18. Release Notes¶

18.1. Release Notes for Version 1.6.2¶

Version 1.6.2 includes support for our updated TeleMega v2.0 product and bug fixes in in the flight software for all our boards and ground station interfaces.

18.1.1. AltOS¶

AltOS New Features:

Add support for TeleMega v2.0 boards.
Add PWM servo driver. There’s no higher level code using this yet, but the driver allows testing of the TeleMega v2.0 servo output connector.

AltOS Fixes:

Slow down telemetry packets to allow receiver to keep up.

18.1.2. AltosUI and TeleGPS Applications¶

AltosUI and TeleGPS Fixes:

Fix post-flight orientation computation when processing TeleMega and EasyMega eeprom data files.
Capture complete eeprom data even when there are invalid entries in the data. This keeps reading eeprom contents and writing the associated .eeprom file when an error is detected.

18.1.3. Documentation¶

We spent a bunch of time trying to improve our documentation

HTML versions now have a table of contents on the left side.
EasyMini now has its own shorter manual.
Provide links between sections in each document.
Lots of minor rewriting and restructuring to avoid duplication of information

18.2. Release Notes for Version 1.6.1¶

Version 1.6.1 includes support for our updated TeleBT v3.0 product and bug fixes in in the flight software for all our boards and ground station interfaces.

18.2.1. AltOS¶

AltOS New Features:

Add support for TeleBT v3.0 boards.
Add support for uncompressed APRS data, providing support for older APRS receivers. Uncompressed APRS data is less precise, takes more bandwidth and doesn’t have integrated altitude data.

AltOS Fixes:

Make TeleDongle and TeleBT more tolerant of data rate variations from transmitting devices.

18.2.2. AltosUI and TeleGPS Applications¶

AltosUI and TeleGPS New Features:

Add map to Monitor Idle display. It’s nice to be able to verify that maps are working, instead of needing to use Monitor Flight.

AltosUI and TeleGPS Fixes:

Fix frequency configuration to round values instead of truncate them, avoiding a common 1kHz error in the setting.
Turn the Windows stub into a more useful program that can launch the application with parameters so that file manager icons work more reliably.
Force KML export to use a C locale so that numbers are formatted with . instead of , for a decimal separator in non-US locales.
Preload map tiles based on distance rather than number of tiles; this means you get the same resolution covering the entire area, rather than having high resolution near the center and low resolution further away.
Allow configuration of frequency and callsign in Monitor Idle mode.
Fix layout weirdness when resizing windows on Windows. Windows shouldn’t have giant blank spaces around the useful content anymore.
Fix layout weirdness when resizing windows on Windows. Windows shouldn’t have giant blank spaces around the useful content anymore.
Use a longer filter for descent speed values. This should provide something more useful on the display, although it will take longer to respond to changes now.
Make Replay Flight run in realtime again. It had been set to run at 10x speed by mistake.

18.2.3. AltosDroid¶

AltosDroid New Features:

Add offline map support using mapping code from AltosUI.
Support TeleDongle (and TeleBT via USB) on devices supporting USB On-The-Go.
Display additional TeleMega pyro channel status in Pad tab.
Switch between metric and imperial units.
Monitor TeleBT battery voltage.
Track multiple devices at the same time, selecting between them with a menu or using the map.
Add hybrid, satellite and terrain map types.

AltosDroid Fixes:

Use standard Android display conventions so that a menu button is available in the application title bar.
Adjust layout to work on large and small screens; shrinking the go/no-go lights in smaller environments to try and make everything visible.
Make voice announcements depend on current tab.
Compute adjustment to current travel direction while in motion towards rocket.

18.3. Release Notes for Version 1.6¶

Version 1.6 includes support for our updated TeleDongle v3.0 product and bug fixes in in the flight software for all our boards and ground station interfaces.

18.3.1. AltOS¶

AltOS New Features

Add support for TeleDongle v3.0 boards.

AltOS Fixes

Don’t beep out the continuity twice by accident in idle mode. If the battery voltage report takes longer than the initialiation sequence, the igniter continuity would get reported twice.
Record all 32 bits of gyro calibration data in TeleMega and EasyMega log files. This fixes computation of the gyro rates in AltosUI.
Change TeleDongle LED usage. Green LED flashes when valid packet is received. Red LED flashes when invalid packet is received.
Replace LPC11U14 SPI driver with non-interrupt version. The interrupt code would occasionally wedge on long transfers if interrupts were blocked for too long. This affects all released TeleGPS products; if you have a TeleGPS device, you’ll want to reflash the firmware.

