novaGround

The hardware side of the Nova ground station. It runs on the Raspberry Pi in the Ground Station Suitcase, reads the MCC DAQ HATs, drives the relay board and servo driver, publishes telemetry over MQTT and executes the commands the NovaOps backend sends. C++17, built with meson, run by systemd.

Caution

This program switches relays and moves servos on real hardware. Test on novaMock first, and get a lead's review for anything that changes how actuators are driven (CONTRIBUTING.md).

Repo structure

src/
├── main.cpp          options, wiring, thread start-up
├── interfaces/       hardware drivers: DAQ HATs, GPIO, TCA9535 relays, PCA9685 servos
├── controllers/      device logic and the sampling/publishing loops
├── core/             command router, telemetry store, data logging
└── utils/
docs/setup.md         install, build, run and configure in detail
install.sh            one-time Pi setup
nova-pi.sh            install, use prod|dev, build, status, logs, deploy, doctor, report
start.sh              service entry point (systemd runs this)
run.sh                interactive tmux session, for bench work
novaGround@.service   the systemd unit: novaGround@prod and novaGround@dev
nova-pi-report.*      timer that reports this Pi's state to the Nova Console

Getting started

Set up

On a Raspberry Pi 4 with Raspberry Pi OS (Legacy, 64-bit):

sudo chmod +x install.sh
sudo ./install.sh

This installs every dependency, builds the code and installs the service.

Run

meson compile -C build
./build/novaMock --broker localhost          # no hardware needed
sudo ./nova-pi.sh status                     # the installed service

Targets, options, and where the services get their settings: docs/setup.md.

Troubleshoot

sudo ./nova-pi.sh doctor
journalctl -u novaGround@prod -f            # or novaGround@dev

Symptom	Fix
Data files never reach the backend	./nova-pi.sh status shows each environment's backend and whether it answers; look for UPLOAD FAILED in the log. .\ops\Nova.ps1 use <env> on the ops PC rewrites the settings
novaGround@<env> stops with "is running" or "bench session"	Only one of prod, dev and run.sh can run. Switch with sudo ./nova-pi.sh use <env>, or stop the bench session with ./run.sh --kill
nova-pi.sh says the Pi has the old novaGround.service	Migrate it: sudo ./nova-pi.sh install (details)
A DAQ HAT isn't found	Check the address jumpers, then sudo daqhats_read_eeproms
Telemetry flickers in the UI	run.sh and the service are both running. Stop one
Build fails on Debian Trixie	The daqhats library needs Raspberry Pi OS (Legacy, 64-bit)

More: Nova SUPPORT.md.

More information

To...	Read
Install, build, run, configure	docs/setup.md
Set up the Pi on the station	Raspberry Pi setup
Deploy a release to the Pi	RELEASING.md
Look up MQTT topics and payloads	MQTT topics
Follow code style and layout	Style · Organization
See what changed in each release	CHANGELOG.md
Contribute	CONTRIBUTING.md