Status Report - BINGO-PB projects

Check the repository: UIRAPURU2025

Setup and Status¶

Data Sources

Physical Temperature, Voltage and current:
- Analog Sensors
- arduino
- raspberry
ADSB monitoring:
- dipole antenna
- RTL-SDR dongle
- raspberry
- dump1090 over TCP
- pymodeS client
- linux machine
GNSS:
- gnss antenna
- 2xLNA
- USRP ettus N200
- gnss-sdr
- docker container
- linux machine
RFI
- omnidirectional antenna
- 2xLNA
- Skarab
- linux machine
Noise Injection
- Callisto Callibration Unit
- Callisto Spectrometer (bystander)
- raspberry + TCPSerialBridge
- linux machine (controller)
- Select $T_\mathrm{hot}$ , $T_\mathrm{warm}$ , $T_\mathrm{cold}$ for 30 minutes, once a day.
- Skarab
- Linux machine
Other polarization directly into receiver and skarab

Dfficulties

👷 Real life is a bitch!
- Connections, cables, components, parts should be checked and matched accordingly.
👷 Skarap development in python 2.7 environment makes it very difficult to integrate code efficiently.
👷 We need a 12V 2A DC source and 3 5V 3A DC sources and a 4V 1A DC source, all the available power sources at our disposal were compromised in some sort.
👷 The main computer was relying on ethernet mounts to boot and function, while destructive maintenance in the server was happening, leaving the system innoperative.
👷 Every components should fit in a box....

Status of the Assembly

📌 All antennas are in place.
📌 All hardware are in place.
📌 All the connections are done.
📌 All power sources are in place.
🚒 We need to fix boot of the main controller
- ✅ 23/10
🧹 Some network tweaks
- ✅ 23/10
🧹 Finish installing software in raspberry

Safety and Security Actions Enacted

**uirapuru controller:
- Linux User running devices do not log.
- \opt\share\uirapuru is a shared mounting point for local users. This comprehend both code and data.
- Code in shared mounting point is meant to be run from the main branch.
- Data folders should be immutable.
- Never work on the shared mounting point directly. Use a local copy.
- Never work on main branch.
- Default branch to everyone is dev.
- Github flow:
  - sync --> branch --> work --> pull request to DEV --> (editor) merge
- After tests and discussions, someone is designated to merge dev --> main as a deploy.
- No one is sudo and after first round of tests, apt cache should be frozen.
- Try to use conda to install any OS related dependency.
- Careful with environments and dependencies.
- The shared folder is mounted via NFS to a jupyterhub.
- There is a backup running daily in this machine, to the same partition.
Feel free to use any jibberish commit msg, but be thoughtful naming:
- branches: LB_skarab_controller_tcpclient
- modules/files
- folders
- classes/functions
please, feel yourself confident to ask, comment, answer, engage in the available spaces:
- email / whatsapp / face-to-face
- github issues
- github projects
- github discussions or wiki (in case of need)

Plan

📅 Finish installation by 23/10/2025
⏯️ Run at least 24h with 2048 FFT channels
⏯️ Run at least 24h with 4096 FFT channels
⏯️ Run at least 24h with 8192 FFT channels
🔁 Preferable 48h for each of the above.
⁉️ Stop, analyze, plan further actions
🖋️ Commit knowledge to an article

Code¶

Skarab¶

❓ fpg bitstream:
- We would be using three ADC channels and it is not clear that current bitstream can handle it.
- ⏳ For future thoughts: current bitstream is not adequate to serious signal processing.
Data Ingestion:
- 🏗️ Python code running is messy and saves npz files. At the very least the code should be upgraded to store a minimum metadata plus other important informations, like frequencies and timestamps.
- It is not difficult to implement a data streaming with this code, using zmq protocol and consume this stream with a more thoughtful logic at the other end.

