#302

Ordinary Satellite Ground Stations cost millions. We will build one for 20 dollars for the newly launched LoRa satellite. Let’s build it in parallel to the launch of the Electron spacecraft from Rocket Lab. Will it be successful? In my last video, I announced that the 16-year old Julian Fernandez and a small team built FossaSat-1. We will accompany the launch and in parallel, we will build a Ground Station and test it with the real satellite. Will it work?
I am a proud Patreon of GreatScott!, Electroboom, Electronoobs, EEVblog, and others.
My HAM radio channel: / @hb9bla
Links:
Fossa Systems: fossa.systems/
Donations here (for the next one): www.gofundme.c...
Ground Station Software: github.com/G4l...
TLE File: drive.google.c...
Sensor Software (experimental): github.com/G4l...
Gpredict Download: gpredict.oz9aec...
Join Telegram group: t.me/joinchat/...
Get MQTT credentials after test phase): forms.gle/3Mm7...
Map of stations: fossa.apaluba....
Discord Channel for support: / discord
For the moment, the TTGO boards seem not be supported by the satellite. Better use an ESP32 and this board: s.click.aliexpr...
TTGO 433MHz board: s.click.aliexpr... or bit.ly/2RzzTSZ
RFM95 433MHz: s.click.aliexpr...
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Supporting Material and Blog Page: www.sensorsiot.org
Github: www.github.com...
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[@AndreasSpiess]

The satellite currently is not working properly and cannot be reached with small antennas. Also the TTGO board shown in this video currently seems not be supported. Look at the alternative in the description or follow the Telegram stream.

[@DIYJase]

Andreas Spiess thanks for you videos on this fantastic project. How great that fossa achieved this. I would love to be involved in something like this. Andreas perhaps you might lead a community project? I would be happy to get involved. Cheers

[@MuertoChango]

If you are using it legally... as a HAM operator... you can use up to 100s of times the transmit power...

[@shashibhushan5418]

Dear Andreas Spiess sir I am really a fan of yours but if you don't mind the way you installed the antenna at (12:12) in video you will never going to receive any signal from space due to polarization issues. I hope you would next time make a short video may be part 2 while receiving . I would suggest to use 2 TTGo module, 1 module antenna in vertical and another in horizontal position in reference to earth poles. Standing dipole antenna wont work, I think we should give one more try. Please !!! Thanks in advance :)

[@albertbu97]

Can you post a link to the telegram please ?

[@MrArtVein]

@@shashibhushan5418 I'm just learning about this, but I understood what you wrote from my studies in microphone recording. You're saying his antenna will null

[@FossaSystems]

An update for everyone here: FOSSASAT-1 is shown to be working correctly and healthy. However, due to the antennas not having deployed, the signal is very weak and can only be picked up with large antennas. LoRa remains not functional for small stations due to this. We are working to deploy the antennas manually from earth and hope to fix the issue. We are also launching two more LORA satellites in march to expand the network :)

[@Conservator.]

Fossa Systems Too bad the antennas haven’t deployed (yet!) but still a fantastic success. I believe Fossasats will have a tremendous impact on the world in general and the world of IoT especially. Congratulations!

[@cfeigel]

I'm a child of the "space race". My father worked on the Saturn-V rocket in the 1960s. Seeing the renewed interest in space exploration makes me grin like that little kid of fifty-odd years ago! My congratulations to you and the team on your accomplishment! People all over the world are watching and getting excited. This is how it all begins!

[@GRBtutorials]

Cool! However, won't the satellites eventually fall back to Earth due to air friction? I've seen other CubeSat projects and they all seem to last for only a few months before disintegrating.

[@SteveWrightNZ]

Was the tape antenna held down somehow? I assumed it self-released once ejected from its' container..

[@linagee]

Is there a sensor to know for sure if the antennas deployed correctly or not? Maybe on the next version! :-) (Would a small vibration motor also be a good addition to solve this sort of "jiggle it loose" problem?) Edit: Ah, I see on your latest post, solar voltage can indicate if the panels were correctly deployed.

[@Stoneman06660]

This is brilliant. Thanks, Andreas, for covering it otherwise I'd have been completely unaware!

[@AndreasSpiess]

That is one of the purposes of this channel...

[@minepro1206]

Me too

[@stationHQ]

Just what we have been waiting for since the word Lora became known! As usual Andreas, thanks for your pioneering work and putting us in the forefront of following and joining in the creation of ground base stations! Keep up the good work

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you for your nice words!

[@anandmoon5701]

Good initiative by young scientist, and many thanks to you Andreas for explaining the logic behind the operation. you have made this complex concept much simple to understand.

[@AndreasSpiess]

The project deserves my support!

