The Differential Throttling Test Platform, DTTP, is being developed to help test the software that will control the modules during launch.  The platform will consist of four small electric motors.  Each motor will be controlled with PWM from a micro-controller.  The main flight computer will communicate to each motor what speed it should be running.  This will allow the computer to take measurements from gyroscopes and then set the speed of the motors to keep the platform stable and level.  This will allow us to keep the rocket headed in the correct direction during flight.  We will also learn techniques to control the direction of the rocket.

The software for the control is currently being written in C.  The operating system for the main computer will be Linux.  It will not be a RTOS version of linux.  The actual hardware control will come from micro-controllers while the main decisions are made from the Linux based computer.  The computer will eventually have to track data from every module in the launch system.  The code is set up as one loop.  Every loop consisting of a frame.  There will only be the main thread.  The application needs to be kept as simple as possible and as fast as possible.