DESIGN, FABRICATION AND CONSTRUCTION OF A CAN SATELLITE

A RESEARCH PROJECT

BY

SENDY, INIEKE UMOETTE

08/EG/CO/347

SUBMITTED TO

THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER ENGINNERING

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITY OF UYO

IN FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING (BNG)
IN COMPUTER ENGINEERING

MARCH, 2014

ABSTRACT
For over a decade, student ballooning projects have provided a wonderful
opportunity of launching small scientific payloads to near space environment in a
small budget. Apart from the obvious merits of such projects, one significant
outcome is the cross disciplinary training for undergraduate science and
engineering students that prepares them for a future career in industry. Students
are also exposed to research technique that is a strong motivational factor to
work towards a graduate degree.
0.1kg satellites, called CanSats, are small and cheap enough that most universities
are able to design and build them as fully functional satellites. Designing satellite
systems in this new, small, and light-weight design presents a new challenge to
satellite developers. This report describes the design of a flexible CanSat capable
of acquiring information at Near space regions
The CanSat in this work was designed and built in 10 weeks and was used to
generate location information of its flight path and also used to measure
parameters like temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure variation of
a location in real time with the aid of the onboard sensors.
The design and implementation of this project is geared towards achieving results
which will answer the objectives set for this project. This research is carried out in
University of Uyo Permanent site. The data received is clearly analysed and
explained. Experimental results show the variation of pressure, temperature, and
relative humidity with altitude.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................2
Table of Contents .......................................................................................................4
Abbreviations .............................................................................................................7
INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................8
1.1 Background of Study .....................................................................................8
1.1 Objectives of Study .......................................................................................9
1.2 Significances of CanSat Projects.................................................................10
1.3 Statement of Problem ..................................................................................10
1.4 Scope and Limitations of the Project Work ................................................11
1.4.1

Area of Coverage: ..............................................................................11

1.4.2

Hardware limitations: ........................................................................11

1.5 Project Structure ..........................................................................................12

LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................13
2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................13
2.2 OVERVIEW OF SATELLITES .................................................................13
2.3 CLASSIFICATION OF SATELLITES ......................................................14
2.4 MINIATURIZED SATELLITES ...............................................................16
2.5 PICO-SATELLITES ...................................................................................18
2.6 CANSAT .....................................................................................................18
2.6.1

TYPES OF CanSat.............................................................................18

2.7 ARCHITECTURE OF CANSAT ...............................................................19

2.7.1

Structure .............................................................................................19

2.7.2

Power Supply Unit .............................................................................20

2.7.3

Communication system......................................................................20

2.7.4

Onboard Computer.............................................................................25

2.7.5

Mission Subsystem ............................................................................28

2.7.6

Lunching Systems ..............................................................................33

2.7.7

Definition of interfaces ......................................................................33

2.8 An Overview of Existing Pico Satellites .....................................................34

2.8.1

CubeSat XI-IV [sai-four] University of Tokyo .................................34

2.8.2

YANKEY and ROSAM Ghana .........................................................35

2.9 Conclusion ...................................................................................................36

METHODOLOGY AND IMPLEMENTATION ....................................................37
3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................37
3.2 Components used for the Payload ...............................................................37
3.3 Components used for the Ground Station ...................................................42
3.4 Design ..........................................................................................................43
3.4.1

Setup design .......................................................................................43

3.4.2

Information flow ................................................................................43

3.4.3

Design Specification ..........................................................................44

3.5 Device Configuration ..................................................................................46

3.5.1

XBee Module .....................................................................................46

3.5.2

OPENLOG .........................................................................................48

3.6 Microcontroller Programming.....................................................................49

3.6.1

Microcontroller ..................................................................................49

3.6.2

Programming Tools Used ..................................................................50

3.6.3

Interface to Radio Module and Sensors .............................................52

3.6.4

General Description of the Microcontroller Program........................54

3.7 Construction ................................................................................................56

3.7.1

Power Consumption ...........................................................................56

3.7.2

Structural Design ...............................................................................60

CHAPTER FOUR ....................................................................................................63

TESTING AND DATA ANALYSIS ......................................................................63

4.1 Testing .........................................................................................................63

4.1.1

Unit Testing .......................................................................................64

4.1.2

Integration Testing .............................................................................64

4.1.3

Impact Testing ...................................................................................64

4.2 Launching ....................................................................................................65

4.3 Conclusion ...................................................................................................69
CHAPTER FIVE......................................................................................................70
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................70
5.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................70
5.1 Limitations...................................................................................................70
5.1.1

Area of Coverage: ..............................................................................70

5.1.2

Hardware Limitations: .......................................................................70

5.1.3

Launching ..........................................................................................71

5.2 Recommendations .......................................................................................71

Future Work .....................................................................................................72
Additional Sensors ...........................................................................................72

5.

5.2.1

The CanSat Improvement ..................................................................72

5.2.2

Weak Points and Improvements in the Structural Design. ................72

5.2.3

Additional Tests .................................................................................73

REFERENCES.................................................................................................74

Appendix A.

XCT-U CONFIGURATION ..........................................................81

Appendix B.

PICKIT 3 PIC BURNER ................................................................85

Appendix C.

CANSAT C CODE .........................................................................88

ABBREVIATIONS
1. GPS

Global Positioning System

2. NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

3. NMEA

National Marine Electronics Association

4. ROM

Read Only Memory

5. ISP

In-System Programming

6. USART

Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter

7. SPI

Serial Peripheral Interface

8. EPROM

Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory

9. EEPROM

Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory

10.RF

Radio Frequency

11.ISM

Industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio

12.PIC

Programmable Intelligent Computer

13.DOP

Dilution of Precision

14.GGA

Global Positioning System Fixed Data

15.GLL

Geographic Position-Latitude/Longitude

16.GSA

GNSS DOP and Active Satellites

17.GSV

GNSS Satellites in View

18.RMC

Recommended Minimum Specific GNSS Data

19.VTG

Course Over Ground and Ground Speed

20.PAN

Personal Area Network

21.GUI

Graphic User Interface

22.MIPS

Million Instructions Per Second

INTRODUCTION
1.1

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

The need for telecommunications, micro-gravity experiments, multidisciplinary

academic participation and the miniaturization of technology has made the dream
closer to reality space for academic institutions (public and private) and business
through technology integration designed reduction of size, resources, and costs of
artificial satellites. This process has lead to development of CubeSat specifications
with overall weights of less than 1kg in 1999 by California Polytechnic University
(CalPoly) by Prof. Jordi Puig-Suari and Stanford University by Professor Bob
I2Cggs to help universities worldwide to conduct space science and exploration
(Franco, 2008).
Picosatellite developments have gained popularity over the years which have
led to the development of a large number of CubeSats by CubeSat-class platforms
such as University of Surrey,

Stanford University , Hawaii Space Flight Lab,

Aerospace Corporation, Angstrom Aerospace in Sweden, etc (Bordetsky et al,

2010).
There are now more than 20 organizations worldwide that are developing
and launching of CubeSat picosatellite annually (Puig-Suari, 2011). Not only is the
CubeSat project beneficial to the academia, but also in Picosatellite integration
experiments, enabling finding enhanced tagging, tracking, and global data sharing
solutions for emerging network controlled Operations scenarios (Rodrigo, 2011).
At first, development of a satellite was huge government project - involving
huge amount of money and human resources; since the advent of picosatellite,
satellite development has been reduced in cost, achieved the aim and goal of a full-

sized satellite, and also has changed aerospace engineering education in

universities from desk theory study to practical study (I2C, 2007).
The idea behind the CanSat concept was to let students be able to deal with
some of the same challenges in building a satellite, but at the same time it had to be
done over a much shorter period of time and with small expenses. The students
have to design and build instruments, place them inside a soda can and launch it
with a rocket or balloon. The soda can then falls down to the ground in a parachute
while doing different kind of experiments (Nylund, 2008).
This experimental research is based on the CanSat concept. The onboard
computer as well as all the sensors and GPS will be placed inside the Soft Drink
Can and launch with a helium- filled weather balloon.
1.2

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

Below are objectives of this project work:

1. To learn the basis of microcontroller programming.
2. To learn and understand the working principles of PIC16F8774
microcontroller from microchips Inc.
3. To learn the basic of satellite design, fabrication and operation.
4. To acquire atmospheric data such as temperature, atmospheric pressure and
relative humidity.
5. Demonstrate the ability of the University of Uyo to design, fabricate,
integrate, test, and operate a Can-satellite of approximately 1kg in mass.
6. To have a practical knowledge of space engineering.
7. Promote and sustain research and education focused on small satellites and
related technologies.

1.3

SIGNIFICANCES OF CANSAT PROJECTS

1. Building a CanSat is a practical supplement to school subjects, such as
mathematics, design & technology, and physics.
2. Working towards a launch campaign is inspiring and raises enthusiasm
amongst the next generation of scientists, engineers and astronauts. It
communicates the excitement of space exploration and can encourage the
students to pursue a scientific degree and career.
3. Students gain the satisfaction of being involved with the end-to-end life
cycle of a complex engineering project.
4. The activity exposes students to the satellite development process, starting
with design, through integration, testing and launching, and finally data
analysis and presentation of results.
5. CanSats serve as a model to explain the composition of a satellite and
functions of the various subsystems.
6. Participants learn the importance of teamwork and project planning. They
must be organized, respect the role of each team member, set objectives and
accomplish them, have meetings and adhere to a schedule.
7. Students can develop their technical skills by designing a concept, building
it, solving problems and redesigning it if necessary.
8. The activity challenges the students knowledge, encouraging creativity and
innovation.
9. Students learn how to make presentations and defend their project in front of
a jury.

