Author Archives: Steve Smith
Payload Ready
Conditions still look pretty bleak for a dry launch from Youlbury tomorrow. I’ll make the final decision at around 16:00-17:00 today. Despite that, I have made the payload ready to go. I went through several ideas as I built it … Continue reading
Vayu v1.01 PCBs
I just wanted to do a quick post to show the VAYU v1.01 PCBs that just arrived fresh from Hackvana. They are absolutely top quality. I’m amazed that the text came out despite being out of tolerance. I decided that … Continue reading
Vayu-NTX
When field testing my re-design of CHEAPO into VAYU I noticed that the transmit frequency is easily affected by ambient temperature. Although this tends not to be too much of a problem once the payload is several kilometers up and … Continue reading
A Crash Course in Tracking HABs
To simply see where balloons are and to track their course, go to the website: SpaceNear This site shows positions of balloons live with various telemetry. At the top left hand side is an info panel with current notes on … Continue reading
Every 10th Sentence
It was suggested by Kristaps (User x-f in #highaltitude) that rather than interleaving this website’s address with the telemetry for VAYU, I should insert it every 10 sentences sent. I had previously thought of this but didn’t know how to … Continue reading
Launch Announcement
I’ve been invited to launch a balloon at Youlbury Scout Activity Centre in Oxford on 20th October. It will be as part of their JOTA/JOTI event. JOTA (Jamboree on-the-air) is a yearly scout event based around radio communication. It appears … Continue reading
Testing-Testing
I’ve been doing some further tests on my payload VAYU whilst I wait for the new PCBs to be fabricated. This is the prototype built from Chris Stubb’s CHEAPO PCB with an added boost regulator. I wanted to see how … Continue reading
CHEAPO Re-Design
Recovering Chris’s balloon and payload was great fun and as a thank you for doing so, he gave me an unpopulated circuit board of his HAB Tracker he called CHEAPO. I slightly modified this board under Chris’s direction to use … Continue reading
Anatomy of a Tracker
While I await components and other things, I thought I’d show a tracker and identify the pieces. In my very limited experience of HAB, most trackers have common component parts so this one, designed by Chris Stubbs, probably takes ques … Continue reading
Introducing Vayu
So, I have a HabDuino and that will be launched once I’ve got used to the whole set of logistics that are involved in HAB. I’d also like it to do something special rather then just send the normal telemetry … Continue reading