18.3.2. AltosUI and TeleGPS Applications¶

AltosUI and TeleGPS New Features

Compute tilt angle from TeleMega and EasyMega log files. This duplicates the quaternion-based angle tracking code from the flight firmware inside the ground station software so that post-flight analysis can include evaluation of the tilt angle.
Shows the tool button window when starting with a data file specified. This means that opening a data file from the file manager will now bring up the main window to let you operate the whole application.

AltosUI Fixes

Show the Connecting dialog when using Monitor Idle. Lets you cancel the Monitor Idle startup when connecting over the radio link.
Make Monitor Idle work for TeleGPS devices when connected over USB. It’s nice for testing without needing to broadcast over the radio.
Use different Windows API to discover USB devices. This works better on my Windows 7 box, and will be used if the older API fails to provide the necessary information.
Look in more places in the registry to try and identify the installed Java version on Windows. If you install the default 32-bit version of Windows on a 64-bit OS, the Java registry information is hiding \SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node for some reason.
Fix file association on Windows by searching for the javaw.exe program instead of assuming it is in %SYSTEMROOT%. This makes double-clicking on Altus Metrum data files in the file manager work correctly.
When replaying a file, put done in the Age field when we reach the end of the file, instead of continuing to count forever.
In the Scan Channels code, wait for five seconds if we see any packet. This is needed because AltOS now sends the callsign, serial number and flight number only once every five seconds these days.
In the Scan Channels code, reset pending flight state information each time we change channels. This avoids having flight computers appear on multiple frequencies by accident.

18.4. Release Notes for Version 1.5¶

Version 1.5 is a major release. It includes support for our new EasyMega product, new features and bug fixes in in the flight software for all our boards and the AltosUI ground station

18.4.1. AltOS¶

AltOS New Features

Add support for EasyMega boards.
Make the APRS SSID be configurable. This lets you track different rockets on the same receiver without getting things mixed up.
Report extra pyro channel continuity state on EasyMega and TeleMega via the beeper. This lets you easily verify flight readiness on these boards after powering up the electronics on the rail.
Add lower telemetry data rates (2400 and 9600 bps) to increase telemetry radio range. This reduces the amount of data received as well as increasing battery consumption in the transmitter.
Change TeleGPS to have only a single log, and append new data to it rather than using seperate per-flight logs. This avoids accidentally filling up log storage by turning TeleGPS on/off several times.

AltOS Fixes

Increase the maximum range for altitude values from +/-32767m to +/-2147483647m, allowing the flight computers to function correctly above the 32km level.
Continuously test pyro firing conditions during delay stage, inhibiting the pyro channel if the test fails. This prevents firing pyro charges where the conditions were good before the delay, but become bad before the delay expires.
Allow negative numbers in pyro configuration values. This lets you specify things like descending speed or deceleration.

18.4.2. AltosUI and TeleGPS Applications¶

AltosUI and TeleGPS New Features

Support telemetry baud rate selection. Adds menus to the flight monitoring and configuration for baud rate selection.
Support APRS SSID configuration.
Integrate with file managers. This provides icons for all of our file types and associates our application with the files so that using a file manager to open a AltOS data file results in launching our application.

AltosUI Fixes

Make the Graph button on the landed tab work again.
Make tests for Java on Windows a bit smarter, and also provide the user with the option to skip installing Java for cases where we just can’t figure out what version is installed.

18.5. Release Notes for Version 1.4.2¶

Version 1.4.2 is a minor release. It fixes Java-related install issues on Windows

18.5.1. AltosUI and TeleGPS Applications¶

Windows Install Fixes

Checks for Java installation data in more registry locations.
Allows user to bypass Java installation in case the detection fails.

18.6. Release Notes for Version 1.4.1¶

Version 1.4.1 is a minor release. It fixes install issues on Windows and provides the missing TeleMetrum V2.0 firmware. There aren’t any changes to the firmware or host applications at all. All Windows users will want to upgrade to get the signed driver, but Mac and Linux users who do not need the TeleMetrum V2.0 firmware image will not need to upgrade.

