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# AltOS
AltOS is the name of Keith's firmware "operating system" for
[TeleMetrum](../TeleMetrum/) and [TeleDongle](../TeleDongle/).
In addition to the firmware for [TeleMetrum](../TeleMetrum) and
[TeleDongle](../TeleDongle) boards, the AltOS source tree also includes a
number of utilities useful for monitoring and logging telemetry during flight,
post-processing flight data for analysis, plus utilities for updating firmware,
and developing and debugging new functionality. The first generation of these
utilities were Linux-only, but our current second-generation software written
largely in [Java](http://java.com) with a small platform-specific library
works identically on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems!
The firmware and associated software are licensed [GPL version 2](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html)
## Available Versions ##
[[!inline pages="./releases/* and !*/Discussion and !*.bz2 and !*.zip and !*.exe" show="10" rss="no" raw="yes" ]]
The latest source is always available from [git.gag.com](http://git.gag.com)
in the project [fw/altos](http://git.gag.com/?p=fw/altos;a=summary).
## Features ##
Version 0.7.1 is the first release containing our new cross-platform Java-based user interface. AltosUI can:
* 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.
AltosUI provides all of these features on the three target operating systems,
Linux, Mac OS X (version 10.5 or newer) and Windows (XP, Vista or 7). The bulk
of the software is written in Java and is built once and tested and delivered
on all three target platforms. A tiny ‘shim’ library is built on each system
to provide access to the Altus Metrum devices connected over the USB link.
## Future Plans ##
A number of features are implemented or in process in the sources available
in our publicly visible repository that are not part of the current stable
release. Some of these features are already available in our C utilities,
but not yet part of our second-generation Java user interface altosui.
* [Google Earth](http://earth.google.com) "KML" file export. The
first-generation C program ao-postflight can do this, the implementation
in altosui has improvements.
* Data plotting. The first-generation C program ao-postflight can output a
set of standard plots as an svg file. The plotting code we're integrating
into altosui supports direct interaction with the data and is much more fun!
* State-dependent display. When the rocket is on the pad, you mostly want to
know if it’s ready to fly. When the rocket is descending on a chute, you
want to know where it is in the sky and how fast its falling. Presenting a
limited amount of information that represents what is most interesting to
the user at any given time should make the display easier to read.
* Ejection charge testing. The TeleMetrum firmware has the ability to be
commanded to fire ejection charges over the USB or radio links. Safely
hooking this up to the user interface will allow for wireless ejection
system testing. It is possible to do this today with a terminal program,
but we want this to be a feature in altosui. The key here is “safely”, of
course, which means figuring out a ‘fool proof’ user interface.
* A Kalman-filter based approach to apogee detection using more than just the
baro sensor, so that we can safely control apogee ejection on flights to
altitudes beyond the range of our baro sensor alone. Unlike the other items
on the list, this will be a significant change to the in-rocket TeleMetrum
firmware. It may therefore be a while before this becomes part of a stable
firmware release.
There are any number of additions that could be made to this list; feel free
to send along ideas that you’ve got. Of course, all of this software is
licensed under the GNU General Public License, so you can get the source and
hack on it in the comfort of your own home.
## Platform Specific Notes ##
### Linux ###
If you use [Debian](http://www.debian.org), then a pre-built package for
32-bit x86 is currently available here:
wget -O - http://altusmetrum.org/apt/altusmetrum.key | apt-key add -
wget -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/altos.list http://altusmetrum.org/apt/altos.list
apt-get update
apt-get install altos
If you use some other distribution of Linux, then
a Linux package of our second-generation Java bits that
should run on any distribution with a modern Java version is also
available. Unlike the Debian pacakge, which depends on various libraries
already part of the Debian distribution, this package includes a "fat" jar
file with all of the Java libraries that aren't part of the basic Java runtime
environment included, so it should "just work" on any system with
Java 6. Development and testing is done with OpenJDK 6, but current
downloads from [java.com](http://java.com) should be fine too.
If you'd rather build from source, our source tree includes documentation on
how to build packages for various
Linux systems such as [Arch Linux](http://www.archlinux.org), and the
debian/ directory contains all the control
files for building the Debian packages on other architectures or derivatives
such as [Ubuntu](http://ubuntu.com).
Bdale has also created a theme for
[GDM](http://projects.gnome.org/gdm/) that he uses on his primary notebook,
and the
[Simple Login Manager](http://slim.berlios.de/) that he uses on all of his
other machines and which is ideally suited for machines dedicated to AltOS
ground station use. It includes a photo of a drag-race between
nearly-identical rockets
built by Keith and Bdale, that was the first time either of us gave TeleMetrum
complete control of a rocket flight without some other backup! See the themes/
directory in the source tree (the themes are included in the Debian package).
### Mac ###
A Mac OS X package that is compatible with
versions 10.5 "Leopard" and later (including 10.6 "Snow Leopard") is
available. The Mac operating system includes Java, and all Altus Metrum
products show up as simple USB serial ports, so this should just work
with no additional drivers or other dependency issues. Older versions of
the Mac operating system come with Java versions that are too old for use
with Altus Metrum software, and we know of no way to update the Java version
other than upgrading to a newer operating system.
### Windows ###
Our Windows package is known to work on at least some flavors of XP, Vista, and
Windows 7 Enterprise. If you don't already have Java installed,
download and install a current Java 6 version from [java.com](http://java.com)
first. Then download our installer and run it. Windows already has
the required USB serial device driver, and our package should do the right
things to bind it to our devices, but if you get a complaint about the device
being unrecognized, try pointing to the copy of the telemetrum.inf file
included in the package directory manually. Reports of success or failure
with other versions of Windows would be appreciated!
|
