SMS

I was thinking last night (always dodgy)..

We could also do with an SMS module to help with recovery once we've lost line of sight (LOS) with the payload (eg once it landed). One way we could do it is described here using $20 mobile phones. Basically we'd probably want the Arduino to sense a  mobile signal, and send an SMS every 10 mins or so containing the position of the ballon. We could also arrange to send it an SMS to do stuff (how about sounding a very high volume piezo alarm - like a fire alarm) to help with recovery?

Update 28/2/13: The module here looks just the job. At 36g it's pretty light and it only costs $47 delivered! Just add a SIM and hook up to an Arduino. At low altitudes, you could also use it to stream video over 3G...

Suppliers

I suggest we keep a list of useful suppliers. Feel free to add new ones as you discover them

HAB Supplies            Electronic supplies for HAB. Seem to be at least as cheap as Ebay as much as I've seen 

Telemetry

I'll have a go at the telemetry then. At least the transmitting part to start with. There are a couple of modules that seem to be in widespread use

1. The Radiometrix ntx2 - apparently the workhorse
2. The RFM22B module.

The second is a more modern affair - has an onboard temperature sensor too. Both can be fairly readily linked to an Arduino w/out too much additional circuitry.

Update 24/02/13: I opted for the RFM22B because it might be more flexible - at the expense of being slightly harder to get started with.  I've also ordered a SDR dongle to test it with as well. I'll update here when it's arrived and I've had a play...

Update 26/02/13: The radio and SDR have arrived. I'll solder the header pins onto the module this eve and see if I can get it bread-boarded to the Arduino and read the onboard temp (or something).  It'll have to wait till Thursday till I can play with the radio/SDR properly ...

Update 28/02/13: Well, after some wrestling with the datasheet, I can now read the radio's oscillator temperature using the onboard (on radio) ADC and my arduino.




Here's the radio in its delivery box (I've already soldered the headers on)










and here's the radio breadboarded to the Arduino. Now, reading the temp may not sound that exciting - but it should be easy to extend the sketch to change the radio frequency using the same (similar) code. Thereby allowing us to transmit RTTY...

GPS

I'll have a go with GPS

See if I can get position reporting & logging without using the big heavy handheld GPS that I was using for RAMBOAT

I'll aim for nmea text reporting on the Arduino

Project goals?

Possible Goals ? (In no particular order)
1. Launch a balloon achieve >5km alt. Recover balloon. Capture some images.
2. Launch a balloon, achieve > 30km alt. Recover balloon. Capture images and video.
3. Launch balloon to > 30km. Lauch rocket to > 50km. Capture images and video of rocket launch
4 Launch balloon to > 30km. launch re-useable payload which flies back to launch site.