Table of Contents
Mars2 Monitor System
Mars2 is a remote monitoring system for reporting temperature, power, generator and other remotely sensed variables. The data is collected by an AVR processor at the remote site and transmitted via a UI broadcast packet to the home site.
Hardware
The remote hardware consists of:
- 2 meter ground plane whip antenna
- 2 meter FM radio
- TinyTrak 4 (TT4) packet converter
- AVR CPU
The remote AVR CPU has the following functions:
- Two One Wire buses
- Two optical interfaces for power sensing of the generator and utility power
- RS232 interface to TT4 packet converter
The home hardware consists of:
- 2 meter yagi antenna
- 2 meter FM radio
- TinyTrak 4 (TT4) packet converter
- RS232 level converter
- Kahlo 4 modified with 4 bit LCD, UART TX, RX outputs
How It Works
Remote
The Remote AVR periodically monitors the one wire temperatures and the optical power interfaces. The data is collected in a data structure. At a periodic rate the structure is added to an APRS packet and sent to the TT4 over the serial lines. The TT4 formats the data and sends it to the microphone input of the 2 meter radio while keying the transmitter.
Base
Phobos is the base station and is based on the Kahlo mechanical hardware. The RJ45 has been rewired to accomodate an RS232 transceiver with the following pin assignment:
| Tx Out | 8 |
| Ground | 7 |
| Rx In | 6 |