Project Horus - Browser-Based HAB Chase Map

Note: This is a work-in-progress. Not all of the features below are functional.

This folder contains code to display payload (and chase car!) position data in a web browser:

For this to run, you will need the horuslib library installed. Refer to the Installation guide.

You also need flask, and flask-socketio, which can be installed using pip:

$ sudo pip install flask flask-socketio

This is very much a work-in-progress, with much to be completed. For now, the following works:

To listen for payload data from OziMux (i.e. on UDP:localhost:8942):

$ python chasemapper.py --ozimux

To listen for payload data via the UDP broadcast 'Payload Summary' messages (which can be generated by OziMux, but also by radiosonde_auto_rx):

$ python chasemapper.py --summary

The server can be stopped with CTRL+C.

Live Predictions

kml_server can also run live predictions of the flight path.

To do this you need cusf_predictor_wrapper and it's dependencies installed. Refer to the documentation on how to install this. Once compiled and installed, you will need to:

• Copy the 'pred' binary into this directory. If using the Windows build, this will be pred.exe; under Linux/OSX, just pred.
• Download wind data for your area of interest, and place the .dat files into the gfs subdirectory.

TODO: Update below doc. Most settings are set from the web interface.

The following additional arguments can then be used:

  --predict             Enable Flight Path Predictions.
  --predict_binary PREDICT_BINARY
                        Location of the CUSF predictor binary. Defaut = ./pred
  --burst_alt BURST_ALT
                        Expected Burst Altitude (m). Default = 30000
  --descent_rate DESCENT_RATE
                        Expected Descent Rate (m/s, positive value). Default =
                        5.0
  --abort               Enable 'Abort' Predictions.
  --predict_rate PREDICT_RATE
                        Run predictions every X seconds. Default = 15 seconds.

For example, to use kml_server to observe a typical radiosonde launch (using data emitted via the payload summary messages), you would run:

$ python chasemapper.py --summary --predict --burst_alt=26000 --descent_rate=7.0

A few notes:

• The ascent rate is calculated automatically, and is an average of the last 6 positions.
• The 'Abort' prediction option is used to display a second prediction, which displays what would occur if the balloon burst now. This is useful for flights where you have a cutdown payload available, and want to know when to trigger it! This prediction disappears when the payload is either above the expected burst altitude, or is descending.