- Joined
- Jan 22, 2013
- Messages
- 379
- Reaction score
- 287
First, apologies for the lack of participation lately - work has been a little busy... but that isn't the topic of this post. This is about the first rocket 'found' with the Featherweight tracker 'lost rocket relay'...
Adrian has implemented the feature where a tracker would start sending "I'm lost" packets when it loses contact with its ground station (because the tracker is on the ground, and transmissions don't work well over the ground). Other rockets then flown can pick up these packets (because now the 2nd tracker relay is in the air and has line of sight to the 'lost' rocket) and relay them back to the ground station. Eventually these will be relayed back to other ground stations / phones in the flight area (so the person with the 'lost rocket' will get an updated location based on another rocket being flown). For now though, they show up in the iOS FIP app in the 'Found>' page for the person flying the new rocket.
So the first time this was [later] verified was at a launch where I was interested in other things so not trying specifically to test this feature. Sharon flew her rocket and had a poor deployment resulting in a broken antenna as well as some tracking issues. [We think we have taken care of the tracking issue and many thanks to Sharon and Wayne for much live interactive usage and testing!]. Anyway, we were not able to find the rocket based on the last packet. I flew another rocket with a Featherweight Tracker and retrieved it - and later Jamie found Sharon's rocket later with his "bike tracker" (he rides his bike around and finds things...)
Anyway, within a week of returning from the launch, I was on a plane to Israel for business... I opened iFIP app on my phone to think about it (no trackers with me so no BLE on the plane) and by chance went to the "Lost" page (not visible to users yet at that time) and was surprised to see Sharon's rocket in my phone with it's last known location and time since the packet was received. The "time since" put the packet at the time of the launch... If I tap on it in iFIP, it asks me if I want to "Track to Sharon4" which would now let me track to the last location known for the rocket. Since I didn't have a ground station with me (and was over the Atlantic) I just noted the GSP locations (also shown in case someone wanted to give them to someone else to find). Later after arriving, I entered them in google maps and they indeed pointed to the area where Jamie found the rocket....
For those of you with Featherweight Trackers, you can open the iOS app and go to the 'Found' tab and see if you have picked up any 'lost rockets'. If you want to test the feature with a fellow flyer, do this:
1- One of you fly your rocket with the Featherweight Tracker
2- After it lands, turn off your ground station
3- After 5 minutes of not hearing back from its ground station, your tracker should start sending out "I'm lost" packets.
4- Have the second flyer fly their rocket with a Featherweight Tracker
5- Let the flight finish (land) and then go to the 'Found' page and see if you picked up a packet from the first rocket.
Note - before you fly, you want to have both tracker and GS "talking bi directional". This is best indicated by the green LEDs flashing on both units at about 1Hz. If they are not doing that, you should go back into Devices> Config for the tracker and save the settings to be sure they are properly paired.
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys some background stories... :smile:
/kjs
Notes to self:
1- tell user when a new rocket is found
2- relay found information to other GS in the flight area
3- allow to 'share' found location to another phone
Adrian has implemented the feature where a tracker would start sending "I'm lost" packets when it loses contact with its ground station (because the tracker is on the ground, and transmissions don't work well over the ground). Other rockets then flown can pick up these packets (because now the 2nd tracker relay is in the air and has line of sight to the 'lost' rocket) and relay them back to the ground station. Eventually these will be relayed back to other ground stations / phones in the flight area (so the person with the 'lost rocket' will get an updated location based on another rocket being flown). For now though, they show up in the iOS FIP app in the 'Found>' page for the person flying the new rocket.
So the first time this was [later] verified was at a launch where I was interested in other things so not trying specifically to test this feature. Sharon flew her rocket and had a poor deployment resulting in a broken antenna as well as some tracking issues. [We think we have taken care of the tracking issue and many thanks to Sharon and Wayne for much live interactive usage and testing!]. Anyway, we were not able to find the rocket based on the last packet. I flew another rocket with a Featherweight Tracker and retrieved it - and later Jamie found Sharon's rocket later with his "bike tracker" (he rides his bike around and finds things...)
Anyway, within a week of returning from the launch, I was on a plane to Israel for business... I opened iFIP app on my phone to think about it (no trackers with me so no BLE on the plane) and by chance went to the "Lost" page (not visible to users yet at that time) and was surprised to see Sharon's rocket in my phone with it's last known location and time since the packet was received. The "time since" put the packet at the time of the launch... If I tap on it in iFIP, it asks me if I want to "Track to Sharon4" which would now let me track to the last location known for the rocket. Since I didn't have a ground station with me (and was over the Atlantic) I just noted the GSP locations (also shown in case someone wanted to give them to someone else to find). Later after arriving, I entered them in google maps and they indeed pointed to the area where Jamie found the rocket....
For those of you with Featherweight Trackers, you can open the iOS app and go to the 'Found' tab and see if you have picked up any 'lost rockets'. If you want to test the feature with a fellow flyer, do this:
1- One of you fly your rocket with the Featherweight Tracker
2- After it lands, turn off your ground station
3- After 5 minutes of not hearing back from its ground station, your tracker should start sending out "I'm lost" packets.
4- Have the second flyer fly their rocket with a Featherweight Tracker
5- Let the flight finish (land) and then go to the 'Found' page and see if you picked up a packet from the first rocket.
Note - before you fly, you want to have both tracker and GS "talking bi directional". This is best indicated by the green LEDs flashing on both units at about 1Hz. If they are not doing that, you should go back into Devices> Config for the tracker and save the settings to be sure they are properly paired.
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys some background stories... :smile:
/kjs
Notes to self:
1- tell user when a new rocket is found
2- relay found information to other GS in the flight area
3- allow to 'share' found location to another phone
