November 15, 2023 November 9, 2019: Info about 1.08r image October 14, 2019: Recommending a case with a fan in "Building the Fox-in-a-Box" January 4, 2020: Info about 1.08w image February 10, 2020: Archive info about corrupted files here March 24, 2020: More about corrupted files; update to 1.08z5 June 18, 2020: Suggestions about RTL-SDR and FCD October 3, 2020: Problem with Pi audio, and P14 HDMI jack December 20, 2020 Update with FoxTelem V1.09n5 December 30, 2020 Update with new Raspberry Pi OS and support for 8-Gig Pi4. October 28, 2021 Update with FIAB V3 info. November 8, 2022 Update info about FoxTelem V1.12z3 in FIAB V3 November 10, 2022 Warning about Balena Etcher November 15, 2023 Pi 5 NEW RASPBERRY PI We do not know of anyone who has tried FIAB on a Pi5. I assume it should work, but you never know. If you try it please send me a note indicating your success or failure! (bfisher at amsat.org) Thanks! NOTE/WARNING: One of these documents suggests using Balena Etcher to downlink, unzip, and write to an SD card all in one operation. This works very well when it works. However, for some reason it commonly does NOT work from https://burnsfisher.com/AMSAT/FoxInABox/FIAB-V1.12z3.iso.gz. Often it will work to about 96% and then hang. Rather than spend an hour or two seeing whether this happens for you, I suggest that you use a browser and download the file to your local machine. Then use BE to unzip and write it to your SD card by specifying the local file you downloaded rather than a URL. This web page contains two PDF files and one text file along with this readme.txt: 1) "Building the Fox-in-a-Box.pdf" and 2) "How to setup Fox-in-a-Box.pdf" 3) "Updating FoxTelem on your Fox-in-a-Box.txt" The "building" document is in the form of a handout which could be passed out at ham shows, especially if you want to display the Fox-in-a-Box. It contains a list of materials and a reference to this web site. The "Setup" document describes how to use either the SD card image on this website or the SD card that you can purchase from the AMSAT store. As of November 8, 2022 there is a new version of FoxTelem, so you might want to update SD cards downloaded or bought earlier. The current gzipped image file to download is Fox-in-box-V1.12z3.iso.gz. This will match what you can buy at the AMSAT store within a few days. In addition to having all of the additional programs from FIAB V3 and supporting and has far more programs as well as supporting the AMSAT CubeSat Simulator. It requires a 16Gb SD card. FIAB-V1.09n5-30Dec20.zip is also there and will fit on a smaller SD card (8G) but has an older FoxTelem and fewer extra programs. Both images support the Raspberry Pi 3 and 4. HINTS AND KINKS SCREEN SIZE: The new Raspberry Pi OS seems to be less specific about screen resolution on some Pi versions. If, when you start up, you find the screen size unusable, and you can't find a way to fix it under the Raspberry menu, try to start a terminal and issue the command sudo raspi-config and navigate to "Display Options" and "Resolution". We have discovered that if you are planning to run "headless", that is with no screen connected (only VNC), you have fewer screen size options. If you connect to an HDMI monitor first and choose a resolution, we think that resolution "sticks" with VNC after you disconnect the monitor. Different Pi models seem to have different behavior, so your mileage may vary. USB SDR DEVICE: We suggest using a small USB "extension cord" so that the FunCube Dongle or RTL-SDR is not plugged directly into the Raspberry Pi. This puts less mechanical strain on the connection and is more likely to stay connected electrically. You MUST use a FunCube Dongle Pro+, not the original FunCube Dongle Pro. FoxTelem has supported the original in the past, but it does not work on the Raspberry Pi. You can also try an RTL-SDR, but that is not *officially* supported. Most have have reported success with the RTL-SDR, but it does have a much higher noise floor and poorer out-of-band filtering. Some have also reported good success using an IC-9700 and Flex radios and using the IF signal from its USB cable to go into FoxTelem using IQ mode. Other SDR dongles do not work yet. Note that RTL-SDR WILL NOT WORK if you have DUV+HS set as the decode mode for Fox FM satellites, but you don't want to do that anyway. You should choose DUV only. HS is unlikely to be enabled now that AO-92 is "on the edge" with its batteries. CPU SPEED: If you see a red text message saying "Audio Missed" with a non-0 number on the bottom of the "Input" page, most likely the CPU is not able to do all the processing it is being asked to do. (Program Alarm 1201, for Apollo aficionados) This is most likely to happen on the Pi3; less likely on the Pi4. Be sure you have set the decode type to DUV, but NOT to "Auto" or "DUV+HS" which takes twice as much CPU. If you are using VNC, watching the input screen takes more CPU than watching a data panel, so switching away from the input screen might give you more power back also. In addition, see the next item: COOLING AND POWER: The new Raspberry Pi OS can show you a low voltage warning in the upper right of the screen even using VNC. (Older versions only showed a lightning bolt icon on a hardwired screen). It may also be able to show a temperature warning, but I have not seen this (again the older OS only showed a thermometer icon on a hardwired screen). Either of these warnings can cause the CPU to slow down and give you a problem like "CPU