Hi Bdale,
Thanks for the quick response. To continue.
Either Keith or I can take care of this for you if you don't have
easy
access to the right bits and pieces any more.
I think I'll take you up on that offer but it would be October at the
earliest as we're still in flying season and crop is now getting to optimum
rocket hiding levels. I will then need the unit back by March as April is
THUNDA over in Queensland and I will require it then. I'm planning on
ordering another TeleGPS (v2.0 this time) as well as a new TeleDongle
Starter Pack with the v3.0 TeleDongle so it might make sense to order the
new kit after returning my old TeleDongle to consolidate shipping costs. I
might also request a pair programming cable to be included for future use
as I also own a TeleMetrum v1.2 and to update that requires that cable. I
did have one but IIRC I loaned it to a guy at Balls in 2013 and never saw
it again.
I'm hoping Keith will chime in here about why v1.0.2 TeleDongle
firmware
might work ok with v1.7 but not v1.8.5. I just skimmed through the
release notes and don't have an immediate answer.
Do you happen to have access to some other TeleDongle or TeleBT,
perhaps
with newer firmware?
I'd be curious to hear from Keith regarding this as well. Sadly I
don't have access to any other ground station hardware at the moment but I
might know one or two around the traps that I could get my hands on. I
suspect they'll all be similar to mine in terms of versioning though as
they would have been purchased from Blake at Australian Rocketry when he
brought a whole slew of TeleMetrum v1.0 and v1.2 Starter kits.
Have you actually tried it? I'm curious whether this is something
unique to the workstation software build or if the AltosDroid is also
affected. They both share the same library of functionality
including
packet decoding, so I'm guessing AltosDroid is affected too.
Yes, I have tried it. I get no comms link when I plug in my TeleDongle
to my phone via an OTG cable. As mentioned with earlier variants (I'm
assuming v1.7 or before) everything just automatically worked just like on
on my laptops as my TeleDongle starts up on the channel I've configured the
TeleGPS to communicate over. With v1.8.5 I get nothing though. Given the
ability of the AltosDroid App to be able to know where you are as the phone
has its own GPS chipset it does provide a better experience imo for rocket
recovery when compared to using a laptop without GPS. Not to mention
carrying a phone through crop is much easier than lugging a laptop,
especially when I've got a yagi in the other hand! Given this and the fact
that I don't expect to program my EasyMega with AltosDroid I'd ideally like
to revert back to v1.7 of AltosDroid on my Pixel, turn off automatic
application updating for that app, and leave it be. If you could point me
to where I could find that apk I'd greatly appreciate it.
FYI I upgraded one of my windows laptops to AltOS v1.8.6 last night
and promptly upgraded the firmware on my TeleGPS. That worked flawlessly
and I was able to confirm I'm now running the v1.8.6 firmware on my TeleGPS
with the "Configure Altimeter" menu. I then went to upgrade my EasyMega
v1.0 to v1.8.6 firmware. That didn't work. I should have taken a screenshot
for you (and can do tonight) but once I selected the relevant EasyMega v1.0
1.8.6 firmware in C:\Program Files\Altusmetrum\ the application would
provide no further output. I was expecting the small window that confirms
serial and radio configurations and then the firmware installation progress
window but neither appeared. I then attempted to run the "Configure
Altimeter" and whilst the unit still appears as available the identifier
for selection had changed from something along the lines of "EasyMega
serial xxxx" to "Altusmetrum 1" which strikes me as maybe a bootloader ID
string. Luckily a power cycle of the FC allowed it to reboot successfully
which was confirmed by rerunning the "Configure Altimeter" command. I
could see all my relevant configs, serial, and current firmware (v1.8.5).
Just an FYI as it does appear the EasyMega v1.0 firmware upgrade isn't
working in Altos v1.8.6.
Safe to say I've developed a bit of an appetite for this testing.
Today I'm going to install AltOS on my work Kali laptop (which is Debian
based) and do more testing tonight. Is there anywhere on Linux or Windows
where I can get more granular console output or logging info regarding
what's happening inside AltOS? I don't mind digging through console output
if it will assist in resolving my comms issues. Plus it'll be interesting
to see if and how the comms differ between the different platforms.
Regards,
Andrew H.
On Tue, Aug 7, 2018 at 11:04 PM, Bdale Garbee <[email protected]> wrote:
Plugger Lockett <[email protected]> writes:
I believe I've identified an issue with the AltOS and TeleGPS
applications
when using an original TeleDongle for telemetry. The old TeleDongle
assumption is just that but I'm assuming if this was a bug for all
TeleDongles it would have been found before now. I "discovered"
this issue
when I attempted to use AltosDroid v1.8.5 in the field with my
TeleGPS 1.0
and I couldn't get telemetry to work at all. So I attempted some
bench
testing over the weekend and I believe I've identified a bug in the
newer
software stacks.
First off, here's my TeleDongle details.
Your TeleDongle v0.2 is running truly ancient firmware, v1.0.2. I'm
not
sure offhand why that would cause the issues you're seeing (Keith may
have more insight here), but the first thing I'd do if the hardware
were
in my hands is update that to current firmware. Because it's an early
product based on the CC1111 RF system on chip, it needs to be pair
programmed (cannot be re-flashed over USB).
See appendix C.2 in the system manual for more details:
http://altusmetrum.org/AltOS/doc/altusmetrum.html#_pair_programming
Either Keith or I can take care of this for you if you don't have easy
access to the right bits and pieces any more.
By the way, it's always cool to see folks still using some of our
earliest products!
1) Assuming v1.8.6 is affected by this bug as well (I'll test that
in the
next few days) then can you investigate this issue?
I'm hoping Keith will chime in here about why v1.0.2 TeleDongle
firmware
might work ok with v1.7 but not v1.8.5. I just skimmed through the
release notes and don't have an immediate answer.
Do you happen to have access to some other TeleDongle or TeleBT,
perhaps
with newer firmware?
2) I've got an EasyMega as mentioned earlier and am planning to use
it in a
2 stage stack in April. I will be upgrading the firmware to v1.8.6
as
recommended.
Good.
- Do I need to be running the latest software to properly
configure
staging and get correct CSV output post flight? Or will AltOS v1.7
do this
correctly with a EasyMega v1.8.6 FC?
I don't think I've ever intentionally tried using older ground station
software to configure newer flight computer firmware. I'd personally
want to use v1.8.6 for everything in this case.
3) AltosDroid - Ideally I'd like to use my phone (Pixel XL) as my
ground
station in conjunction with my TeleDongle. I've had this work in
the past
but my AltosDroid software automatically updates and is currently
running
v1.8.5 as well. Is there somewhere I can download the AltosDroid
v1.7 apk
in the interim until this bug is resolved?
Have you actually tried it? I'm curious whether this is something
unique to the workstation software build or if the AltosDroid is also
affected. They both share the same library of functionality including
packet decoding, so I'm guessing AltosDroid is affected too.
Bdale
