Sorry for the delayed answer… So here are some steps for a satellite to integrate with SatNOGS:
- Adding the satellite and its transmission details in SatNOGS DB
Currently we are in a transition phase on how this is performed, so there are two ways:
a) You can open an gitlab issue in satnogs-ops repository as described in the related wiki page by using the “add_satellite” template for the description field.
b) Add directly a suggestion in SatNOGS DB by logging in, going in the satellites page and at the top right click on the edit button. After the suggestion review you will be able to add suggestions for the transmitters as described in the “Suggesting transmitters” section of the related wiki page.
- Demodulator - gnuradio flowgraph
In satnogs-flowgraphs repo there are the currently used gnuradio flowgraphs. Some of them are generic and some more satellite specific. If any of these can be used for demodulating your satellite transmissions then there is no need to add any extra flowgraph. Otherwise you will need to add one, which have in mind that it may take a while to be reviewed, accepted and deployed in Network’s clients.
- Satellite Decoder
In order to decode the demodulated data you need to create a decoder by describing the schema of your encoding in a kaitai struct. In the README file of the related repo there are details how to start. You can also get in contact with @DL4PD for any specific questions. You can find him (as oldbug) also in the #satnogs matrix channel for more direct communication.
- Dashboard
In order to create a dashboard in our Grafana instance that will visualize the decoded data from your mission we need to populate the DB with some data. This can be done with performing some tests by using our two dev instances for DB and Network.
There are two approaches:
a) The simplest one is to push some data in DB (db-dev instance for the testing) and get them decoded and pushed to the dashboard’s database, this will make the data available and get you started with building your dashboard.
b) The extended version, that will also test the demodulator, is to setup a satnogs ground station(satnogs-client) and connect it in the Network (network-dev instance for the testing). Then you can schedule an observation of your satellite in your station and then transmit locally what your satellite would have transmitted. This way you will get an observation with demodulated data that will be sent to DB and get decoded and be available for building the dashboard.
For any questions for the test process and adding data in DB with either way you can contact me or find me (as fredy) in the matrix channel.
For help on building the dashboard and getting the appropriate permissions please contact @DL4PD as described above or @Kevin.
- Extra step - Inform Community
This is an extra step but important to make the SatNOGS community aware of your mission and make sure that they will observe it regularly.
For this step you need to open a forum thread in the community forum in the launches section. I can help you with this if you can give me more details on when your deployment will happen.
This thread is usually for watching all the missions deployed from a launch, if you intend to give regular updates on your mission, for example announce certain transmissions/events etc then I suggest you open an extra thread specific to your mission. Check for example Ramsat and Geoscan-Edelveis missions threads.
I know the process is kind of complicated but we are here to help you through all these steps.