packetraven 1.2.1

Balloon payload telemetry over APRS

PacketRaven

PacketRaven is a front-end data aggregator / dashboard, designed to track the progress of high-altitude balloon payload flights via location telemetry.

pip install packetraven

Usage:

packetraven -c W3EAX-8,W3EAX-12 -k <aprs_fi_api_key> 

usage: packetraven [-h] [-c CALLSIGNS] [-k APIKEY] [-p TNC] [-d DATABASE] [-t TUNNEL] [-s STARTDATE] [-e ENDDATE] [-l LOG] [-o OUTPUT] [-i INTERVAL] [-g]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -c CALLSIGNS, --callsigns CALLSIGNS
                        comma-separated list of callsigns to track
  -k APIKEY, --apikey APIKEY
                        API key from https://aprs.fi/page/api
  -p TNC, --tnc TNC     serial port or text file of TNC parsing APRS packets from analog audio to ASCII (set to `auto` to use the first open serial port)
  -d DATABASE, --database DATABASE
                        PostGres database table `user@hostname:port/database/table`
  -t TUNNEL, --tunnel TUNNEL
                        SSH tunnel `user@hostname:port`
  -s STARTDATE, --startdate STARTDATE
                        starting date of time period of interest: `"YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS"`
  -e ENDDATE, --enddate ENDDATE
                        ending date of time period of interest `"YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS"`
  -l LOG, --log LOG     path to log file to save log messages
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        path to output file to save packets
  -i INTERVAL, --interval INTERVAL
                        seconds between each main loop (default: 10)
  -g, --gui             start the graphical interface

Python API:

to retrieve packets directly from https://aprs.fi:

from packetraven import APRSfiConnection

callsigns = ['W3EAX-8', 'W3EAX-12', 'KC3FXX', 'KC3ZRB']
api_key = '' # enter your APRS.fi API key here - you can get a free API key from https://aprs.fi/page/api

aprs_fi = APRSfiConnection(callsigns, api_key)
aprs_fi_packets = aprs_fi.packets

print(aprs_fi_packets)

or parse packets from a TNC sending parsed APRS over a USB connection:

from packetraven import SerialTNC

serial_port = None # leave None to let PacketRaven guess the port name  

tnc = SerialTNC(serial_port)
tnc_packets = tnc.packets

print(tnc_packets)

or connect to a PostGreSQL database running PostGIS:

from packetraven import APRSPacketDatabaseTable

callsigns = ['W3EAX-8', 'W3EAX-12', 'KC3FXX', 'KC3ZRB']

hostname = 'bpp.umd.edu:5432'
database = 'bpp'
table = 'packets'

username = 'username'
password = '1234'

# parameters for an SSH tunnel
ssh_hostname = None
ssh_username = None
ssh_password = None

table = APRSPacketDatabaseTable(hostname, database, table, callsigns, 
                                username=username, password=password, 
                                ssh_hostname=ssh_hostname, ssh_username=ssh_hostname, ssh_password=ssh_password)
table_packets = table.packets

print(table_packets)

Features:

current:

• parse APRS packets from USB TNC
• retrieve packets from https://aprs.fi
• synchronize with a PostGreSQL database
• output packets to file
• plot altitude

in development:

• flight track plotting
• live track prediction
• Iridium telemetry and commands
• live chase navigation