Iridium satellite modem

macrobeak

This Sparkfun module looks interesting;
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13745
Remote text communications using the satellite phone system.
Has anyone interfaced it to Prop1 yet?

David Betz

macrobeak wrote: »

This Sparkfun module looks interesting;
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13745
Remote text communications using the satellite phone system.
Has anyone interfaced it to Prop1 yet?

I saw that but wonder what the cost is per message. Seems like it would have to be pretty high. They mention $12/month but I assume there is a per-message charge as well, no?

guenthert

David Betz wrote: »

macrobeak wrote: »

This Sparkfun module looks interesting;
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13745
Remote text communications using the satellite phone system.
Has anyone interfaced it to Prop1 yet?

I saw that but wonder what the cost is per message. Seems like it would have to be pretty high. They mention $12/month but I assume there is a per-message charge as well, no?

I was wondering about that too. https://www.rock7.com/shop-product-detail?productId=46 has the list. Short answer: it's based on 'credits' (1000 credits for 80 British Pounds), 50 characters per credit. Ouch.
Fascinating technology though. And who's going to count pennies, if you got the chance to tweet from the South Pole.

rbehm

I have not used the Sparkfun module but the included 9603 Iridium modem for helicopter fleet management. See <http://becker.com.tw/airscout-fleet.php>.
It works by using the SBD (Short Burst Data) service from Iridium. The cost is moderate for this application. In addition to the monthly fee you pay 0.04US$ for a message of up to 30 bytes. Enough for a position and status message.
BTW In this system are two props working, handling power management and a special avionics bus (ARINC-429).
The propellor's name makes it just fit to use it in an aircraft ;-)