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Balloon #6 7-27-12 OOPS !

Posted by Earl on July 30, 2012 at 9:33am

You always have that ONE flight where nothing goes right. 7-27-12

The balloon slipped off the filling neck and got away. We had a backup balloon ! The second helium tank was EMPTY.

Dang..what luck.

Soooo... I will show pictures of the X8 wing we will try to launch Friday 8-3-12.

3689470816?profile=originalThe Big Wheel antenna on the front is for the 5 WATT ATV TX on 434 mhz. (Yes I am a ham N8TV)

Antenna on wing is the 10 watt APRS antenna on 144 mhz.

Notice the annoyance deterrent ?

3689470641?profile=original5 watt ATV Tx, APRS (under card) and battery.

3689470833?profile=originalNichrome cut down system activated by time or a command from the Mission Planner and APM 2.5

3689470866?profile=originalIt is released by a command from the Mission Planner at a LOW altitude. (joke)

I hope the Friday 8-3-12 launch goes well.

Earl

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Comments

  • Earl August 2, 2012 at 10:03am

    Yes , You can track our flight Friday 8-3-12 via APRS.Fi using callsigns ke5vsh-1 ke5vsh-2 and ke5vsh-3.

    -3 is on plane, 1 and 2 are on balloon.

    We use Byonics APRS built for HAB flights.

    Here are some close up pics of our release system.

    1st system is "bomb" drop unit with our own 3d printed white piece because the bomb drop piece was too flexible.Ours is much sturdier.

    Other release is our own design by heating a nichrome wire to cut the rope. Cuts in less than a second. Has its own 2000mw 7.2 volt battery.

    3692480626?profile=original3692480784?profile=original

  • Frank July 31, 2012 at 2:39pm

    Hi Earl,

    I am a ham too. I see you are using a Byonics GPS. Is it the Byonics GPS4 or GPS2? Are you using the TinyTrak for APRS or other equipment? 

     

    I am waiting the results on Friday! Can we follow on APRS.fi? Good luck!

     

    Frank

  • Earl July 30, 2012 at 8:39pm
    My 2.5 will be here this week. I have flown APM2.0 on 5 other flights to 100,000 ft along with the 3DR 400mhz radios. Heve only lost one radio on flight 5.
    The 5 watt ATV Tx takes care of heating along with the 10 watt APRS unit. In fact, I worry about cooling !
    Have an external temp sensor on glider to see how cold it really gets at high altitude. APRS on one flight reported -50 F and -21 F on another flight, but that was inside temps without ATV TX.
    Earl
  • Greg Fletcher July 30, 2012 at 7:22pm

    You Have a 2.5 all ready? I am still waiting for my 2.0 and the 2.5 wasn't out yet when I ordered.

  • Carl La France July 30, 2012 at 6:58pm

    Good luck, Earl !

  • Greg Fletcher July 30, 2012 at 6:32pm

    Earl, Use the macro function on your camera to get close in focus. Have one of the kids show you how. It's usually a little flower symbol button. I wan't to see clearly what your building ;)

    I love your project. I know it's legal to launch a HAB, but do you need a permit to fly in a restricted box or something?

    Also you should look at how the IMU sensors are affected by large temperature changes to the span and null offsets. You can't boot up the APM at altitude to get accel offsets at very cold temps. Maybe you have it in a temperature controlled box. With a little pid loop and data temp data from the MPU6000 you could control a little heater made from resistors and a mosfet driven by an extra APM line. If only you could get access to a enviromental  chamber at the university you could do some testing on APM as well as servos. Metal gear servos might have some grease that might get real thick at those temperatures. You just don't want to find out the hard way.

    You are reaching for a known but alien environment. As with all space flight (well pretty close) 99% of equipment testing occurs before the first flight. That's what's needed to make the last test a success. I solute you in your bold attempt to go where no APM2 has never gone before, to collect data of the highest order.

    I can't wait to see video of a controlled decent.

    Good luck, Earl !

  • Kevin Brown July 30, 2012 at 3:35pm

    No problem, I understand the max load limit

    from the looks in the photo it looks like a very beefy cutter, with a very large dia. wire and very long = massive load

    and long heat time. sized right a button cell could drop a 300 lbs load no problem because of the dia. of the spiderwire is so thin hair size 

  • Kevin Brown July 30, 2012 at 2:40pm

    Great work by they way.....

    I live in the Key and have wanted to drop something like this into a hurricane for years as they go by my house...

    the nice thing about the braided fishing line (spiderwire) you can get it as low as 5 to 10 lbs for tournament certified line...

  • Mike July 30, 2012 at 1:26pm

    Just posted this over on AeroBalloon forum, forgive double posting but may be helpful here . . . On high altitude balloon projects to avoid Arduino flight computer failures due to outside systems, for example, cutdown, communications, or sensor controllers from getting stuck in a subroutine, watchdog timer within Task Scheduler for Arduino will reset the flight computer. Source: Hack a Day

  • Kevin Brown July 30, 2012 at 1:07pm

    why dont you try something Like spiderwire for your cordage very fine and very strong melts in ms with your nicrome cutter. much less load to release I used something similar to release some underwater sensors 

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