A Primer for Telemetry Interfacing in Accordance with NASA Standards Using Low Cost FPGAs

• Published in: arXiv.org 2022-03
• Main Authors: McCoy, Jake A, Schultz, Ted B, Tutt, James H, Rogers, Thomas, Miles, Drew M, McEntaffer, Randall L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Airborne/spaceborne computers; Commercial off-the-shelf technology; Field programmable gate arrays; Hardware; Low cost; Microcontrollers; Payloads; Power consumption; Sounding rockets; Telemetry
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2203.11913

Photon counting detector systems on sounding rocket payloads often require interfacing asynchronous outputs with a synchronously clocked telemetry (TM) stream. Though this can be handled with an on-board computer, there are several low cost alternatives including custom hardware, microcontrollers and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). This paper outlines how a TM interface (TMIF) for detectors on a sounding rocket with asynchronous parallel digital output can be implemented using low cost FPGAs and minimal custom hardware. Low power consumption and high speed FPGAs are available as commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products and can be used to develop the main component of the TMIF. Then, only a small amount of additional hardware is required for signal buffering and level translating. This paper also discusses how this system can be tested with a simulated TM chain in the small laboratory setting using FPGAs and COTS specialized data acquisition products.