Beacon and Tracking information for SLU-02 (Argus)
There are 13 spacecraft on the ORS-4 launch, including 12 CubeSats, so it will take some time to sort out orbital elements. We'll post information as best we can.

TLES:  To Be Determined

Telemetry Beacon:

  • Downlink Frequency: 437.290 MHz
  • Protocol: 9600 bps GMSK AX.25 (unproto)
  • Callsign: ARGUS1
  • Beacon Period: Every 10 seconds
Did you hear a beacon? Send it to us, please!

Send beacon messages by e-mail to slu02.argus@gmail.com.  Thank you!

Beacon Format

Every beacon has the same start format, which looks like this:

    SLUBCN02091400 000000078 

Those elements are:

  • SLUBCN: Start 'bit' indicating that this is a beacon from one of SLU's spacecraft
  • 02: Spacecraft identifier (in this case, SLU-02, Argus)
  • 09: Software version (identifies the beacon format used)
  • 14: Decimal representation of binary states. For Argus, there are 7 states represented. Thus, "14" should read 0000111. From most significant bit to least significant bit
    • VUC Ready
    • I2C Ready
    • SD Ready
    • Burn Circuit Active
    • Clear to Send
    • Ejected
    • Deployed
  • 00: Frame Identifier. Argus has three frame types, 00 (Base Telemetry), 01 (Payload Telemetry), 02 (Radio Configuration)
  • 000000078: Mission Clock (seconds since last software reboot)

Frame 00 (Base Telemetry)

The Base Telemetry Frame begins with the start characters, above, and then looks like this:

240 312 39E 3A0 310 39D 39D 313 232 310 3A9 35A 319 1FF 31C 315 10001000603630000004CBEAEND

The three-character strings are hexadecimal representations of our 10-bit analog-to-digital converters. We will get the conversions posted, soon. In order:

  1. [not used]
  2. X+ Current (mA)
  3. X+ Temperature (C)
  4. X- Temperature (C)
  5. Y+ Current (mA)
  6. Y+ Temperature (C)
  7. Y- Temperature (C)
  8. X- Current (mA)
  9. [not used]
  10. Y- Current (mA)
  11. Battery Temperature (C)
  12. Battery Voltage (V)
  13. Battery Current (mA)
  14. [not used]
  15. 5V Current (mA)
  16. 3.3V Current (mA)
The remainder of the string is payload diagnostic data.

Frame 01 (Payload Telemetry)

The payload data is passed to our science sponsor and not decoded by SLU.

Frame 02 (Radio Configuration)

To be updated.

Go Back to the Argus Main Page