[@HighestRank]

There’s a hoLe in the operation, which explains the probs and low-power mode!

[@garthmikles3933]

Thanks again Andreas for the concise information and instruction. Your work is greatly appreciated and your teaching and sharing with us is profound. I also want to congratulate the Fossa Team for their dedication and I wish them further good luck into the future.

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@myounges]

Thank you Andreas for your efforts to teach and share all this information!

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@GeorgeWMays]

So cool. An old friend of mine used to say "neatness is its own reward." This stuff is neat.

[@AndreasSpiess]

:-)

[@CraigPerry]

Andreas - when working amateur satellites on the 70cm band with a simple whip antenna from a handheld, i use a whip that’s around double the size of the one shown. Also i have to hold it at an angle and i have to change angle as the satellite passes. If 0 degrees means holding it perfectly vertical and 90 degrees means horizontal, then for best reception i need to hold it at around 15 degrees to acquire the sat as it comes above the horizon then over the next 6 minutes or so i have to follow its trajectory over the sky, keeping the whip antenna pointing perpendicularly at the sat. You probably know all this already but i mention it because a purely vertical orientation is really hard to make work at higher powers so lora powers i expect even more trouble (although lora’s far better sensitivity should help offset this but not sure by how much)

[@AndreasSpiess]

LoRa promises a very high link budget which should enable sensors with simple and fixed antennas. Otherwise the whole concept would be useless... There are other people with big yagis in the project, I am only interested in the sensor use case.

[@tommihommi1]

a tape measure antenna on a Satellite, I never thought I'd see the day

[@AndreasSpiess]

This is very common. The material is perfect and cheap...

[@tommihommi1]

@@AndreasSpiess I've built Yagis from it myself, but didn't expect it to be used on satellites. But it makes sense, as you say.

[@NoviSavvy]

It is a perfect reliable material for satellite antenna as it is easy to fold and extend it

[@AndreasSpiess]

Look also at the 50$sat

[@gurudattapanda]

Yes, the material used for measuring tape is an alloy having perfect elastic property to be wound up in a satellite and open up to form an antenna after the kill switches has been released after launch.

[@Ibex_pertinax]

damn, how cool ist that "finger stick" :D

[@AndreasSpiess]

The original is from my wife's stock. She was a teacher in the 1990 when those were quite common.

[@alexandrecoste1190]

Hi Andreas, i see FossaSat-2E1 has been launched and it could be very nice to update your video and see how its moving now. Thank you so much. Happy sunday.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Currently there are 6 Fossasats in the air and I receive some of them regularly...

[@alexandrecoste1190]

@@AndreasSpiess Hi sir Andreas, Thank you for your quick answer. did you success to send packet by Fossasat finaly ?

[@sarveshk09]

Amazing Job 👌 FOSSA Team! And as always thanks for a great video Uncle Andreas!

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@StephenFarthing]

Another great episode from the ham with the Swiss accent. :-)

[@AndreasSpiess]

I am just the messenger... But I learned a lot about satellites the last few days.

[@HarishKumar-fo4hd]

Sir Ji your work is totally ok thanks again your help in this chanal

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you like the channel!

[@DD0ULQTC]

Exciting like a thriller. Now I'll look for how it went on.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Recently they upgraded the network to tinyGS (you find a recent video about it)

[@GlowingCrystalGirl]

Awesome! Please keep us up to date on this one.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Maybe you join their twitter account?

[@AllanKobelansky]

Nice work. With such interesting stuff you present, I’ll never get any domestic chores done.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Nice excuse ;-)

[@lintangwisesa]

Great story & super clear explaination, Sir. Thanks a lot.

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@metalpachuramon]

Wow! That's awesome, I didn't know that there were these kind of satellites for people to experiment with

[@AndreasSpiess]

This is the first of its kind which should enable cheap sensors on earth

[@samuelsontun9202]

Tunisian tech company Telnet turned your wishes into reality. Lora is working out there and they received the signal for their first experience with a 4kg satellite. They did Great job for advancing Iot.

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are right, there are now many more satellites in the orbit using LoRa. Most of them are even smaller than 4kg.

[@ZechyC]

Brilliant video. Thanks Andreas

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@macieksoft]

Ballistic coefficient (BC) is usually defining how much drag is the object generating. On LEO satellites are subject to the orbit decay based mainly on drag, there is still a little bit of atmosphere up there. BC is often used in ballistic calculators because different bullets have different shape and they generate different drag.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you for your information!

[@electronic7979]

Very good video 👍

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@Conservator.]