1.4

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The following factors led to the Design, Fabrication and Construction of a

Can Satellite (UyoSat1);

a) A result of the high cost involved in designing, constructing, and

launching of satellites into orbit.
b) The time it take for an amateur (and non amateur) to construct a satellite;
always in years.
c) Cost of telemetry (sending and receiving signals from satellite in orbit).
d) How to enable students have experienced in all process of designing,
fabrication, and operation of a satellite.
e) How to changed aerospace engineering education in universities from
desk theory study to practical study.
1.5

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE PROJECT WORK

This project was limited in two key aspects - area of coverage and the hardware
used.
1.1.1 Area of Coverage:
The balloon and its payload may or may not fly beyond the vicinity of
University of Uyo Permanent Site due to environmental factor like the windy
nature of the launching site, lack of tracking devices, and topography of the area.
As a result of this, the environmental data (Temperature, relative humidity,
atmospheric pressure) taken by the onboard sensors is peculiar to the location of
the balloon.
1.1.2 Hardware limitations:
Due to the high cost of sensors and the uneasiness of interfacing them with the
microcontroller (onboard computer), several sensor have not been incorporated in
the payload like accelerometer, gamma ray burst detector, magnetometers etc.

1. The project lack mobile tracking station which would make the payload
recovery much easier.
2. High cost and complexity deter us from going for high earned
microcontrollers like the PIC18 and PIC32 families.
3. The project lack imaging system which would capture the aerial view of the
environment as the payload rises.
1.6

PROJECT STRUCTURE
Literature Review: This chapter gives an insight into satellite systems. This

leads to an overview of satellite and their classification. This review identifies the
underlying subsystem of the Can Satellite, the communication protocol use by the
components, the Cansat interfaces, and review of the existing Cansat.
Methodology and Implementation: The research methodology is outlined in this
chapter which focuses on the design requirements and experimental setup. An in
depth explanation of the different components interfaces, design setup, and
integration is illustrated in this chapter.
Result Analysis: This chapter explains the result obtained in the Cansat flight. The
telemetry receive from the Cansat is also analysed.
Conclusion: The entire work done is summarised in this chapter. A set of
recommendations is drawn from the experiments carried out in this research as
well as suggestions for future work to be done in this research.
Critical Evaluation: This chapter critically evaluates the research carried out. A
discussion of how the objectives were met will be carried out in this chapter and
the extent to which the aim of this research work has been achieved.

LITERATURE REVIEW
1.7

INTRODUCTION
This chapter gives an insight into satellite systems and forms the basis for

this project initiative. Detailed information on satellite systems based on size and
mission type will be discussed. This chapter will give an overview of the CanSats
subsystem the structure, Electronics, Power, communication subsystems,
Microcontroller and as well as existing Can satellite systems.
1.8

OVERVIEW OF SATELLITES

Satellites are semi-independent computer-controlled systems. Satellite subsystems

attend many tasks, such as power generation, thermal control, telemetry, attitude
control and orbit control (NASA, 2011).

Fig 2.1 GPS satellite

Etymologically, it is derived from the Latin word satellitem or satelles meaning an attendant, one who is constantly hovering around and attending to a
master or big man (Etymology Dictionary).

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an artificial object which has been

intentionally placed into orbit. Such objects are sometimes called artificial
satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon.
The world's first artificial satellite, the Sputnik 1, was launched by the Soviet
Union in 1957. Since then, thousands of satellites have been launched into orbit
around the Earth.
Satellites are used for a large number of purposes. Common types include military
and civilian Earth observation satellites, communications satellites, navigation
satellites, weather satellites, and research satellites. Space stations and human
spacecraft in orbit are also satellites. Satellite orbits vary greatly, depending on the
purpose of the satellite, and are classified in a number of ways. Well-known
(overlapping) classes include low Earth orbit, polar orbit, and geostationary orbit.
They are usually semi-independent computer-controlled systems. It subsystems
attend many tasks, such as power generation, thermal control, telemetry, attitude
control and orbit control.
1.9

CLASSIFICATION OF SATELLITES

Satellites are launched into space to do a specific job, thus they perform specific
Function(s). The type of satellite that is launched to monitor cloud patterns for a
weather station will be different than a satellite launched to send television signals
across Canada. The satellite must be designed specifically to fulfill its function.
1. Anti-Satellite weapons/"Killer Satellites" are satellites that are designed to
destroy enemy warheads, satellites, and other space assets
2. Astronomical satellites are satellites used for observation of distant
planets, galaxies, and other outer space objects.

3. Biosatellites are satellites designed to carry living organisms, generally for

scientific experimentation.
4. Communications satellites are satellites stationed in space for the purpose
of telecommunications. Modern communications satellites typically use
geosynchronous orbits, Molniya orbits or Low Earth orbits.
5. Miniaturized satellites are satellites of unusually low masses and small
sizes.[17] New classifications are used to categorize these satellites:
minisatellite (500100 kg), microsatellite (below 100 kg), nanosatellite
(below 10 kg).
6. Navigational satellites are satellites which use radio time signals
transmitted to enable mobile receivers on the ground to determine their
exact location. The relatively clear line of sight between the satellites and
receivers on the ground, combined with ever-improving electronics, allows
satellite navigation systems to measure location to accuracies on the order
of a few meters in real time.
7. Reconnaissance

satellites

are

Earth

observation

satellite

or

communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications.

Very little is known about the full power of these satellites, as governments
who operate them usually keep information pertaining to their
reconnaissance satellites classified.
8. Earth observation satellites are satellites intended for non-military uses
such as environmental monitoring, meteorology, map making etc.
9. Tether satellites are satellites which are connected to another satellite by a
thin cable called a tether.

10.Weather satellites are primarily used to monitor Earth's weather and

climate.[18]
11.Recovery satellites are satellites that provide a recovery of reconnaissance,
biological, space-production and other payloads from orbit to Earth.
12.Manned spacecraft (spaceships) are large satellites able to put humans
into (and beyond) an orbit, and return them to Earth.
1.10 MINIATURIZED SATELLITES
Miniaturized satellites or small satellites are artificial satellites of low mass and
size, usually under 500 kg. Small satellites with a mass between 10 to 500 kg have
become a competitor to large satellites with a mass of over 1000 kg. This
development

has

come

about

through

the

technological

advances

in

microelectronics. Small satellites are obviously less costly for launch. However,
limitations for uses of small satellites exist through special requirements imposed
in particular for remote sensing missions such as orbital and attitude control, sensor
design and data readout. While all such satellites can be referred to as small
satellites, different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass;
1. Mini-satellites: These refer to an artificial satellite with a wet mass between
100kg and 500kg. Examples: Demeter, Essaim, Parasol, Picard etc
2. Micro-satellite: These satellites are artificial satellites with a weight mass of
between 10kg and 100kg. Examples: Astrid-1 and Astrid-2
3. Nano-satellites: The term is applied to an artificial satellite with a wet mass of
1 and 10kg.

It could be lunched individually of as multiple satellites all

working together. For example, a 6U CubeSat, CanSat etc.

4. Pico-satellites: is usually applied as the name of an artificial satellite with a wet

mass between 0.1 and 1 kg (0.22 and 2.2 lb). Again designs and proposed
designs of these types usually have multiple Pico-satellites working together.
5. Femto-satellite or "femtosat" is usually applied as the name of an artificial

satellite with a wet mass between 10 and 100g. (Tristancho 2010)[1][2] Like
Pico-satellites, some designs require a larger "mother" satellite for
communication with ground controllers. Kick-Sat Sprites "chipsats" would be
in this weight class.
One reason for miniaturizing satellites is to reduce the cost: heavier satellites
require larger rockets with greater thrust which also has greater cost to finance. In
contrast, smaller and lighter satellites require smaller and cheaper launch vehicles
and can sometimes be launched in multiples. They can also be launched
'piggyback', using excess capacity on larger launch vehicles. Miniaturized satellites
allow for cheaper designs as well as ease of mass production, although few
satellites of any size other than 'communications constellations' where dozens of
satellites are used to cover the globe, have been mass produced in practice.
Besides the cost issue, the main rationale for the use of miniaturized satellites is the
opportunity to enable missions that a larger satellite could not accomplish, such as:
Constellations for low data rate communications
Using formations to gather data from multiple points

 In-orbit inspection of larger satellites

University-related research
1.11 PICO-SATELLITES
Dr Antunes an astrophysicist and programmer with decades of NASA experience
is a proponent of picosatellites. These tiny birds weigh around a kilogram and are
shot up in lieu of ballast or in empty nooks and crannies on full blown satellite
lunch missions. An example of a picosatellite is the CubeSat and CanSat. The most
popular CubeSat was devised by California Polytechnic State of University and
Stanford University. It is a cube 10cm on a side, with standard electrical, physical
and lunch parameters (The Economist, 2012).
1.12 CANSAT
In November 1998 at the University Space Systems Symposium (USSS) held in
Hawaii, Prof. Bob Twiggs (Stanford University Space Development Laboratory)
proposed "CanSat" concept. (Emiko 2009)
CanSat is a small satellite analog, which has been used for introduction of practical
space engineering for more than ten years. All of the components, such as sensors,
actuators, and GPS, are housed inside a 350-ml cylindrical can. CanSat provides an
affordable opportunity for educators and students to acquire basic knowledge of
space engineering and to experience engineering challenges in building a satellite.
In addition, they can learn basics of system engineering, project management,
teamwork through CanSat activities. (Yamaura 2011)
2.1.1 TYPES OF CanSat
a. Telemetry: This is the one whose primary purpose is to collect and transmit
data from the flight and weather conditions in real time to be processed by

a ground station. CanSats in this category do not use a steering system since
its objective is not to fall at a particular point but to collect data while the
descent (which is not usually controlled). Of the systems mentioned in the
previous sections the most used are: barometer, thermometer, GPS and
camera.
b. Comeback: The main task of these is to land in a controlled manner as close
as possible to a target marked by GPS coordinates. These devices can be
guided by GPS or by and Inertial Navigation System INS. This position is sent
to the microprocessor which compares the position of the target from the
analysis of these data to calculate the angle at which it should turn to
address the target and gives appropriate instructions to the steering system.

1.13

Architecture of CanSat
The General Architecture of a typical CanSat is made of the power supply unit,
communication system, onboard computer, mission subsystem, data handling and the
lunch/recovery system. The onboard computer which is the microcontroller is the heart of
the CanSat and interfaces with the transducers and actuators as well as sending the data and
receive commands from the ground station PC. During the data acquisition mission CanSat
only read data from sensors, store and send it to the ground station PC. However, in comeback and fly-back mission the data is processed on-board the CanSat and decision taken to
deploy actuators for controls.

2.1.2 Structure
In order to protect the electronics from the environment and to increase the overall
durability of the components, the appropriate packages for the Cansat and the
communication module of the ground station should be developed.

