pytrack - Modular Python HAB tracker

HAB tracker software for the Pi In The Sky board and LoRa expansion board.

The pytrack package and its Python dependencies, can be installed on a Raspberry Pi with:

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install python3-pytrack

Raspbian Configuration

Enable the following with raspi-config:

Interfacing Options --> Camera --> Yes
Interfacing Options --> SPI --> Yes
Interfacing Options --> Serial --> No (enable login) --> Yes (enable hardware)
Interfacing Options --> 1-Wire --> Yes

Additional step for Raspberry Pi 3

In order to use the PITs board with the Raspberry Pi 3 you will need to carry out some additional steps to disable the bluetooth (which conflicts with PITs)

• Edit your /boot/config.txt by typing sudo nano /boot/config.txt
  • Add dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt to the very bottom of the file to disable bluetooth.
  • Press Ctrl + x then Enter to save and exit.
  • Finally type sudo systemctl disable hciuart followed by sudo reboot

Usage

Before running the tracker, it is necessary to start the pigpio daemon, with:

sudo pigpiod

You can then create you own tracker program in python using the pytrack module, here's a simple example:

from pytrack.tracker import *
from time import sleep

# Creates a tracker object to control the PITs board
mytracker = Tracker()

# Set rtty payload name, transmission details image frequency
mytracker.set_rtty(payload_id='name1', frequency=434.250, baud_rate=300)
mytracker.add_rtty_camera_schedule('images/RTTY', period=60)

# Set Lora payload name, transmission details and image frequency
mytracker.set_lora(payload_id='name2', channel=0, frequency=434.150, mode=1)
mytracker.add_lora_camera_schedule('images/LORA', period=60)

# Set how frequently to capture and store an image at Maximum resolution
mytracker.add_full_camera_schedule('images/FULL', period=60)

# Start the tracker
mytracker.start()

while True:
    sleep(1)

To run the tracker type python3 your_file_name.py

Auto Startup

Add the following lines to the file /etc/rc.local, before the exit 0 line:

pigpiod
su pi -c "python3 /home/pi/your_file_name.py" &

Documentation

You can find more information about the component libraries and their usage in the Documentation