PacketRaven

PacketRaven is a command-line dashboard that retrieves location telemetry sent by high-altitude balloon payloads. The program is designed to be run during a flight and display information in a terminal user interface (TUI):

Features

• retrieves location telemetry from a variety of sources, including
  • https://amateur.sondehub.org
  • https://aprs.fi
  • a TNC-equipped radio connected via USB
  • a text file containing raw APRS frames
  • a GeoJSON file with point geometries and telemetry
• retrieves balloon flight predictions from https://predict.sondehub.org
• plots variables such as altitude and ascent rate over time
• estimates landing time (and, if doing a prediction, shows preficted landing location)

Instructions

1. Follow these instructions to create a new configuration file in a text editor, or use the following simple example:

   # example.yaml
   callsigns:
     - W3EAX-8
   connections:
     sondehub: {}
     text:
       - path: http://bpp.umd.edu/archives/Launches/NS-111_2022_07_31/APRS/W3EAX-8%20raw.txt
       - port: COM3
         baud_rate: 9600

2. Download an executable from the Releases page.

3. Open a terminal window.

4. Run the executable you downloaded with start and a path to your configuration file:

   packetraven.exe start example.yaml

Tip

Add --help to any command to show usage instructions.

Note

On MacOS or Linux, you may need to give the file executable permissions to run it:

chmod +x packetraven

5. You should now see the user interface. The program starts on the Log tab, which displays log messages. Use the up and down arrow keys to scroll.

Tip

Resize your terminal window, or zoom out / decrease the font size, as needed.

6. Upon first receiving new packet(s) from a callsign, a new tab will be created (shown in the top bar) for that callsign. Use the left and right arrow keys to switch between tabs.

7. While on a callsign tab, use the up and down arrow keys to switch between plots.

8. To quit, press q or Esc.

retrieve predictions

Run the executable with predict to retrieve a balloon flight prediction:

packetraven.exe predict "2023-08-16T10:00:00" -- -79 39 5 30000 9

Warning

due to a limitation in the argument parser, you must prepend all negative values with -- ; for instance, -79 should be -- -79