Flight Payload Hardware and Software

[rgsparber]

Some of you may have thought that the guys in the white coats had taken me away. Nope. I've spent most of the summer updating my Flight Data Recorder with new options.

The orange box is a RunCam camera. The small board with the patch antenna is a GPS. The larger board with a patch antenna is an Iridium Modem.

Attached to the Iridium Modem is a small board that supplies power. It connects via a ribbon to a "shield" which contains a Sparkfun Pro Micro system.

The Flight Data Recorder also has a Pro Micro which is in charge.

Under software control, I can take still pictures or videos. The GPS (or GNSS) receiver feeds me time, lattitude, longitude, and alititude. Those were the easy bits.

The Iridium Modem took most of my time. It permits me to pass data between the Flight Data Recorder and a similar modem anywhere in the world via the Iridium Satellite System. To do this, assuming there are no faults, takes just a few lines of code. To handle the many fault cases and decide what to do about them took 16,000 bytes of code. This is why I needed to add a second processor.

Some of this system will be flown up to around 100,000 feet this fall. The rest will go up in the spring.

My brain hurts...

Rick