18.6.1. AltosUI and TeleGPS Applications:¶

Windows Install Fixes

Provide signed Windows driver files. This should avoid any need to disable driver signature checking on Windows 7 or 8.
Fix Java version detection and download. Previously, the installer would only look for Java 6 or 7 and insist on downloading its own Java bits if there was something else installed. Furthermore, the 64-bit Java link provided didn’t work for anyone other than Keith, making it impossible to install AltOS on any machine with Java SE 8 installed.

Other Fixes

Include 1.4 firmware for TeleMetrum V2.0. None of the installers shipped this file. Now it’s included in the AltOS packages for Linux, Mac and Windows.
Include Google Application Key for map downloading. The 1.4 release didn’t have this key in the released version of the software, making map downloading fail for most people.

18.7. Release Notes for Version 1.4¶

Version 1.4 is a major release. It includes support for our new TeleGPS product, new features and bug fixes in in the flight software for all our boards and the AltosUI ground station

18.7.1. AltOS¶

AltOS new features:

Add support for TeleGPS boards.
Make the beeper tone configurable, making it possible to distinguish between two Altus Metrum products in the same ebay.
Make the firing time for extra pyro channels configurable, allowing longer (or shorter) than the default 50ms. Only relevant for TeleMega at this time.

AltOS fixes:

Replace the dit dit dit tones at startup with the current battery voltage, measured in tenths of a volt. This lets you check the battery voltage without needing telemetry, which is especially useful on EasyMini.
Change state beeping to “Farnsworth spacing”, which means they’re quite a bit faster than before, and so they take less time to send.
Fix bug preventing the selection of the Flight State After mode in pyro configuration.
Fix bug where erasing flights would reset the flight number to 2 on TeleMega and TeleMetrum v2.
Fix u-Blox GPS driver to mark course and speed data as being present.

18.7.2. AltosUI Application¶

AltosUI new features:

Add zooming and new content types (terrain and road maps) to map view. Change map storage format from PNG to Jpeg, which saves a huge amount of disk space. You will need to re-download all of your pre-loaded map images.
Add a distance measuring device to the maps view. Select this by using any button other than the left one, or by pressing shift or control on the keyboard while using the left button.
Add new Ignitor tab to the flight monitor display for TeleMega’s extra ignitors.
Add additional ignitor firing marks and voltages to the graph so you can see when the ignitors fired, along with the ignitor voltages.
Add GPS course, ground speed and climb rate as optional graph elements.

AltosUI fixes:

When flashing new firmware, re-try opening the device as sometimes it takes a while for the underlying operating system to recognize that the device has rebooted in preparation for the flashing operation.
Hide Tilt Angle in ascent tab for devices that don’t have a gyro.
Increase the width of data lines in the graphs to make them easier to read.
Filter out speed and acceleration spikes caused by ejection charge firing when computing the maximum values. This provides a more accurate reading of those maximums.
Fix EasyMini voltage displays. Early EasyMini prototypes used a 3.0V regulator, and AltosUI still used that value as the basis of the computation. Production EasyMini boards have always shipped with a 3.3V regulator. Also, purple EasyMini boards sensed the battery voltage past the blocking diode, resulting in a drop of about 150mV from the true battery voltage. Compensate for that when displaying the value.
Display error message when trying to configure maximum flight log size while the flight computer still has flight data stored.
Handle TeleMetrum and TeleMini eeprom files generated with pre-1.0 firmware. Those ancient versions didn’t report the log format, so just use the product name instead.

18.7.3. TeleGPS Application¶

New application designed for use with TeleGPS boards.
Shares code with AltosUI, mostly just trimmed down to focus on TeleGPS-related functions.

18.7.4. Documentation¶

Documentation changes:

Re-create the drill template images; they should print correctly from Firefox at least. Ship these as individual PDF files so they’re easy to print.
Add a description of the Apogee Lockout setting, which prevents the apogee charge from firing for a configurable amount of time after boost.

18.8. Release Notes for Version 1.3.2¶

Version 1.3.2 is a minor release. It includes small bug fixes for the TeleMega flight software and AltosUI ground station

18.8.1. AltOS¶

AltOS fixes:

On TeleMega, limit number of logged GPS status information to 12 satellites. That’s all there is room for in the log structure.
Improve APRS behavior. Remembers last known GPS position and keeps sending that if we lose GPS lock. Marks locked/unlocked by sending L/U in the APRS comment field along with the number of sats in view and voltages.

