SpaceLab TTC 2.

Miguel Boing, Gabriel M. Marcelino

2022 August 24
SpaceLab - UFSC

1
Summary

Project Overview

Hardware

Firmware

Operation

Documentation

Management

2
Project Overview
Overview

• Telemetry, Tracking and

Command (TTC) module
for small satellites like
CubeSats

• Project name: “TTC 2.0 ”

• Fully open source

• Based on FloripaSat-1
heritage

3
Product Tree

TTC 2.0

Hardware Firmware Documentation

Interface Control
Block Diagram HAL
Document (ICD)

Design Definition
Schematics Drivers
File (DDF)

PCB Layout Devices Usage Instructions

Assembly
RTOS
Instructions

System V&V Procedure

Tasks

Tests

4
Hardware
Specifications

• Microcontroller: MSP430F6659/MSP430F5659
• Clock: 32 MHz
• Memories:
• RAM: 64 kB (SRAM)
• Flash: 512 kB (code)
• Sensors: Voltage, current and temperature
• Modulation: (G)FSK or (G)MSK
• Baudrate: 1200 to 9600 bps
• Frequency: 145-146 MHz, 435-438 MHz or 450 MHz bands
• Protocol: NGHam
• Interfaces: UART, I2 C and SPI
• Mass: 73 g
• PC-104 compatible
5
Electrical Block Diagram

PC104

UART

GPIO

GPIO
SPI

SPI
JTAG JTAG
PC UART MSP430F6659 MSP430F6659 UART PC

I2 C I2 C

I2 C 2
I2 C
I2 C Buffer

I2 C

I2 C
I C Buffer

SPI/GPIO
SPI/GPIO
Voltage/Current Voltage/Current
Antenna Antenna
Sensors Sensors

RF RF
RF4463F30 RF4463F30

TTC Board

6
Schematics

Available at: https://github.com/spacelab-ufsc/ttc2

7
PCB Layout

Available at: https://github.com/spacelab-ufsc/ttc2

Top side Bottom side

8
3D Model

Available at: https://github.com/spacelab-ufsc/ttc2

9
Power Consumption

• Three separated voltage inputs: 3V3, 5V and 6V

(microcontrollers and transceivers)

• Power consumption1 :
• Stand-by mode ∼
= 83 mW

• Transmission mode ∼
= 2800 mW

• Reception mode ∼
= 163 mW

1
For one transceiver (there is two in TTC 2.0)
10
Electrical Interfaces: PC-104

Pin [A-B] H1A H1B H2A H2B

1-2 - - - -
3-4 - - - -
5-6 - - RA 1 UART RX -
7-8 GPIO 6 GPIO 7 RA 1 UART TX GPIO 0
9-10 RA 1 SPI INT RA 1 EN - -
11-12 RA 0 SPI INT RA 0 EN RA 1 SPI MOSI RA 1 SPI CLK
13-14 - - RA 1 SPI CS RA 1 SPI MISO
15-16 - - - -
17-18 - - - GPIO 1
19-20 - GPIO 2 - GPIO 3
21-22 - - - GPIO 4
23-24 - - - -
25-26 - - - -
27-28 - - VCC 3V3 VCC 3V3
29-30 GND GND GND GND
31-32 GND GND GND GND
33-34 - - - -
35-36 RA 0 SPI CLK - VCC 3V3 ANT VCC 3V3 ANT
37-38 RA 0 SPI MISO - - -
39-40 RA 0 SPI MOSI RA 0 SPI CS - -
41-42 - - - GPIO 5
43-44 - - - -
45-46 - - - -
47-48 - - - -
49-50 VCC 5V RA 0 VCC 5V RA 0 - -
51-52 VCC 6V RA 1 VCC 6V RA 1 - - 11
Other Electrical Interfaces

Connector Interface Type Pins

3V3
3V3
I2C SDA
CN1 I2 C PicoBlade
I2C SCL
GND
GND

3V3
3V3
I2C SDA
CN2 I2 C PicoBlade
I2C SCL
GND
GND

12
Other Electrical Interfaces

Connector Interface Type Pins

TDO TDI
3V3
None
None
None
None
TCK
CN3 JTAG Pin Header
None
GND
None
None
UART TX
None
UART RX

13
Other Electrical Interfaces

Connector Interface Type Pins

TDO TDI
3V3
None
None
None
None
TCK
CN4 JTAG Pin Header
None
GND
None
None
UART TX
None
UART RX

14
Other Electrical Interfaces

Connector Interface Type Pins

3V3
TDO TDI
TCK
CN5 JTAG PicoBlade
UART TX
UART RX
GND

3V3
TDO TDI
TCK
CN6 JTAG PicoBlade
UART TX
UART RX
GND

TX
CN7 UART PinHeader RX
GND

TX
CN8 UART PicoBlade RX
GND

3V3
CN9 Jumper Pin Header
-

15
Other Electrical Interfaces

Connector Interface Type Pins

RF SIGNAL
Y0 RF MCX
RF GND

RF SIGNAL
Y1 RF MCX
RF GND

16
Dimensions

17
Voltage/Current Sensors

• Voltage, current and power sensor

• Quantity: 4 (one per radio module and one per

microncontroller circuit)

• Texas Instruments INA226AQDGSRQ1

• I2 C Interface

18
External Watchdog

• IC: Texas Instruments TPS3823

• Voltage monitor with a watchdog timer feature

• Timeout period: 1600 ms

• Reset period: 100 ms

19
Transceiver

• NiceRF RF4463F30
• Based on Si4463 transceiver
• Integrated power amplifier and RF switch (single antenna)
• Half-Duplex
• Output power: 30 dBm
• SPI Interface

