The Swift Early Adopter Edition is available to order! Shipping of orders containing the Swift will take place during the week of April 13-17. The Featherweight UI phone app that supports the Swift is not yet available, but it should be available on or before April 14. The Swift is not operable until the new Featherweight UI phone app is available.
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The Swift is Featherweight's next generation of GPS trackers, replacing the Featherweight GPS tracker that has become rocketry's most popular GPS tracker. Channel conflicts at large launches are a thing of the past for Swift users, because the Swift provides an additional 240 channels of frequency hopping channels, automatic open-channel scanning, and no transmissions on already-occupied channels. The Swift tracker is shorter and more durable than the Featherweight's original tracker, with no sliding switches to break. The Swift tracker's mounting holes match those of the original tracker (*though not for the early-adopter edition) The ground station is even easier to fit into a pocket, has a more durable power button, and also has a second battery charger for charging the tracker's battery through a connector in the front panel. Its USB-C port charges both batteries and provides improved serial data output. The Swift matches the long range of the original Featherweight tracker, with line-of-sight transmissions beyond the 100 km Karman line (328,000 feet). The GPS performance matches the original tracker, with GPS altitude, position, vertical and horizontal velocity at altitudes up to 80 km (262,000 feet). A new planned feature of the Swift is to connect to a Blue Raven or Blue Jay altimeter over Bluetooth within the rocket. The Swift will merge its GPS data with inertial navigation data from the Blue Raven or the Blue Jay to fill in the gaps when GPS is not available, including during the motor burn, at high speed, and even above the 80 km GPS limit. The Swift is inter-operable with the original Featherweight GPS trackers when using the original 56 channels. A Swift ground station can communicate with original trackers or the Swift tracker, and the Swift tracker can communicate with a Swift ground station or an original ground station when using the original channels. The new 240 interference-free channels are available when using a Swift tracker together with a Swift ground station. The same Featherweight UI phone app, which is available for iPhone and Android, is used for the Swift. It provides live pointing, live data, mapping, and more. Made in the U.S.A. |
Swift Tracker early adopter edition
Swift Ground Station
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Which Tracker should I buy?
Swift Early Adopter Edition Tracker |
Swift Tracker |
Original Featherweight GPS Tracker |
160 (save $10) |
170 |
171 |
per unit |
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1.22" long x 0.8" wide |
1.32" long x 0.8" wide |
1.66" long x 0.8" wide |
Outward-facing power connector that's 10mm tall |
Inward-facing power connector (to save installation space) that's 8.5mm tall |
Inward-facing power connector that's 8.5mm tall |
Good GPS reception with connector facing outward |
Good GPS reception with connector facing inward or outward, due to increased spacing between terminal block and GPS antenna |
Good GPS reception with connector inward or outward |
Mounting holes are closer together than on the original tracker |
Mounting holes match the original tracker's mounting holes |
Original mounting hole spacing |
95 units available now |
Available late April - early May |
Available now |
Basic tracking features plus interference-free 240-channel option. More features on the way via over-the-air updates |
Basic tracking features plus interference-free 240-channel option. More features on the way via over-the-air updates |
Basic tracking features on 56 channels plus lost rocket relay feature, data recording, channel scanning |
Which Ground Station should I buy?
Swift Early Adopter Edition Ground Station |
Swift Ground Station |
185 (save $10) |
195 |
Green charging indicator, red for charging complete (this is the opposite of normal Featherweight convention) |
Red for charging, green for complete (normal Featherweight convention) |
factory production build + minor rework inside case |
factory production build |
55 units available now |
Available TBD (probably mid-May) |
Swift Hardware Features
Longest Radio Range
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Advanced GPS (u‑blox M10)
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Small Size and new Longer Battery Life
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Featherweight UI App Tracking Features (iOS and Android compatible)
New tracking display puts all the flight data at your fingertips: |
New map view lets you plan the best route for your recovery: |
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Spoken Telemetry
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Data Logging (upcoming feature)
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Multi-Stage Flights
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Over-the-Horizon Relay (Upcoming Feature)
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Public Telemetry (in work)
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Downloading the app:
- Get the latest released version by searching on "Featherweight UI" in the Apple App store for iOS, or Google Play for Android phones
Accessories and options
Resources
Swift production version. Longer, with inward-facing terminal block. Antenna in .step is longer than shipped version. The mounting holes are 1.0" apart in the length direction and 0.5" apart in the width direction (1.12" apart diagonally)
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Swift early edition tracker. Shorter with outward-facing terminal block. Antenna in .step is longer than shipped version. The mounting holes are 27.4mm center-to-center, or 24.0mm along the length of the tracker.
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Original GPS tracker user's manual, will be updated for Swift
gps_tracker_manual_2025feb20b.pdfDownload the User's Manual,
updated Feb 20, 2025
| gs_data_cmds_2020nov15.xlsx |