I’m still trying to find the TLE for my test Arduino Pro Mini and RFM95 . . . Now on a more serious note: Andreas: this is the first time you managed my heartbeat really sped up this is the first time while watching your video. I really felt the tension when you reported on the failed communication attempts at the end. I vigorously hope Fossa will wake-up in the near future. Otherwise, we’ll just have to wait for the next one(s!) to be launched. What an exiting project.

[@FossaSystems]

We are healthy with some packets recieved! Still hoping to deploy antennas :)

[@AndreasSpiess]

I hope you found the link to the TLE file in the description...

[@Conservator.]

Andreas Spiess For the simulator?? I’m sorry, I thought that would be funny.

[@avejst]

Impressive work the young people have done Great intro Thanks for sharing :-)

[@AndreasSpiess]

I think, too they deserve a big applause!

[@linagee]

By LoRa being sent/received to this satellite at around 500km, doesn't this break your previous record of 150-200 km? :-) Awesome!

[@AndreasSpiess]

The land to air records are 800km. Mine is land-land;-)

[@gurudattapanda]

Excellent explanation of TLE for geeks and amateurs.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@freedom2000]

Excellent video Andreas. I really hope that this sat will work quite soon (I'm into space business as well (LEO sats :-))

[@AndreasSpiess]

We all hope, I think. But learning takes place in both ways...

[@ToDoNoHarm]

For anyone looking at this in 2021 or later, the FOSSASAT-1 (Norad CatNum 44829) was DECAYED on the 28th day of October in 2020. It is no longer operational.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Unfortunately, this satellite was never operational because the solar panels and the antenna did not unfold. But there are other satellites. Maybe you search for "tinygs", a project which evolved out of this satellite launch...

[@david3810]

Impressing! Try turning the antenna 90 degrees. The sensitivity is probably donut shaped

[@AndreasSpiess]

The satellite usually passes in the N-W-S or N-E-S. Hardly ever at 90 degrees

[@electronicbasics1856]

Wow, satellite for engineers !!!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Yes!

[@joeynovak07]

Wow!!! Sooo cooool!! Thanks for posting this.

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@volkinaxe]

hope they make more of these

[@AndreasSpiess]

There are quite a few satellites up now.

[@volkinaxe]

@@AndreasSpiess is there any info like a website that shows there orbit also hi from new Zealand

[@volkinaxe]

up date i was hoping this was meshtastic i will wate intill this is set up as a setting on it

[@bluef1sh926]

On that PCB any non lead, RoHS solder joints will break apart at -10 celsius, space has far lower temperatures.

[@whydohandlesexistAAA]

Won't radiation also be a problem with normal components that are not radiation hardened?

[@Conservator.]

AliveC4T Edit: there have been quite a few successful connections reported on Telegram. Oops, I hope you’ll forgive me but I sincerely hope (maybe against better knowledge) that you’re wrong. Wouldn’t the team have been warned about these basic things? And wouldn’t it be tested in a similar environment? I’ve no idea but this seems rather obvious if you’re launching something into space. Just thinking out loud here. Can anyone expand on this? Edit: watching the video again and seeing the environment in which the prototype is shown, I’m sure they will have used space grade components for the real thing.

[@FossaSystems]

Everything is lead ;) Either way I do not agree, Tin is only an issue due to tin whiskering. We have tested the satellite down to -40c and currently, it is working correctly and healthy (although without the antenna deployed)

[@aleksandersuur9475]

If ROHS solder broke apart at -10C no modern car could survive winter, so that's flat out wrong. And "space is cold" is misunderstanding things, being exposed to 1361 W/m2 of sunlight while in vacuum is quite toasty. Which is the reason satellites are usually covered in reflective foil or painted bright white - to reflect away much of that heat.

[@dflate]

​@@FossaSystems Silly internets questioning your work! Keep up the good work. Wish you the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@TheBodgybrothers]

You'll need some directivity on the antenna to avoid out of band rf causing input desense. Use a dish antenna instead.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Then we would be back to standard satellite technology, I think.

[@otm646]

@@AndreasSpiess It's only the antenna not the hardware, protocol or spirit of the project. I understand why you want to use a standard antenna but if you continue to not receive a signal switch to a dish, this micro satellite won't last long. I'd rather see you succeed using a dish than be unsuccessful with a standard antenna. Your potential success would be a huge boost to the LoRa community.

[@AndreasSpiess]

There are people with big antennas helping Julian to fix the problem.I hope they will be successful. Then I can try ma small antenna...

[@TheBodgybrothers]

Just stick your antenna in a wok. 🤣

[@HolgerBarske]

Amazing adventure. I hope this going to deliver results soon 👍.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Me too...

[@MalagasOnFire]

Gonna try to run the program Gpredict in wine :D Portugal needs some ground stations ;) but we need to check if requires a licence, for XMIT data. Thanks for all the information.

