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Summary of Contents for Eggtimer Rocketry TX Board Rev B4d
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Page 1: Users Manual
Eggfinder GPS Tracker Users Manual TX Board Rev B4d RX Board Rev B4d © 2014 Eggtimer Rocketry All Rights Reserved... -
Page 2: California Proposition 65 Warning
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. -
Page 3: Important Regulatory Information
Important Regulatory Information This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) this device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation. -
Page 4: Before You Start
Like other Eggtimer Rocketry products, we sell it as a kit, to keep costs down and provide an outstanding value. This means that you have to do a little work, of course, but considering that most hobby rocketeers that would use our products have some degree of electronics expertise, this should not be much of an impediment. - Page 5 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.
- Page 6 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.
- Page 7 • 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.
- Page 8 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.
- Page 9 • 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.
- Page 10 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 •...
- Page 11 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.
- Page 12 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;...
- Page 13 There are a number of map sources that you can choose from, we recommend Microsoft Live Search Maps - Aerial. Having a satellite map will help in many cases, but if the location that you are flying is surrounded by roads then you may want to use the “Microsoft Live Search Maps –...
- Page 14 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…...
- Page 15 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).
- Page 16 <?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> <valid>0</valid> </extensions> </trkpt> <trkpt lat="33.822127" lon="-113.138178"> <ele>690.00</ele> <time>2014-02-22T19:14:44Z</time> <extensions> <valid>0</valid> </extensions> </trkpt> ETC ETC ETC… The lines that start with “<trkpt” are track points, containing the latitude and longitude of your rocket’s position.
- Page 17 This Waypoint after you save it, click on the menu bar, and select “Make this my Home”. Here are some step-by-step instructions, click on the links to display screenshots from the Eggtimer Rocketry web site. Tap on Waypoints, then “+” for “add waypoint”…, then select My Position.
- Page 18 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.
- Page 19 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”...
- Page 20 Using External Antennas with Your Eggfinder System With the included ¼ wave stick antennas, the Eggfinder system has been tested to over 8,000’ range line-of-sight with no loss of signal at apogee. This is adequate for most hobby rocketry sport flights, since it’s OK if you lose the signal as long as you pick it back up as the rocket is coming down…...
- Page 21 significantly more range. There are two basic types of commonly used directional antennas for rocketry applications, the panel antenna and the Yagi. A panel antenna is basically two conductive sheets of a certain size, separated by a space; the forward-facing panel is connected to the antenna signal lead, and the opposite panel (which is usually a little bit larger) is connected to ground.
- Page 22 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”.
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Page 23: Specifications
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:... - Page 24 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.
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