Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d Operation & User’s Manual

Text of Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d User Guide:

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, An Introduction to Rocket Tracking Once upon a time it was a big deal for a model rocket to go out of sight, especially if it was a relatively large one (say, the size of an Estes Big Bertha). Rockets like that would go out of sight at maybe 1,000’, but unless your field was surrounded by trees or tall grass there was a good chance that you would get it back because it’s not going to stray more than a few hundred feet away from the launch pad. With mid-power and high-power rockets, that’s a different story. To begin with, your field has to be much larger, particularly with high-power (the rules call for a minimum size of 1500’ on eit

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, The rocket went relatively straight up, weathercocked into the wind slightly as is slowed down, drifted a little on the drogue chute, and drifted more on the main chute. Note that there is a discontinuity in the graph, that can happen once the rocket starts moving fast. Also note the small movement before launch, that’s when we were walking the rocket out to the RSO table and then to the pad… it tracks EVERY movement.

• Specifications: Eggfinder TX GPS: Maestro Wireless A2235H 48 track verification channels Low power, 35 mA typical operating, 5 mA standby Transmitter Module: Hope RF HM-TRP Output Power: 20 dBm (100 mW) Center Frequency: 905.000 Mhz – 925.000 Mhz, in 2.000 MHz steps per channel Modulation: FSK Modulation Delta: 35 KHz Antenna Options: • 80 cm (1/4 wave) “Sti

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, Hope RF HM-TRP Documentation (FCC test documentation) http://www.hoperf.com/upload/rf/HM-TRP-915(20dBm)-FCC.pdf FAA Regulations for Amateur Rocketry (Part 101) http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text- idx?c=ecfr&rgn=div5&view=text&node=14:2.0.1.3.15&idno=14 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Before You Start… • If you bought a Starter Set (both Eggfinder TX and RX kits), make sure that both of them are on the same frequency (it’s marked on the package label). If they are not, do no

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, Overlaying the road map instead of the satellite map… not very interesting here because it’s about 8 miles to the nearest road. Now, this is interesting and pretty, but it doesn’t tell you exactly where your rocket landed. If you have a smartphone, you can use the coordinates to tell you where to go (more on that in a bit). If you do not have a smartphone, MapSphere does provide a relatively easy way to tell you which direction to go. Simply use the Ruler tool from the first location (your launch site) the last location (the landing spot), and

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, Mounting Your Eggfinder TX in a Rocket The Eggfinder TX board is about 3” long and .9” wide; with its “stick” antenna it’s about 6” long and .9” wide. It will fit into just about any rocket with a BT-50 or larger payload bay, although some of the batteries may not fit in a space that small. (9V batteries and 7.4V 2S LiPo packs are about the same size, and require a BT-55 or larger body tube.). The cardinal rule of tracking transmitter mounting is KEEP METAL AWAY FROM THE ANTENNA. This means that if you have an A/V bay with two allthreads running the length of the bay, this is going to be a really bad place to mount your Eggf

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, Simple GPS data display programs (limited mapping capabilities) VisualGPS Satellite Mapping Software MapSphere GooPs (with Google Earth) The goal here is to find out where the LAST place that your Eggfinder ended up… this is going to be very close to your actual landing spot, unless for some reason your rocket drifts way out of range. Even then, you’re going to be able to get an idea of the direction that it was going before you lost radio contact, so you’re still likely to get your rocket back. The NMEA-Formatted Data Format If you’re a software minimalist, you ca

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, *47 the checksum data, always begins with * As an example, some “real” records taken during a flight looked like this: $GPGGA,171634,3406.6883,N,11757.4427,W,1,9,0.9,181.1,M,-33.2,M,,0000*6A This record was taken at 17:16:34 UTC (actually 9:16:34 PST), at 34°6.6883’’ N, 117°57.4427’W. There was a valid GPS fix (the “1” after the “W”), from 9 satellites. You can pretty much ignore the rest of the data, including the altitude; GPS altitudes are only accurate wh

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, In this case: Latitude = 33.828873 (North), Longitude = -113.130500 (West) This is the last position that your Eggfinder reported, and should be very close to your actual landing position. Using the Latitude/Longitude Data to Find Your Rocket Now that you have the coordinates of your rocket’s resting place, you need to able to get to it. The easiest way is to use some kind of tracking app on your GPS-enabled smartphone. We’ve used Motion-X on the Apple iPhone with good results. Basically, you set a waypoint for your current location, add the latitude/longitude of your rocket as a waypoint, and use the Go To function to take you right to it. You d

