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3 Data Sources

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Mark Jessop edited this page Feb 25, 2018 · 4 revisions

3 - OziPlotter Data Inputs

Oziplotter accepts telemetry (payload position) and waypoint data as LF terminated lines of CSV on UDP port 8942 (configurable in OziPlotter.conf). The following formats are accepted:

  • Payload Positions: TELEMETRY,HH:MM:SS,latitude,longitude,altitude\n

    • Example: TELEMETRY,01:05:20,-34.12345,138.12345,10123\n
    • Payload positions are added to a track within OziExplorer.
    • The time (in HH:MM:SS format) should be the time the telemetry was received, and must be in UTC time, in the current UTC day. This time information is used to calculate ascent/descent rates, and feeds into the predictor.

  • Waypoint data: WAYPOINT,name,latitude,longitude,comment\n

    • Example: WAYPOINT,VK5QI-9,-34.12345,138.1234,QSY 439.900\n
    • Waypoints are plotted in OziExplorer, and are referenced by name. Hence, they can be updated by sending a new Waypoint data sentence with the same waypoint name.
    • Waypoints cannot currently be deleted (TODO!)

The following software has been designed to produce data in this format, and is suitable for gathering payload telemetry from various sources:

horus_utils

The horus_utils repository contains a range of utilities intended to obtain and process telemetry data from various sources, and feed it into OziPlotter.

Supported data sources include:

  • dl-fldigi, for tracking a payload transmitting UKHAS-standard telemetry via RTTY or other modulation.
  • Data from the Habitat online balloon tracker, via the HabitatBridge application.
  • Project Horus Mission Control Payloads, which transmit a binary telemetry format via LoRa modules.
  • Decoded radiosonde telemetry, via radiosonde_auto_rx (see below)

A 'multiplexer' utility (OziMux) allows switching between multiple data sources during a flight.

Documentation on how the Horus Utilities are used is available here.

Radiosonde Auto RX

Along with launching our own High Altitude balloons, we also go hunting radiosondes launched by the local Bureau of Meteorology. The 'radiosonde_auto_rx' radiosonde decoding software uses a RTLSDR to automatically search for radiosonde transmissions, decodes them, and plots data to APRS-IS and the Habitat online tracker. It can also output data in OziPlotter compatible format!

The OziPlotter output must be enabled in the auto_rx configuration file. As with the above applications, you can either push data directly to OziPlotter, or via OziMux. The ozi_enabled setting in the config file must be set to True for this function to operate. If sending data directly from radiosonde_auto_rx to OziPlotter, set ozi_port to 8942. If you are using the OziMux utility, set ozi_port to 55681.

Next: Chasing a balloon!

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