The ground support electronics system, including electronics, batteries, connectors, and hard shell case, is collectively known as the Ground Operations Devices Box (G.O.D. Box). We’ve used G.O.D. box to run numerous tests, ranging from individual component calibrations to liquid engine hot-fires.
The Ground Operation Devices (G.O.D.) box is the hard shell that houses all the ground support electronics for BURPG. It is designed to function as a stand-alone system, not relying on external power input. This is achieved by using a 100 Ah internal battery. Inside, there is also Hyperion Rev B and the main ground support computer, an inverter for powering external devices in the field, and a DC-DC power supply for the ground support computer. Access to the equipment is through a removable back cover, while the front has a plastic coated aluminum panel featuring weather proof connectors, switches, and filtered fans to allow air circulation inside the box.
Hyperion Rev B is the interface between all of the sensors and actuators and the NUC, the computing unit that communicates with the away site computer. Rev B builds off of the many design goals of Rev A, with the addition of:
4 solenoid valve control channels, providing 12 volts at up to 8 amps
4 differential/16 single ended or 24 single ended analog input channels
ESD/Over-voltage protected signal inputs
Optimized board design for lower noise floor(compared to rev A) using isolated ground planes and integral shielding, arc suppression on relays, and hardware filters
Full range K-Type thermocouple measurement
32 GPIO expansion pins from the microcontroller
The ground software (GSW) is the interface between the human controllers and the physical hardware. The software, written in Java, allows team members to operate the entire rocket system safely from a base camp and a safe distance. Broken into two parts, the rocket-side interface called Olympus, and the remote-control interface called Gaia, the software provides complete insight into all the rocket systems and supports multiple users for more detailed analysis of active operations.
Gaia is the remote, graphical user interface for control of the rocket systems. Also Java-based, Gaia connects to Olympus over a wireless point-to-point network link. Gaia provides tracking and recording of all telemetry as well as autosequence support for precisely timed events and fault detection and recovery for unexpected operational situations
An early test of Gaia's networking protocols and telemetry graphing functionality.
Olympus is the “server” application in the GSW system. It provides a central point of connection for all data and command streams, and operates on the GOD computer. Olympus monitors the status of the ground and rocket hardware and collects data from, and transmits commands to the boards through virtual serial ports over a standard USB connection. Additionally Olympus is responsible for collecting and logging data generated by the control hardware. For added reliability and speed, Olympus is designed to utilize modern, multi-core processor support and is very multi-threaded (while still maintaining low memory and CPU usage during nominal operation).
