So what are we doing wrong with our Eggfinders?

[HHaase]

Normally I'd directly e-mail the always-helpful Cris at Eggtimer. However, in this case, I think maybe I need the opinion of somebody who's struggled with these as well. Maybe somebody can say "Hey, I made that mistake too, here's what you do!".

Short story is two of us in the club have Eggfinder systems. Standard and Mini transmitters, both of us with LCD's with GPS. Everything appears to be functioning ok. We get coordinates of the rocket, and it appears we have good communication between the systems. Frequencies are all working fine, and I can see traffic on the radio modules. But when it comes to actually finding the rockets we are just completely confused. Completely unable to find anything at our last launch with the system. Essentially we just don't see any kind of updates on the LCD at all as we are walking along. All the distance, heading, track.... none of it updates as we move closer to the area of the rocket.

It's almost acting as if the LCD unit doesn't have any GPS reception, even though we're getting double-beeps saying both GPS have data, and the display says 0 seconds since the last update on both screens (rocket and LCD).

So, what might we be doing wrong?

-Hans

 

[cerving]

Do you get the "Waiting for GPS" message when you turn on your LCD receiver? If you do not, then it's not getting an internal GPS feed. If it doesn't see an internal GPS feed, you'll still get the navigation screen, but it will reference the "set" point... the location that it got from the rocket when you first pressed the button to go into the navigation screen. If you set it from the launch pad (which is the intent of having it...), it will tell you which way and how far away it was from the launch pad... since it doesn't have a local GPS feed, that's the best you're gonna get.

 

[Charles_McG]

I have seen my LCD receiver not update the TX coordinates even though I hear the reception beeps. I think I power cycled it to clear it up. I've also had recent trouble with a two stage rocket with Minis in each stage. I have issues when I power them all (including the RX) all in the trunk of my car - it seems to be RFI. My current practice is to space them out a few feet, get everything up and going, and then carry each stage away a bit and verify it's working. Takes a little bit of time, because there's an ID change and reboot (or two) in there.

I'm still getting the hang of the navigation screen. I need to write myself a cheat sheet for what the numbers all are. But it did get me with 30' of each stage last launch. One was visible at that point. the other was in tall reeds and I didn't have the freedom of movement to wander. Worse than in a corn field. But a directional mic I brought along could hear the Proton beeping out, so that's how I got the direction for the last few feet.

 

[HHaase]

I'll give it a look later today to see if I'm getting that. I'm sure I did see it in the past at some point but I'll verify it still gets that currently.

I'll be honest, after adding the GPS module and updating the firmware, it's just not as smooth of an experience for me as it was originally. When I used it previously everything was just super simple to understand. With the current firmware it can be hard to interpolate the overall system status. There are times that the navigation screen just has spots that are blank, and I don't know what that means, and I just can't trust the data. I'd flat-out love to have another screen that gives just a quick overall status of the system.

Maybe a screen that gives a readout such as this......
TXS:4 TXT:0 V: 5.9v
RXS:5 RXT:0 RXC:Y

TXS = transmitter satellites
TXT = transmitter time since last fix
V = receiver battery voltage.
RXS = receiver satellites
RXT = receiver time since last fix
RXC = receiver GPS unit connected, Y/N

 

[Charles_McG]

Didn't the initial screen stay the same after the update? You can toggle back and forth.

 

[HHaase]

Prior to the update that added the GPS receiver to the LCD I don't think anybody had/needed an external button. The only screens it showed were the initial bootup status indicator for a few seconds, then 'waiting for fix', and then it eventually switched over to the live coordinates and stayed there until you turned it off. You didn't have any ability or need to change screens on the fly.

-Hans

 

[Charles_McG]

I bought mine at the same time as a TRS, so I've always had the button. I also use the LCD receiver to change the frequency and IDs of my Minis - which needs the button.

For me, it's perpetual learning curve to do the short press v. the long press. I count out to three for the long press, and practice patience.

 

[cerving]

The short-long button press thing is likely to change in a future version. Yes, it's a bit annoying... it's not as smooth as it was originally meant to be. This goes for the TRS, too.

 

[cerving]

I'll give it a look later today to see if I'm getting that. I'm sure I did see it in the past at some point but I'll verify it still gets that currently.

I'll be honest, after adding the GPS module and updating the firmware, it's just not as smooth of an experience for me as it was originally. When I used it previously everything was just super simple to understand. With the current firmware it can be hard to interpolate the overall system status. There are times that the navigation screen just has spots that are blank, and I don't know what that means, and I just can't trust the data. I'd flat-out love to have another screen that gives just a quick overall status of the system.

Maybe a screen that gives a readout such as this......
TXS:4 TXT:0 V: 5.9v
RXS:5 RXT:0 RXC:Y

TXS = transmitter satellites
TXT = transmitter time since last fix
V = receiver battery voltage.
RXS = receiver satellites
RXT = receiver time since last fix
RXC = receiver GPS unit connected, Y/N

Yes, it's not as smooth because it's having to deal with listening to two GPS's instead of just one. A "fix" that I've been contemplating is to only have it listen to the internal GPS at startup to get an initial fix, and to ignore it if you're on the GPS coordinate screen instead of updating it like it does now. If you switch to the nav screen, it will grab the current fix once to update the direction/distance, then do what it does now and only pull it once every 10 seconds.

