About 10 mins after separation, tlm has successfully been received, decoded, and uploaded to the data warehouse. There was a huge cheer here at BP. The first signals were received by ZS1LS in South Africa at 07:37. Many many thanks, OM, you have made a lot of people at BP very happy! All main parameters on FUNcube look nominal; temp, battery voltage, solar panel charging rate, et!
T+8 mins. Confirmed from Yasney, FUNcube has separated from the upper stage! We’re in space!
We are all back at BP, with less than 20 mins to go to launch. The news from Yasnet is all GO FOR LAUNCH at this time.
Flow us on our live video feedat http://www.batc.tv/streams/funcube
All members of the FUNcube development team (except Gerard Albers, who has had to stay Holland) are now assembled at National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park ready for the launch early tomorrow morning.
We have spent the day adding satellite equipment to the existing excellent demonstration station. As part of our testing, we made a couple of QSOs via VO-52, one with UR3CTB and another with OH5LK. Earlier in the day, we also confirmed that we could receive signals from a low elevation pass of the same satellite. So we are poised for an early start tomorrow morning.
Many thanks for the feedback received so far!
A couple of issues have come to light and have been corrected in this latest version.
Fixes in release v806
– enhancements to the audio capture and processing.
– Audio Devices now handled correctly when a Dongle is attached with Dashboard running.
– User Warehouse settings will now be retained for future upgrades to the Dashboard.
– Updates error messages.
– Should no longer crash when going to settings and help pages
To download this latest version of the FUNcube Dashboard and the supporting documentation go to
https://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/funcube-telemetry-dashboard/
which is being kept right up-to-date.
Well it has finally arrived. Little did we think, back in 2009 that we would not be launching FUNcube-1 until late 2013 but, at last, we are almost there.
The past four years have been spent trying to find a suitable launch opportunity, dealing with many legal and administrative issues, in addition to finalising the technical requirements for the spacecraft. We also then had to convert those requirements and ideas into reality.
The core FUNcube team comprises of just about a dozen of us – radio amateurs from the UK and the Netherlands together with software specialists from both countries. A few of us even have skills in both the analogue and digital domains!
We have met on numerous occasions for “face to face” meetings over weekends and held weekly Skype chats almost every Sunday evening. We have had highs and lows along the way but the end result – FUNcube-1 our tiny spacecraft is now sitting in an ISIPOD on the launch vehicle ready to take its chances in space on Thursday. Many hours of evaluation and verification testing of both the Flight Model and also the earlier Engineering Model have been undertaken, so we are as confident as we can be that we have done the best job possible.
This mission could not have been carried forward without the efforts of the team members but neither could it have been completed without the tremendous support that it has received from individual radio amateurs and others and other AMSAT groups around the world.
Thursday November 21st 2013 is our launch day and most of the team will be assembled at the National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park to man a monitoring station for at least the first two days following the launch.
The first signals from FUNcube-1 should be heard in Southern Africa and then in Hawaii and then Alaska. After that, we hope to hear signals in the UK on a very low pass to the east around 08:50 UTC.
We are very grateful to the RSGB for their support in allowing the use the NRC facilities which should be perfect for this operation. http://www.nationalradiocentre.com/ Although it is not large enough to be able issue an open invitation to everyone to join us on the day, we will be trying to do our best to keep everyone in touch with what is happening.
We will be setting up a webstream from the NRC using the services of the BATC.tv server http://www.batc.tv/ch_live.php?ch=3 This should be available from around 07:00 UTC on Thursday and will keep running for as long as we have something to show. As well as shackcam views it will also have a breaking news “tickertape” and some videos created during the development of the spacecraft.
Additionally we will maintain a presence on the #cubesat IRC channel which can be easily accessed by a web client from here: http://webchat.freenode.net/
Of course this website will also be kept up to date as possible and updates will be provided on AMSAT-BB.
So all we ask everyone to do now is to, download the FUNcube Dashboard, read the guidance notes, register with the Data Warehouse and hang on for an interesting Thursday. Oh and keep your fingers crossed.
Very many thanks for your support!
73
Team FUNcube
Many thanks for the feedback received so far!
A couple of issues have come to light and have been corrected in this latest version.
Fixes:
#181 Folder selection doesn’t
#175 Recognise dongles after start-up
#180 Autotune needs a nudge
To download this latest version of the FUNcube Dashboard and the supporting documentation go to
https://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/funcube-telemetry-dashboard/
which is being kept right up-to-date.
In advance of the FUNcube-1 launch next week on November 21st at 07:10:11 UTC, this first release of the FUNcube Dashboard User Interface software is now available for download here: https://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/funcube-telemetry-dashboard
(Late News – if you have experienced any problem extracting the .msi file earlier today please check the link again for more updated advice!)
This software, when used with a FUNcube Dongle or other SSB capable VHF receiver, will decode and display all the 58 telemetry channels, all the on-board status flags and also the Fitter messages from the spacecraft.
The FUNcube Dashboard will also enable users to upload the telemetry they are receiving to a central Data Warehouse so that others around the world can see what is happening on board.
A fully illustrated set of installation and operating guidance notes can also be downloaded from that page.
Additionally we also have some IQ and audio files available here that can be used for testing. https://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/telemetry-examples/
Also here is a link to the FUNcube forum where we have some detailed guidance about how to register with the Central Warehouse http://forum.funcube.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=18
Full details of the telemetry format, which has considerable heritage from AO-40, can be found here. https://funcube.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/fun_downlink_data_draft_13.doc
We are very grateful to our software development team for their efforts in developing the Dashboard and we look forward to your feedback. Please let us have questions and experiences at the FUNcube forum at http://forum.funcube.org.uk/viewforum.php?f=3
Our software team is working feverishly to complete the FUNcube Dashboard software that we will be using to decode and display the telemetry that will be transmitted from the spacecraft on 145.935 MHz.
Whilst they complete their work here are some provisional pre-launch keps. We may well receive an updated set nearer to the day of launch but we expect that these should be good enough for the first few hours/days after launch.
The particular method of deployment used by this Dnepr launch vehicle means that the dispersion of all the objects may be somewhat more rapid than we are commonly used to, so this may help the experts determine which object is which.
FUNcube-1 will initially be transmitting only about 30 mW of output power, this is its “Safe Mode”, so a steerable yagi will greatly help reception. When the spacecraft is eventually transmitting data in its normal “Educational Mode” the signal is expected to be about 10dB louder!
FUNCUBE-1
1 99991U 00000 13325.30956308 .00000106 00000-0 10000-3 0 00010
2 99991 097.7956 038.2570 0059925 198.5190 336.5388 14.77841394000015
Our launch service provider, ISIS Launch Services, has been very busy at Yasny these past few days. They have been integrating all their charges into ISIPODs and then mounting the ISIPODs onto the SHM (Space Head Module).
Earlier today the ISIPOD that contains FUNcube-1 was mounted onto the SHM so it has taken the next step en-route to space!
We are delighted to see the careful progress that is being made to ensure that “our baby” has a smooth ride and are very grateful to the team presently in Yasny who are making it all possible.
More details of the integration process can be seen here: http://blog.isilaunch.com/
Welcome to the FUNcube Web Site 