Hardware Overview

The LabSat Real-Time+ system comprises of three main components. The LabSat hardware, a Syncbox  and a SatGen PC. Position data from the users HILS (hardware-in-loop-simulator) is passed to the Syncbox via either Ethernet or RS-232 for pre-processing. The pre-processing ensures that data sent to the SatGen PC is synchronised with the RF output from the LabSat.

The system is designed to be ‘headless’, meaning that the PC simply boots and automatically runs the SatGen application. However, if access to the PC is required, a USB hub can be used to provide additional USB ports for keyboard and mouse.

The Syncbox is responsible for the timing of position data to the SatGen PC. To minimise latency while maintaining stable simulation, it is essential that SatGen receives position data synchronously to the output data that is generated and output to the LabSat. SatGen requires position updates at 100 Hz and with minimal jitter. As user simulation software often provides position updates at arbitrary rates, Syncbox is able to receive and re-time incoming user position data and will interpolate output data where necessary.