A "health" screen might not be a bad idea... but I don't want to make it any harder to use, either.

 

[Charles_McG]

Two buttons

 

[HHaase]

That might be what I was experiencing. Went straight from 'Waiting for Sync' for about 20 seconds, and then straight to GPS coordinates. I never saw "Waiting for Fix" or "Waiting for GPS".

The coordinates screen doesn't act the way the manual says it should though. I have the coordinates just fine, indicates 4 satellites are being seen, and signal quality is good, altitude is also shown. Though I had to reboot it because it wasn't originally showing correct altitude. Conspicuous in their absence are no time since last fix, completely not there at all. I also don't have a blinking orange LED on my transmitter, so if the transmitter doesn't have a good signal I'm not sure what the LCD is showing me. I'll wait it out and see if that comes on after a while.

The navigation screen only shows me compass heading, track (without the T), and distance. Doesn't give me a Left/Right indicator at all, that section is blank. Beeping is all over the place, and seems to be different depending on what screen i'm on. For the coordinates screen I get a repeating pattern of 4 singles then a slow double. On the navigation screen I get a pattern of 4 quick doubles and a slow double.

Firmware is 1.11b

 

[HHaase]

I did find the ground wire between the LCD and the GPS had poor continuity, so I don't think the GPS was getting power. I was kinda hopeful at that point, but the only change I've seen is I'm now getting a blinking signal light for the GPS module on the LCD, but otherwise the displays are acting apparently identical.

-Hans

 

[Charles_McG]

The LED on the TX doesn't work on about half of my Minis and TX. Data still gets to the RX - though you can hook up the USB cable that is used for updates, etc, and connect it to PuTTY and watch the TX output.

 

[HHaase]

I do get GPS LED's for both the transmitter and receiver now, which is reassuring as it means there is stable location data coming through. The coordinates once they stabilized are also exactly at my location. So I know the data is good.

The wife was out rollerblading, so I had her take the transmitter with her, and the distance/compass heading seemed to be working fine. But I never saw anything from the track or Right/Left features. So I may just have to tape a small compass to the thing or something. I did email Cris to see if I can roll back the firmware to an earlier version to compare, but haven't heard back yet.

I also wonder if it doesn't update properly at walking speed. My Wife is pretty quick on her blades, so I saw an equivalent rapid increase and decrease in the distance as she moved.

-Hans

 

[Charles_McG]

Don't you have to be moving yourself for the Direction, Track options to work? You have to be moving to give it a vector to work with, otherwise it doesn't know where you are facing - no compass.

 

[HHaase]

Well, I was walking too. Not terribly far, but should have had some data to work with even if it wasn't terribly accurate. I'd just expect to at least see an icon of some type.

 

[OverTheTop]

Two buttons

What he said, please .

 

[HHaase]

Ok, narrowing down the issues more with my own. All of the wires between the GPS module and the LCD board had internal breaks. So while the GPS had a good signal it wasn't transferring it to the LCD module. I'm getting the navigation data now that I've replaced all the wiring between the two. I probably busted the conductors when I stripped the ends for soldering them onto the older revision LCD board I have. Having it opened up so many times to troubleshoot just making that situation worse.

Cris.... I may be struggling with a few things on this unit, but I'm actually pretty good at layout and DFM work. I've got a few concepts in my head and I'd love to take a crack at a completely different PCB layout if you'd be willing.


-Hans

 

[cerving]

I actually have a new board layout in the works... the GPS will be integrated into it (although I will probably sell it as an option to keep the startup cost down, you can always add it). The trick is that the form factor has to remain the same, since there are people selling 3D printed cases for it. I have a large number of the current boards on hand, so it won't be very soon, though.

 

[jbrracer]

I actually have a new board layout in the works... the GPS will be integrated into it (although I will probably sell it as an option to keep the startup cost down, you can always add it). The trick is that the form factor has to remain the same, since there are people selling 3D printed cases for it. I have a large number of the current boards on hand, so it won't be very soon, though.

I Sent you an email about getting a tx and rx haven’t seen a response are you still receiving emails at sales@eggtimer........

 

[cerving]

Yes, let me take a look... it may have gone into the Spam folder. What date did you send it?

 

[jbrracer]

Saturday 715pm

 

[cerving]

OK, I think I found it... I'll get back to you shortly.

 

[Dan Griffing]

I actually have a new board layout in the works... the GPS will be integrated into it (although I will probably sell it as an option to keep the startup cost down, you can always add it). The trick is that the form factor has to remain the same, since there are people selling 3D printed cases for it. I have a large number of the current boards on hand, so it won't be very soon, though.

Are you keeping a list of customers who are willing to buy, assemble and test the beta version of this integrated version when its ready?

I have a bunch of your kits already, and I'm looking for a solution to my LCD RX not receiving communication from the GPS add-on, even when its orange led indicates that it has a GPS lock.

 

[cerving]

It's on the drawing board but I haven't sent off any Gerbers to be prototyped yet.

 

[Rob702Martinez]

I like the rocket locator app paired to the Rx. Although the GPS add on is very convenient and very effective.

 

[Rob702Martinez]

chrome note 9