[@AndreasSpiess]

It for sure needs a license for transmit, I think.

[@linagee]

Weird, why wine? It can be compiled and ran in Linux...

[@MalagasOnFire]

@@linagee because it takes less time in this machine ( Edit ). Sorry there are pre-compiled images. Take what i said :P Oppss. Thanks for the developers and linagee for the advice , my apologies :P

[@lib0r]

Excellent video!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you.

[@brainfornothing]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing !

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@jamesallred2970]

I so enjoyed this ❤️❤️

[@AndreasSpiess]

:-)

[@mjp0815]

Awesome project.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Indeed

[@Caffein780]

Brilliant!!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@SchoolforHackers]

This is how we build freedom. Bravo.

[@AndreasSpiess]

:-)

[@AA-gl1dr]

i’m so glad i just found this

[@AndreasSpiess]

:-)

[@luwang404]

The efforts need to be appreciated at least whether the signals are strong or weak or even lost.

[@AndreasSpiess]

We still can hope :-)

[@aleksandersuur9475]

Ballistic coefficient is an aerodynamic parameter, it's used to calculate how fast the orbit will degrade.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you. What I wanted to say is that I could not explain how to do the calculations ;-)

[@aleksandersuur9475]

@@AndreasSpiess yeah, the calculations get quite complicated. Anyone could figure out the straight forward Newtonian two body problem, but that's not very precise long term. Real models account for the tidal effects of Moon and Sun, oblateness of the Earth, atmospheric drag - good models include real time space weather data in that calculation not just an average approximation etc. The model that Gpredict and most other tools available for home player use is SGP4, back in the day NORAD published source code for it and since then it has been implemented in various languages, you can download the source code and include it in your program, feed it the TLE and time and it calculates where the satellite is, give it your location and it even converts it to coordinates you can point for example an antenna dish at. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_perturbations_models

[@ladedk]

This is insanely cool!!! I work with supporting research in very remote areas, and I can see a huge potential for this technology. I cannot wait to see it expanded. On another note, Andreas, have you ever checked out CuriousMarc's YT channel? Amazing if you're into older computer Technology. Among other things, he's involved in restoring an Apollo Guidance Computer module. Truly fascinating stuff!

[@AndreasSpiess]

I know his channel, but I am not a frequent viewer... The Apollo stuff was quite interesting.

[@zoonvanhetuni7993]

BRAVO !

[@AndreasSpiess]

:-)

[@deangreenhough3479]

Awesome🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@AndreasSpiess]

I think, too!

[@SianaGearz]

Reminds me of a satellite by demogroup TRSi which is set to broadcast a Commodore-64 demo "10 Orbyte" which can be received with a Realtek DVB stick used as SDR.

[@cheaterman49]

Wait what? o__O how did they get the funding?

[@SianaGearz]

@@cheaterman49 Difficult to say to what extent it's self-funded or to what extent it's a university collaboration (RTWH Aachen), i don't remember this being spoken about. The costs aren't astronomical, excluding personal labour, they have to be within like 2 dozen grand in material and external costs, because the sats are so tiny, like only 5cm across. If you want to look up the guy, the name is Paul Kocyla and that was back in 2013-ish and he has launched 2 other satellites since, all bearing TRSi naming or content.

[@cheaterman49]

@@SianaGearz Oh wow that was much more recent than I was expecting, that's also why I expected much higher costs (price of house instead of price of car in this case). When you said demoscene I was expecting 80's stuff :-) but yeah if it's a pocket sat the cost is reasonable (in the same ballpark as FOSSASAT-1). Will definitely look it up, thanks for the info! EDIT: If anyone is interested, I think this is the video to watch: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5_Uo42ga9SHeZI

[@bramv1984]

Thanks for the excellent video again! You show two Baofeng radios, the UV-5R and (I presume) the UV-82. Do you prefer one over the other? :)

[@AndreasSpiess]

I do not use them often. So I have no opinion.

[@jamesdriscoll_tmp1515]

Have you had enough time to form an opinion?

[@n0madfernan257]

hi, this is interesting. thanks for this.

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@fanest_norfar]

I just hope that these small satellites are designed so that when they expire quickly fall down so that they don't litter the space.

[@AndreasSpiess]

That is the case.

[@fanest_norfar]

​@@AndreasSpiess I'm not sure if you are aware of this but latest Starlink satellites are causing quite an uproar in astronomers community, because when a group of these satellites shows on the night sky they completely destroy images of telescopes. Maybe these much smaller satellites are a way forward.

[@IndianTinker]

That hand !!

[@AndreasSpiess]

As always!