 Protect the electronics from the harsh influence of the environment.

Minimize the heat dissipation outside the Cansat.
Increase the overall durability of the Pico Satellite and the communication
module of the ground station.

2.1.3 Power Supply Unit

The Power subsystem provides electrical power to the satellite; Energy can come from
Solar panels, batteries, or some type of fuel cell. The solar panels are comprised of solar
cells, i.e., semiconductor devices called photovoltaics. As the word implies, photovoltaics
(Photo = Light, Voltaic = Electricity), convert sunlight directly into electricity. Wide
Variety of Types of Solar Cells include (e.g., Silicon (Si), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs),
Gallium Arsenide/Germanium (GaAs/Ge), and Amorphous Si Cells; Each Has Different
designers select the types of solar cells to meet their power requirements, budget, mass, and
size (Ivan Galysh, 2004).
There are only a few types of batteries commonly used in small satellite systems which
include: Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) Batteries which is the most commonly used today, Nickel
Hydrogen (NiH 2) Batteries and Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) Batteries (Ivan Galysh, 2004).

2.1.3.1 Challenges in Power supply

The small mass limits the amount of energy provided by solar arrays as well; therefore,
power availability is a constraint on both the spacecraft processor and the communications
systems. RF power available on low-cost, small satellites ranges from 0.5 watts on
nanosatellites to a few dozen of watts on microsatellites.

2.1.4 Communication system

A satellite is a complex system which encompasses nearly all the different
technologies and has eased many a problem, but to manufacture and to maintain a

satellite especially during operation in the outer space when it is on its own is a big
task. For this purpose a series of parameters and satellite conditions are
continuously transmitted to a ground station from the satellite where it is
monitored and actions are taken accordingly by sending a command back to the
satellite. The satellite can be stationed thousands of miles away and the data sent
has to pass through different atmospheric conditions and degradation. So a series
of measures are taken to send this data securely to ground as a small error can lead
to billions going to waste. It is specifically for this purpose, a satellite contains a
telemetry subsystem. This subsystem obtains health data i.e. data from sensors and
the mission data from payload and then formats the data and transmits it so that it
reaches its destination error free (Waqas and Adnan, 2008).
2.1.4.1 Telemetry
According to the American Heritage Dictionary of English Language, telemetry is
the science and technology of automatic measurement and transmission of data by
wire, radio, or other means from remote sources as from space vehicles, to
receiving stations for recording and analysis.
The purpose of a telemetry system is to, reliably and transparently convey
measurement information from a remotely located data generating source to users
located in space or on Earth.

2.1.4.2

Radio amateur band and limitations

To remote control the satellite and obtain data from the electronic payload, a
reliable communication link between the ground station and the satellite is needed.
Most of the developers use narrowband ham radio frequencies for communication.
Concerning data rate, the downlink is the outstanding challenge to get the
payloads data from the onboard experiments back to earth. In the former CubeSat

designs, fixed symbol rate communications setups were used with a maximum of
9600 symbols per second (Ralf, 2011).
For small satellites communication the most often used bands are: VHF (145.800146.000MHz), UHF (435.000-438.000MHz) and S-band (2.400-2.450GHz). The
communication channel can be encrypted but it cannot be used commercial
purposes. There is a strong recommendation to use modulations which are popular
among radio amateurs and to add services for radio amateur usage on satellites.
The most common digital mode is AFSK 1200bps with use of Packet Radio
protocol (AX.25). The disadvantages of this modulation are the minimum Eb/No
level at 21 dB for bit error rate (BER) less than 1E-4. Another common modulation
is FSK G3RUH 9600bps,
It requires Eb/No17dB to achieve BER1E-4. The next popular modulation is
CW (carrier keying with Morse code). The disadvantages include low throughput
(typically about 8bps) and big problems with automatic reception (CW is tailored
to decode from hearing by the operator - computers are doing this task poorly)
(Marcin and Grzegorz, 2012).
Most small satellites use different Transmitters and receivers for both uplink and
downlink depending on the bandwidth required for the system. Such
communication systems include the Terminal Node Control for the Nano Com
U480 transceiver, Xbee transmitter/receiver module, S-band ground station
receiver, VHF/UHF ground station Transceiver etc.

2.1.4.3

Xbee module

The XBee is an arrangement of modular products that make deploying wireless

technology easy and cost-effective. The module can communicate up to 100 feet
indoors or 300 feet outdoors. It can be used as a serial replacement or you can put
it into a command mode and configure it for a variety of broadcast and mesh

networking options. XBee modules are intended for high-throughput applications

requiring low latency and predictable communication timing. And they ideal for
low power and low cost applications. The very popular XBee module is 2.4GHz
from Digi and uses the IEEE 802.15.4 networking protocol for fast point to
multipoint or peer-to-peer networking (Harshad, 2013).
Features

Complete RF transceiver

Onboard data encryption

Automatic collision avoidance

Low current consumption

Wide operating voltage 1.8-3.6 Volts

Operating frequency: 2.4-2.483 GHz

Data rate 1.2-500 kbps

2.1.4.4

RF module operation

The XBee RF Modules interface to a host device through a logic-level

asynchronous serial port. Through its serial port, the module can communicate
with any logic and voltage compatible UART; or through a level translator to any
serial device (for example: through a RS-232 or USB interface board).
2.1.4.5 UART Data Flow
Devices that have a UART interface can connect directly to the pins of the RF
module as shown in the figure below.

Fig2.2 Serial Data

Data enters the module UART through the DIN (pin 3) as an asynchronous serial
signal. The signal should idle high when no data is being transmitted. Each data
byte consists of a start bit (low), 8 data bits (least significant bit first) and a stop bit
(high). The following figure illustrates the serial bit pattern of data passing through
the module.

Fig2.3 UART Digital Signal

Serial communications depend on the two UARTs (the microcontroller's and the
RF module's) to be configured with compatible settings (baud rate, parity, start
bits, stop bits, data bits). The UART baud rate, parity, and stop bits settings on the
XBee module can be configured with the BD, NB, and SB commands respectively.

2.1.4.6

Challenges in Small Satellite communications

The constraints placed upon small satellite design for remote sensing missions
have traditionally been power availability, heat dissipation and aperture

requirements however as small satellite sensor technology approaches the 1 meter

resolution threshold, data throughput is becoming a new and particularly
challenging constraint on mission design. Ever-improving sensor resolution
increases the demand on data transfer in a non-linear fashion even when
corresponding improvements in data compression techniques are included. Hence,
very small satellites are rapidly becoming data-bound (Jan, John, Grant and
Michael, 2011).
Approach to solve this problem has lead to increasing the memory size of the
payload in other to store the large amount of data collected by the onboard sensors.
The limited communications opportunities and limited bandwidth also impose
constraints on data handling, fault detection and correction and instrument
commanding in general. Because of this, the spacecraft need to operate
autonomously and handle any anomalies that occur. This autonomy must be
accomplished within a processing capability that is less powerful than on a
conventional satellite (Maria-Mihaela Burlacu and Pascal Lorenz, 2010).
2.1.5 Onboard Computer
The term On Board Computer can be described as any unit flying on board a
satellite which provides processing capability. However, the On Board Computer,
or OBC, more commonly refers to as the computer of the satellites avionic subsystem, i.e. the unit where the On Board Software runs. The On Board Software
is known as the software implementing the satellites vital functions such as:
attitude and orbit control in both nominal and non-nominal cases, tele-commands
execution or dispatching, housekeeping telemetry gathering and formatting, on
board time synchronization and distribution, failure detection, isolation and
recovery, etc (esa, 2012)

Based on the description above, the very essence of an OBC is the microprocessor
board, consisting of microprocessor or microcontroller, non-volatile memories,
volatile memories and the companion chip that connects the microprocessor or
microcontroller to different peripherals. Some functions of the on-board include:
Data handling, Computation for other subsystems, System health log, Command
execution, Payload Operation, Error handling and diagnosis, Communication with
Ground station etc.
Small satellites use different microprocessors for their onboard computer due to the
architecture of the chip and based on how sophisticated the satellite system is.
These processors could be 8 or 16bit processors such as the ARM microcontrollers,
AVR and the PIC series.

2.1.5.1

PIC microcontroller

The PICmicro was originally designed around 1980 by General Instrument as a

small, fast, inexpensive embedded microcontroller with strong I/O capabilities.PIC
stands for "Peripheral Interface Controller". The following are the advantages of
PIC microcontrollers:
1. It is a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) design
2. Only thirty seven instructions to remember
3. Its code is extremely efficient, allowing the PIC to run with typically less
program memory than its larger competitors.
4. It is low cost, high clock speed
The PIC is a Harvard machine, hence making it simpler and faster. The Harvard
architecture rose due to the need to speed up the work of the microcontroller. Here,

data access and Address access are separate hence a greater flow of data in the
processing unit. PIC16F877 uses 14 bits for instructions which allows for all
instructions to be one word instructions (Abd and Yaacob, 2010).
RISC Architecture
1. Complex/Reduced Instruction Set Computers
2. A minimal set of instructions, combined, can do every operation
3. Usually execute in a single cycle
4. CPU is smaller and few address mode.
5. Other hardware can be added to the space: (overlapping register windows)

2.1.5.2

PIC16F877A

This powerful yet easy to program with only 35 single word instructions and
CMOS flash-based 8 bit microcontroller packs with 40 pin package. It has 256
bytes of EEPROM data memory, self-programming, an ICD, 8 channels of 10-bit
A/D converter, two additional timers, 2 capture/compare/PMW functions, the
synchronous serial port can be configured as either #-wire serial peripheral
interface or the 2-wire inter-integrated circuit (I2C) bus and USART, speed of
5MHz and operating voltage range of 2 to 5.5.

Fig 2.4 PIC16F877A Microcontroller

2.1.6 Mission Subsystem
The mission subsystem is a vital part of a picosatellite which is made up of the
GPS receiver, sensors such as the humidity sensor, temperature sensors to sense
the internal and external temperature of the satellite, pressure sensor, altitude/speed
sensors and other devices added to the payload to capture data from the
environment.