18.8.2. AltosUI Application¶

AltosUI fixes:

If the TeleMega flight firmware reports that it has logged information about more than 12 satellites, don’t believe it as the log only holds 12 satellite records.
Track the maximum height as computed from GPS altitude data and report that in the flight summary data.
Use letters (A, B, C, D) for alternate pyro channel names instead of numbers (0, 1, 2, 3) in the Fire Igniter dialog.

18.9. Release Notes for Version 1.3.1¶

Version 1.3.1 is a minor release. It improves support for TeleMega, TeleMetrum v2.0, TeleMini v2.0 and EasyMini.

18.9.1. AltOS¶

AltOS new features:

Improved APRS mode. Now uses compressed position format for smaller data size, improved precision and to include altitude data as well as latitude and longitude. Also added battery and pyro voltage reports in the APRS comment field so you can confirm that the unit is ready for launch.

AltOS fixes:

Improve sensor boot code. If sensors fail to self-test, the device will still boot up and check for pad/idle modes. If in idle mode, the device will warn the user with a distinct beep, if in Pad mode, the unit will operate as best it can. Also, the Z-axis accelerometer now uses the factory calibration values instead of re-calibrating on the pad each time. This avoids accidental boost detect when moving the device around while in Pad mode.
Fix antenna-down mode accelerometer configuration. Antenna down mode wasn’t working because the accelerometer calibration values were getting re-computed incorrectly in inverted mode.

18.9.2. AltosUI Application¶

AltosUI new features:

Display additional TeleMega sensor values in real units. Make all of these values available for plotting. Display TeleMega orientation value in the Ascent and Table tabs.
Support additional TeleMega pyro channels in the Fire Igniter dialog. This lets you do remote testing of all of the channels, rather than just Apogee and Main.

AltosUI fixes:

Limit data rate when downloading satellite images from Google to make sure we stay within their limits so that all of the map tiles download successfully.

18.10. Release Notes for Version 1.3¶

Version 1.3 is a major release. It adds support for TeleMega, TeleMetrum v2.0, TeleMini v2.0 and EasyMini.

18.10.1. AltOS¶

AltOS new features:

Add STM32L processor support. This includes enhancements to the scheduler to support products with many threads.
Add NXP LPC11U14 processor support.
Support additional pyro channels. These are configurable through the UI to handle air starts, staging, additional recovery events and external devices such as cameras.
Add 3-axis gyro support for orientation tracking. This integrates the gyros to compute the angle from vertical during flight, allowing the additional pyro events to be controlled by this value.
Many more device drivers, including u-Blox Max 7Q GPS, Freescale MMA6555 digital single-axis accelerometer, Invensense MPU6000 3-axis accelerometer + 3 axis gyro, Honeywell HMC5883 3-axis magnetic sensor and the TI CC1120 and CC115L digital FM transceivers

18.10.2. AltosUI Application¶

AltosUI new features:

Support TeleMega, TeleMetrum v2.0, TeleMini v2.0 and EasyMini telemetry and log formats.

AltosUI fixes:

Use preferred units for main deployment height configuration, instead of always doing configuration in meters. == MicroPeak Application
Add Download button to menu bar.
Save the last log directory and offer that as the default for new downloads

18.11. Release Notes for Version 1.2.1¶

Version 1.2.1 is a minor release. It adds support for TeleBT and the AltosDroid application, provides several new features in AltosUI and fixes some bugs in the AltOS firmware.

18.11.1. AltOS¶

AltOS new features:

Add support for TeleBT

AltOS fixes:

In TeleMini recovery mode (when booted with the outer two debug pins connected together), the radio parameters are also set back to defaults (434.550MHz, N0CALL, factory radio cal).
Correct Kalman filter model error covariance matrix. The values used previously assumed continuous measurements instead of discrete measurements.
Fix some bugs in the USB driver for TeleMetrum and TeleDongle that affected Windows users.
Adjusted the automatic gain control parameters that affect receive performance for TeleDongle. Field tests indicate that this may improve receive performance somewhat.

