Over the Air Commands
This command set was used to talk the payload from the ground during its flight. This system provided a huge amount of flexibility and let us maintain manual control, when required, of almost every aspect of the payload's functions.
Over the Air Command Protocol and Listings
- All COMMAND strings begin with “SGS” and are all in capitals.
- All response strings begin with “SGSBalloon: ” and cannot be more than 2/3 lines long. “df -h” prompts about the longest response you can get away with.
- Format is: SGS<cmd> [<pwd>] <args>
Where <cmd> is a command from the list below
<pwd> is the OTA command protocol password
<args> is any optional arguments the command takes - In the examples, the password is represented by []
- The system will ONLY accept commands from a certain call sign (M6TWO) but from ANY SSID. This allows some method of authentication whilst allowing more than one station to control the flight computer.
For example, both M6TWO -3 and M6TWO -6 are permitted to control.
|
Command |
Example Command |
Example Response |
Notes |
|
SGSHELLO |
SGSHELLO [] |
SGSBalloon: Hello from the SGS Weather Balloon! |
A ping. The balloon will send back a hello string. |
|
SGSECHO <text> |
SGSECHO [] hello |
SGSBalloon: You said: SGSECHO hello |
The balloon will echo <text>. |
|
SGSDAEMONS |
SGSDAEMONS [] |
SGSBalloon: [SNIP] /usr/bin/perl ./ax25perld.pl |
The balloon will respond with ps listings from ax25perld and avionicsd. |
|
SGSEXEC <command> |
SGSEXEC [] df -h |
SGSBalloon: Filesystem Size [SNIP] |
Warning: Dangerous command! The balloon executes the command, and responds with the shell response. Must not be a long response, 3 lines is about the max. |
|
SGSPICTURE |
SGSPICTURE [] |
SGSBalloon: Touched /root/etc/takepic |
Touches the file /root/etc/takepic which flightc.pl looks for. When found, flightj.pl will send a “TAKE PICTURE NOW” command to the PICAXE. |
|
SGSGREP <string> |
SGSGREP [] avionics |
SGSBalloon: [SNIP] perl /root/avionicsd.pl |
Returns the “ps ajx” grep’d listing for <string>. |
|
SGSCUTDOWN <auth> |
SGSCUTDOWN [] DRaPh78r |
SGSBalloon: Touched /root/etc/cutdown |
Warning: Dangerous command! Touches the file /root/etc/cutdown which flightc.pl looks for. When found, flightj.pl will send a “CUT DOWN NOW” command to the PICAXE. |
|
SGSKILLALL <auth> |
SGSKILLALL [] J74TfLp0 |
SGSBalloon: Starting kill... |
Warning: Dangerous command! This command kills avionicsd, ax25perld, flightc.pl, flightj.pl and hard resets the PICAXE. The two Perl daemons rely on launcher/cron to restart. ONLY use as a last resort. |
|
SGSTEST |
SGSTEST [] |
SGSBalloon: PIC Response: [SNIP] SGSBalloon: GPS Response: [SNIP] |
Pings the PIC to make sure it’s awake and ready. PIC has 5 seconds to respond. Grabs a bunch of GPS data to make sure it’s online and talking to gpsd. Returns results. |
|
SGSCYCLE |
SGSCYCLE [] |
|
Cycles the GPS and PIC using the hardware power control systems. |
|
SGSSHUTDOWN |
SGSSHUTDOWN [] <auth> |
|
Warning: Dangerous command! Shuts down the flight computer. |