Getting ready for the CDR!!!

6.3 Flight Software Implementation and Verification
In order to implement the flight program, the Basic Stamp Editor programming language will be used. A main loop is needed in order to continuously record data and time stamps. Data from the temperature and pressure sensor will be read through the ADC channels. To read the sensors a subroutine for reading from the ADC has been implemented, as well as a subroutine for writing the data to the data EEPROM. A time stamp will also be written to the data EEPROM using the same subroutines. IF ELSE/ THEN statements have been created to check for memory space and free address availability. These checks will prevent the flight software from writing over any data in the case of a power failure. When memory is full, the program will stop writing to addresses and enter into an endless loop. In order to be certain that the software runs properly, we will, run the pre-flight, in-flight/ADC testing and post-flight programs. We will place the BalloonSat, while running the flight software, in conditions similar to what it will face in the troposphere, tropopause and lower stratosphere. Temperatures approaching -70oC and pressure approaching 4mb. If the flight program runs and produces reasonable data during vacuum, thermal, and shock test it will be approved for flight.


7.3 Data Acquisition and Analysis Plan
7.3.1 Ground Software
In order to appropriately retrieve the data that was collected by the flight software, the post-flight software will need to initialize the data EEPROM’s address to zero and read back the raw data from the memory The Basic Stamp Editor programming language must be used to run the post-flight software. The program Term 232 will be used to retrieve the data off the Basic Stamp programming editor to be further analyzed in Microsoft Excel. During flight the mini SD card inserted into the camera will have collected data as well. We will retrieve the mini SD card and insert it into a laptop containing a SD slot, retrieve the pictures and download them into windows movie maker.

7.3.2 Ground Software Implementation and Verification
In order to implement the ground software, the Basic Stamp Editor programming language will be used. A main loop is needed in order to continuously read data from the data EEPROM and format the data. IF/ELSE THEN statement will be implemented to check to see if any more addresses have been written to. This loop will continue until all filled addresses have been read. In order to be certain that software runs properly, we will first run the pre flight software to write “FF” to all the addresses, second we will run our flight/ADC testing program through vacuum, thermal, and shock test to collect data and write to the data EEPROM. Third we will run our post flight program to read back the data collected. We will then verify that we can take our data off the Basic Stamp editor and import it into the program Term 232 and plot the data into Microsoft Excel, once all these test are complete our ground software will be approved.

The new sections I have done in the CDR template... I started to get confused about the ground software. Am I going in the rite direction? Please comment!!!!