2.1.6.1

GPS Receiver

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system that

was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in the early 1970s as the
next generation replacement to the Transit system. GPS provides continuous
positioning and timing information anywhere in the world under any weather
conditions. Since GPS is a one-way-ranging (passive) system, it serves an
unlimited number of users. That is, users can only receive the satellite signals. GPS
consists, nominally, of a constellation of about 24 operational satellites ( Can
Satellite (CanSat) Design Manual, 2011).
GPS consists of three segments: space, control, and user. The space segment
consists of about 24 satellites constellation. The control segment of the GPS
system consists of a worldwide network of tracking stations. The user segment

includes all military and civilian users. With a GPS receiver connected to a GPS
antenna, a user can receive the GPS signals, which can be used to determine his or
her position anywhere in the world. GPS is currently available to all users
worldwide at no direct charge (Can Satellite (CanSat) Design Manual,
2011).Small satellite systems can use different GPS devices such as EM 406, EM
408, and Jupiter TU30-D140 OEM etc

GPS standard data format

Since each individual manufacturer have their own format for storing GPS
measurement, it is difficult to combine data from different receivers hence a
number of research groups have develop standard formats for various users needs
such as the NMEA format.

Table 2.1 NMEA Sentence and Description

NMEA SENTENCE
AIM
GBS
GGA
GMP
GNS
GRS
GSA
GST
GSV

DESCRIPTION
GPS almanac data
GNSS satellite fault detection
GPS fix data
GNSS map projection fix data
GNSS fix data
GNSS range residuals
GNSS DOP and active satellites
GNSS pseudorange error statistics
GNSS satellites in view

NMEA Format
NMEA was founded in 1957 by a group of electronics dealers to strengthen their
relationships with electronic manufacturers. The NMEA 0183 standards are data
streams in the ASCII format, transmitted at a rate of 4,800 bps, from a talker to a
listener (one-way), where a talker is a device that sends data to other devices (e.g.,
a GPS receiver) and a listener is a device that receives data from another device
(e.g., a laptop computer interfaced with the GPS 78 receiver). It also includes data
streams which may have information on position, datum, water depth, and other
variables. The data is sent in the form of sentences, each starting with a dollar sign
"$" and terminating with a carriage return-line feed "<CR><LF>"; the dollar sign
"$" is followed by a five-character address field, which identifies the talker (the

first two characters) and the format and data type (the last three characters) ( Can
Satellite (CanSat) Design Manual, 2011).

Sources of GPS Error

There many sources of possible errors that will degrade the accuracy of positions
computed by GPS Receiver. The travel time of GPS satellite signals can be altered
by atmospheric effects as it passes through the ionosphere and troposphere hence
affecting the speed. Sunspot activity also causes interference with GPS signals.
Another source of error is measurement noise, or distortion of the signal by
electrical interference. Errors in the ephemeris will also cause errors in computed
positions, because the satellites werent really where the GPS receiver thought
they were when it computed the positions (Diana, 2013).

Geometric Dilution of Precision

Satellite geometry can also affect the accuracy of GPS positioning. This effect is
called Geometric Dilution of Precision (GDOP). GDOP refers to where the
satellites are in relation to one another and is a measure of the quality of the
satellites configured. In general, the wider the angle between the satellites, the
better the measurement (Diana, 2013).

GPS receivers usually report the quality of satellite geometry in terms of Position
of Dilution of Precision, or PDOP.PDOP refers to horizontal (HDOP) and vertical
(VDOP) measurements (Latitude, longitude and altitude). A low DOP indicates a
higher probability of accuracy and a high DOP indicates a lower probability of
accuracy (Diana, 2013).

2.1.6.2 Sensors
Attitude determination and control, performing attitude determination and control,
is consist of mainly two parts; Attitude determination and attitude control. Attitude
determination and control performs attitude determination of satellite at first. The
data, as direction of the sun and vector of geomagnetic, angular velocity, position
of star, that necessary in order to determine the attitude of satellite is gotten by
sensor.
Function of sensor aim at detection of every possible information and energy so
subject of detection covers a wide range. However, in case of sensors that is
usually used around us, that variety is limited naturally. Sensors that are usually
used are following.
1) Optical sensor
2) Magnetic sensor
3) Pressure sensor
4) Thermo sensor (infrared light)
5) Vibration sensor (very low frequency, frequency of audible range, ultrasonic
wave)
6) Gas sensor (distinction of gas, detection of stink, detection of humidity)
In these sensors, sensors used to attitude determination and control is shared

roughly (1)Angle sensor, (2)angular velocity sensor, (3)the others such as

acceleration, positioning sensor(Eisei-kobo Miyazaki laboratory, 2011)
2.1.6.3 Microcontroller
The microcontroller in the satellite is controlling the operations onboard of
the satellite. All the sensors need to be interfaced and it should also handle the
communication with the ground station (Tamashiro, 2010).
Subsystem goals:
1. Collecting data from sensors.
2. Data processing/handling
3. Communication with the ground station.
4. Controlling of the satellite.
2.1.7 Lunching Systems
Usually Can-Sat can be launched using one of the following methods:
1. Model rocket
2. RC model airplane
3. Balloon
4. High raise building

2.1.8 Definition of interfaces

The whole system is more than the sum of the subsystems. There are
different links between the subsystems, where one subsystem needs to interact with
a different subsystem. Those links are listed below.

 Interface between the ground station and the Cansat Satellite (radio link)
using the communication protocol.
Interface between the microcontroller and the electronics on the Satellite.
2.1.9 An Overview of Existing Pico Satellites
Over the years, several Cansat Picosatellites have been launched both as
student academic project and as well as for research purposes. Some of the Cansat
projects are reviewed below.
2.1.9.1 CubeSat XI-IV [sai-four] University of Tokyo
Nakasuka laboratory built its first pico-satellite CubeSat XI-IV [sai-four] by
2002, which was launched by the Russian rocket Rockot together with other
seven micro- and pico-satellites on June 30, 2003. XI-IV, which is shown in Figure
2-5,

Fig 2.5 Images taken by CubeSat XI-IV

has verified pico-satellite bus technologies and commercial-off-the-shelf
components including SELF-protection circuit, low power consumption microcontroller, compact HAM transceiver unit, Li-ion secondary battery, passive

attitude control using permanent magnet, and a CMOS camera. Figure 2-6 shows
images taken by the camera on XI-IV (Enokuchi, 2006).
2.1.9.2 YANKEY and ROSAM Ghana
The All Nations University College space and satellite programme launched
two satellites on the 15 of May 2013 which made history worldwide since it is the
first ever satellite (CanSat) to be launched in Sub Saharan Africa by a Ghanaian
university.
The event being one of its kind in sub Saharan Africa really created the
awareness of the public and attracted personnel from diverse background such as
student, industrial personnels and international and local press to the launching
grounds prior to the 2nd space science and satellite technology workshop (20th to
21th of March 2013) which pointed out the need for Ghana to go to space and a
CanSat which was going to be launched.
The two CanSats, the YANKEY and the ROSAM were all launched together
in two compartment deployment (which was used as the launching vehicle) unit
fixed to the weather balloon which took it to a height of 172 meters void of their
expected height of 220 m which was due to a heavy rainfall on that very hour.
The launching of the two deployable CanSat was successful despite the
heavy downpour which prevented it from reaching an expected height of 220
meters. The atmospheric pressure and the temperature readings were transmitted to
the ground station as the telemetry and a video of the environment was captured
which together defined the mission for the CanSats (Quarshie, 2013).

2.1.10 Conclusion
This chapter has discussed satellites artificial and natural, its types and
classifications based on their weight as well as reviewing the basic components
(subsystems) of a typical Cansat system. Small satellites systems (Nano, Pico
satellites) have been discussed as the most effective solution and better platform
than a micro or large satellite to carry out subsystem experiments due to its low
complexity, and lower cost implications and also achieved nearly the same goal
and task of a large satellite. This project will look at designing and launching a
Cansat that collects geographical data throughout its flight. The next chapter will
discuss the methodology and how the Cansat is developed.

METHODOLOGY AND IMPLEMENTATION

1.14 INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the definition of requirements which include the software
and the components of the payload as well as the experimental design is discussed.
The devices used for the experiment to collect and record data as well as the
software will be discussed as well. This will be followed by the experimental
setup, design and launching of the CanSat.
1.15 COMPONENTS USED FOR THE PAYLOAD
The components used in this experiment for the CanSat payload are explained
below:
GPS MODULE (EM406A0027694)
This is a battery powered SiRF star III high performance GPS Chip Set. The
EM406A0027694 GPS receiver module is used to "lock" on to as many
satellites as it can find and from the complex algorithm processes it is able to
calculate the relative position of the payload (Sparkfun, 2014). The module
outputs the following NMEA 0183 sentences GGA, GSA, GSV, RMC,
VTG, and GLL. The EM406 was chosen because of its Very high sensitivity
(Tracking Sensitivity: -159 dBm), Support NMEA 0183 data protocol,
Power input 4.5V ~ 6.5V DC input, Power consumption - 70mA, and LED
indicator for GPS fix or not fix which makes it much ideal for this project.

Fig 3.1 EM406 GPS reciever

TMP102 Temperature Sensor
The TMP102 is a two-wire, serial output digital temperature sensor available
in a tiny SOT563 package mount on a breakout board manufactured by
Texas Instruments and Packaged by Sparkfun Electronics. Requiring no
external components, the TMP102 is capable of reading temperatures to a
resolution of 0.0625C. The device is specified for operation over a
temperature range of 40C to +125C and it is used to capture the internal
temperature of the Cansats payload.

Fig 3.2 TMP102 Temperature Sensor

This particular components was chosen due to its high accuracy and long
temperature range: 0.5c (40C to +125C), low current: 10A Active

(max), supply range: 1.4v to 3.6v, resolution: 12 bits, and the easy of
interfacing it with the microcontroller using the two-wire serial interface.
OpenLog
OpenLog is a simple serial logger based on the ATmega328 microcontroller
running at 16MHz. OpenLog is able to talk to very large capacity (tested up
to 16GB) SD cards. The whole purpose of this logger was to create a logger
that just powered up and start logging any serial data received from the onboard computer.

Fig 3.3 OpenLog serial Data Logger

HIH-6130 Sensor
HIH-6130 Series is a two-wired digital output-type relative humidity (RH)
and temperature sensor combined in the same package manufactured by
Honeywell Electronics and package by Sparkfun Electronics.
Honeywell specifies Total Error Bandthe most comprehensive, clear, and
meaningful measurement that provides the sensors true accuracy of 5

%RH over a compensated range of 5 C to 50 C and 10 %RH to 90 %RH.

