Software Development of a Standardized User Interface for the HAFB Telemetry Ground Station

Abstract

The Systems Development (SD) group at the Physical Science Laboratory (PSL) has developed and integrated many telemetry data acquisition systems for both government and non-government customers. PSL/SD normally only develops telemetry hardware when there is no commercially viable equipment available within the cost restraints of the contract. Over the years, PSL/SD has chosen the best commercially available hardware that fulfilled the requirements of the specific project. Each project presented a unique set of requirements that necessitated a custom designed user interface for the setup of each vendor’s telemetry hardware. PSL found that it was redeveloping the telemetry definition user interface for each vendor’s product and this was consuming a larger percentage of the development budget. Therefore, in the development of the user interface for Holloman Air Force Base (HAFB) Telemetry Processing System (TPS), PSL decided to develop a user interface that could be easily modified to support new telemetry hardware with a minimum effort and present a common user feel to all future telemetry systems.