20
Flight Model Specs. and Preparation

• PCB specs.: IPC 6012 Class 3

• PCB thickness: 1,6 mm

• Material: TG170 FR-4

• Surface finish: ENIG

• Board finish: Conformal coating application

21
Firmware
Overview

Tasks Libraries

RTOS
• Language: C
Devices

• OS: FreeRTOS v10.2.1 Drivers System

HAL

Hardware

22
System Tasks

Name Priority Initial delay [ms] Period [ms] Stack [bytes]

Command Processing Highest 0 100 500

Heartbeat Lowest 0 500 160
Housekeeping Medium 2000 10000 160
Radio Reset High 60000 60000 128
Startup Medium 0 Aperiodic 128
System Reset Medium 0 36000000 128
Time Control Medium 1000 1000 128
Uplink Highest 2000 500 500
Watchdog Reset Lowest 0 100 150

23
System Tasks

• Command Processing: Process incomming commands

(physical interfaces).
• Heartbeat: Blinks a status LED at a rate of 1 Hz.
• Housekeeping: This task manages the general operation of
the TTC.
• Radio Reset: Resets the radio at 600 seconds.
• Startup: Initializes the TTC 2.0 module.
• System Reset: Resets the microcontroller by software at
every 10 hours.
• Time Control: Manages the system time.
• Uplink: Monitors radio for upcoming packages and stores it in
memory.
• Watchdog Reset: Resets the watchdog timers at every 100
miliseconds.
24
System Parameters

ID Name/Description Type

0 Device ID (0xCC2A or 0xCC2B) uint16

1 Hardware version uint8
2 Firmware version (ex.: “v1.2.3”’ = 0x00010203) uint32
3 Time counter in millseconds uint32
4 Reset counter uint16
5 Last reset cause: uint8
6 Input voltage of the µC in mV uint16
7 Input current of the µC in mA uint16
8 Temperature of the µC in K uint16
9 Input voltage of the radio in mV uint16
10 Input current of the radio in mA uint16
11 Temperature of the radio in K uint16
12 Last valid command (uplink packet ID) uint8
13 RSSI of the last valid telecommand uint16
14 Temperature of the antenna module in K uint16
15 Antenna module status bits uint16
16 Antenna deployment status uint8
17 Antenna deployment hibernation uint8
18 TX enable uint8
19 TX packet counter uint32
20 RX packet counter (valid packets) uint32
21 TX packets available in the FIFO buffer uint8
22 RX packets available in the FIFO buffer uint8
23 Number of bytes of the first available packet in the RX buffer uint16

25
Commands

ID Command Parameters

1 Read parameter Parameter ID

2 Write parameter Parameter ID + Parameter value
3 Transmit packet Data to transmit (payload of the NGHam packet)
4 Read first available packet None

26
Development Environment

• Hardware: Engineering Model

(EM)

• Programmer: Texas Instruments

MSP-FET programmer

• IDE/Compiler: Code Composer

Studio

27
Verification & Validation

• Unit tests framework: CMocka

• Static analysis tool: CppCheck

• Code style standard: MISRA-C 2012

28
Verification & Validation: TDD Flow

New software
module

Write a mockup Write the unit Write the module

Execute the tests
(if necessary) test(s) (unit)

No
Passed? Execute the tests

Yes

Done

29
Verification & Validation: Development Flow

New feature

Test Preparation

Tests Execution Yes Autonomous Tests Yes Yes

Coding (locally with Success? Commit and push (remotely with Success? Tests in Hardware Success? New Release
mockups) mockups)

No No No

30
Operation
Operation

• By default, the TTC will always operate in RX mode

• If requested by an external device, a packet is transmitted

(TX mode)

• An external device can read or write from/to the internal

parameters

• The received packets are stored in a queue with five positions

(up to five packets can be stored)

• When requested, an external device can read the decoded

packets from the queue

31
RF Protocol: NGHam

• With FEC (Reed-Solomon with seven different schemes)

• Up to 220 bytes of data per packet

32
NGHam: Sizes

Size Num. Tag RS Config. Parity Max. Data

Bytes Bytes
1 59, 73, 205 RS(47, 31) 16 28
2 77, 218, 87 RS(79, 63) 16 60
3 118, 147, 154 RS(111, 95) 16 92
4 155, 180, 174 RS(159, 127) 32 124
5 160, 253, 99 RS(191, 159) 32 156
6 214, 110, 249 RS(223, 191) 32 188
7 237, 39, 52 RS(255, 223) 32 220

33
NGHam: Parameters

• Preamble: 4 × 0xAA
• Sync. Word: 0x5D, 0xE6, 0x2A, 0x7E
• CRC:
• Polynomial: 0x1021
• Initial value: 0xFFFF
• Final XOR value: 0xFFFF
• Reed-Solomon:
• Symbol size: 8
• GF polynomial: 0x187 (coeficients form)
• First root of RS code generator polynomial: 112 (index form)
• Primitive element: 11
• Number of roots: 16 or 32

34
NGHam: Scrambling

• Before transmitting a packet, the RS code block is scrambled

by making a byte xor operation with a pre-generated table
based on the polynomial x 8 + x 7 + x 5 + x 3 + 1 (defined in the
CCSDS 131.0-B-3 standard)

• When the receiver receives a packet, it also perform the same

operation to de-scramble the RS code block and get the
original content of the RS part of the packet

• More information: CCSDS 131.0-B-3 (section 8.3)

35
Documentation
Documentation

• User manual (PDF)

• This presentation

• Schematics

• Firmware: Doxygen

36
Management
Project Management

• Activities and tasks: Public GitHub issues/project

• Source files and versioning control: Git repository with three

development branches:
• dev doc: Documentation
• dev hardware: Hardware project
• dev firmware: Firmware project

Release

master

dev

dev_doc

dev_hardware

dev_firmware

37
Thanks!