• Eggfinder Quick Reference Guide Eggfinder TX (Transmitter): Battery: 300 mAh (min.), 7.4V (2S) LiPo battery recommended Mounting Tips: • AVOID MOUNTING THE ANTENNA NEAR ANY METALLIC OBJECTS • If you use the “stick” antenna, do not use a metal screw next to the antenna; Use a nylon screw, or double-stick servo tape instead. Operatin

• • You can also use double-stick foam tape, “servo tape” is the best because the adhesive is very strong and it won’t come loose accidentally. • The Eggfinder TX board requires about 70 mA, with a start-up peak of up to 200 mA for a few seconds or so. We recommend that whatever battery you use provide at least 200 mAH of capacity, that will keep it going for about 3 hours

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <gpx version="1.1" creator="MapSphere" xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" targetNamespace="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1" elementFormDefault="qualified" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1 http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1/gpx.xsd"> <trk> <trkseg> <trkpt lat="33.822127" lon="-113.138178"> <ele>690.00</ele> <time>2014-02-22T19:14:43Z</time> <extensions>

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, There’s pretty much no way that the rocket could be found without having a tracker. With the Eggfinder, we were able to walk right up to the landing spot without really looking around for it. We actually saw it on the ground in a clearing about 200’ before we got there, when we stood at “The Spot” and looked at our distance to waypoint, it reported 2’… Mission Accomplished!

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, antenna, you will need a “N” connector. On the Eggfinder side, you will need a RP-SMA FEMALE connector on the cable (INSIDE threads with a JACK in the center). We recommend that you use the shortest cable that you can practically use, if you mount the receiver just behind the rear of the antenna you can generally keep this cable to under 6”. Be sure to get a cable that’s rated for the 900 MHz band; WiFi cables work fine, since WiFi runs at 2400 MHz, so the loss will actually be less than the cable’s specifications. Some cable types that are commonly used for t

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, • Follow NAR/TRA guidelines… if it’s too windy to fly, an Eggfinder isn’t going to help the situation. • Having a transmitter doesn’t mean that you don’t need to pay attention to your rocket, a visual fix on your rocket is still the best way to help get it back.

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, http://www.eggtimerrocketry.com/page16.php?view=preview&category=9&image=135 Once you have done that, you launch, and when you get the last location of your rocket (for example, from MapSphere as detailed above), you create a new waypoint with those coordinates. Once you’ve done that, simply click on Navigate to Waypoint, and bring up either the Map or the Compass function to show you where you are in relation to your rocket and how far you need to go. Note that the distance and direction are generally calculated from your GPS position, not from your actual compass position. The compass in an iPh

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, Using Your Eggfinder To use your Eggfinder effectively, you’ll need: • An Eggfinder TX board (to send the GPS data from your rocket) • An Eggfinder RX board (to receive the signal from the Eggfinder TX) • A computer/tablet with a USB port to connect the Eggfinder RX board • Some kind of software to record and/or interpret the data from the Eggfinder RX board • Some way of figuring out where you are so you can get to your rocket’s location The Eggfinder RX board uses a standard USB Type A plug, compatible with virtually every laptop PC. Tablets with USB port

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, MHz bands. These advances have made it possible to create GPS-based rocket tracking system for a fraction of what they would have cost 10 years ago. Meet the Eggfinder The Eggfinder is a GPS-based rocket tracking system that transmits using the license-free 900 MHz band. The radio modules used in the Eggfinder use the maximum legally-permissible output power for this band, 100 mW. There are actually two pieces to the Eggfinder system, the TX (transmitter) module and the RX (receiver) modul

• Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d, California Proposition 65 Warning WARNING: This product contains chemicals (lead) known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or reproductive harm. This kit includes a special low-temperature ultra-fine leaded solder wire. Including the solder with the kit ensures that you will have solder that can be used to mount the surface-mount parts in the kit. Leaded solders have been used for over a century in electronic assembly, but you should take the following precautions when using it (or just about any chemical, for that matter): • Do not eat or drink while using it • Wash your hands after handling it • Keep it in the protecti

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