99 lines
4.1 KiB
HTML
99 lines
4.1 KiB
HTML
== Getting Started
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The first thing to do after you open the box is to hook up a
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battery and charge it if necessary.
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=== Batteries
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ifdef::telemetrum,telemega,easymega[]
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For TeleMetrum, TeleMega and EasyMega, the battery can be charged by plugging it into the
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corresponding socket of the device and then using the USB
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cable to plug the flight computer into your computer's USB socket. The
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on-board circuitry will charge the battery whenever it is plugged
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in, because the on-off switch does NOT control the
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charging circuitry.
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endif::telemetrum,telemega,easymega[]
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The Lithium Polymer
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ifdef::easytimer[EasyTimer, ]
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ifdef::telemini[TeleMini and]
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EasyMini battery can be charged by disconnecting it
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from the board and plugging it into a standalone
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battery charger such as link:http://altusmetrum.org/LipoCharger[LipoCharger], and
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connecting that via a USB cable to a laptop or other
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USB power source.
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You can also choose to use another battery with
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ifdef::easytimer[EasyTimer and]
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EasyMini, anything supplying between 4 and 12 volts should
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work fine (like a standard 9V battery), but if you are planning
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to fire pyro charges, ground testing is required to verify that
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the battery supplies enough current to fire your chosen e-matches.
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ifdef::telemetrum,telemega,easymega[]
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[NOTE]
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====
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On TeleMetrum v1 boards, when the GPS chip is initially
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searching for satellites, TeleMetrum will consume more current
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than it pulls from the USB port, so the battery must be
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attached in order to get satellite lock. Once GPS is locked,
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the current consumption goes back down enough to enable charging
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while running. So it's a good idea to fully charge the battery
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as your first item of business so there is no issue getting and
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maintaining satellite lock. The yellow charge indicator led
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will go out when the battery is nearly full and the charger goes
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to trickle charge. It can take several hours to fully recharge a
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deeply discharged battery.
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TeleMetrum v2 or newer, TeleMega and EasyMega use a
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higher power battery charger, allowing them to charge
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the battery while running the board at maximum
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power. When the battery is charging, or when the board
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is consuming a lot of power, the red LED will be
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lit. When the battery is fully charged, the green LED
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will be lit. When the battery is damaged or missing,
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both LEDs will be lit, which appears yellow.
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====
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endif::telemetrum,telemega,easymega[]
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ifdef::radio[]
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=== Ground Station Hardware
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There are two ground stations available, the TeleDongle USB to
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RF interface and the TeleBT Bluetooth/USB to RF interface. If
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you plug either of these in to your Mac or Linux computer it should
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“just work”, showing up as a serial port device. Windows systems need
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driver information that is part of the AltOS download to know that the
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existing USB modem driver will work. We therefore recommend installing
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our software before plugging in TeleDongle if you are using a Windows
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computer. If you are using an older version of Linux and are having
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problems, try moving to a fresher kernel (2.6.33 or
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newer).
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endif::radio[]
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=== Linux/Mac/Windows Ground Station Software
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Next you should obtain and install the AltOS software.
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The AltOS distribution includes the AltosUI ground
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station program, current firmware images for all of
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the hardware, and a number of standalone utilities
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that are rarely needed. Pre-built binary packages are
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available for Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX. Full
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source code and build instructions are also
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available. The latest version may always be downloaded
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from http://altusmetrum.org/AltOS
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ifdef::radio[]
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=== Android Ground Station Software
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TeleBT can also connect to an Android device over
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BlueTooth or USB. The
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link:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.altusmetrum.AltosDroid[AltosDroid
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Android application] is available from the
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link:https://play.google.com[Google Play system].
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You don't need a data plan to use AltosDroid, but
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without network access, you'll want to download
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offline map data before wandering away from the
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network.
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endif::radio[]
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