Getting Started

Concepts

Flight

A flight represents one instance of a Weather Balloon launch. Each flight gets its own page and is configurable. You can manage your flights using your dashboard

Payload Doc

A Payload doc is json file that defines how the HABDash server should process your data and configures the flight page

Telem String

A telem string is a raw string of data from your balloon that is uploaded to and processed by the HABDash server

Creating your first flight

1. To create your flight, you have to have a HABDash account. Go to the register page to create one, or if you have one already make sure you are logged in
2. Go to your dashboard and click the "Create New Flight" button.
3. In order to create a flight you have to upload a payload doc. You can use the following as a template for your payload doc:

{
    "flight_name": "tumble",
    "description": "Just another test flight",
    "lat_field_name": "Lat",
    "lon_field_name": "Lon",
    "fields": [
        {
            "field_name": "Flight name",
            "field_type": "str",
            "chart_data": false,
            "field_order": 0
        },

        {
            "field_name": "Lat",
            "field_type": "str",
            "chart_data": true,
            "field_order": 1
        },

        {
            "field_name": "Lon",
            "field_type": "str",
            "chart_data": true,
            "field_order": 2
        },

        {
            "field_name": "Alt",
            "field_type": "int",
            "chart_data": true,
            "field_order": 3
        },

        {
            "field_name": "Temp",
            "field_type": "int",
            "chart_data": false,
            "field_order": 4
        }
    ]
}                           

Each object in the fields array describes a piece of data in your telem string. The number of fields in the json should match the number of pieces of data your balloon is transmitting.

The field_order specifies the position of the data in your telem string. For example, in the payload doc above the Alt field has an field_order of 4 which means its in the 5th position in your telem string.

The first field has to be your flight name. The server uses the first item in the telem string to identify which flight this data belongs to.

The lat_field_name and lon_field_name points towards the the latitude and longitude data in your telem string. These will be plotted on the map.

4. Once the payload doc has been uploaded, you will see your flight appear on your dashboard. You can click on the flight in your dashboard to view the flight page, click the edit button to upload a new flight doc to edit the configuration or delete the flight.

5. You can then upload your first piece of data and see it on the flight page by making a PUT request to www.habdash.org/api/submit-telem with a url parameter telem set to your telem string. For example www.habdash.org/api/submit-telem/?telem=$$tumble,29.18750,32.20833,8620,6

Here is a simple python example to upload a telem string:

import requests

data = '$$tumble,29.18750,32.20833,8620,6'
responce = requests.put(f'https://www.habdash.org/api/submit-telem/?telem={data_line}')

You should now see your first piece of data on the flight page!

For more details check out the rest of the documentation.

Happy Flying!