Hello i have read about a project that some students have done and i am trying to recreate it. I want to launch a weather balloon with a uav attached to it so that it will go to about 100000ft take some pic's then return home the only problem is i don't know the best way to track it. Can anyone help please???I just had an idea for recovery and was wondering if it is possible to make a powered parachute out of a 1.8 m Dual Line Stunt Parachute Parafoil Sport Kite? or any other ideas just thought it would kill 2 birds with one stone, slow down desent of craft and help fly back to launch site.
Ah I see in your profile Connor your in Aberdeen, tricky countryside to recover a balloon from to the West and wet to the East. Difficult, difficult, although very pretty I was in Inverurie a couple of months ago. You might need to do this http://members.shaw.ca/sonde/
i want to get some pics from 100,000ft or so and maybe launch a glider sometime. the only problem i have at the moment is finding it after its landed and if posible track it while it is going up.
Ok i was lookin into the APRS and im not to sure what all i need to do to get it to work and that model seems to be no longer available it does seem to be a really good idea tho but is it very expensive? I was looking into the pre paid phone idea but the phone does't seem to work in the uk. But i think i can get it unlocked.
When I was in college (Iowa State, 6 years ago) we launched high altitude balloons pretty regularly. Each one had a payload with a GPS receiver and a HAM radio transmitter. We then had a ground station near the launch site, with a HAM antenna we could point in the correct direction. We'd constantly be getting coordinates from the onboard GPS, and every couple minutes we'd re-calculate the az/el from the station to the balloon and re-point the antenna if needed.
I'm not sure how much has changed since then, it seems like it would be easy to automate the whole system. I know gpredict (satellite tracking on linux) will do antenna pointing for ground stations to satellites.
Does that answer some of your question? I'm not sure if that was entirely what you're looking for, if you can specify a little better I could give you some more ideas.
A couple of Xbees won't quite cut it, but maybe you could find a pair of Garmin Rinos cheap on ebay, you could set the balloon one to transmit position every minute or two.
Another way would be APRS, lightweight and very long range, have a look at this you might have to take a very simple technicians test, all learning so all good. APRS worked for me when I flew a balloon up to 30k if your correctly licenced it will give you a system that will work all over the place, our 500mw signal was picked up 500km away. As well as directly below us ;-)
Instructables used to have a guide that makes a pre paid cell phone text you its GPS coordinates (or email) when you call it, so you can get its coordinates anywhere a cell phone gets reception. A group of students who do balloon satellite tests use this system to recover the payload. Sorry i can't find the link, but if you try hard I am sure you can.
well the first time i launch it, its just going to be a box with a camera but i need away of finding it again. I'm not sure how to get a gps to send signals over long distances.
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I have used both of these
http://free.3dtracking.net/ (look for the free tab)
This is completely free http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/main/index.do
I'm not sure how much has changed since then, it seems like it would be easy to automate the whole system. I know gpredict (satellite tracking on linux) will do antenna pointing for ground stations to satellites.
Does that answer some of your question? I'm not sure if that was entirely what you're looking for, if you can specify a little better I could give you some more ideas.
Check out the current site for the Iowa State project: http://www.sscl.iastate.edu/
Another way would be APRS, lightweight and very long range, have a look at this you might have to take a very simple technicians test, all learning so all good. APRS worked for me when I flew a balloon up to 30k if your correctly licenced it will give you a system that will work all over the place, our 500mw signal was picked up 500km away. As well as directly below us ;-)
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