Updated fcdctl for the Funcube Dongle Pro and Pro+

About a year ago I wrote about my modified fcdcontrol application that could be used with the Funcube Dongle Pro and Pro+. The news back then was that it could be used on the Raspberry Pi to control the FCD instead of the continuously failing attempts at running qthid. Unfortunately, the fcdcontrol application often crashed due to a problem at the hidapi / libusb layer.

Continue reading “Updated fcdctl for the Funcube Dongle Pro and Pro+”

The Funcube Dongle Pro and Pro+ on the Raspberry Pi

Although I have had a Raspberry Pi rev B for several weeks now, it wasn’t until last night that I got a chance to try it out. Since several people have reported failed attempts at getting the Funcube Dongle Pro and Pro+ play nicely with the Raspberry Pi, I decided to take it as far as I could in those few hours. The result is this very brief tech note about how to make the Funcube Dongle Pro and Pro+ work on the Raspberry Pi.

Continue reading “The Funcube Dongle Pro and Pro+ on the Raspberry Pi”

Rocket integration

Wednesday evening the Logitech Webcam Pro 9000 UVC camera and the Gumstix Overo Fire based video recorder have been integrated into the rocket. I will not have access to them before the launch day on Sunday. Shown below is the camera and video recorder integrated into the rocket.

Continue reading “Rocket integration”

Expected video quality during the rocket flight

We will be using the Logitech Webcam Pro 9000 for the flight, streaming MJPG video in 640×480 at 30 fps. Although the camera can stream even 1280×720 at 30 fps the USB interface on the Gumstix Overo Fire can not keep up with the required data rate. So here is a test video recorded as JPEG frames in an AVI container – just like it will be recorded by the Gumstix Overo Fire during the flight.

Apparently, Youtube is not very good to process MJPG video (fair enough since MJPG is a sucker anyway) so you should definitely try the source video (35 MB AVI).