[@MrFatjonable]

I'm now sitting on the first row!!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Welcome aboard the channel!

[@pcfreak1992]

I tried to follow the instructions in Gpredict today but even after updating the satellite list from the internet, I don’t get any results when I search for “Fossa” in the “new module” dialog. Are they no longer available or do they have a new name?

[@AndreasSpiess]

Search for the "tinyGS" project (or my video about it). There you find all satellites.

[@imranrajjad7028]

I wonder we could see what kind of Antenna would be suitable for communicating with this satellite, maybe a Video?

[@AndreasSpiess]

We will see. They have new satellites planned...

[@wayne6220]

Thank you for your amazing video.

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@pulesjet]

No License in hand but I should be able to at least catch the Beacon using my SDR ( Software Defined Radio ) and a simple Helical Antenna. Good Luck Attempting to deploy the antenna Sir.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Good luck!

[@pulesjet]

@@AndreasSpiess San to hear the Antenna failed to deploy, eaa?

[@AndreasSpiess]

Yes :-(

[@pulesjet]

@@AndreasSpiess Have they managed to get the antenna to move? Figure out what didn't happen. Guessing something expanded due to cold temps and bound up ?

[@AndreasSpiess]

They discuss the details in the Telegram group. I do not closely follw...

[@ericlaird1745]

What about a more directional antenna, like a small yagi or PCB directional antenna. Use servos to point it. Gpredict should provide az-el control data and feeding that to an arduino or esp32 to aim the servos should give you the ability to track it.

[@AndreasSpiess]

I do not like the idea of a low power sensor with servos...

[@silvioalvim]

I don't quite understand the purpose, I apologize if I'm being too newbie, but would it be possible to send data between two very distant ground stations using one of these satellites as a bridge?

[@AndreasSpiess]

This could be made. So far, I only know commercial small satellites that do it.

[@johng7rwf419]

Very interesting...

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@raghavsrivastava2910]

Hello andreas. 16 year old here in India .I cannot find FossaSat-1 in the database after updating,as of 22 May,2020. Is the mission over?

[@AndreasSpiess]

Maybe you join their telegraph group. The Link is in the description.

[@raghavsrivastava2910]

@@AndreasSpiessOk. Thanks a lot.

[@Magic-Smoke]

Excellent video Andreas. It would be worth adding the @fossasys Twitter feed to the list here for us to get the latest news. You might want to encourage people not to use your callsign as I fear some may just copy the settings :). Of course, you may want HB9 stations all over the globe ;) = lol.

[@AndreasSpiess]

I will add Twitter . Copying call signs is not to complicated, I think.with RF, these days it is very easy to do illegal things (just look what is available on AliExpress). This project probably will not change that fact :-(

[@Magic-Smoke]

Andreas Spiess indeed you are correct 😀

[@PhG1961]

Amazing !!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Indeed!

[@crckdns]

At first glance the idea is great and I hope it will work out as they hope! Yet, for me the satellite cube shown doesn't look like space ready. Also I doubt they invested a lot of needed money and time for hardening against the space radiation.

[@Conservator.]

crckdns Hi Edit2: there have been quite a few successful connections reported on Telegram! Edit: having watched the video again and noticing the background at which Julian is filmed, I assume they tested the real satellite for these things. AliveC4T mentioned that too. And also that non-leaded solder would breakdown at temperatures below -10°C. Could you elaborate on both? I would be surprised if the team weren’t warned for this and wouldn’t have done any testing for these environments. I’m just thinking out loud here. I’ll appreciate any comments from you (and anyone else).

[@FossaSystems]

The satellite has various protection systems and circuits against single event upsets and latchups, we have tested it in thermal vacuum chambers. So far it is healthy in space although the antennas have not deployed.

[@Conservator.]

Fossa Systems Thanks for the update and congrats. Even without the deployed antennas still a huge success as far as I’m concerned!

[@cliftonbrown911]

I want to build a duplicate of the LoRa relay station contained in the satellite, does the code on Github provide me with all the code to do this? I know we're not supposed to build LoRa repeaters so I will be using the amateur band frequency.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Please read my pinned comment first and join the telegraph channel

[@cliftonbrown911]

Andreas, thanks for replying so promptly. I've read all the comments on both of your videos on the subject and tried to understand how to navigate telegraph (unsuccessfully), have looked over the Github post but I'm still a bit unsure if the code to build the LoRa relay is contained in the Github code.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Just press the telegram link in the video description on a PC and you should get to the instructions...

[@cliftonbrown911]

Andreas, thanks again for your reply. As I initially stated, I've looked through telegram from the beginning, the FOSSA website and Github. I don't see anyone explaining how to build the Relay station, not the Ground station. Lots of information on building the ground station but nothing on building the relay station. Thank you and all the Holiday good wishes to you.

