Photos From the Payload Camera

Release and Landing Locations

Balloon No. 1 weight 80 grams UHF radio transmitters 434.650 FM 25 mw, Transmitting on FM mode BPSK 1000 and BPSK63F modulation. This will also be transmitting images with an on board camera.

Balloon No. 2 weight 220grams  transmitting on HF 10.139.250Mhz and 10.139.250 Mhz 25mw JT65 and JT9 HF mode

UHF 434.650 Mhz Balloon Payload

This Document will go through the step and procedures required to setup the DL-FIdigi, So that you will be able to decode telemetry data as well as pictures from the MARTG payload during Balloon flights or during any test transmissions.

Note: if you already have the standard dl-fldigi installed you will still be able to decode Telemetry Data from the MARTG payload but not the pictures, if you would like to down load Payload images please send an email to info@projectspaceballoon.net to get a copy. The custom version will allow you to decode BPSK1000 required for receiving images.

The standard DL-FIdigi does not have our mode so you will not be able to decode BPSK1000

Step 1

Install DL-FIdigi

Once you run fl-fldgi you will get this box pop up every time you start just hit close as you do not want to update it.

Step 2

You need to enter the following data as a minimum requirement for it to run.

Go to Configure and select Operator first option.

Enter the Following:

Step 3

Important Note: turn off the DL Client as so not to upload data to the HAB until your are ready and decoding valid packets

You must make sure you turn the online function off until you’re ready to upload data to the HAB site. To This go to the main menu go to DL Client and uncheck the online box.

Step 4

You will need to tell DL-FIdigi what it is going to use as an input and you do this by going to the main menu and select Configure select sound card.

Here you must check the PortAudio on and then select your Capture Input. Most cases it will be you pc’s mic input unless you’re using a radio input which might be a USB.

Step 5

Tune your radio or scanner or SDR into 434.650 FM take the speaker output or if you have a discriminative out even better and plug this into the PC mic input. Set the record on the input to a min depending on your sound card as you don’t want to over drive the sound into DL-FIdigi or else it will not decode correctly. So Right click your speak on the bottom of you pc as shown below and select recording device and turn the levels down.

You will start to see your water fall either in blue or yellow or over driving it in red.

Also at this point click the RxID box which is in the top right hand corner and it should go green.

If your sound level is correct you should have a picture like below a green diamond and AFC should be green and the green bar moving up and down depending on signal if the diamond is black either over drive or not enough volume.

Step 6

Frist we will set up BPSK63F so main menu under Op Mode come down to PSK and Select PSK63F

You should now see BPSK63F in the bottom left hand corner.

If you’ve setup DL-FIdigi correctly in the previous step, you should be able to use your mouse to position the 2 red bars in the waterfall directly over the signal bands. This tells DL-FIdigi which part of the audio spectrum it should try to decode from. Once you’ve positioned the bars in the right place, you should start to gets some text appearing in the incoming (yellowish) text field – though it may not yet be valid data. DL-FIdigi may take a few seconds to start decoding validdata

And this is what the data should look like, if all goes well and you decode a full packet of data you will get a green box meaning all data decode and received and this will then upload to the HAB site. At this point you should make sure you turn your online box back on as per step 3.

How to read the data string:

   Name,      Sequence No,    Time,     Longitude

  $$MTG003       002         4:30:56      -37.7383

            Latitude,     Altitude,   Ground Speed,   Satellites,

+144.8602      0000            00           1

Temp Outside, Temp Inside, Battery Voltage,   Checksum.

     +44            +29           2.64           05D9

Step 7

Now we will setup the BPSK1000 what you do is minimize your current DL-FIdigi and start up another session so you will have two sessions of DL-FIdigi. To  set up BPSK1000 go main menu under Op Mode come down to PSK and Select PSK1000

You should now see BPSK1000 in the bottom left hand corner and your water fall should look like the picture below so now double click in the middle of 1000 with your mouse.

And this is what the data should look like, if all goes well and you decode a full packet of data you will get a green box meaning all data decode and received and this will then upload to the HAB site. At this point you should make sure you turn your online box back on as per step 3. The data in the decoding box which is in the yellow area will mean nothing

Now go back to main menu under View and select SSDR RX

It will pop up a box on your screen and you will start to see a picture that is been capture in the air.

So now you are decoding telemetry on BPSK63 and decoding data BPSK1000 so you can receive and see what the camera on-board the payload is capturing.

Good Luck with the tracking and we hope to see your pictures being uploaded to http://ssdv.habhub.org/

Current Payload Frequency being used is 434.650Mhz

We had a perfect day for the release with just about no wind at all, upon release the balloon went straight up vertical. Throughout the day the balloon was tracked by VK3TBC, VK3HDX, VK3YSP, VK3FADI, VK3XCO, the last contact with the balloon was David VK3TBC who had a perfect fix on the payload at about 2 deg on his horizon at 353Klm away until the balloon burst, not bad for 25mw FM.

