluetooth GPS" program. I don't know why but I couldn't get the tracker to come up
with the red pushpin. I couldn't get several APRS programs to read the combined GPS/Glonass strings as a local GPS position either but running it through B/T GPS and GPS Rocket Locator can decode and plot the position as the Blue GPS or blue dot.

Soooooooooooooooo, what do you do about local position? Well, I got a cheap B/T GPS source, fired it up, got a lock, paired it to the Android and opened GPS Rocket Locator. In the setup, instead of using the HC-06/05 (that's already being used as
the rocket's position) I selected the B/T GPS source I just paired. After a short time, I get the Red Pushpin that's my local source. Fun trick but it's bass ackwards. Works.

Adrian Adamson from Featherweight reports in another thread he has a prototype tracker that also uses GPS/Glonass for more accurate plotting. Will likely be forsale and he'll get plenty of customers I expect.

Drove around and got this:

Screenshot_2017-09-17-17-23-37[1].pngScreenshot_2017-09-17-17-24-36[1].png

The blue dot (rocket) and red push pin (local) jumped very quickly together once a second. Usually with the rocket as the red pushpin (EggFinder) and the blue dot as the local position, when I drove around in the car with both devices, I
get the red pushpin (rocket) changing once a second whereas the blue dot would only move once every 5 seconds. Once every 5 seconds for a local position is perfectly fine with tracking but for some weird reason, when running the
system in reverse, using GPS/Glonass strings for the rocket, the positions of both is pretty instantaneous.

There is interference galore with 3DR on 433Mhz, 500mW. Maybe 900Mhz might be better. I found as long as I didn't have the -M8N GPS lying on the 3DR radio, it receives the position strings pretty well. Lying on the radio and the
GPS loses lock. Perhaps something about the "spread spectrum" transmitter that interferes with the GPS in close proximity. As long as the GPS was out on its short cable, it had good signal strength as shown on the UCenter UBlox
utility.

Kurt
 
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