XBee USB

XBee and the USB Interface arrived in the post today.

The USB interface is FTDI based so I'll have to install the driver for MacOSX.

Fun!

XBee

Ordered some 60mw XBee modules and a USB XBee interface from
http://robosavvy.com for the Mashroc telemetry project.



I'm going to be building a small PIC based board for the rocket end of
the system and running some tests to check range and
see if there are any doppler related problems.

I did a few quick and dirty doppler calculations which came up with :-

Source f = 2400000000 Hz
Source Velocity vs = 118 m/s (Guessed)
Medium Velocity v = 3000000 m/s (Approximately Light)
Observed fo = 2399905603.71292 Hz
Observed delta do = -94396.2870793343 Hz

I found from a zigbee spec online (must find a better source) the
frequency tolerance is 40ppm which I took to mean 2400*40 = 96 KHz. So
we're just inside the tolerance.
Bear in mind this is worst case doppler with freq source moving directly
away from the observer.

Ubuntu

is running Ubuntu #linux on the lappy. And it's 10^6 times better than that W*ndows crap. And you can still watch #the-owl from #iplayer - bananarama!

Fixing the Juno

I’ve just started fixing a ‘broken’ Juno from eBay.

Unfortunately a UK postal outfit broke it some more so there was a bit of fixing of broken plastic and the bender control needed fixing as well.

Here is my fix for the bender control.. enjoy.

Useful stuff about Junos here.

MashRoc 1 Beta - Launch

View the beta launch attempt on YouTube.
Apologies in advance for the poor on-board video. When we tested it it was a sunny White City day and it looked ok. But the sun in Alexandra Palace park was a different much brighter sun which over exposed the video horribly. This is what I managed to salvage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb7ufU533VQ

payload1

payload1
Originally uploaded by meeware1

This is the wireless camera that went up with MashRoc 1. It's very small and so doesn't have any focus or exposure controls. If we get another chance, we will wrap some Neutral Density Gel around the rocket covering the lens to cut out some light.

Mashed 08

Off to Mashed '08 this weekend and more specifically MashRoc.

Somehow, and I never really know how I get involved with this stuff, I have become involved with Ant Millers rocket project. At some point on Sunday we are going to launch a rocket fitted with a wireless camera in the grounds of Alexandra Palace.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=alexandra+palace&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=12.240319,25.883789&ie=UTF8&ll=51.597214,-0.116215&spn=0.006278,0.012639&z=16&iwloc=addr