High Altitude Baloons

Thought I would look into some of various High Altitude Balloon available on the market to hopefully help me decide what I need to obtain.

My initial reading tells me I need a balloon capable of lifting my weighted payload high into the upper atmosphere. Getting the wrong balloon could lead to a low altitude burst and spoil the fun early.

I have seen a number of other HAB projects use Hwoyee Balloons but I'm sure there are many others.

Other sites :-

Kaymont Balloons - Totex Balloons


Several of the balloon websites sell different styles of balloons. Most designed for meteorigolical purposes.

Ceiling Balloons - Smaller compared to other weather balloons and is usually use to measure cloud height.
Pilot Balloons - Are usually used to measure wind speed and direction. Usually rise to 15,000 - 40,000 feet depending on the ascent rate and payload.
Sounding Balloons - These are the larger of the weather style balloons and have been known to reach heights in excess of 130,000 feet.

Kaymont Balloons suggest several balloons on their website. Such as HAB-600 for first time HAB'ers up to the HAB-3000 for higher burst altitudes.

APRS Tracking

After some minor hurdles I now seem to have my OpenTracker USB working correctly. So I am a lot closer to having a tracker ready for extreme testing.

Current setup contains a Garmin GPS-18x-PC connected directly into the Open Tracker via the serial connector. The Open Tracker then connects into a Yaesu VX-7R handheld.   The GPS and Tracker are connected to a bank of AA Batteries supplying 12volts, whilst the handheld uses its own battery.

Initial tests have been using the same AA's for several months with tests over that time being for several hours. I have been monitoring the voltage over this time dropping from 12volts , down to 9 volts and this morning on a drive to work , the voltage was at 7 volts. All the while the tracker and GPS were still operating. I am still only using standard AA's so nothing like what will be in the final version, but so far happy that the battery should last the trip.  I do hope to connect a few more devices up to the same power source such as a data logger, so this may test this power supply some more.

I have also discovered that the GPS seems to take time to obtain a GPS fix, this seems to add delay to the initial transmission. I need to nut this out further to ensure that it is just a GPS visibility problem as when the GPS was in clear view of the sky I couldn't reproduce the problem.  But want to ensure all is good for launch day otherwise its a waste of battery power waiting for a GPS fix before launch.

Opentracker USB take 2

After damaging the original radio mic cable that came with my tracker, I was starting to think that I may have damaged something in the tracker itself. Nothing I tried seemed to make the tracker key up my handheld. However, a couple of days ago my replacement mic cable arrived and I finally found some time to play with it.

Initially I wired up the cables as per the original , however nothing worked. I discovered that the mic cable was wired differently and needed to swap a few cables around. This seemed to do the trick and I am now TXing again. Phew...

Now that I am TXing again, I haven't yet seem my callsign appear on aprs.fi So again I was wondering if something wasn't right. So to test this out I downloaded some APRS tracking software that runs using  my PC's soundcard. After a few tweaks, like changing the baud rate to 1200, i had success. The application decoded my handhelds signal and I was able to read the coordinates. It accurate to about 5 meters, which probably isn't to bad seeing the GPS unit is on the window and probably not seeing a full sky.

So with a big smile on my face, I can finally after many weeks of downtime move on to get the tracker into a more portable form. Would be nice to see my callsign on APRS.fi to double confirm that everything is ok.

Garmin GPS18 PC - First test

It took a couple of weeks to arrive but my Garmin GPS18 was finally delivered. I couldn't wait to test it out, but don't have a GPS tracker yet, so had to use my laptop.

The GPS pictured below comes with a cig lighter plug and a sticker stating it will work with 8v - 30v.. I plan on removing the cig lighter plug and connecting directly to a portable power source. So I will need to run a few tests to determine what sort of battery I need. Obviously I need something that will last the duration of the flight and the recovery phase.

The serial connection will allow direct attachment to the GPS Tracker when I receive it, but for my first test it needs to connect to my laptop. As modern technology would have it my laptop doesn't have any serial ports. But this isn't a problem as I have a serial to USB adaptor which does the conversion.

