TEKNOFEST Model Satellite System
A Raspberry Pi payload and ground station for live telemetry, mapping, orientation, logging, and video, built for a 9th-place international finish.
This was the most complete system I had built at the time.
I worked as lead software developer and Vice Captain during the TEKNOFEST cycle, so the project was not only about writing code. The team had to depend on the software during competition conditions.
The System
The project had two main sides:
- a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W payload for sensors, transmission, and video
- a desktop ground station for visualization, mapping, orientation, and logs
The payload collected readings from sensors like the BMP390, TMP117, and BNO055, then streamed telemetry through an async WebSocket pipeline.
The ground station showed live telemetry, rendered a Folium trajectory map, logged CSV data, and displayed roll, pitch, and yaw through a VTK-powered 3D orientation view.
What Mattered
The important work was making the system readable under pressure.
Raw values were not enough. Operators needed motion, position, and state to be obvious while the mission was running. That is why the map, orientation view, logging path, and visualization boundaries mattered so much.
I also built a CSV flight simulator so the ground station could be tested without live payload hardware. That made iteration much faster and made the software easier to trust before competition day.
Why It Stayed
We finished 9th out of 100+ international teams.
The result matters, but the bigger thing for me was the shape of the work: embedded sensing, backend communication, operator-facing software, and team responsibility all meeting in one system.