[@AndreasSpiess]

The idea is that a sensor transmits it’s message to the satellite. There it is repeated to a ground station which is connected to a MQTT broker. Your application can then subscribe to a topic of your sensor on this server and gets the message.

[@codebuster2716]

Hmmm, very interesting. I probably need to buy public liability insurance before I start my own project. Who knows, my Satellite might mulfunction and knock someone out leading to an expensive lawsuite.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Maybe the litter of the rocket needs more insurance as it can hurt somebody on earth ;-)

[@aleksandersuur9475]

A cubesat reentering Earths atmosphere brings to mind the phrase "snowball's chance in hell". And as cubesat operator your maneuvering options are limited to differential drag at best, therefore you basically have no responsibility over any possible collisions your satellite might have, because it's completely out of your control. You don't even get to really choose where your satellite will be released, at best your choice is with which rocket you want to ride along.

[@Berilium65]

You might want to try a circular polarized high gain antenna.

[@AndreasSpiess]

This system is for sensors. If these need high gain antennas, it will be worthless.

[@johnwashell4351]

@@AndreasSpiess Not necessarily, you still have to wait for the satellite to be near over head, so store and forward, isn't the worst idea. With your whip antenna, you have a deep null looking up, as the pattern is donut shaped, and neither receives nor transmits in the up direction. If you can get info on the sending antenna such as linear or circular polarization, you can optimize your link quite a bit. You could also try mounting your antenna horizontally, and add a reflector 1/4 wavelength below it to get 3dB of antenna gain.

[@johnwashell4351]

@@AndreasSpiess The link budget is a bit tight for hobby grade links. The expected path loss is -153.3dB. It doesn't say it has a dipole, but seems to imply that with the antenna gain spec. With the sat floating in space, there is no way to determine its angle to the earth at any given time. It you use a linear polarized antenna, you could still be cross polarized, and lose 30dB of signal. A helical or two yagis phased in quadrature would be the way to go. Although these can be high gain, they can still have enough sidelobe to communicate terrestrially to other lora nodes.

[@hopje01]

If this sat is tumbling around in space, I would think you get a lot of up/down link signal fluctuations?

[@kslog954]

That notification sound @1:13, distracted me for checking Telegram :D

[@AndreasSpiess]

:-)

[@WILLMARFERNANDOROMEROMARIN]

Greetings from Colombia, How is it possible for a LoRa to have sufficient range in distance?

[@AndreasSpiess]

Maybe you watch my videos on LoRa. You find a playlist on the channel.

[@ginogalimberti2847]

HAMMER! 👍✌️😎

[@AndreasSpiess]

Danke!

[@nathanw851]

Is FossaSat-2 still scheduled for Jan '21?

[@AndreasSpiess]

I do not know.

[@ISOAwe]

Wouldn't you want to reorient your antenna? There's effectively a dead zone at the end of the antenna, right where the sat would fly over!

[@AndreasSpiess]

There are no "dead zones" in such low gain antennas. Just a few dB less. Unfortunately the satellite never unfolded its anteanna. So I never heard it :-(

[@ikokovidis56]

Well done Andreas ... Very interesting project 73 DE SV2LLJ IOANNIS

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you! 73 de HB9BLA

[@MangustaMG20]

Andreas, thanks for the video, but I wonder if you have the correct Antenna polarisation. The satellite has either circular or Linear polarised antenna. The configuration of your antenna setup, it looks, is not correct, assuming linear polarisation. Try and tip the antenna to lie flat the the earth, and align it 90 degrees to the satellite path. In addition, those antennas that are bundled with devices are really not great. Another project to build your own 1/4 wave dipole could be very successful!

[@AndreasSpiess]

The satellite has a moving linear polarization which we du not know, because it is moving. The difference between horizontal and vertical is around 3 dB. If the system should work, it should work with such antennas. Otherwise it would be useless.

[@Boretoto]

Great! Could you make a video about a sound card measurement with PC ( THD, THD+Noise, etc., resistance substitution box connection or simply resistor) ? How to connect properly all of them. Thank you!

[@AndreasSpiess]

I am no Audio guy and do not have a lot of knowledge there.

[@science4allworld587]

How did you manage to get the list of possible timing of fossat available at your location? I can see any option to get such prediction table ?

[@AndreasSpiess]

There is a link in the description to the TLE file

[@science4allworld587]

@@AndreasSpiess but that gives only one prediction...

[@AndreasSpiess]

No. You find more than one passes in the program.