The sensor was considered based on its Energy efficiency - Low supply
voltage: 2.3 5Vdc, Low power consumption: 650 A, Ultra-small package:
SOIC-8 SMD (Surface Mount Device) package is ultra small, standalone
temperature sensor output, High resolution: 14-bit humidity/temperature
resolution (Honeywell, 2014).

Fig 3.4 HIH-6130 Temperature/Relative Humidity Sensor (x2)

XBEE RF Series 1 Module (Transmitter)
The XBEE Series 1 or XBEE 802.15.4 is a RF Modules that was engineered
to meet IEEE 802.15.4 standards and support the unique needs of low-cost,
low-power wireless sensor networks.
The modules require minimal power and provide reliable delivery of data
between devices. The modules operate within the ISM 2.4 GHz frequency
band and are pin-for-pin compatible with each other.

Fig 3-5 XBee S1 RF Module

Fig 3-6 XBee Explorer Regulated

The XBee Explorer Regulated (fig 3.6) takes care of the 3.3V regulation,
signal conditioning, and basic activity indicators (Power, RSSI and
DIN/DOUT activity LEDs). It translates the 5V serial signals to 3.3V so that
you can connect a 5V (down to 3.3V) system to any XBee module. Plug an
XBee into this breakout and you will have direct access to the serial and
programming pins on the XBee unit and will be able to power the XBee with
5V.
PIC16F877A Microcontroller
This is the onboard computer that provides the interface between the
components, controls the flight, and get the signal from other components;
processed it and stored it in the OpenLog data logger as well as sending it to
the ground station.
Program Memory
Bytes
14.3k

# Single Word
Instructions
8192

Data
SRAM
(Bytes)

EEPROM
(Bytes)

i/o

Master
I2 C

USART

Timers
8/16-bit

368

256

33

Yes

Yes

2/1

Table 3.1 PIC16F877A Basic features

This PIC was chosen due to its simplicity in terms of configurations,

interfacing with other devices, diverse used in embedded systems and
numerous help/support forums thus, making it ideal for beginner projects.
1.16 COMPONENTS USED FOR THE GROUND STATION
XBEE RF Series 1 Module (Receiver)
The XBee module is mounted on an XB24-DKS Evaluation Board. This
board contain the level shifter and other circuitry necessary to transform the
receive signal into bits of stream that is sent through the USB cable to the
computer that runs the terminal software (X-CTU).

1.17

DESIGN

3.1.1 Setup design

Fig 3-7 Schematic of the architecture of the Cansat system.

3.1.2 Information flow
The available sensors are given in section (3.3). The following is measured
directly:

 Temperature of the interior, using TMP102.

Temperature of the exterior, using sensor HIH6130.
Relative Humidity, also using HIH6130.
The GPS gives information on: latitude, UTC Time, Longitude, Satellites
Used, Altitude, etc
From this, we will measure the (latitude, longitude and altitude, etc), and also
calculate the atmospheric pressure.
3.1.3 Design Specification
Data Handling
The data captured by the various sensors includes GPS, atmospheric
pressure, humidity, external and internal temperature will be send to the
ground station via the XBee and a backup is stored in the Standard Memory
Card(sd Card) mounted on the OPENLOG datalogger.
Communication
The communication system is made up of Xbee S1module and the 20
channel EM406 GPS. The XBee wireless device is directly connected to the
serial port (at 3.3V level) of the microcontroller. By using a logic level
translator it can also be interfaced to 5V logic (TTL) devices having serial
interface. This module supports data rates of up to 250kbps.
The EM406 output the following NMEA sentences:
$GPGGA,161229.487,3723.2475,N,12158.3416,W,1,07,1.0,9.0,M,,,,0000*18
$GPGLL,3723.2475,N,12158.3416,W,161229.487,A*2C
$GPGSA,A,3,07,02,26,27,09,04,15,,,,,,1.8,1.0,1.5*33
$GPGSV,2,1,07,07,79,048,42,02,51,062,43,26,36,256,42,27,27,138,42*71
$GPRMC,161229.487,A,3723.2475,N,12158.3416,W,0.13,309.62,120598,,*10

$GPVTG,309.62,T,,M,0.13,N,0.2,K*6E

Fig 3-8

EM406 Typical NMEA sentences

For this project, only $GPGGA is captured for analysis. The $GPGGA data
format is shown below in Table 3.1.
Name
Message ID
UTC Time
Latitude
N/S Indicator
Longitude
E/W Indicator
Position Fix
Indicator

Example
$GPGGA
161229.487
3723.2475
N
12158.3416
W
1

Satellites Used
HDOP
Altitude
Units
Checksum
<CR><LF>

07
1.0
0.9
M
0000
*18

Units

Description
GGA protocol header
hhmmss.sss
ddmm.mmmm
N= north or S = south
dddmm.mmmm
E= east or W=west
0 - Fix not available or invalid
1 - GPS SPS Mode, fix valid
2 -Differential GPS,SPS Mode ,fix valid
3 - GPS PPS Mode, fix valid
Range 0 to 12
Horizontal Dilution of Precision

meters
meters

End of message termination

Table 3-2. GGA Data Format

 Power
The power system is made up of the 9v battery, LM7805 voltage regulator,
filtering and smoothing capacitors. The regulator regulates the 9v supply to
5v needed by the microcontroller and other components. The voltage
regulator onboard the XBee Breakout board regulates the 5v to 3.3v for the
two temperature sensors HIH6130 and TMP102.
Pressure Determination
The pressure information is calculated using the Altitude information given
by the GPS:

Where P is the pressure at altitude h, P0 = 101325Pa is the standard pressure

at ground level, M = 28.96gmol-1 is the effective molar mass of air, g =
9.807ms-2 is the gravitational acceleration on the ground, h is the altitude, R
= R8.314J/Kmol is the universal gas constant, T is the temperature.
1.18 DEVICE CONFIGURATION
3.1.4 XBee Module
The communication between the payload and the ground station is handled by the
XBee-S1 module. Each of the XBee module function as the transmitter and
receiver. For it to communicate, the two modules must have the same PAN ID 123, same baud rate in this case 4800 configured into it. The configuration is
done using the X-CTU software as shown below.

Fig 3-9

X-CTU GUI

The X-CTU software provides both the GUI and the Command interface for
configuring the XBee Module and also functions as a terminal software. Once it is
mapped to a Communication Port (COM Port), the software listened and capture
whatever information is received on that port and display in its terminal GUI.
Thus, the X-CTU is used in these project to configured the XBee Module for pointto-point communication and also as part of the ground station to display the receive
information from the payload.

Fig 3.10 X-CTU Modem Configuration Terminal

3.1.5 OPENLOG
The OpenLog is used as the backup device in case of communication failure
between the payload and the ground station. OpenLog runs at 3.3-5V at 9600bps
by default. The baud rate is configurable from 300bps to 1000000bps. We modify
the config file to work at a different serial speed of 4800, but it can also be
reconfigured via software commands.

The microSD card can be any size from 64MB to 16GB. Before using OpenLog
we format the card to FAT32 file format using windows. Once the OPENLOG is
power on, its create a configuration file called CONFIG.TXT as sown below.

Fig 3-11 OPENLOG Configuration File

From the fig above, the default baud rate is 9600, mode of communication is 1
meaning data logging mode. To change the baud rate, we simply change it in the
configuration file to 4800 and save the changes with notepad and when the device
is power on, its read the new baud rate and start communicating with it.
1.19 MICROCONTROLLER PROGRAMMING
3.1.6 Microcontroller
The microcontroller used to control the CanSat module is a PIC16F877A, 16-bit
microcontroller. It is a low power, high performance advanced RISC architecture
controller. By executing powerful instructions in a single clock cycle, the
PIC16F877A achieves throughputs approaching 4 MIPS per MHz allowing the
system designer to optimize power consumption versus processing speed
(Microchip, 2003). The On-chip ISP Flash allows the program memory to be
reprogrammed in-system through an SPI serial interface, by a conventional
nonvolatile memory programmer. The PIC16F877A is supported with a full suite

of program and system development tools including: C compilers, macro

assemblers, program debugger/simulators, in-circuit emulators, and evaluation kits.
3.1.7 Programming Tools Used
CSC Compiler IDE
PICKIT 3 GUI software to download programs to chip
Real PIC Simulator for simulating the of the microcontroller I/O ports.
The microcontroller program necessary for CanSat are developed and compiled in
CSC Compiler to generate the hex file. Programs are written in the C programming
language. The hex code is downloaded to the flash program memory of the
microcontroller using the PICKit 3- GUI.

Fig 3-12 Section of Source code in CSC Compiler IDE

Fig 3-13 PICKit 3 Burner

Fig 3-14

PICKit 3 GUI

3.1.8 Interface to Radio Module and Sensors

3.1.8.1 Radio module
The radio module (transmitter) of the CanSat is connected to the pin RB2 of the
microcontroller programmed to function as a USART port and in Asynchronous
mode. The radio module and microcontroller communicate in single mode normal operation mode. In normal operation mode, the data is received and sent in
combination with the RB2. Baud rate used is 4800baud.

3.1.8.2 GPS
The EM406 GPS is connected to the USART port (TX Pin) of the microcontroller.
By default GPS sends data in 8 bit, 1 start bit 1 stop bit format in 4800 baud rate
every second Sparkfun (2014). Data is read from the USART port and processed it
before sending it to ground station.
3.1.8.3 Temperature sensors
There are two temperature sensors connected to the CanSat the internal and
external temperature sensor. The interface between temperature sensors and
microcontroller is done using Two-wire Serial Interface I2C. The I2C protocol
allows us to interconnect up to 128 different devices using only two bi-directional
bus lines, one for clock (SCL) and one for data (SDA). This is a master slave kind
of operation in which microcontroller acts as master and the temperature sensors
are slaves.
All address packets transmitted on the I2C bus are 9 bits long, consisting of
7 address bits, one READ/WRITE control bit and an acknowledge bit. If the
READ/WRITE bit is set, a read operation is to be performed; otherwise a write
operation should be performed. The MSB of the address byte is transmitted first.
All data packets transmitted on the I2C bus are 9 bits long, consisting of one data
byte and an acknowledge bit. During a data transfer, the master generates the clock
and the START and STOP conditions, while the receiver is responsible for
acknowledging the reception. The MSB of the data byte is transmitted first.
3.1.8.4 Relative Humidity Sensor
The relative humidity is measured also by the HIH6130 sensor. Separate
commands are issued to the device to take temperature reading and relative
humidity readings.

