Eggtimer Proton Firmware Update

[cerving]

We've updated the Eggtimer Proton firmware to add some additional flight code to ensure a proper detection of apogee and nose-over. The new version, 1.04U, is now on the Eggtimer Rocketry support site... we recommend that you update your Protons to this version.

Eggtimer Proton Support, Eggtimer Rocketry

Documentation Eggtimer Proton Assembly Guide Rev.

eggtimerrocketry.com

As usual, thanks for your continued support!

Cris Erving, Eggtimer Rocketry

 

[waltr]

Thanks Cris.
Any change to Airstarts using Baro to Accel altitude deviation?

Just updated my Proton the 1.04U. Followed to direction is the Proton users guide and it just worked. Yeah.
I did ensure I had all the settings recorded before the update. However, the update left and settings intact. Double yeah.

Thanks again Cris.

 

[cerving]

There are no changes to the airstart flight code in 1.04U. We might take a look at it when we implement a new accelerometer in the next version of the Proton... unfortunately the ones that we're looking at have LOWER resolution than the current one that went EOL, that may affect some airstart functions. The firmware for the new Proton will auto-detect the accelerometer chip, so any changes that we make will apply to the A9 hardware version too.

 

[kitchw8436]

I'm getting what seem to be weird accelerometer readings after updating. Here are the readings in various orientations.
- up arrow facing up: -90
- up arrow facing down: 58
- Horizontal with top of board facing up: 0
- Horizontal with top of board facing down: 2
These readings don't make sense to me. I thought this had a single axis accelerometer oriented in the direction of the arrow on the board. If so, I would expect readings of -1 with arrow up, 1 with the arrow down, and zero with board horizontal. Am I misunderstanding something or is there something wrong with my Quantum?

 

[cerving]

Those are the "raw" values from the accelerometer, not the "G's". Horizontal should be near zero, and your other readings are not far out of bounds (theoretically those raw numbers should be +/-68). That's why there's a "warm-up" time for the accelerometer. When you arm it on the pad, it takes a number of readings to get a baseline, and automatically creates an offset for the accelerometer. In a future version of the Proton firmware, you'll get both the "G" and the "raw" values on the status screen.

 

[kitchw8436]

Those are the "raw" values from the accelerometer, not the "G's". Horizontal should be near zero, and your other readings are not far out of bounds (theoretically those raw numbers should be +/-68). That's why there's a "warm-up" time for the accelerometer. When you arm it on the pad, it takes a number of readings to get a baseline, and automatically creates an offset for the accelerometer. In a future version of the Proton firmware, you'll get both the "G" and the "raw" values on the status screen.

Thanks, Cris. I was thinking 9.81 m/s^2, or 32.2 ft/s^2, or 1g. Couldn’t figure out the values I was seeing. The manual calibration is now gone in the 1.04u firmware upgrade. I was finding that problematic. ready to fly it now.

 

[cerving]

The manual calibration was a pain in the butt, I got a lot of feedback about it, and decided early on that it had to go. The purpose of showing you the accelerometer values is so you know it's working... showing both raw and "G" values makes it a lot more intuitive.

The "new" version of the Proton using an different accelerometer is in the testing stage, there will be one firmware version for both versions. There will be a few additional improvements in the firmware, which we will release along with the new Proton. Target is sometime this Summer.