CAPE-2 ... [is] planning to fly a digipeater... I am currently developing software to distribute to you guys later this year that will copy our telemetry and have it automatically
sent back to us.
I hope your telemetry is APRS compatible so that it can also be distributed by the global APRS-IS system already in place. If nothing else, it only takes a leading ">" byte to make it "aprs compatible".
We have already implemented the ability to send APRS emails, but would now like to do the same with twitter.
Yes, Emails automatically work for anything that can digipeat because APRS-IS stations automatically link those packets into the APRS-IS where they are picked-up by existing APRS-to-Email engines.
In this case then, the ability to send a tweet via APRS is simply an application that monitors the APRS-IS for any APRS packets that looks like they contain a "tweet". If we do not already have such an engine somewhere in the world, then we do surely need one. And so your request is a good one. And this is basically what PA3GUO is suggesting below..
Bob Bruninga, WB4APR (of an age that is tweetless)
On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 1:52 AM, PA3GUO pa3guo@upcmail.nl wrote:
Hi Rizwan,
First of all: we are all very interested in your CAPE-2 project. Would you be able to share some more information on CAPE-2 ?
In case you involve radio-amateurs in capturing telemetry/data from your
satellite you will have an huge increase in coverage, as we are spread across the entire globe. We do have the APRS system up-and-running, and NO-44 (PCSAT-1) and ISS-APRS data packets for example are monitored and automatically forwarded to the internet already.
On messaging to twitter email: In case of a malfunction or wrong software setting the satellite may not
be able to change its transmission pattern, when it is in space and cannot be reached anymore (e.g. up-link broken). Alternative would be to break it up in two steps:
Step 1 Transmit a status in APRS format, and have that captured/received as regular packets. Here is for example how all the ISS data (real-time) looks like: http://www.ariss.net, and here is how NO-44 looks like: http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/pcsat.cgi
Step 2 Have a software program running that looks at the the received APRS
telemetry, and derive from that a Twitter tweet (every hour, every day, ...). For example if the telemetry says: "CAPE 012000105" this could mean I am alive and battery voltage is 10.5 volt and temperature is 12 degrees Celsius. The tweet could be: "Hi this is CAPE-2 in space, I feel cold (12C) and my battery is good (10.5V)".
Just a thought.
Regarding APRS email: http://www.aprs.org/aprs-messaging.html explains
how to do this.
Here is an example on how this worked on ANDE-1: ANDE-1 digipeat: !T 12:26:38 PA3GUO-8>APRS,ANDE-1*,qAO,PE1ITR::email
:pe1itr@spamsat.org Hi ROb
!S 12:26:36 :email :pe1itr@spamsat.org Hi ROb
Here an example on how this worked on ISS: TNC settings an email to PE1ABC (pe1abc@spamsat.org) via ISS (RS0ISS-3): MYCALL PA3GUO-5 U APRS VIA RS0ISS-3 BEACON EVERY 1 BTEXT :EMAIL :pe1abc@spamsat.org Hi there!
The result (the email received by pe1abc): From: ksproul@rci.rutgers.edu Date: 25-02-2004 08:00
To: pe1abc@spamsat.org cc: Subject: APRS Message from PA3GUO-5 Hi there!
Please let us know if this helped & success with CAPE-2!
Henk, PA3GUO www.pa3guo.com
Greetings AMSAT! I am one of the software engineers on the CAPE-2 Cubesat project at
the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. I am interested in information on how to set up our satellite to tweet over APRS to a specific twitter account.
For example: If i want our satellite to tweet once a day what our satellite's status is, and have it be posted to a CAPE-2 twitter account, how can i make this happen? We've seen other groups do it, and we are wondering how to replicate this.
Thanks for your help!
Sincerely, Rizwan Merchant Call Sign: KF5BNL