3.1.9 General Description of the Microcontroller Program

The microcontroller is the brain of the CanSat. It samples signals from
various sensors (see section (3.4.1)). It communicates with the ground station using
a radio module. The structure is shown in figures (3-7) and (3-8).

Fig 3-15

CanSat SDL diagram

Fig 3-16

CanSat Flow Chat diagram

1.20 CONSTRUCTION
3.1.10Power Consumption
3.1.10.1

Satellite

The satellite is represented as a remote module, which undergoes the

influence of the low temperatures, low pressures and other sources of impact from
the harsh environment. Thus it is very vital to consider all power consumers
(sensors, radio-module and microcontroller) and the power source (the battery).
Thorough investigation in this field allows to predict lifetime of the remote device,
which is usually much depended on the power resources.
The main power consumers are represented in table 3-2 (all technical
information has been taken from the corresponding data sheets).
Component
Name

Quan
tity

Voltage
Require
ments,
V

Max. operating
current,
mA

Max.
power Percentage
consumption,
of time in
mW
use, %

Average power
consumption,
mW

GPS MODULE
EM406A0027694
Internal
Temperature
Module
TMP102
Data
Storage
Module
Open Log
RADIO
MODULE
XBEE S1
External
Temperature
Module
HIH-6130
PIC16F877A

70

350

100

100

0.085

0.255

10

0.0255

25

20

45

225

20

45

10

0.3

200

1000

80

800

Table 3-3: Estimation of power consumption for the CanSat

For the power consumption calculations it is required to take into

consideration that some components such as the radio module do not operate all
the time with maximum load. The transmission and the receiving of data takes
approximately 20% of the whole operating time, this is represented in the column
Percentage of time in use.
According to the calculations, the estimated overall power consumption of
the CanSat is approximately 950.3255mW. With the knowledge of this data it
becomes possible to predict the lifetime of the CanSat. Unfortunately, it is very
hard to calculate the lifetime of the device in real conditions (in extremely low
temperatures), because the available battery capacity decreases significantly with
lower temperature. And it is difficult to simulate such conditions, special
equipment, such as an extremely low temperature cooling system is required.
Anyway, the obtained results will not be precise.
At least, it is possible to calculate the lifetime of the CanSat under normal
conditions (the temperature here plays the most important role, T = 20 oC.)
The battery type is MN1604, alkaline. The battery capacity under these conditions
is 625 mAh, nominal voltage is 9V.
Thus, the lifetime of the CanSat is:
t = (625mAh 9V) / 950.3255mW
= 5.91hours
Under normal operating conditions the type MN1604 alkaline battery should
provide the operation of the CanSat during more than 6 hours.

3.1.10.2

Ground station

As the ground station should be basically represented by the PC with the running
application and the radio-module, which is connected to the PC via the USB
interfaces, the power consumption of the ground station is not as critical as that of
the remote module. The power consumption characteristics of the ground station
components (without taking into consideration the PC) are represented in table 3-3.
Component
Name

Quantity

Voltage Req Max. operating

uirements, V current, mA

Max. power
consumption, mW

1
5
70
350
XB24-DKS
Evaluation Board
Table 3-4: Estimation of power consumption for ground station

The estimated maximum power consumption of the ground station is

350mW. It should be taken into consideration that the USB serial bus specification
gives us the following data: U = 5V, maximum I = 500mA, which gives as a total
P = 2500mW. Thus, there is a possibility to supply the ground station directly from
the USB port of the PC.

Fig 3-17 Electronics circuit schematic of the CanSat

3.1.11Structural Design
The body frame of the satellite is made of a malt can. The can is open on the top
and at the side as shown in the image below.

Fig 3-18 CanSat body frame with openings for sensors

Fig 3-19 Rubber stopper for support

The top opening is replaced with a rubber stopper which stops air from flowing
into the can. The rectangle opening on the side which is 8.5cm by 3.0cm will give
us access to place all the switches and sensors in position. The hooks required to
tire the balloon to the can is placed at the upper side of the can 1.5cm from the top
opening as shown in the image below.

Fig 3-20 CanSat top showing the hook

The circuit is attached with bolts to the rubber stopper to form a strong framework
as shown below.

Fig 3-21 CanSat Circuit Board with rubber stopper

The circuit frame with the rubber stopper is dropped into the can from the top
opening, and then the top rubber is fitted into the opening to close it.

The rectangular opening on the side of the can is covered with a thin plastic film
and holes are bored on the film for attaching the switches and the transmitter
antenna. The image below shows the whole system fitted together.

Fig 3-22 Integrated CanSat System

This project brought together the need for both hardware and software design.
Building, coding, and debugging on a large project is incredibly time consuming
and at times painful. However, the whole progress was successful as ground data
were obtained

CHAPTER FOUR
TESTING AND DATA ANALYSIS
This chapter, the will cover the series of test carried out on the satellite and the
results obtain will be analyzed.
4.1 TESTING
Testing is the practice of making objective judgments regarding the extent to
which the system (device) meets, exceeds or fails to meet stated objectives. System
testing is concerned with testing an entire system based on its specifications.

System testing is concerned with testing an entire system based on its

specifications (Lionel, Briand & Labiche, 2002).
4.1.1 Unit Testing
In the unit testing, each of the components that make up the satellite is accessed to
ensure that the y work properly and they give the required data expected from
them. Each of the sensors is connected to the microcontroller in turn and a sample
testing program is programmed into the PIC to test the components behavior. This
was accomplished using breadboard circuit board.
4.1.2 Integration Testing
In the integration testing all the components are connected together and they are
tested as a whole; the PIC is programmed with the CanSat program, the entire
setup is powered on and test. The integration testing takes up the bottom-up
integration testing approach where the lower level components are integrated
before integrating the upper level components in the design hierarchy. The whole
setup on a breadboard was tested and confirms working before the components
were soldered to form final circuit board.
4.1.3 Impact Testing
The impact testing is necessary to test the CanSats structural strength and to what
extent the impact can cause damage the CanSat. This was done by dropping the
CanSat from a 3storey building.
The damage done was not really a great deal, as the robber stopper used to place
the circuit within the body of the malt can acts as a shock absorber on impact.

4.2 LAUNCHING

The preliminary lunch was targeted at a height of 100m above sea level
and we achieved it, a height of 85m above sea level.
The data collected from the onboard sensors and GPS receiver is tabular
below in table 5.1.
TOF
(S)

UTC
Time

Latitude
(N)

Longitude
(E)

Fix
Quality

Num
OfSat

HDOP

WGS84

Altitude
(M)

Pressure
(KPa)

RH
(%)
77.18

Int
Temp
(*C)
28.62

Ext
Temp
(*C)
28.79

173431

502.2929

758.6055

2.1

17.8

61.1

100.5931

14

173439

502.2917

758.6052

1.2

17.8

62

100.5824

77.18

28.62

28.79

21

173447

502.2915

758.6052

1.2

17.8

62

100.5824

77.18

28.62

28.79

28

173539.22

502.2948

758.6065

1.9

17.8

37

100.8813

75.92

28.75

28.97

35

173551

502.2913

758.6045

1.4

17.8

61

100.5944

75.92

28.75

28.97

42

173559

502.2912

758.6044

1.2

17.8

60.5

100.6003

75.92

28.75

28.97

49

173606

502.2909

758.6046

56

173614

502.2904

758.6047

1.2

17.8

60.9

100.5955

75.92

28.81

28.97

1.2

17.8

62.3

100.5788

75.92

28.81

28.97

63

173622

502.2896

758.6049

1.2

17.8

62.8

100.5728

75.92

28.81

28.97

70

173630

502.2888

758.6053

1.2

17.8

62.7

100.574

75.92

28.81

28.97

77

173637

502.2891

758.6056

1.1

17.8

64.7

100.5501

75.92

28.87

28.97

84

173645

502.288

758.6057

1.1

17.8

68.9

100.5

75.92

28.87

28.97

91

173653

502.2865

758.6059

1.1

17.8

73.5

100.4451

75.92

28.87

28.97

98

173701

502.2846

758.6062

2.8

17.8

73.5

100.4451

75.92

28.87

28.97

105

173708

502.2812

758.6065

2.8

17.8

70.5

100.4809

75.92

28.87

28.97

112

173716

502.2792

758.6062

2.8

17.8

67.6

100.5155

75.92

28.87

28.97

119

173724

502.28

758.6059

2.7

17.8

67.4

100.518

75.92

28.87

28.97

126

173731

502.2829

758.6062

1.1

17.8

67.3

100.5191

75.92

28.87

28.97

133

173739

502.2849

758.6065

2.7

17.8

70.5

100.4809

75.92

28.93

28.97

147

173755

502.287

758.6059

2.7

17.8

70

100.4869

75.92

28.93

28.97

154

173810

502.2888

758.6065

2.7

17.8

71.6

100.4678

75.92

28.93

28.97

161

173818

502.2884

758.6065

1.1

17.8

70.6

100.4797

75.92

28.93

28.97

168

173826

502.2882

758.6062

1.1

17.8

69.8

100.4892

75.92

28.93

28.97

189

173853

502.2874

758.6064

2.7

17.8

67

100.5227

75.92

29.06

28.97

196

173900

502.2875

758.6062

2.7

17.8

68

100.5108

75.92

29.06

28.97

203

173908

502.2876

758.6062

2.7

17.8

69

100.4988

75.92

29.06

28.97

210

173916

502.2881

758.6061

2.7

17.8

69.9

100.488

75.92

29.06

28.97

217

174023.56

502.2903

758.613

1.5

17.8

84.6

100.3128

75.92

30.56

28.97

224

174036

502.2907

758.6057

10

0.8

17.8

75.4

100.4225

74.79

29.93

29.08

231

174043

502.2907

758.6055

10

0.8

17.8

73.9

100.4404

74.79

29.81

29.08

238

174051

502.2912

758.6059

10

0.8

17.8

73.1

100.4499

74.79

29.75

29.08

245

174059

502.291

758.6057

10

0.8

17.8

74.8

100.4296

74.79

29.68

29.08

252

174107

502.2904

758.6057

10

0.8

17.8

76

100.4153

74.79

29.62

29.08

266

174122

502.2906

758.6057

2.4

17.8

75.7

100.4189

74.79

29.56

29.08

273

174130

502.2898

758.6057

1.7

17.8

75.2

100.4249

74.79

29.5

29.08

280

174138

502.2892

758.6059

1.7

17.8

75.2

100.4249

74.79

29.62

29.08

287

175141.48

0.00.