18.11.2. AltosUI Application¶

AltosUI application new features:

Make the initial position of the AltosUI top level window configurable. Along with this change, the other windows will pop up at sensible places now, instead of on top of one another.
Add GPS data and a map to the graph window. This lets you see a complete summary of the flight without needing to replay the whole thing.

AltosUI application fixes:

Handle missing GPS lock in Descent tab. Previously, if the GPS position of the pad was unknown, an exception would be raised, breaking the Descent tab contents.
Improve the graph, adding tool-tips to show values near the cursor and making the displayed set of values configurable, adding all of the flight data as options while leaving the default settings alone so that the graph starts by showing height, speed and acceleration.
Add callsign to Monitor idle window and connecting dialogs. This makes it clear which callsign is being used so that the operator will be aware that it must match the flight computer value or no communication will work.
When downloading flight data, display the block number so that the user has some sense of progress. Unfortunately, we don’t know how many blocks will need to be downloaded, but at least it isn’t just sitting there doing nothing for a long time.

18.11.3. AltosDroid¶

First version of this application

18.12. Release Notes for Version 1.2¶

Version 1.2 is a major release. It adds support for MicroPeak and the MicroPeak USB adapter.

18.12.1. AltOS¶

AltOS New Features:

Add MicroPeak support. This includes support for the ATtiny85 processor and adaptations to the core code to allow for devices too small to run the multi-tasking scheduler.

18.12.2. AltosUI and MicroPeak Application¶

New Features:

Added MicroPeak application

AltosUI and MicroPeak fixes:

Distribute Mac OS X packages in disk image (.dmg) format to greatly simplify installation.
Provide version numbers for the shared Java libraries to ensure that upgrades work properly, and to allow for multiple Altus Metrum software packages to be installed in the same directory at the same time.

18.13. Release Notes for Version 1.1¶

Version 1.1.1 is a bug-fix release. It fixes a couple of bugs in AltosUI and one firmware bug that affects TeleMetrum version 1.0 boards. Thanks to Bob Brown for help diagnosing the Google Earth file export issue, and for suggesting the addition of the Ground Distance value in the Descent tab.

18.13.1. AltOS¶

AltOS fixes:

TeleMetrum v1.0 boards use the AT45DB081D flash memory part to store flight data, which is different from later TeleMetrum boards. The AltOS v1.1 driver for this chip couldn’t erase memory, leaving it impossible to delete flight data or update configuration values. This bug doesn’t affect newer TeleMetrum boards, and it doesn’t affect the safety of rockets flying version 1.1 firmware.

18.13.2. AltosUI¶

AltosUI new features:

The “Descent” tab displays the range to the rocket, which is a combination of the over-the-ground distance to the rockets current latitude/longitude and the height of the rocket. As such, it’s useful for knowing how far away the rocket is, but difficult to use when estimating where the rocket might eventually land. A new “Ground Distance” field has been added which displays the distance to a spot right underneath the rocket.

AltosUI fixes:

Creating a Google Earth file (KML) from on-board flight data (EEPROM) would generate an empty file. The code responsible for reading the EEPROM file wasn’t ever setting the GPS valid bits, and so the KML export code thought there was no GPS data in the file.
The “Landed” tab was displaying all values in metric units, even when AltosUI was configured to display imperial units. Somehow I just missed this tab when doing the units stuff.
Sensor data wasn’t being displayed for TeleMini flight computers in Monitor Idle mode, including things like battery voltage. The code that picked which kinds of data to fetch from the flight computer was missing a check for TeleMini when deciding whether to fetch the analog sensor data.

18.14. Release Notes for Version 1.1¶

Version 1.1 is a minor release. It provides a few new features in AltosUI and the AltOS firmware and fixes bugs.

18.14.1. AltOS¶

AltOS Firmware New Features:

Add apogee-lockout value. Overrides the apogee detection logic to prevent incorrect apogee charge firing.
Force the radio frequency to 434.550MHz when the debug clock pin is connected to ground at boot time. This provides a way to talk to a TeleMini which is configured to some unknown frequency.
Provide RSSI values for Monitor Idle mode. This makes it easy to check radio range without needing to go to flight mode.

AltOS Fixes:

Fix a bug where the data reported in telemetry packets was from 320ms ago.
Fix a bug which caused the old received telemetry packets to be retransmitted over the USB link when the radio was turned off and back on.

