Part 3 - Into the Void

[DBK]

In these threads:

Part 1 - My Stuttering First Attempts with an Arduino Pro Mini

I posted slightly mischievously the other day a photo of the Arduino Pro Mini I'd bought. This is a tiny (very tiny) device described as a microcontroller board. I've a bit of experience with various Raspberry Pi boards but this Arduino is a very different type of device. Arduinos are good for...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

Part 2 - My Stumbling First Steps with an Arduino Mini Pro

In this Thread: I started to record my first impressions of constructing something using an Arduino Mini Pro, a tiny little processing board which weighs just 2g. I've soldered a few wires and other bits and bobs to it since then. The thing in the foreground is the GPS chip which is far...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

I described my faltering attempts to master Arduino programming and subsequently building a solar powered tracker to attach to a small(ish) balloon. After various mishaps and setbacks I am now in a position to attempt to launch the balloon tomorrow. The weather forecast suggests very low winds at ground level, which is essential for a balloon with only 3g of free lift - meaning it will rise slowly.

If I can get it to fly, the predicted flight path will look something like this:

I think only the first part of the flight can be reliably predicted so I am expecting it to cross the Channel and enter France then probably fly south. Where it goes after that depends to quite a large extent on what altitude it reaches. Anything over 7,000m will be good and 8,000m very good.

The biggest unknown is whether the radio will work once aloft. It is solar powered and therefore needs to get above the clouds, which it should, but its signals will have to be picked up by the network of TTN gateways spread around Europe. There are a lot of gateways but not many have antenna mounted outside, the majority are indoors which isn't much help.

But the only way to find out is to launch and see what happens.

I'll report back once it has been launched with any progress reports. If any progress is made of course!

 

[34127]

I look forward with interest to hearing more about this, a great project.

 

[Winger]

Good luck, I hope it goes well for you

 

[Nirvanauk]

Good luck I will be watching.

 

[Just smiffy]

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[pappajohn]

Elon Musk started at the beginning.

 

[Vipar]

I wish you the best of luck.

Could it be tracked by using Flight path App?

 

[DBK]

I wish you the best of luck.

Could it be tracked by using Flight path App?

Sadly not, its a different system and on different frequencies. The main aircraft systems in Europe use 1090MHz and I'm using 868MHz. The data is also in a different format. I guess some clever soul could write an application to convert the data format but that's beyond me.

 

[nicholsong]

Good luck, will be watching progress.

Geoff

 

[two]

Wishing you every success!

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[AXO66]

Fantastic, looking foward to hear how it goes.

 

[DBK]

So far so good, now 1000m and still going up - which is the important bit. Cloud cover is quite thick so I expect it to lose contact from time to time until it gets above them.

 

[DBK]

Its just been picked up by a gateway in Brittany - must be about 250km away I think.

 

[DBK]

This is nerve-wracking! Now approaching 4,000m.

 

[DBK]

This is the current predicted flight path - which so far it is following.

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[DBK]

This is the payload just before launch, which I did from the top of a low hill near our house.

 

[DBK]

Its now at 8,750m and hopefully will start to slow down otherwise it will go pop.

 

[Winger]

Congratulations to you, how intriguing and interesting. Well done

 

[eddie]

Its now at 8,750m and hopefully will start to slow down otherwise it will go pop.

Wow so higher than you were hoping for?

 

[DBK]

Wow so higher than you were hoping for?

Yes, for a single 50p balloon it has done very well and now levelled off at around 8,900m. The pressure in the balloon is probably around 0.3 to 0.4 psi but it has been tested to 0.6 and was held above 0.5 for 24 hours so it should last a bit longer.

Sadly I think we will lose contact with it soon as the sun goes down, which means, assuming it stays afloat a bit longer, it will probably make landfall in the night which I would have liked to have seen. The mission only had two objectives:

To get aloft and communicate with gateways at long range - tick

Cross the Channel - not yet ticked.

Anything beyond that is a bonus.

It will be awaiting game to see if it wakes up with tomorrow's sun and lets us know where it is.

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[DBK]

This is where it is now:

 

[DBK]

Contact was lost at 17:45 which was later than I expected. The sun would have only been about 16 degrees high at that point according to a website I found. It didn't quite make landfall before shutting down.

If it survives the night, and I'm pretty confident it will as it has held a steady altitude for several hours which suggests no leaks then it should wake up tomorrow morning and tell us where it is. The website I use to predict the path suggests it might be somewhere around Bordeaux when that happens.

I'm looking forward to finding out where it gets to.

 

[SandraL]

This is not fair,. Keeping us in suspense all night!!!!

Thanks for sharing, really interesting what can be done with such a small bit of electronics.

 

[34127]

Is there a message in a bottle attached

 

[DBK]

Is there a message in a bottle attached

I meant to put my email address on it in case of the remote chance of someone finding it when it eventually comes down. But I forgot!

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[Taran_Las]

If it's heading toward Bordeaux of its own accord it sure has impeccable taste as far as wine is concerned.

Great project John.

I bet you won't sleep too well tonight​

 

[jockaneezer]

This is all very interesting John, but just exactly how does it fetch the duty free back ?

 

[DBK]

If it's heading toward Bordeaux of its own accord it sure has impeccable taste as far as wine is concerned.

Great project John.

I bet you won't sleep too well tonight​

I'll check as soon as I'm awake! It will be interesting to see when it awakes. As it went to bed at 17:45 can I assume it might be awake at 06:15? I suspect not but after 07:00 to 07:30 perhaps?

 

[DBK]

This is all very interesting John, but just exactly how does it fetch the duty free back ?

It's a one-way trip I'm afraid.

 

[Just smiffy]

It's a one-way trip I'm afraid.

Good job as it might have a few stowaways if it came back...

can’t wait for tomorrow..

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