101.325

74.79

29.43

29.08

294

180240.22

502.2954

758.6097

1.2

17.8

87.9

100.2735

75.54

30.87

29.87

301

180252

502.2893

758.6069

10

0.8

17.8

77.2

100.401

81.02

30.56

29.24

308

180300

502.2894

758.6074

0.9

17.8

79.3

100.376

81.02

30.56

29.24

315

180315.58

502.2888

758.6006

1.2

17.8

65.8

100.537

81.02

30.5

29.24

322

180334.32

502.2844

758.6115

1.4

17.8

90.2

100.2461

75.89

30.5

29.02

329

180346

502.2899

758.6053

10

0.8

17.8

74

100.4392

75.91

30.5

28.86

336

180354

502.2903

758.6057

10

0.8

17.8

73.9

100.4404

75.91

30.5

28.86

343

180402

502.2903

758.6065

10

0.8

17.8

76.1

100.4141

75.91

30.5

28.86

350

180410

502.29

758.6065

10

0.8

17.8

75.9

100.4165

75.91

30.5

28.86

357

180417

502.2898

758.6065

10

0.8

17.8

76.2

100.4129

75.91

30.5

28.86

364

180425

502.2897

758.6062

10

0.8

17.8

75.9

100.4165

75.91

30.5

28.86

371

180433

502.2895

758.6062

10

0.8

17.8

75.8

100.4177

75.91

30.5

28.86

378

180441

502.2892

758.6064

0.9

17.8

75.7

100.4189

75.91

30.5

28.86

385

180448

502.2889

758.6064

0.9

17.8

75.6

100.4201

75.91

30.5

28.86

392

180456

502.2881

758.6065

10

0.8

17.8

76.7

100.407

75.91

30.5

28.86

399

180504

502.2877

758.6066

10

0.8

17.8

77

100.4034

75.91

30.56

28.86

406

180512

502.2873

758.6066

10

0.8

17.8

77.2

100.401

75.91

30.5

28.86

413

180519

502.287

758.6067

10

0.8

17.8

77.8

100.3939

75.91

30.56

28.86

420

180527

502.2867

758.6066

10

0.8

17.8

78.2

100.3891

75.91

30.5

28.86

427

180535

502.2862

758.6064

10

0.8

17.8

78.7

100.3831

75.91

30.5

28.86

434

180543

502.2862

758.6061

0.9

17.8

78.6

100.3843

75.91

30.5

28.86

441

180550

502.2864

758.6059

0.9

17.8

78.5

100.3855

75.91

30.5

28.86

448

180558

502.286

758.6059

0.9

17.8

79

100.3796

75.91

30.5

28.86

455

180621.56

502.2948

758.6124

1.5

17.8

89

100.2604

75.91

30.5

28.86

462

180634

502.286

758.6045

17.8

68

100.5108

76.53

30.5

28.77

Table 0-1 Sample CanSat Data

From the above table, the ground station received the first transmitted data at
173431UTC (5:34:31pm local time) and the last telemetry at 180634UTC
(6:06:34pm local time) and also the flight lasted for 32minutes (for both ascent and
descent).

The graphs plotted from the above table are shown below.
a) The graph below shows the variation of pressure with time during the time
of flight.

Fig. 0-1 Pressure Vs Time Graph

b) The figure below shows the variation of relative humidity with time during
flight.

Fig. 0-2 Relative Humidity Vs Time Graph

c) The figure below shows the variation of the temperature with the time
during the CanSat flight. This helps us to the know the temperature of the
environment throughout the flight time

Fig. 0-3 Temperature Vs Time Graph

4.3 CONCLUSION
In this chapter, the sets of test carried out in testing the workability of the CanSat
are mentioned. The telemetry data obtained from the CanSat are as shown in the
graphs. The graph gives the atmospheric condition of the environment at the time
of flight.

CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION
5.1 INTRODUCTION
This project focuses on the design and construction of CanSat tagged UniUyoSat1.
Going through the whole process of a satellite development and design, it is the
most practical experience in which we the student have been exposed to. Though
there have been challenges and limitations in the development of this project in
which this chapter will emphasize.
5.1 LIMITATIONS
This project was limited in three key aspects - area of coverage, hardware used,
and launching.
5.1.1 Area of Coverage:
The balloon and its payload did not fly beyond 300 meters above sea level due
to lack of tracking device, weak deploying mechanism, disputing efficacy of the
parachute used at high altitudes, and topography of the area. As a result of this, the
environmental data (Temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure) taken
by the onboard sensors is peculiar to the location of the balloon.
5.1.2 Hardware Limitations:
Due to the high cost of sensors and the uneasiness of interfacing them with the
microcontroller (onboard computer), several sensor have not been incorporated in
the payload like accelerometer, gamma ray burst detector, magnetometers etc.
4. The project lack mobile tracking station which would make the payload
recovery much easier.

5. High cost and complexity deter us from going for high earned
microcontrollers like the PIC18 and PIC32 families.
6. The project lack imaging system which would have captured the aerial view
of the environment as the payload rises.
5.1.3 Launching
We faced several challenges in launching the CanSat. Due to high cost of helium,
we couldnt get enough of it to carry several launch tests. The weather balloons
were fragile and some busted by mere realizing of air out of it and also it lacks
hooks to tie the payload to it.
5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
Microcontroller used for projects of this magnitude using multiple UART
devices should be of PIC18 or PIC32 families which have multiple UART I/O
ports to reduce the need of creating virtual UART ports which have
performance impact on the system.
The power supply needs to be properly filtered and decoupling capacitors
should be soldered as closely as possible to the PICs Vdd/Vss pins for
transient response.
A 10k resistor should be connected across MCLR pin of the PIC to ground to
ensure the PIC is not operating in reset mode.
It is a necessity to properly equip our laboratories as project of this caliber
cannot be carried out effectively without a standard laboratory as compare
to how it is being done in the developed countries.

Future Work
Additional Sensors
The CanSat may fly to altitude where the ozone concentration is
significantly higher than on ground level (ozone layer). A measurement of
ozone concentration as a function of position would be of scientific
interest.
Accelerometer can be incorporated into the payload to measure the
acceleration of the CanSat.
Magnetometer can be added to the payload to measure the strength and
the direction of the magnetic field at a point in space.
5.2.1 The CanSat Improvement
The CanSat can be improved in a number of ways.
The voltage over the battery can be measured. This would allow for
monitoring and fault detection.
Mobile tracking devices can be added to the payload and the ground
station and this could be integrated with Google Earth.
Camera module can also be added to take aerial photographs as the
payload rises.
5.2.2 Weak Points and Improvements in the Structural Design.
The CanSat body is quite a durable structure, and though there have been carried
out a number of tests with the components and materials separately, some weak
points have been still revealed during the experiments. As a consequence of one of
the free falls of the CanSat body on a concrete floor, the GPS receiver has peeled

off; the glue has not endured the shock. After the experiment the GPS receiver has
been glued back to its place.
Since there has been such a case that the glued surfaces have been separated in
normal temperature, there is a possibility that the same problem may occur during
the landing phase in the real flight. So this has not been considered as the crucial
part, which requires revising and rebuilding, but as one of the points to focus on in
later similar missions.
As an improvement, to minimize the possibility of such cases in the future, it is
possible to change glued connections to welding, or to think about another types of
fixing, that will result in the increase of overall strength and tolerance to applied
mechanical loads and sudden shocks.
Another improvement deals with thermal insulation, as protection from the most
significant environmental factor low temperature. This is of utmost importance to
the performance of the system at high altitudes. Though it has not been taking into
consideration in this design, it needs consideration in future designs.
5.2.3 Additional Tests
Some designed tests have not been carried out. The CanSat has not been put in a
freezer to ascertain the performance of the component at such a low temperature.

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Appendix A.

XCT-U CONFIGURATION

X-CTU software for configuring and testing MaxStream radio modems. The
software is easy to use and allows MaxStream customers to test the radio modems
in the actual environment with just a computer and the items included with the
radio modems.

Fig 1 XCT-U Modem Configuration

The software is used to communicate with the ground station consisting of the
XBee module mounted on the XB24-DKS Evaluation Board and connected to the
system through USB cable.
The two XBee modules can be configured under the Modem Configuration
tab as shown above. The settings in blue are to be modified. The PAN ID is any

integer number (for the transmitter and receiver to communicate, the most have the
same PAN ID), Destination Address High and Destination Address Low of one
XBee module is the Serial Number High and Serial Number Low of the other
XBee.

After setting the PAN ID, Destination Address High and Destination

Address Low, the Write button is clicked to write the settings to the XBee
module EEPROM. The same setting is done with the other XBee module.

Fig 2 XCT-U GUI - Range Test

The Range Test tab is used to test the communication range of the two
XBee modules.
The PC- Setting tab allows the configuration of the XCT-U as terminal
software. The communication port (COM Port) in which the XB24-DKS is
connected is selected; the baud rate is selected to match that of the XBee mounted
on the XB24-DKS board.

Fig 3 XCT-U GUI PC setting

The Test/Query button is click and the XCT-U will try to communicate with the
connected XB24-DKS. An appropriate message will be displayed if it was
successful or an action is required as shown below.

Fig 4 XCT-U Showing Communication Failure

After a successful communication to the XB24-DKS is achieved, any other
terminal software can be used to collect the incoming data for further analysis.

Appendix B.

PICKIT 3 PIC BURNER

The PICkit 3 allows debugging and programming of PIC microcontrollers

using the powerful graphical user interface of the PICKit 3 Programmer IDE. The
PICkit 3 burner is connected to a PC using a full speed USB interface and can be
connected to the target via a Microchip debug (RJ-11). The connector uses two
device I/O pins and the reset line to implement in-circuit debugging and In-Circuit
Serial Programming.