[@marcrives279]

One afterthought... We may need a HAM license to run a ground station, although strictly speaking, as we only receive messages, it can be argued. OK. But how about FOSSA devices? Do they all send messages on the same 436MHz frequency? Will we then need a license to run a device?

[@AndreasSpiess]

As I mentioned. The satellite operates in licensed amateur band.

[@AndreasSpiess]

The repeater works only on one frequency.

[@marcrives279]

I didn't get it at first 😔 A simple repeater on a single frequency. So we do need a HAM license to use future FOSSA network

[@VincentFischer]

Wow these things are tiny. I know cube sats were tiny but this thing..! I wonder how durable this is, exposing pcb and hobby grade components to space

[@AndreasSpiess]

Maybe you go to www.50dollarsat.info/ ? It survived quite a while

[@ElvisCompost]

Andreas, you say that FOSSA uses 436.7MHz but the TTGO & RFM95 boards in your links are 433MHz. How are the frequencies converted?

[@AndreasSpiess]

The TTGO can handle this frequency.

[@linagee]

The manual on RFM95 says a "433Mhz module" can actually be tuned from 410Mhz to 525Mhz. (Obviously you have to be aware of the correct licensing and power requirements to transmit on whichever band you're tuned to. Also, your antenna should be optimized for the frequency chosen.) Page 13: cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/learn_tutorials/8/0/4/RFM95_96_97_98W.pdf

[@ElvisCompost]

Thanks for the information. I had no idea that the TTGO could handle such a frequency range.

[@ZamanTurja]

Thanks a lot sir, helped me a lot

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@science4allworld587]

I wonder do i need any SDR etc to get info from fossa via lora board? How do i know when i get signals from Fossa?

[@AndreasSpiess]

By listening the frequency using a LoRa module

[@robertoshannessy1389]

Hi there, is it possible to make a geostationary satellite with Fossa or with a Cubesat?

[@AndreasSpiess]

I do not think so. Fossasats are at 500 km max and Geostationary satellites are on 36000km. I did a video series where I communicated across a Geostationary satellite (QO-100)

[@TheTinkerDad]

Andreas, you should really think about changing your intro text to "Here is the scientist with the Swiss accent."

[@AndreasSpiess]

I am an Engineer with my full heart. Science would be too boring for me ;-)

[@TheTinkerDad]

@@AndreasSpiess I understand, but still - I've been a long time follower of your channel and from basic stuff like how to use an ESP8266 you've come to things like how to track and connect to satellites, etc. :) It's way more than electrical engineering to be honest! Also, thanks for creating one of the most extensive and easy-to-follow video collection about LoRA and related projects!

[@AndreasSpiess]

I follow my interests. Often there is a hint of wireless included.

[@g.s.3389]

I would be surprised if this would have worked for the lack of satellite expertise of who did this. There is the most important thing that they did not consider: satellites electronics have to fight with radiations, that is why all the satellites are (a) shielded), (b) use military electronics. You will never see an intel i7 or any consumer grade processor in the Space. It was a good idea, but they shoud have got expertise from people that does it professionally. The projects with raspberry that they did on ISS worked just because it was inside the ISS which is already shielded.

[@AndreasSpiess]

I am no expert. But Musk in his biography said, that he requested SpaceX only use commercial grade components to save money. This is what he called „innovation“

[@FossaSystems]

Incorrect, COTS electronics are successfully used on thousands of satellites in space, as Andreas says all the spacex hardware is COTS! It can also be made radiation protected, in fact we have dozens of protection circuits against radiation Single event upsets and latchups

[@lucabertagnolio9166]

Giuseppe Suanno not true. The whole Microsat movement started by amateur radio in the 1980s made building cheap LEO satellites using normal commercial-off-the-shelf componets possible. It then became the huge nanosatellite revolution of the 2000s, with more than a thousand cubesats of all sizes launch into LEO. LEO means that at most a satellite will have a few years of useful life, so even if it fails, you only lost relatively little money. Radiation in LEO is relatively low, the problem start to be important in orbits above 1000km.

[@Conservator.]

Luca Bertagnolio That’s interesting to know. Tx!

[@g.s.3389]

@@lucabertagnolio9166 Designing for space is much more complicated than designing for standard electronics. Electronics for military, avionics, and aerospace are crafted to withstand the extreme temperatures, vibration, shock, and radiation effects commonly encountered at lift-off and outside the earth’s atmosphere. Temperatures vary along a wide range from -55°C to +125°C in space. Not exactly COTS components, unless your components can manage those exrtremes.

