Communication: Proof of concept 1

As you will have seen from a previous post, the method for getting telemetry back from the HAB is as follows:

GPS Device -> Conversion to radio data -> Transmission -> (Radio) -> Reception -> Conversion to serial data -> PC -> Google Earth & Internet

Theres a lot going on here and each stage needs careful testing. The very first proofs of concept are:

(1) Plugging in a GPS device and capturing the raw data with hyperterminal
(2) Connecting two computers with a null modem cable and using hyperterminal, (and the settings we expect to be using in our application), send raw data between the machines.

Both of these we would expect to work; there really is no reason whatsoever that it wouldn't. However, in the interest of being thorough the tests needed to be done. You'll be unsurprised to hear that we had no problems whatsoever.

The next task is to assemble the transmitter and receiver modules. Once assembly is complete, we will can retest (2) from above, this time wirelessly. We'll start with the Tx and Rx next to each other and should that work, we'll begin distance testing.