Clay and All,  

Interesting that you sent me this email.  I was up until midnight last night
trying to get my system to work.  I replaced everything and experimented
with everything.  Out of frustration I replaced my switch with an identical
one.  I did not expect this to make any difference. I attempted to fire an
ematch, in my office next to my bedroom. Guess what, it fired!  Scared the
heck out of me and woke up my wife.  I moved outside and fired several more.
I am pretty confident my system works now.  I will however investigate other
switches.  I use the 110/220 rotary switch.  Does anyone have any
suggestions for a better one?

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions and their equipment to help.  I
look forward to flying Saturday, assuming the weather cooperates, and
watching this thing work.  I am flying a backup altimeter just in case
though.

Thanks again to everyone,
Tim Navickas

-----Original Message-----
From: altusmetrum [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
Clay & Carly Dunsworth
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2014 9:16 AM
To: 'Altus Metrum'
Subject: Re: [altusmetrum] Telemetrum Problems

Tim, today I bypassed my switch to arm the altimeter with a bridge wire, and
my resets have stopped.
I usually use a soldered screw switch, and I guess with crud or bad
connection, it allows the small current to run the TM, but not enough for
the charges.  Most of the time it just resets, but this morning I had a
stroke of luck where it just shut off and didn't power back up. (Which
happened the first time I ever flew the altimeter.) Just fired two matches
and they popped like a charm.  
My next break I am going to re-do, to make sure there's some consistency.
While brainstorming a better bay/switch.

This tells me there is something to be said for independent power for fire,
and computing......

I have been fighting this for a while, and to get to the bottom of it has
been a challenge, but is very rewarding.  

You might also try turning off the RF completely in the "configure
altimeter" before firing on USB.

clay

-----Original Message-----
From: altusmetrum [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
Tim Navickas
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2014 8:06 PM
To: 'Keith Packard'; 'Bdale Garbee'; 'Altus Metrum'
Subject: Re: [altusmetrum] Telemetrum Problems

Today I connected to the Telemetrum via USB and tried to fire the igniters.
On both the Main and Apogee firing  the Telemetrum resets and goes through
the startup sequence.   I assume this means I cannot use the supplied
battery to fire igniters.  I am also assuming that others have used the
supplied battery to fire the igniters.  Does this mean I have a bad board
now?  Is there any other kind of troubleshooting I can do?  I really do not
want to use this only as an expensive tracker and have to use 2 other
altimeters.

Thanks,
Tim

-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Packard [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2014 4:54 AM
To: Tim Navickas; 'Bdale Garbee'; 'Altus Metrum'
Subject: Re: [altusmetrum] Telemetrum Problems

Tim Navickas <[email protected]> writes:

> Further information.
>
> 1. Uninstalled the software and installed version 1.2.1 all the 
> windows work properly. I have a Telemetrum v1.0 unit.

That's interesting information; I'll see if I can figure out how to make
sense of it...

> 2. I still cannot fire an igniter.   I have tried several different one
and
> every different types..When I arm it then fires it says connecting to
COM3.

Hrm. TeleMetrum v1.0 units had some extra RF sensitivity due to a missing
capacitor as described here:

        http://www.gag.com/bdale/blog/posts/RF_Immunity.html

Have you been trying to fire igniters via USB? Or just over the RF link?
If it's over USB, then RF can't be involved as there won't be any
transmissions from either end.

Does the TeleMetrum reset when you try? It would beep out the startup
sequence again if it were.

If it's only over RF, then you might send some pictures of the installation
as we may be able to suggest ways to reduce the RF problem.

> I have always flown this as a data logger and tracker but this will be 
> the first time I have used it for dual deploy.  The battery voltage is 
> reading
> 4.0 volts and the igniters read 3.5 Volts.  The resistance is 1.7 ohms 
> for each igniter. I did make the mod to the battery removing the board 
> as suggested.  I would like to fly this weekend at KLOUDBURST but am 
> afraid to rely on this altimeter if I cannot ground test.

I'd definitely agree with this plan; fly nothing that you aren't sure about.

-keith

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