PCSAT2 SOLAR EXPERIMENT DATA COLLECTION 7 Jan 2003 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A complete data set consists of 49 lines of ASCII text data. There are two methods to aquire this data on the ground: Continuous beacon mode Command dump BEACON MODE: The SOLAR-EX will send over the RS-232 serial port lines to the TNC for immediate transmission 7 ASCII lines of data once every 30 seconds or so and it takes 7 such transmissions to constitute a complete data set. These transmissions will occur continuously when there is sufficient power and thermal conditions are within range. To receive this data, there will be at least two ground stations and as many others as may volunteer. These two stations will track PCSAT2 on all passes and feed the data live via telnet connection to the global APRS system. Typically these reflectors carry that stream: first.aprs.net second.aprs.net third.aprs.net NRL, NASA GLEN and USNA will run the program called ALOGGER which will remain loged on to the above sites and capture all packets originated by PCSAT2 when over any ground station. Every such packet will be saved to a daily file. ALOGGER can be downloaded from the site: http://www.wa6oft.com/dnld.htm The current version is ALOGGER15.zip. COMMAND MODE: In addition, during passes over USNA, PCSAT2 can be commanded during live operations, to dump a complete data set on the downlink. Each dump will take about 10 seconds or less and the data will be captured to file for forwarding to NRL. THis command dump can only be made using the secure command link. IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS: To implement this system on PCSAT2, the following steps are involevd: 1) PCSAT2 TNC's must be modified to have a "IGNORE SERIAL PORT" command. This is so that we can command the BEACON mode OFF, and/or disable the SOLAREX if it locks up in a continuous send mode. Note, it is much easier if a "DONT-SEND" command was implemented in the NASA/Glen SOLAREX CPU... 2) SOLAREX must have a command parser to accept a serial port command to initiate the command dump. 3) USNA, and NASA/Glen need to download one of the APRS programs to do the live feed of beacons to the TELNET feed. 4) USNA, NASA/Glen, USNA need to download and run ALOGGER. For practice/verification, ALOGGER can be run now and be set for PCSAT so that experience can be gained in capturing data files. Bob Bruninga USNA Satellite Lab 410-293-6417