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Weather Balloon - Summer 2011

    Manager: Derek
    Team: Eric, Joel, Jamie, RyanC
    Premise: Launch a high altitude weather ballon with video and still photo capabilities

    Introduction

    We are going to launch a weather ballon to achieve three goals:

    1. Obtain pictures and video of St. Louis and the earth from high altitude
    2. Execute a well organized project to attract people to Arch Reactor
    3. Provide a good knowledge base and experience for future flights

    A KCI1200 balloon is capable of reaching in excess of 90k feet.  We'll have a payload containing a still camera, HD video camera, high altitude GPS, cell phone to broadcast low level GPS and an Arduino logging sensor information.

    Team Members

    Derek, Eric, Joel, Jamie, and RyanC

    Timeline and Milestones

    July 30thGrant submitted to AR
    July 12thGrant Approved
    July 14thOrdered balloon,gps,phone and camera
    August 2ndPostponed target date
     Passed HAM test
    August 5thAll materials have arrived
    August 13thTarget Launch Date
    Sept. 11thNew target launch date with full moon

    Equipment

    Weight Catalog

    • Parachute            68g
    • Video Camera  160g
    • Cell Phone          84g
    • A560 no bat       166g
    •  

    Team Notes

    • Need to look into IR and blue filters
    • Moon path

      On Aug 13 the moon rises at 7:41pm and the sun sets at 7:58pm

       

      At 8:10pm the moon will be about 4.5 deg above the horizon.

      At 8:30pm the moon will be about 8.15 deg above the horizon.

      At 8:45pm the moon will be about 10.85 deg above the horizon.

       

      The moon will be approx 240,000 miles from St. Louis.   At 80,000 feet, your camera will only be 15 miles off the surface, which is a difference in angle of 0.006%.  So however far you want the moon off of the horizon in your pictures, you can safely use what you’d observe from the ground.

    Links

    Writeups:

    Videos:

     

    Antenna Stuff

    Others:

    APRS Notes:

    FAA/Safety Related:

    FLDIGI info:

     

    Programming Notes:

    <M0JSN> what did you use in the end?
    <Upu> ong TEST=((float(LONGM)/60.0)+(float(LONGS)/3600.0))*1000000L;
    <Upu> long TEST=((float(LONGM)/60.0)+(float(LONGS)/3600.0))*1000000L;
    <Upu> sprintf(TELEMETRYSTRING,"$$AVA,%i.%06li",int(LONGDEC),TEST);
    <fsphil> heck of a calculation lol

     

    CHDK Script:

    --{{
    arch reactor balloon script v5
    Authors: Arch Reactor Hackerspace (Jamie Bilinski, Derek Sigler, Eric Geldmacher, Ryan Castanho)
    Tested on: A480 (Digic 3)

    Uses propcase lib
    }}
    --{{
    @title ArchReactor Balloon Script
    @param t Min Sec Delay between images
    @default t 10
    @param j Number of JPEGs/cycle
    @default j 10
    @param d Number of Raw/cycle
    @default d 1
    @param e EV Bracketing delta/6
    @default e 4
    {{--}}
    param l est low alt mins
    default l 45
    param h high alt time mins
    default h 110
    param r est reenty time min
    default r 185
    }}
    propcase=require("propcase")
    h=((t-1)*1000)+930 --adjust for write time
    if h < 9000 then w=9000-h else w=1 end --process delay ms after RAW shot
    play_sound(4)

    function flashoff()
     set_prop(142,2) --no flash
     while not get_prop(142) == 2 do
      press("right")
      release("right")
      sleep(100)
     end
     return true
    end

    function setfocuslock()
     set_prop(6,3) --infinity
     while not get_prop(6) == 3 do
      press("left")
      release("left")
     end
      press("shoot_half")
      sleep(2000)
      set_aflock(1)
      release("shoot_half")
     return true
    end

    function snapraws()
    set_raw(1)
     for i=1,d do 
       press("shoot_half")
       repeat
         sleep(100)
       until get_shooting() == true
       press("shoot_full")
       release("shoot_full")
       release("shoot_half")
       sleep(w)
       sleep(h)
     end
    set_raw(0)
     return true
    end

    function snapjpgs()
     for i=1,j do 
       press("shoot_half")
       repeat
         sleep(100)
       until get_shooting() == true
       press("shoot_full")
       release("shoot_full")
       release("shoot_half")
       sleep(h)
     end
     return true
    end

    function snapevbrac()
     evi=get_ev()
     for i=1,e do
      if (evi-(i*32)) < 1 then set_ev(1) else set_ev(evi-(i*32)) end --may need in certain light?
      press("shoot_half")
      repeat
        sleep(100)
      until get_shooting() == true
      press("shoot_full")
      release("shoot_full")
      release("shoot_half")
      sleep(1200)
      set_ev(evi+(i*32))
      press("shoot_half")
      repeat
        sleep(100)
      until get_shooting() == true
      press("shoot_full")
      release("shoot_full")
      release("shoot_half")
      sleep(1200)
     end
     set_ev(evi)
     sleep(h)
    end

    --{{ Maybe next time!
    function logtemp()
    print get_temperature(0)
    print get_temperature(1)
    print get_temperature(2)
    end
    }}

    --MAIN
    click("shoot_half") --in case A480 is in play mode
    flashoff()
    sleep(500)
    setfocuslock()
    sleep(500)
    repeat
     snapjpgs()
     snapraws()
     snapevbrac()
     play_sound(4) --beep each cycle so we know it's running
     until false
    sleep(1)
    reboot() --meh

     

    *replace "{" and "}" with right and left bracket

     

    Notes from IRC:

    <priyesh> on an NTX2, would you permanently keep the EN pin high or use the microcontroller to take it high only during transmission?
    <Darkside> keep it high
    <Darkside> we've found that fldigi demodulates RTTY better if theres a constant carrier
    <fsphil> unless you're after power savings for a long flight, that's pretty much the only time you'd need to toggle EN
    <Darkside> if you don't have it, it can loose the first few bytes as it synchronises
    <priyesh> Darkside: ahh. thanks for the advice
    <Darkside> sode*
    <jgrahamc> On GAGA-1 I had EN tied on permanently because then it's easy to find the carrier.  Also, it doesn't draw much current and there's a 'startup time' whenever EN is enabled.

     

    Posted by
    Derek Sigler's picture
    Derek Sigler
    on Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
    Filed under balloon
    | More

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