Successfully downloaded the Garmin Web updater software and was able to update the firmware. So far so good. I then searched for some GPS software to test things out and found OziExplorer which I have used many years ago with a previous Garmin.

Had to set the GPS type and comm port details, as well as untick the USB GPS box, then I was in action. Had the GPS sitting inside on the window, so GPS signal was at first low, but after a few minutes the GPS updated and I had a signal fix.   Phew , it works...

Will hunt for a GPS Data Logging app so that I can just log the raw data, Maybe go for a drive around with it connected to the laptop and see what it picks up.

Trial GPS Receiver

Did some hunting around on Ebay for a GPRS receiver and came across a Garmin GPS 18 PC receiver. Decided to make the purchase after reading about it's success with another HAB project. I will use this to experiment with APRS on the ground first and if all goes well may send it into the sky.

Its supposedly a 010-00321-34 GPS 18x PC Receiver , which seems to be on the list of high altitude GPS's.

Will probably test it on a laptop first, as I don't have a APRS tracker yet. So stay tuned.

So many things to think about.

This is my first attempt at a High Altitude Balloon launch so I understand that a lot of research needs to be conducted. I spent most of the evening reading various High Altitude Ballooning project sites and found a wealth of information.

From some initial reading, and I know I will be doing a lot more, I have already discovered a few things. To start with I would need to obtain a balloon, and not just any balloon but one that is capable of withstanding the low pressure experienced at high altitude. As the air pressure reduces the balloon expands causing it to burst. Thus a balloon that has enough stretch and durability to reach the required altitude is needed.

From what I can tell the balloons are designed for different payload weights and altitudes. I will do some more researching to learn more, but I wonder if these balloons can be purchased in Australia or if I will have to purchase from Overseas.  Time will tell.

For the recovery of the payload, a parachute will be needed. I haven't done much reading on these yet but they seem to differ in size depending on the payload weight and the required descent speed. Looking at a few HAB video's the chutes look a lot smaller then I would have thought necessary but I guess it really depends on the payload. So something else to learn about.

The payload itself is probably the most important and will take the most amount of time to learn about. I've already seen many different designs and ideas and all of them seem unique in some ways. So far I am already liking the idea of using APRS to assist with the tracking. But I still need to learn about the various options for micro controllers,  do I build my own , purchase a pre-made kit , blah blah blah.

I'd love to be able to track the balloon through its entire flight but already this can be a challenge. Mainly for the recovery phase. Whilst aloft the reception of radio signals shouldn't be a problem however once it lands back to earth, (provided it survives the impact) it still needs to be found. So I need to investigate those options.  I've seen people use mobile phone SMS to relay the landing location but if the payload lands in an area with no mobile phone service then this will be a problem. Finding a suitable launch site may help here.

I will also need to look into the legal responsibilities with launching such a balloon. Looks like I will need CASA approval to ensure no aircraft are in the projected flight path. This will also relate to the location for launch. I live on the outer burbs of Sydney thus feel I won't be able to launch locally otherwise I will be sure to enter the main flight path of jets into Sydney Airport, drop the payload onto someone's house, or possibly land in the ocean. So looks like a trip outback may be the best option.

I found a website http://habhub.org/predict/ which allows me to predict where a launched balloon may land. I don't know if all the values I entered where correct, but launching a balloon in Bathurst seemed to have me land almost back in Sydney. All will depend on the day I guess, but makes the recovery interesting. As long as the device can relay its landing location I guess it will be like finding a geocache.

Off to do some more research...

Initial Thoughts

This is the start of my project, where I hope to launch a small payload into the higher limits of the atmosphere. Using a high altitude balloon I hope to collect photo's, video and other data along its journey.

After seeing the video of a Lego man reaching the edge of space, I thought it would be a great project to try myself.

I hope to document the project along the way using this blog. At this point I am in the "Wow this sounds cool" phase which always seems to have a thought of success. So fingers crossed.

Below is a link to the Lego Man in space site as well as a news story by CBC The National, which helped inspire me to start my own High Altitude Balloon project.

http://www.legomaninspace.com/

Well off to do some research...