[@tommh44]

Thanks for your excellent coverage of this. I ordered the TTGO board that you mentioned on the video. The groundstation software runs just fine. But since I have yet to hear a signal, don't know if it actually works. I wonder what you mean by "unsupported" It shows up on the map km5h_1 right in the middle of the USA.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Maybe you join the discussions on the telegram channel. There are two problems: 1. The satellite did not extend its antenna and 2. they discovered that the SX1276 modules will not support tis version of the satellite. Hopefully it will work with Sat-2...

[@tommh44]

Andreas Spiess thanks for taking the time to reply. Your latest video helped a lot clearing my confusion. My board says v1.6 but requires V2 in the software. Can’t tell which sx12?? That I have. Anyway I am ready for SAT-2 thanks to you.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Your chip is a 1276 or 1278 (depending on the frequency)

[@GRBtutorials]

5:20 Well, I'm no expert either (yet), but it looks like to me that the first derivative refers to infinitesimal calculus, where the first derivative indicates the rate of change at a point of a function, and the second derivative is the derivative of the first (so for example, the first derivative of the position is the speed, and the second derivative is the acceleration). Mean motion, after some research, seems like it's just angular speed (the angle covered per unit of time). "Aka" means "also known as", so the first derivative of mean motion is also known as the "ballistic coefficient", just a fancy name.

[@AndreasSpiess]

I understand the words, but not the meaning ;-)

[@GRBtutorials]

Andreas Spiess I believe this has to do with the characteristics of the orbit. As you might know, orbits aren’t perfectly circular but elliptical, and I think that’s what it means from what I’ve gathered and what I know from calculus. Would need to do further research to say for sure, though...

[@w42ren]

Come on its not rocket science oh!!!

[@ressamendy]

Will the world not fall after this mini satellite works for a while? Will he be able to stay constant? After a while another project I saw was the world or falling?

[@AndreasSpiess]

Unfortunately I do not understand your comment

[@cmuller1441]

STATUS: FOSSASAT-1 IS TRANSMITTING AND HEALTHY BUT ANTENNAS HAVE NOT BEEN DEPLOYED - RECEPTION ONLY POSSIBLE WITH HIGH GAIN ANTENNA USING RTTY

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are right.

[@Space_Investing]

Hellooo, how far is the range on these? Is there a limit? Thanks in advanced...I just subscribed.

[@AndreasSpiess]

These satellites cover every point on earth. But this particular one newer worked properly and is switched off by now.

[@AJB2K3]

Would Fossasat1 communications become oversaturated by requests resulting in DOS type attack from all these peoples trying to access it so soon?

[@linagee]

RF itself has never been DOS-proof... (It depends on large government entities to come around and stop people transmitting when they shouldn't be.)

[@FossaSystems]

No, the satellite will just ignore what it cannot handle...

[@sanjaymistry-sales]

Hi Andreas, (I'm a big fan of yours). Anyways, is there any update on LoRa satellite?

[@AndreasSpiess]

Maybe you join their telegram channel? There you should get the news.

[@spiritcore1]

Hi Andreas, What type of LoRa the satellite receives and transmits? Does it have encryption? Trying to understand if LoRa is legal in my country (even as ham op). Thanks!

[@AndreasSpiess]

You find the LoRa config in the groundstation sketch

[@josedavid6400]

can't get fossa from gpredict even after update TLE data from network several times. Do you know an alternative way to track them? Thanks for another good video mate!

[@AndreasSpiess]

As I said in the video, you still have to upload it from a file. You find a link it in the description.

[@josedavid6400]

Andreas Spiess Thanks! I missed this comment. Already working, hope this night catch up with SDR. Thanks!!!

[@marinehm]

Can they send an MQTT message to bring it out of low power mode? That would be disappointing if it doesn’t communicate with the ground stations.

[@AndreasSpiess]

They try various things. You can follow them on telegram

[@LeonardoBaracat]

Hi Andreas, great video. Excelent subject coverage. I was wondering if you could help me with gpredict. I installed the software via linux repository and updated the TLE info. Everything is working like a breeze. But I couldn't find the sats (84001,84002 and 84003). Did you make any customizations/settings? Pointing to any new TLE source, for example... Thanks in advance, Baracat

[@AndreasSpiess]

You need to load the TLE file I provided in the comments.

[@josephmartinelli97]

I use Gpredict 2.2.1 updated but, when I want to create a new module, in the list, there is no Fossa satelitte ... I found FO-29 ; 98 ; 99 ; FORMOSAT-3 FM1 to FM6.

[@AndreasSpiess]

There is a link to a TLE file in the video description

[@JohnTarbox]

Andreas, would you please post a status update on this project?

[@AndreasSpiess]

You get the updates on their telegram channel. The satellite is still not available for the general public because its antenna is still not deployed. So we have to wait for the next one in spring.