The didactic satellite was developed in the ITIS Telecommunication and Information Laboratories "E. Scalfaro ”of Catanzaro, during the self-financed afternoon courses of excellence (ITISEDUSAT 2010 and ITISEDUSAT2011) for the most deserving students of the Informatics section e Telecommunications. In the last period the project was resumed. "Bee LabSat", so our little satellite was christened, apart from solar panel and the microcontroller, has been realized by extracting, testing and then using electronic devices from old computers and mobile phones. Bee LabSat is therefore the demonstration of how to perform valid experiments and / or prototypes, learning to recycle components from obsolete or malfunctioning equipment. The name given to the satellite takes into account the symbol of our Institute: the Ape (in English bee).
Bee LabSat consists of the following subsystems:

• Power Supply
• Onboard Microcomputer
• Analog Measurements
• Digital Measurements
• Telemetry transmitter in ASK
• Control Receiver from ground station

2.0 Power Supply subsystem
The satellite is equipped with a solar panel capable of generating the energy it needs to work. In the absence of sun or indoors it is possible to enable the use of the two batteries belonging to two old mobile phones.

3.0 The micro-computer on board
The main board of the satellite is equipped with the ATMel microcontroller ATmega32. The it comes with a firmware developed in C language using Linux and Eclipse. The micrococomputer periodically performs measurements on some parts of the satellite itself. The data so obtained and some messages, including the satellite identification code (I8HTN: old code ITIS amateur radio station), are sent to the ASK transmission subsystem at 433 MHz, once they have been coded according to the Morse Code. Data and messages coded in Vises are visually monitored via two LEDs and acoustically via a Buzzer. The satellite is also equipped with an alphanumeric display with two lines of 16 characters each. Across the
displays are monitored some of the data and messages processed by the microcomputer.

4.0 Analog measurements of some voltages
The microcontroller, using the incorporated analog / digital converters, carries out the measurement of the
• Voltage generated by the Solar Panel
• Battery voltage
• Main Board voltage
These three voltages constitute a part of the telemetric data that the satellite transmits.

5.0 Digital Temperature Measurements
The microcontroller carried out the temperature measurement of the Solar Panel and of the regulator voltage (LM 7805) using two Dallas digital thermometers operating on the bus called One-Wire.
Both analogue and digital measurements sent by the satellite (the so-called telemetric data of housekeeping or telemetry), once received by the earth station they allow to evaluate the state of health of the main parts of the satellite.

6.0 Telemetrie transmitter in ASK
The Transmitter subsystem, realized with an ASK module at 433Mhz, modulates the digital signal in Base Band processed by the microcontroller (coded in Morse) and a transmit it using a circular antenna made on the printed board of the main board. The power of the transmitter allows to cover a distance between satellite and receiver of about 30- 50 m, more than suitable for demonstrations and / or lessons in the laboratory.

7.0 Ground station control receiver
This subsystem allows you to modify the operation of the satellite by decoding the commands sent from the earthly station. In the current state of development this subsystem consists of circuitry for receiving signals. The command is monitored by turning on a LED.