Weather Balloon Photography

[daveake]

The Pi is sensitive to a low 5V, yes. The onboard 3.3V regulator has a 1.2V dropout, so below 4.5V you're in trouble.

Initially I used off-board 3.3 and 5V regulators, using 4 of the AAs for the 3.3 and all 6 for the 5V. I got 5 hours 50 minutes running.

Dave

[daveake]

Blog post:

http://www.daveakerman.com/?p=592

Dave

[daveake]

Cheers guys :-). The Register started with it, then raspberrypi.org, and after that it kinda mushroomed. The BBC reporter called me this morning before he wrote his piece. Monday-Wednesday my server saw more traffic than in the year up to that point. Today it's doubled again - the power of the BBC!

The coolest bit though was when Eben Upton (Raspberry Pi designer) was interviewed live on a USA web tv channel last night. He got asked about what people do with their boards, and of course this got a mention. Quite a big mention! Never heard my name on "TV" before :-)

Dave

[daveake]

I haven't, but some have. Actually, I loaned one of my trackers to this lot - http://www.cusf.co.uk/martlet-1/ which they used as a backup on the first stage.

Dave

[daveake]

I flew my latest weather balloon on Saturday, and for a change it was into a mostly blue sky so I was hoping for some reasonable photos. Also, I launched at the same time and with the same size balloon/payload/fill as another "balloonist", and managed to capture some photographs of his balloon from mine. Here's are some of the better photos:


IMG_3444 by daveake, pic of the other balloon 1.3km away, and 10m diameter at that time, taken at 34.8km.


IMG_3469 by daveake, North Norfolk coast, and up to Hull and beyond


IMG_3436 by daveake, very pretty cloud

Also my blog post with links to more photos

and article in The Register

[daveake]

LongQ said:

Lester has a way with presenting a story.

He does indeed. That's the 3rd article he's done about my exploits, and I've enjoyed every one. By now I know what to to say to make sure he quotes it

[daveake]

theboyfold said:

When does Mrs Ted fly with you?

Depends on the weather. Also we're taking her on our hols from 6th-22nd October (RV roadtrip in California), so it'll be in the week before or the week after. Fingers crossed that the winds are kind for at least 1 day.

Dave

[daveake]

LongQ said:

I see there's a lad from Nottingham University

Yeah, he's one of the group of us doing this as a hobby in the UK. Together there are probably 40 or so flights per year, but that one has hit the media big time, probably as he's quite young. I helped recover one of his flights a few months ago when it landed not far from me.

[daveake]

I've done another flight, this time for the BBC to be aired next spring. See http://www.daveakerman.com/?p=755

Dave

[daveake]

daveake said:

I've done another flight, this time for the BBC to be aired next spring. See http://www.daveakerman.com/?p=755

Dave

And this was aired a couple of weeks ago. You can see the clip at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01661f7

Dave

[daveake]

Update on my latest flight: on Sunday I flew the new Raspberry Pi camera into a nice blue sky. It was set to take a 5MP image every minute, plus some smaller images which it transmitted over the radio link.

The flight was tracked down to about 600 metres altitude but by the time I got to the landing spot it had gone! Someone saw it land and took it home! This confused me greatly until he called (my mobile number was on the outside of the payload) and explained.

A couple of sample pix below - lots more on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveake/sets/72157633... and a write-up on my blog http://www.daveakerman.com/?p=1154


snap314 by daveake, on Flickr


snap294_ifl by daveake, on Flickr

Dave

[daveake]

LongQ said:

Great stuff once again Dave.

Your mod for the Pi voltage regulator is interesting too.

Yeah, if you're not using USB then you don't need the 5V rail (though the BCM chip does sense the line, and won't boot if there's no voltage there, so just strap it to the 3.3V rail). The LDO on the PI is rubbish (dropout voltage 1.2V) so I replaced with a much much better one (dropout of about 200mV). End result the battery voltage can drop to 3V and the Pi will still boot and run.

Dave

[daveake]

Mobsta said:

Terrific photo of England. You must be chuffed with that one.

Yes really pleased :-). Devon and Cornwal all the way to Land's End.

Dave

[daveake]

MiniMan64 said:

Dave, you appear to be the forum expert in launching balloons space (I love that we have one of those) and I'm looking for some advice. The kit you've been launching seems pretty advanced, small computer boards etc, are there any simpler set-ups/kits to try a slightly smaller scale?

We've got a small bunch of kids at our school who've done Astronomy this year and have been asking such a project and how easy it might be to do. I'm not so familiar with what's out there but having done a little light reading I'm intrigued however I'm also aware with kids involved I'd like to keep it simple so I don't end up doing the whole lot.

Any advice?

You should have a reply to your email now :-)

[daveake]

I've entered one of the photos in a Pi Camera competition - if anyone's on Facebook and wants to help me win, click https://www.facebook.com/element14page/app_1607314... :-)

Dave

[daveake]

The Tea Boy said:

Dave,
voted for you. your currently winning too

Cheers!

The result is in, and ........... my photo won

Dave

[daveake]

My latest flight ...


YoNVBQ9 by daveake, on Flickr

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23840596

[daveake]

Yeah, the "few metres" was deliberate, you know in case he wants to have another go

The maths said the balloon would burst at 39.3km, which didn't give me much leeway above Felix's record. That said that make/model of balloon is known for frequently exceeding specification and it actually burst at 41km so I could have released Babbage a fair bit higher. Maybe another time!

Dave

[daveake]

theboyfold said:

Is this PH Dave on Channel 4 now launching a potato into space?!

Yes, that was me :-)

[daveake]

blindswelledrat said:

Got the balloon half inflated and it tore in half for no reason whatsoever.

Wow, never heard of that before. I did help out on a launch recently where IMO it was way too windy but the guy insisted on trying to launch. The wind blew the balloon about and it popped when it touched something sharp.

What make of balloon was it?