Raspberry (Callisto)¶

Calibration Unit controller.
Callisto controller
TCP2SerialBridge
Arduino Controller with pyfirmata2 : not tested
Arduino Sensor data stream: not tested

Raspberry (ADSB)¶

dump1090-mutability + configurations: not tested

Linux controller¶

TCP client connecting to TCPSerialBridge: coded and tested in different setup, but not integrated in an operational code base with current setting.
pymodeS TCP client for ADS-B not tested
docker gnss-sdr
gnss-sdr configuration and test.
Task scheduler: good starting point tested in different configuration but needs work.
zmq client for skarab data stream.
HDF5 format: CSIRO SDHDF is a good starting point, we already have code along this lines but we should decide the exact format to use the engine.
Implementation of HDF5 engine

Code for Analysis¶

pointing array
sattelite tracker
radiosources event array: for speed we can track nvss sources and use specfind catalog to retrieve spectral indices. All funcionalities are already coded, but not integrated in a package.
baseline extraction
RFI flagging
Compare continuum measures with convolved map:
- ❓pysm3
- ❓HIPASS?
- ❓ASKAP?
- ❓VLASS?
RINEX downloader and Analyser
Solar flux calculator: download data from learmonth observatory and interpolate to desired frequency.

Ideas for Analysis¶

Analysis

With Callisto measurements determine:

\begin{aligned} {V_0}_\nu &\mapsto \textrm{Voltage Offset per frequency}\\ b_\nu &\mapsto \textrm{Detector Slope per frequency}\\ {T_{RX}}_\nu &\mapsto \textrm{Receiver Temperature per frequency}\\ \end{aligned}

(1)

First order calibrated measure is:

S_\nu = \frac{2k_B \nu^2}{c^2} \frac{4\pi}{G_\nu}\left[10^{\frac{V_\nu - {V_0}_\nu}{b_\nu}}\; \mathrm{K} - {T_{RX}}_\nu\right]

(2)

Antenna Directivity is obtained from measured beam pattern with interpolation. Gain is obtained by multiplying by $\eta$ factor, which encodes the effective area of the beam and if determined with sky calibration.

D = \frac{B(\theta, \phi)_\mathrm{max}}{\frac{1}{4\pi}\iint B(\theta, \phi)d\Omega}\\ G = \eta D

(3)

Astronomical Callibration
- Sun is a point source for uirapuru beam

T_A = \frac{\Omega_\odot}{\Omega_A}T_{\odot}

(4)

Galactic Plane emission.
Radiosources
GNSS satellites and RINEX data
Continuum Sky Map

3-point calibration

$T_\mathrm{hot} \gg T_\mathrm{cold} \sim T_\mathrm{RX}$

T_\mathrm{cold} = 290 K\\ T_\mathrm{warm} = 94868 K\\ T_\mathrm{cold} = 948683 K\\

(5)

\begin{aligned} V_\mathrm{cold} &= V_0 + b \log (T_\mathrm{RX} + T_\mathrm{cold})\\ V_\mathrm{warm} &= V_0 + b \log (T_\mathrm{warm})\\ V_\mathrm{hot} &= V_0 + b \log (T_\mathrm{hot}) \end{aligned}

(6)

\begin{aligned} b &= \frac{V_\mathrm{hot} - V_\mathrm{warm}}{\log \frac{T_\mathrm{hot}}{T_\mathrm{warm}}}\\ V_0 &= \frac{V_\mathrm{warm} \log T_\mathrm{hot} - V_\mathrm{hot} \log T_\mathrm{warm}}{\log \frac{T_\mathrm{hot}}{T_\mathrm{warm}}}\\ T_\mathrm{RX} &= 10^\frac{V_\mathrm{cold} - V_0}{b} - T_\mathrm{cold} \end{aligned}

(7)

Questions¶

Receiver physical parameters and $T_\mathrm{sys}$
Correlation with RFI and horn signal
Robustness of calibration procedure
Timescale for receiver stability
local RFI characterization
GNSS carrier x GNSS observed spectrum
- Time variabilityy
- Frequency shift/drift
- time of detection
Time of detection and ephemeris for radiosources
Pointing correction
Sensitivity
$G/T_\mathrm{sys}$
SEFD
Polarization?
Keeping or removing filters?

Software

Code Projects

Uirapuru2025 - First Light

Uirapuru First Light