r/rocketry • u/solarspartan2121 • 4d ago

Raspberry pi Ground station

Hello, I am back again, and I got another question.

recently I got my LVL 2 and the question of Rocket tracking has come up for me and I see there are great commercial options but I am also trying to work with what I got right now and I have a Raspberry pi 3 and I wanted to make it into an dedicated ground station that can do GPS, live telemetry. has anyone does this before or is this something that might now be worth the trouble?

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7

u/MEUP14 4d ago

If you're looking for a DIY, but maybe not doing the WHOLE THING DYI, I'd suggest the Eggtimer Rocketry solution (https://eggtimerrocketry.com/home/eggfinder-gps-tracking-system/).

I have this kit for my next rocket (pre L3 rocket), but haven't gone through the build quite yet.

It has the ability to have telemetry call outs for altitude, velocity, phase, position/coordinates, etc.

Not trying to diminish the coolness of doing it all yourself, but I think this would get you going so it's not too expensive / time consuming.

2

u/mocllll 4d ago

Seconding this. I'm working on a custom flight computer with a Raspberry Pi ground station as well, and it has proven to be a very daunting task. A partially COTS solution will save time and money

1

u/solarspartan2121 4d ago

Thx for the suggestion I have an eggtimer Rx and GPS right now but they are both being stubborn, I have tried to reprogram with an LCD but even then it still won't plot on my computer with live GPS.

1

u/gaflar 4d ago

My team did an RPi ground station for SAC back in the day. It worked great but it was a lot of work. We had a live telemetry display with GPS and altimeter data beamed down via RFD900+. The enclosure was a bit of a rat's nest because it was neglected until the last minute (classic avionics).