18.14.2. AltosUI¶

AltosUI New Features:

Make the look-n-feel configurable, providing a choice from the available options.
Add an Age element to mark how long since a telemetry packet has been received. Useful to quickly gauge whether communications with the rocket are still active.
Add Configure Ground Station dialog to set the radio frequency used by a particular TeleDongle without having to go through the flight monitor UI.
Add configuration for the new apogee-lockout value. A menu provides a list of reasonable values, or the value can be set by hand.
Add Imperial units mode to present data in feet instead of meters.

AltosUI Fixes:

Fix a bug that caused GPS ready to happen too quickly. The software was using every telemetry packet to signal new GPS data, which caused GPS ready to be signalled after 10 packets instead of 10 GPS updates.
Fix Google Earth data export to work with recent versions. The google earth file loading code got a lot pickier, requiring some minor white space changes in the export code.
Changed how flight data are downloaded. Now there’s an initial dialog asking which flights to download, and after that finishes, a second dialog comes up asking which flights to delete.
Re-compute time spent in each state for the flight graph; this figures out the actual boost and landing times instead of using the conservative values provide by the flight electronics. This improves the accuracy of the boost acceleration and main descent rate computations.
Make AltosUI run on Mac OS Lion. The default Java heap space was dramatically reduced for this release causing much of the UI to fail randomly. This most often affected the satellite mapping download and displays.
Change how data are displayed in the table tab of the flight monitoring window. This eliminates entries duplicated from the header and adds both current altitude and pad altitude, which are useful in Monitor Idle mode.

18.15. Release Notes for Version 1.0.1¶

Version 1.0.1 is a major release, adding support for the TeleMini device and lots of new AltosUI features

18.15.1. AltOS¶

AltOS New Features

Add TeleMini v1.0 support.
Support operation of TeleMetrum with the antenna pointing aft. Previous firmware versions required the antenna to be pointing upwards, now there is a configuration option allowing the antenna to point aft, to aid installation in some airframes.
Ability to disable telemetry. For airframes where an antenna just isn’t possible, or where radio transmissions might cause trouble with other electronics, there’s a configuration option to disable all telemetry. Note that the board will still enable the radio link in idle mode.
Arbitrary frequency selection. The radios in Altus Metrum devices can be programmed to a wide range of frequencies, so instead of limiting devices to 10 pre-selected channels, the new firmware allows the user to choose any frequency in the 70cm band. Note that the RF matching circuit on the boards is tuned for around 435MHz, so frequencies far from that may reduce the available range.

AltOS Fixes

Change telemetry to be encoded in multiple 32-byte packets. This enables support for TeleMini and other devices without requiring further updates to the TeleDongle firmware.
Kalman-filter based flight-tracking. The model based sensor fusion approach of a Kalman filter means that AltOS now computes apogee much more accurately than before, generally within a fraction of a second. In addition, this approach allows the baro-only TeleMini device to correctly identify Mach transitions, avoiding the error-prone selection of a Mach delay.

18.15.2. AltosUI Application¶

AltosUI New Features

Add main/apogee voltage graphs to the data plot. This provides a visual indication if the igniters fail before being fired.
Scan for altimeter devices by watching the defined telemetry frequencies. This avoids the problem of remembering what frequency a device was configured to use, which is especially important with TeleMini which does not include a USB connection.
Monitor altimeter state in “Idle” mode. This provides much of the information presented in the “Pad” dialog from the Monitor Flight command, monitoring the igniters, battery and GPS status withing requiring the flight computer to be armed and ready for flight.
Pre-load map images from home. For those launch sites which don’t provide free Wi-Fi, this allows you to download the necessary satellite images given the location of the launch site. A list of known launch sites is maintained at altusmetrum.org which AltosUI downloads to populate a menu; if you’ve got a launch site not on that list, please send the name of it, latitude and longitude along with a link to the web site of the controlling club to the altusmetrum mailing list.
Flight statistics are now displayed in the Graph data window. These include max height/speed/accel, average descent rates and a few other bits of information. The Graph Data window can now be reached from the Landed tab in the Monitor Flight window so you can immediately see the results of a flight.