SPEED" above. If you see the voltage warning, the likely problem is a power supply or a power cord that can't manage the power drain. It has been reported that some power supplies sold with Raspberry Pi are not up-to-snuff and may cause the low voltage. However, a common problem, especially with the Pi4, is that many USB cables have very small power leads (AWG #28 or #30) which are not really enough for the power required by the Pi, especially if the cable is several meters long. Search the internet for cables with #20 or #21 power wires if you have this problem. This cable has #21 power, for example: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017VPQWC6 . For temperature, be sure that you installed the heat sinks that come with many Pi kits. I also recommend a fan especially for Pi 4. There are cases with builtin fans available; these seem to do the trick in a 20C room at least. FOXTELEM CRASHES: If you see random crashes on your FIAB (meaning that FoxTelem generates a fatal error), double check that audio output is turned off. This is a button just above the audio/fft display on the "Input" page. It should say "Monitor Audio", and not "Silence Speaker". For some reason, the audio capabilities of the Pi do not agree with the FoxTelem software, so this crash will happen seemingly randomly if the audio output is turned on. (It is turned off by default when you get the card). Another problem is that even a momentary loss of full connection to the SDR USB dongle can cause a problem. The FoxTelem code has been updated to retry, so this may be less of a problem now, but again, the suggested fix is to use a USB extension cord. There are also actual bugs which may require that you restart FoxTelem occasionally. RAINBOW SQUARE DISPLAYED ON PI4: If you are using a Pi4 and connecting to an HDMI monitor, notice that there are two micro-HDMI jacks on the Pi. You must connect your monitor to the jack closest to the power cord. Otherwise, you will only get a rainbow square (or nothing) on your monitor. SD CARD SIZE The AMSAT store has started shipping FIAB on 16GB SD cards and the new FIAB V3 requires that size or more. The older download image that fits on an 8GB card is still available (see above). NEW SATELLITES FoxTelem keeps track of satellites using "orbital elements", aka Keplerian elements or Keps; theses are numbers that allow FoxTelem to predict the doppler shift on the satellite, and when it is above the horizon. With recently launched or released satellites, early orbital elements are not 100% certain, so the correct elements may have a generic name (for example 2019-071J). In addition, for a few days or weeks the name may change several times as we try to determine which of several orbiting objects is our satellite. When an Oscar number is assigned, that is usually the final name change. FoxTelem downloads orbital elements regularly using this name. When the name changes, you will have to tell FoxTelem to use a different orbital element set name. You can do this by pulling down the "Spacecraft" menu and under the new satellite name (Fox-1e for example), change "Name (for Keps)" to the new name. Keep an eye on the AMSAT BB, Twitter, or Facebook group to know whether it has changed. Expect this problem for Golf-TEE after launch. None of the other satellite currently supported by FoxTelem is likely to change. INSTRUCTIONS FOR FIXING CORRUPTED DATA FILES We believe this problem is mostly fixed on the newest version, and if it happens, you can fix it using the File/Delete Payloads FoxTelem menu item. However, I'll leave the instructions here for those who have older SD cards and FoxTelem versions. There is a bug in some older FoxTelem versions such that when you shut down FoxTelem (including when you just power off the FIAB), it occasionally corrupts some of its data files. When you restart, you will get an error message. Sometimes the message is clear ("File Corrupted"), sometimes less so. The download site contains two files to help with this in a folder on the desktop called "FileDeleteScripts". The files are also available separately on this website. They are clearFoxTelemData.sh and clearFoxTelemDir.sh. These are script files that will delete a number of different files that could be corrupted. The first script (clearFoxTelemData.sh) will just clear the data files so you will have no history, but FoxTelem will continue to work without change. The other (clearFoxTelemDir.sh) is a last desperate measure if the first one does not work. If you use this file, you will lose your FoxTelem preferences and will have to go through some initialization next time you start FoxTelem. To use these files, double-click on 'clearFoxTelemData.sh'. Select 'open in terminal'. A terminal will appear on the screen, the procedure will run, and you should see a message that tells you that the data files were deleted. The terminal will disappear in a few seconds. If you have already run one of these scripts without starting FoxTelem again, you will get a message like: rm: cannot remove '/home/pi/Documents/FoxTelemetryData/FOXDB': No such file or directory rm: cannot remove '/home/pi/Documents/FoxTelemetryData/*.log': No such file or directory These messages are not a problem. They just indicate that there are no log files to delete. After this, you should be able to start FoxTelem. As a last resort only, follow the same procedure with 'clearFoxTelemDir.sh'. If you do this, you will have to reset all your parameters and preferences. Burns Fisher, WB1FJ