Telemetry

Telemetry is a fusion of hardware and software, but our defining characteristic is our knowledge of wireless communication. We frequently work with radios and many of our members eventually become licensed radio operators, but you don't need to like radios to be a part of Telemetry!

We also work extensively with front end and back end software development! Our other projects also rely strongly on mechanical and CAD knowledge such as our motorized antenna tracker. All in all, Telemetry is a dynamic team that can utilize a wide variety of knowledge and adapt to its members.

Telemetry Downlink System

TARS Mk.III

Range Testing

In order to validate our telemetry stems we conduct range testing in and around campus. Using the LoRa protocol we've been able to achieve connections at 6.5 miles with 10mW at only -80 RSSI.

The photos below are from some of our range testing sessions of the 2021-2022 year.

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Ground Station Software

Our custom ground station software is written on the Electron Framework primarily in Typescript. The web aspects of Electron allow for wide cross compatibility among Windows, Macs, and even web browsers. The software is capable of displaying and recording various sensor data and system health stats from our TARs flight computer.

Additionally, the software works as a command center where we can wirelessly change the working radio frequency, operator call sign, and abort our active control mechanism.

Within our software we also have offline map tiles where the rocket's position can be plotted through GPS.

Telemetry Data

  • Low-G IMU: Acceleration, Gyroscope, Magnetometer

  • High-G Accelerometer

  • Barometer

  • GPS: Longitude, Latitude, Altitude

  • Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)

  • TARs State Estimation Data

  • Temperature

  • Battery Voltage

  • Software FSM State

  • and more!

Areas of Interest

  • Software Defined Radios (SDRs)

  • Web Application Development (Ground Station)

  • Embedded Development (Hardware + Software)

  • Recovery Beacons

  • Motorized Antenna Trackers

  • Fin-Antenna Distribution Systems

  • Radio Distancing

  • Beamforming

  • Phased Arrays

  • Wireless Camera Systems

  • Mesh Networks

  • FPGA's

  • LoRa