We are all excited with the performance of the FM mode transmission used on the payload and will continue further experiments with this mode and hardware in the future.

Frequency of payload UHF FM 434.650 25 mw. Modes:  Thor  Telemetry, 1200 FEC Telemetry and SSDV, Olivia  Telemetry, 4800  Telemetry and SSDV, 9600  Telemetry

Last transmission from the payload

The MARTG team setting up the balloon and connecting the parachute

Guy VK3GUY and Peter VK3XCO carefully finalizing the payload

Local resident wondering whats going on under his tree

Up and away

Thank you all those who assisted with the tracking that enabled photos to be upload to SSDV

VK3TBC, VK3HDX, VK3YSP, VK3FADI, VK3XCO

Photos sent back from the onboard serial camera on the payload

Balloon burst

We will be giving a lot more notice of the next balloon release next year to have other involved.

Next Balloon release MTG003 next year date TBA

Frequency UHF FM 434.650 25 mw

Modes:  Thor  Telemetry, 1200 FEC Telemetry and SSDV, Olivia  Telemetry, 4800  Telemetry and SSDV, 9600  Telemetry

Latest Prediction

__________________________________________________________________

Hi all,

Just a few tips on decoding for Saturday 25^th October 2014 based on observation and testing.

Modes

Olivia and Thor (Use FLDIGI)

The payload has a function that sends out a mode identifier (called RSID). For this to work on FLDIGI, you need to click on the RX RSID button top right panel of FLDIGI. This will AutoDetect the Oliva and Thor modes and configure FLDIGI.

Also, there is another configuration item in FLDIGI that searches the entire passband in FLDIGI for the RSID signal. What this means is that, if you have incorrectly set where the frequency of the tones are going to be decoded from, it will automatically detect this and move the decoder where it needs to be. If you do not click on this configuration item, it will not search the entire passband.

The balloon has been registered with HAB and will appear as MTG002. You can download the balloon parameters of the flight (you need to be using the HAB version of FLDIGI)

1200, 4800,and 9600 FEC

To decode this you need the TNCEMULATOR program. With higher baud rates, (especially 4800 and 9600) you need to come out of the discriminator of the radio (or use a dongle like FUNCUBE). 1200 will work from an audio out but the discriminator is still better. With these modes, you need to turn off any extra sound card settings around AGC/ALC enhancements etc. All of these will add distortion to the data signal (audio will sound find, but the data waveform will be corrupted). Also, it is not recommended to use VAC for the higher speeds. This is because they sometimes insert pops and clicks which can wipe out a perfectly good data  packet. You will need to adjust audio input levels so that it’s not too loud or too soft going into the application. Red bar about 1/2 to 3/4.

4800/9600

There is a button to reverse the phase called “reverse”. If you are coming out of the discriminator and you are not decoding the packets, then, tick this check box.

SSDV

There is a mode that has been setup called SSDV. On this payload, images will be transmitted using 1200 baud and 4800 baud. All you need to do is select SSDV RX.

General notes

With both programs, you will need to set the call sign and lat,long (decimal degrees) and enable logging. In the TNC program it’s the enable web logging checkbox. In FLDIGI it’s in the configuration item.

Telemetry

SSDV

Modes

Thor           Telemetry

1200 FEC Telemetry and SSDV

Olivia         Telemetry

4800          Telemetry and SSDV

9600          Telemetry

Above all, have fun on the day ! Cheers /DD VK3TBC

FMPSB output level and deviation test

Our new FMPSB  module is driven by a Teensy 3.1 ARM Processor using  a Radiometrix NTX2 that transmits Thor 16 and FEC 1200, 4800, and 9600 FEC based on FX25, additionally the FMPSB can transmit APRS and SSDV.

One of the reason to develop a payload on FM is to enable anyone with a scanner receivers to  be able to participate with the tracking without having to use a SSB receiver. I think we will also find some advantage in being able to quote a stationary frequency in order to detect the payload unlike the drifting we had with SSB. High altitude tests are still to take place to see how stable this frequency will be.

We are hoping to involve enthusiast with tracking that are not necessarily radio hams.

Top side of FMPSB with the 25mw Radiometrix module and power inverter under side.

GPS is a uBLOX MAX-7 Pico Breakout with Chip Scale Antenna

UHF Antenna is a 1/4 vertical. Payload is shown upside down

Payload

Payload with one Saft Li-SOCl2 Lithium Battery

QuadCopter Payload Test

QuadCopter Payload Test

Hovering at only 500 meters AGL our payload could be heard more than 70 klm away from Romsey Victoria over into the Melbourne South Eastern Suburbs. Not bad for 25mw FM