AltosUI Changes

Wait for altimeter when using packet mode. Instead of quicly timing out when trying to initialize a packet mode configuration connection, AltosUI now waits indefinitely for the remote device to appear, providing a cancel button should the user get bored. This is necessary as the TeleMini can only be placed in “Idle” mode if AltosUI is polling it.

18.16. Release Notes for Version 0.9.2¶

Version 0.9.2 is an AltosUI bug-fix release, with no firmware changes.

18.16.1. AltosUI¶

AltosUI fixes:

Fix plotting problems due to missing file in the Mac OS install image.
Always read whole eeprom blocks, mark empty records invalid, display parsing errors to user.
Add software version to Configure AltosUI dialog

18.17. Release Notes for Version 0.9¶

Version 0.9 adds a few new firmware features and accompanying AltosUI changes, along with new hardware support.

18.17.1. AltOS¶

Support for TeleMetrum v1.1 hardware. Sources for the flash memory part used in v1.0 dried up, so v1.1 uses a different part which required a new driver and support for explicit flight log erasing.
Multiple flight log support. This stores more than one flight log in the on-board flash memory. It also requires the user to explicitly erase flights so that you won’t lose flight logs just because you fly the same board twice in one day.
Telemetry support for devices with serial number >= 256. Previous versions used a telemetry packet format that provided only 8 bits for the device serial number. This change requires that both ends of the telemetry link be running the 0.9 firmware or they will not communicate.

18.17.2. AltosUI Application¶

Support for telemetry format changes.
Support for multiple flight logs.

18.18. Release Notes for Version 0.8¶

Version 0.8 offers a major upgrade in the AltosUI interface.

18.18.1. AltosUI Application:¶

Post-flight graphing tool. This lets you explore the behaviour of your rocket after flight with a scroll-able and zoom-able chart showing the altitude, speed and acceleration of the airframe along with events recorded by the flight computer. You can export graphs to PNG files, or print them directly.
Real-time moving map which overlays the in-progress flight on satellite imagery fetched from Google Maps. This lets you see in pictures where your rocket has landed, allowing you to plan recovery activities more accurately.
Wireless recovery system testing. Prep your rocket for flight and test fire the deployment charges to make sure things work as expected. All without threading wires through holes in your airframe.
Optimized flight status displays. Each flight state now has it’s own custom tab in the flight monitoring window so you can focus on the most important details. Pre-flight, the system shows a set of red/green status indicators for battery voltage, apogee/main igniter continutity and GPS reception. Wait until they’re all green and your rocket is ready for flight. There are also tabs for ascent, descent and landing along with the original tabular view of the data.
Monitor multiple flights simultaneously. If you have more than one TeleDongle, you can monitor a flight with each one on the same computer.
Automatic flight monitoring at startup. Plug TeleDongle into the machine before starting AltosUI and it will automatically connect to it and prepare to monitor a flight.
Exports Google Earth flight tracks. Using the Keyhole Markup Language (.kml) file format, this provides a 3D view of your rocket flight through the Google Earth program.

18.19. Release Notes for Version 0.7.1¶

Version 0.7.1 is the first release containing our new cross-platform Java-based user interface.

18.19.1. AltosUI Application¶

Receive and log telemetry from a connected TeleDongle device. All data received is saved to log files named with the current date and the connected rocket serial and flight numbers. There is no mode in which telemetry data will not be saved.
Download logged data from TeleMetrum devices, either through a direct USB connection or over the air through a TeleDongle device.
Configure a TeleMetrum device, setting the radio channel, callsign, apogee delay and main deploy height. This can be done through either a USB connection or over a radio link via a TeleDongle device.
Replay a flight in real-time. This takes a saved telemetry log or eeprom download and replays it through the user interface so you can relive your favorite rocket flights.
Reprogram Altus Metrum devices. Using an Altus Metrum device connected via USB, another Altus Metrum device can be reprogrammed using the supplied programming cable between the two devices.
Export Flight data to a comma-separated-values file. This takes either telemetry or on-board flight data and generates data suitable for use in external applications. All data is exported using standard units so that no device-specific knowledge is needed to handle the data.
Speak to you during the flight. Instead of spending the flight hunched over your laptop looking at the screen, enjoy the view while the computer tells you what’s going on up there. During ascent, you hear the current flight state and altitude information. During descent, you get azimuth, elevation and range information to try and help you find your rocket in the air. Once on the ground, the direction and distance are reported.