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StarLog Owner's Guide for Mac

Also available: StarLog Owner's Guide for Windows

Welcome to StarLog

StarLog shows you exactly how your rocket flew: the climb, the peak and the descent, charted on your Mac. It works with two devices from MoonBeam Comms:

• Moon Ship rides in your rocket. It measures altitude 20 times a second, keeps a full log of every flight and radios it to the ground live.
• Moon Base sits at the launch site. It receives the live data, shows the flight's stage on its lights and saves every flight to its microSD card.

Plug either one into your Mac and StarLog downloads the flights, charts them and keeps them in a logbook.

What you need

• A Mac with macOS 11 (Big Sur) or later, Apple silicon or Intel.
• A USB-C data cable. Some cables only charge and won't work; if StarLog can't find a device, try another cable first.
• No internet connection is needed to use StarLog. When you are online, it checks for updates.

Installing StarLog

Installing takes about two minutes. Everything StarLog needs is built in.

1. Double-click StarLog_V3.14.dmg (the version number may be newer). A window opens showing StarLog and an Applications folder.
2. Drag StarLog onto Applications, then close the window. You can eject the StarLog disk in the Finder sidebar.
3. Open Applications and double-click StarLog.
4. The first time, macOS says it can't verify StarLog, because this early version isn't registered with Apple yet. Click Done (or OK).
5. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down to the message about StarLog and click Open Anyway. Confirm with your password or Touch ID. You only do this once.
6. If macOS asks whether StarLog may access files in your Documents folder, click Allow. That's where StarLog keeps your flights.

StarLog opens in its own window. If Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge is installed, it uses that; otherwise it opens in Safari. To make StarLog easy to find, drag StarLog from Applications onto the Dock.

A quick tour with the demo flights

StarLog comes with three sample flights of a LOC Precision 4" Goblin, in a folder called Demo flights: two on an AeroTech H100W-14A motor and one on a J350W-14A. Each has two logs, the rocket's own and the Moon Base's radio copy. Use them to find your way around before your first launch.

The screen

• Top right: the connection status and the Reconnect button.
• On the rocket: the panel for a plugged-in Moon Ship or Moon Base. It's empty until you connect one.
• This computer: every flight saved on your Mac, newest first.
• The flight view: the numbers and chart for the flight you click.

Looking at a flight

1. Click a flight in This computer. Its key numbers appear at the top: peak altitude, maximum speed, boost acceleration, time to apogee, descent rate and flight time. Feet come first, with metres alongside.
2. Use Altitude, Speed and Acceleration above the chart to switch views.
3. Move the mouse along the chart. A dashed line follows it, and the strip above the chart shows the exact time and values at that moment.
4. To zoom in, drag across the part you want, or use the scroll wheel or trackpad. ↺ Reset zoom goes back to the whole flight, and ⤢ Expand chart makes the chart bigger.

Reading the chart

• When a flight has both logs, the rocket's log is the solid line and the Moon Base's copy is the dashed blue line.
• Red bands on the Moon Base's log mark moments when the radio signal dropped. The rocket's own log has no gaps.
• The bubble in the top-right corner of the chart shows the rocket and motor. Hide tucks it away and Edit changes them.

Comparing flights and keeping a logbook

Compare up to six flights

1. Tick the box beside two or more flights in This computer, up to six.
2. They appear together on one chart, each in its own colour, with a legend naming them. The strip above the chart shows every flight's value at the same moment.
3. Zoom works the same way. Clear unticks them all and goes back to a single flight.

Try it with the demo flights: compare the J350W-14A flight with an H100W-14A flight to see what a bigger motor does.

Record what you flew

1. Click Details on a flight.
2. Choose the rocket's maker and model and the motor's maker and model from the lists, or type new ones. StarLog remembers them for next time.
3. Click Save details.

Sort the logbook

Above the list, choose Flight, Rocket or Motor to sort and group your flights. Grouping by motor is a quick way to compare every flight on the same motor.

Downloading your own flights

Connect a device

1. Open StarLog.
2. Switch the Moon Ship or Moon Base on and plug it into your Mac with a USB-C data cable. The Moon Ship chirps three times when it's ready.
3. Within a few seconds StarLog finds it by itself. The status at the top right turns green and the panel title changes to On the rocket or On the Moon Base. If nothing happens, click Reconnect.

You can plug in both at once. A Moon Ship / Moon Base switch then appears at the top of the panel.

Download

• Download latest flight saves the newest flight on the device.
• Download selected saves the flight you've clicked in the panel.
• Download all saves every flight that isn't on your Mac yet. Flights already saved are skipped.

Flights already on your Mac are marked Saved as Flight N. StarLog checks each file's contents, not just its name, so a new flight is never mistaken for an old one. A saved flight is never overwritten. When the rocket's log and the Moon Base's log are of the same flight, StarLog pairs them under one flight number.

Free up space on the device

Erase rocket memory… (or Erase Moon Base memory…) deletes every flight on the device. Leave Save all flights to this computer first ticked and anything not yet saved is downloaded before erasing. To confirm, type ERASE and click Erase. Flights already on your Mac are not affected, and the next flight starts again at File 01 on the device while StarLog's flight numbers keep counting up.

Files from elsewhere

Import file… adds a log from a microSD card reader or from someone else's StarLog.

Staying up to date

When your Mac is online, StarLog checks for updates when it opens and every few hours. You stay in charge: nothing installs until you click.

Moon Ship and Moon Base firmware

1. StarLog downloads new firmware by itself and checks it.
2. Plug in the device. The bottom of its panel shows, for example, Firmware V10 · V11 available.
3. Click Update firmware…, then Update, and keep the cable in until the device restarts. It takes a few seconds.
4. The panel then shows Firmware V11 · up to date.

The device keeps its flights and its pairing. If the cable is pulled partway, it keeps running its old firmware, so it can't be left unusable. Firmware can't be updated during a flight.

StarLog itself

When a newer StarLog is out, a blue banner appears at the top: StarLog 3.15 is available. Click Update now and StarLog downloads it, checks it, closes and reopens as the new version, with all your flights in place. Later hides the banner until StarLog is next opened.

Where your flights are kept

Everything is on your own Mac, in Documents → StarLog. There's no account and no cloud.

Open folder in StarLog shows the flights in the Finder. To keep a backup, copy the StarLog folder to another drive or to iCloud Drive now and then.

Deleting flights

• One flight: click Details, then Delete flight…, then Delete.
• Everything, including the demo flights: Clear saved flights… at the bottom of the list, then type CLEAR to confirm.

Deleted flights go to the Trash, so a mistake can be undone with Put Back. Flights on your Moon Ship or Moon Base aren't touched.

Troubleshooting

StarLog explains problems in the yellow banner at the top, and the message stays until the problem is fixed.

Getting help

If something isn't working, send us the activity log. It shows what StarLog was doing and saves a lot of back and forth.

1. In the Finder, open Documents → StarLog.
2. Attach starlog_activity.log to an email, along with a sentence about what happened. If there's also a starlog_error.log, attach that too.

You can also see the same record inside StarLog: click Show log next to the version number at the top.

MoonBeam Comms

Lane Bush, developer

Thank you for flying with StarLog. We'd love to hear how your first launches go.