Mini GPS telemetry system

cryoscum · Postby **cryoscum** » Tue Feb 10, 2015 2:15 pm

Warren, I suspect it is all digital data, so you would likely need a laptop and a USB receiver to get and decode the packets, similar to the original Barnes 900 GPS.

ROCKet STAR · Postby **ROCKet STAR** » Tue Feb 10, 2015 2:51 pm

Yep, that is how I'm currently working it, though will likely look into other options in the future.

natty · Postby **natty** » Wed Feb 25, 2015 11:54 am

Really small GPS for rockets?

I'm in!

High Impulse · Postby **High Impulse** » Sat Apr 04, 2015 8:35 pm

How did the min-GPS fair up at thunda RocketStar?

vance2loud · Postby **vance2loud** » Mon Jul 27, 2015 8:03 pm

Any more progress on this? How did they go at Thunda?
I'm interested in trying something similar using off the shelf 3dr 915mhz radios (and possibly a rfd900 in my ground station) but would rather not reinvent the wheel, any advice for someone starting?

ROCKet STAR · Postby **ROCKet STAR** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:46 pm

vance2loud wrote:Any more progress on this? How did they go at Thunda?
I'm interested in trying something similar using off the shelf 3dr 915mhz radios (and possibly a rfd900 in my ground station) but would rather not reinvent the wheel, any advice for someone starting?

These still need a fair amount of work. I ran into an issue with the radio modem not having a non volatile memory (i.e. once it looses power, it forgets its configuration settings). It'll be a fairly simple fix, however it requires re designing the PCB so that I can add a little PIC microcontroller to feed it configuration commands at power up. I have been rather busy lately, so haven't yet done so. I plan to do so soon however, as I have a project in the works that requires a very small GPS system.

The 3DR radios do look good. I haven't played with them myself, but I have used the rfd900 radios with excellent results, and I believe they use the same firmware. The only bad thing I can say about the RFD900 is that it is not all that robust in the event of a shred or a crash. My understanding is that the 3DR radios are of a similar performance to the xBee Pro900 XSC, which I have sucessfully flown to approximately 17,000' without any problems, so I would suggest that unless you are planning on flying to extremely high altitude, the 3DR radios are probably your best bet. They are much smaller and cost much less!

Stewart · Postby **Stewart** » Tue Feb 16, 2016 7:28 pm

Any updates???

ROCKet STAR · Postby **ROCKet STAR** » Wed Feb 17, 2016 12:39 am

Not yet. I have a couple of other things happening at the moment, though I hope to get back on to this soon.

Oldboy · Postby **Oldboy** » Mon May 30, 2016 9:14 pm

wow only just found this thread.Any progress Chris .I have a 24mm Blackhawk that gets awkward to find on hobbyline cases let alone the 3 and 6 grains I got waiting for it .Bring it to WWW2016 and we can give it a shake .

Lister · Postby **Lister** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 12:10 pm

Here is a GPS im working on for my MD24. Its vances design so I blame him if it fails

Lister · Postby **Lister** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 1:16 pm

Photo was too big. Here it is

Oldboy · Postby **Oldboy** » Thu Jun 02, 2016 8:13 pm

Cool, keep updating how it goes.

Lister · Postby **Lister** » Thu Jun 02, 2016 8:20 pm

Here is a link to Vances thread, he has just finished the how to guide on how to build and use the GPS and 915mhz Radio modules. I will be building mine tonight so will upload my progress in the next day or so.

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