Fig 1 PICkit 3 Burner

The PICKit 3 burner is connected to the microcontroller as shown in Fig 2 below.

Fig 2 PICKit 3 Burner Connected to the PIC

Fig 3 Schematic diagram showing the connection in Fig 2

After the connection has been done, the PICKit 3 Programmer is
loaded

as

shown

below

in

fig

4.

Fig 4 PICKit 3 Programmer GUI

In this interface, the hex file containing the CanSat code is loaded (CSC
Compiler was used to generate the hex file) and the targeted device is selected
(PIC16F877A in our case), then the Write button is click to program the selected
device.

Appendix C.

CANSAT C CODE

#include <16F877A.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <math.h>
#fuses HS,NOWDT,NOPROTECT,NOLVP,NOBROWNOUT,PUT
#use delay(clock=20000000)
/* ******************** i2c preprocessor directives ***********************************/
#use i2c(Master, sda=PIN_C4,scl=PIN_C3, FORCE_HW, SMBUS ) //SMBUS FORCE_HW Configure Device as
Master
#use rs232(baud=4800,parity=N,xmit=PIN_C6,rcv=PIN_C7,bits=8,stream=UART,ERRORS, BRGH1OK)
#use rs232(baud=4800,parity=N,xmit=PIN_B2,bits=8,stream=Xbee,ERRORS, FORCE_SW)
/* ***************************** Global constants ********************************/
#define BUFFER_SIZE 80
#define TMP_RD

0x91 // Reading Address of the TMP102 sensor

#define TMP_WR

0x90 // Writing Address of the TMP102 sensor. Assume ADR0 is tied to GND

#define TEMP_REG

0x00 // Temperature Address of the TMP102 sensor. Read only

#define HIH6130_ADDR (0x27) // slave address of the HIH6130 sensor

#define HIH6130_STATUS_MASK (0xc0)
#define I2C_RD

(1)

#define I2C_WR

(0)

#define I2C_ACK

(1)

#define I2C_NAK

(0)

#define Interval

2000

// set delay interval in seconds

/* ***************** global GPS variables ************************************/

int8 k = 0;
int8 n = 5;
int1 GPS_OK = 0;
char NMEA_RMC[BUFFER_SIZE];

/* ***************** Global GPS variables *******************/

float

pre;

float

UTCTime;

float

Lat;

char

N_S;

float

Lon;

char

E_W;

int8

FixQuality;

int8

NumOfSat;

float

HDOP;

float

Alt;

float

WGS84;

char

Alt_Unit;

char

Term[16];

char

*Field;

//Complete UTC time

//Complete Lat. float
//North =1, S =0
//Complete Lon. float
//East =1, W =1
// GPS fix
// Number of Satellites
// Horizontal Dilution of Precision
// Altitude above sea level
// Height of geoid above WGS84 ellipsoid

/* *************** global declarations of preocedures ********************/

float hih6130_raw_rh = 0;
float hih6130_raw_t = 0;
float tmp102Read(void);
void SplitGPS(void);
void hih6130_request(void);
BOOLEAN hih6130_get_data(void);
void TakeShot(void);
/* *************** interrupt routine **************************/
#int_rda
void serial_isr()
{

// serial interrupt
char c;
if (kbhit(UART))

// call to check if there's incoming data on the UART stream (RX register)

{
c= getc(UART);

// get a character from the RX register

if (GPS_OK ==0)
{
if (k == 0)
{
if (c== '$')
{
NMEA_RMC[0] = c;
k++;

// -------------------------------> k = 1

} else { k = 0; }
}
else if (k==1)
{
if (c == 'G')
{
NMEA_RMC[1] = c;
k++;

// -------------------------------> k = 2

} else { k = 0; }
}
else if (k==2)
{
if (c=='P')
{
NMEA_RMC[2] = c;
k++;

// ------------------------------> k = 3

} else { k = 0;}
}
else if (k==3)
{

if (c=='G')
{
NMEA_RMC[3] = c;
k++;

// ------------------------------> k = 4

} else { k = 0;}
}
else if (k==4)
{
if (c=='G')
{
NMEA_RMC[4] = c;
k++;

// ------------------------------> k = 5

} else { k = 0;}
}
else

// if k = 5

{
if (c != 13)

// 13 is carriage return

{
NMEA_RMC[n] = c;
n++;
} else { GPS_OK = 1;}
}
}
}
}
/* ****************** spit GPS Sentence ***********************/
void SplitGPS()
{
char Working_GPS_Str[80];
strcpy(Working_GPS_Str,NMEA_RMC);

strcpy(Term,",");

//load delimiter ","

Field = strtok(Working_GPS_Str, Term);

UTCTime =

atof(strtok(0, Term));

//parse to next delimiter

//get UTC time float

Lat = atof(strtok(0, Term));

//get latitude float

N_S = *strtok(0, Term);

//get N_S char (N or S)

Lon = atof(strtok(0, Term));

//get longitude float

E_W = *strtok(0, Term);

//get E_W char (E or W)

FixQuality = atof(strtok(0, Term));

NumOfSat = atof(strtok(0, Term));
HDOP = atof(strtok(0, Term));
Alt =

atof(strtok(0, Term));

Alt_Unit = *strtok(0, Term);

WGS84 = atof(strtok(0, Term));
delay_us(10);
}
//Read a tmp102 sensor on a given temp_number or channel
float tmp102Read(void)
{
unsigned int8 msb, lsb;
float nTemp;
int16 temp ;
i2c_start();
i2c_write(TMP_WR); // We want to write a value to the TMP
i2c_write(TEMP_REG);
never know)

// Set pointer regster to temperature register (it's already there by default, but you

delay_ms(50);
i2c_start();
i2c_write(TMP_RD); // Read from this I2C address, R/*W Set
msb= i2c_read();

//Read the MSB data

lsb = i2c_read(0);

//Read the LSB data

i2c_Stop();

temp = ((unsigned int16)msb<<8) | (unsigned int16)lsb;

temp >>= 4; // The TMP102 temperature registers are left justified, correctly right justify them
// The tmp102 does twos compliment but has the negative bit in the wrong spot, so test for it and correct if needed
if(temp & (1<<11))
temp |= 0xF800; // Set bits 11 to 15 to 1s to get this reading into real twos compliment
ntemp = (temp/16.0);
return(nTemp);
}
/* send a measurement request. */
void hih6130_request(void)
{
i2c_start();
i2c_write(HIH6130_ADDR << 1 | I2C_WR);
i2c_stop();
}
/* send a data request; returns 1 if the status shows a valid measurement was received */
BOOLEAN hih6130_get_data(void)
{
unsigned char b1, b2, b3, b4;
long raw1, raw2;
i2c_start();
if (i2c_write(HIH6130_ADDR << 1 | I2C_RD)) { /* no ACK? */
fprintf(UART,"No Ack\r\n");
return FALSE;
}
b1 = i2c_read(I2C_ACK);
b2 = i2c_read(I2C_ACK);
b3 = i2c_read(I2C_ACK);
b4 = i2c_read(I2C_NAK);

i2c_stop();
if (b1 & HIH6130_STATUS_MASK) {

/* if any status bits are set, data not ready */

return FALSE;
}
/* now take the raw I2C data and stuff it into the 16-bit holding registers */
raw1 = (b1 & ~HIH6130_STATUS_MASK) << 8;
raw1 |= b2;
raw2 = b3 << 8;
raw2 |= b4;
raw2 >>= 2;

// to remove the 'dont care' bits

hih6130_raw_rh = raw1;
hih6130_raw_t = raw2;
hih6130_raw_rh = ((float) hih6130_raw_rh * 6.10e-3);

// convert to real relative humidity

hih6130_raw_t = ((float) hih6130_raw_t * 1.007e-2) - 40.0; // convert to real temperature in degree celsius
return TRUE;
}
void TakeShot()
{
output_high(PIN_B4);
output_low(PIN_B4);
}
//// main Sub
void main() {
float Temp = 0.0;
enable_interrupts(int_rda);
enable_interrupts(global);
delay_ms(2000);
output_high(PIN_B5);
delay_ms(2000);
output_low(PIN_B5);

output_low(PIN_B4);

// set camera to 0

delay_ms(3000);
fprintf(UART, "%s\r\n", "This readings are taken at 7 seconds interval... ");
hih6130_request();
WHILE (1)
{
if(GPS_OK == 1)
{
output_high(PIN_B5);
temp = tmp102Read();
hih6130_get_data();
SplitGPS();
pre = (float)((101325.0*(pow((1-((2.25577e-5)* Alt)), 5.25588)))/1000.0) ;
// store in openLog
fprintf(UART, "UTC:%f Lat:%.4f%c Lon:%.4f%c FixQuality:%d",UTCTime,Lat,N_S,Lon,E_W,FixQuality);
fprintf(UART,
"
NumOfSat:%d
HDOP:%f
\r\n",NumOfSat,HDOP,Alt,Alt_Unit,WGS84,pre);

Alt:%f%c

WGS84:%f

Pressure:%.4fKPa

fprintf(UART, " RH:%f IntTemp:%f*C ExtTemp:%f*C\r\n",hih6130_raw_rh,temp,hih6130_raw_t);

fprintf(UART, "\r\n");
TakeShot();

// take picture with the camera

// send through Xbee

fprintf(Xbee, "UTC:%f Lat:%.4f%c Lon:%.4f%c FixQuality:%d",UTCTime,Lat,N_S,Lon,E_W,FixQuality);
fprintf(Xbee,
"
NumOfSat:%d
HDOP:%f
\r\n",NumOfSat,HDOP,Alt,Alt_Unit,WGS84,pre);

Alt:%f%c

WGS84:%f

Pressure:%.4fKPa

fprintf(Xbee, " RH:%f IntTemp:%f*C ExtTemp:%f*C\r\n",hih6130_raw_rh,temp,hih6130_raw_t);

fprintf(Xbee, "\r\n");
k =0;
n =5;
}
output_low(PIN_B5);
delay_ms(Interval);

GPS_OK = 0;
delay_ms(2000);
}
}

// wait for GPS to send signal (GPS interval ~1s)