Water Rocket: ESP32 in a bottle !

Node + uPython Water Rockets with ESP32s and ground base telemetry system

Installation

  git clone git@github.com:nodebotsau/water-rocket.git
  cd water-rocket
  npm install  # this may fail on libzmq ... don't worry about it !
  cd rocket-pakage
  cp settings.template settings.py
  vi settings.py

Edit the settings.py file with the appropriate elements you need to connect to the wifi station and the topic you want to send messages on.

Operation

One of the main things you want to configure is the topic you want to send on.

Given the use of public messaging services, I would suggest rocket_surgery/nickname

eg rocket_surgery/ajfisher

Ground station sim

Ground station contains a telemetry simulator in order to test sending messages to the analysis server

  cd water-rocket
  node groundstation/tools/data_sim.js

Options

• -h hostname of the server to connect to - use iot.eclipse.org for a public server or localhost if you're running mosca. Can also use an IP address
• -t topic you want to publish messages to

Analysis server

You can watch the telemetry data coming off your rocket via the analysis server.

  cd water-rocket
  node analysis/server.js

Once it is running it will tell you that it is running on http://localhost:3000 so visit that page in a browser to get it going. You can enter the hostname of the server you want to connect to and the topic you want to subscribe to in the boxes on the right.

If you want to shortcut that, use the -t and -h switches to start the server and it will set your defaults so you don't need to re-enter info when you reload.

Data

You will get a stream of data coming through quite quickly if everything is working. You can pause the data stream and reset it which will give you a clear slate again and is a handy thing to do just prior to a launch.

When the data stream is paused you can also save it to a local file for review later. This is handy after a landing.