Tracking
- The most efficient, continuous, world-wide tracking and emergency system, using GPRS and satellite networks
- User friendly and private internet page with real time position in 2D and 3D (Google Map / Earth ® engine) and flight data download
- Emergency location message channelled to the closest Search and Rescue (SAR) centre
- Accelerometer or manual activation of emergency mode
- Remote configuration capability
- LCD display for navigation and set up
- Convenient insurance policies available for SAR operations and Medical Evacuation
- Soon: Approved Flight Recorder for competitions (>200 h @ 1 fix/3s recording capacity)
- 3D immersive environment for spectacle broadcasting and real time tracking
The development of the system
The DSX tracking system has walked quite a long way before reaching the commercial level at which it is not: it has been deployed in more than few events and competitions from the year 2009 to develop it, test it and debug it.
The testing of the system has been conducted for many hundreds hours of operation in the most different environments, using 20 units manufactured with the sole purpose of proving the concept, verifying the performance and displaying the whole system to the future possible customers.
From 2008, the performance of the SaFly system has steadily increased: from the first tests where there were some flaws in the data transmission, the software has been improved to get to the current level, where it has many options available, different possible configurations, a display for the user interfacing but, most of all, a reliability that has no match on the market.
The hardware has evolved greately, optimizing some components, changing others and developing new ones on purpose, like the antennas, that lend a performance greater than anything else out there, and the same electronic board that offers e high degree of efficiency handling the radio frequency signals.
With this background DSX is today able to offer a mature product that has no rivals on the market: it is by far the unique, small, portable and reliable emergency location transmitter and tracker, able to offer the most economical service but granting a worldwide coverage.
The intellectual property behind this success, composed of special algorithms and a totally dedicated hardware, has been protected by DSX.
Tasks of the system
The system is conceived for the use as:
- an emergency locator transmitter
- a tracking tool for personal safety and adventure sharing with friends and relatives
- a system for competitions, to broadcast the events and provide a safety system to monitor the participants.
The web service infrastructure is setup and offered to all customers, being them private users or firms or associations, to monitor the movements of the crafts. The files containing the position data can be downloaded in IGC and KML format directly from the personal page that every user is given, together with the SaFly hardware.
To send the data to a fix station, i.e. a computer for graphic and numeric displaying or a cellular phone, the DSX tracking system uses its GPRS and satellite integrated modules. In case the craft exits the coverage area of the GSM cellular network, the satellite channel is opened and the data are transmitted through the satellites.
All data are stored in the large, non volatile internal memory and can be downloaded once the craft is again at the base. The data transmitted are sent directly to the DSX private server, granting the total privacy and accessibility only by the authorized clients. It's possible to send the data to any other server, since the system is completely reconfigurable. Configuration of operating parameters can be performed also from a remote cellular phone, in real time.
The customer has the mean to allow the persons that he authorizes, to follow his movements, in real time, in a DSX dedicated web page, where they are logged also for future reference and data downloading. The traces can be viewed in a 2D or 3D Google based window of any internet browser.
The user at the ground station can request information from the onboard system any time and with the level of detail desired (i.e. current position, speed, track and other onboard data from connected systems).
Thanks to this, it’s now feasible to know the track, the usage conditions of the craft and the status in which possible damages and accidents happen.
The display of the recorded data can be done on any computer connected to the internet and analysed in detail also with many software programs available on the market.
The surveillance mode. Thanks to the extremely low power consumption of the DSX tracking system, a surveillance of the craft is possible also when it is powered by the internal batteries. The system can be configured to transmit a message if the craft moves from the position where it was left, alerting the owner and any other pre- ecorded phone number, through an SMS message. The SMS messages can be sent to as many cellular phones as desired and also to a predefined internet server.
In this operation mode, being able to transmit and receive to and from a ground station or a cellular phone, the system can send data collected from onboard sensors (i.e. temperature, movement onboard, status of the batteries) and can send commands to other systems of the craft that are connected (i.e. the heating system for pre-heating).
The tracking unit can be powered for a long time with the craft onboard battery or through its own solar panel and internal batteries, which makes it totally portable and independent from an external power.
Globalstar satellite coverage network
Hardware options
- Internal GPS antenna (in replacement of the external one)
- LCD display with navigation data, system monitoring information and set up functions
- GSM external antenna, to stick to the fuselage, with minimal aerodynamic impact
- solar panel to be connected directly to the SaFly and allow it to operate for many days before the internal battery drains or, recharge it
- The serial connecting cable for palmtop or other computer allows for the transmission of the GPS navigation data, pressure altitude data and direct messaging to and from other DSX tracking units and cellular phones
