Finding Sarah Conner

Finished off the mousebot last night. It is a failly easy solding job to put it all together. Had the daughter help, but she got bored.... We tried it out briefly - it was very fast and did not seem to follow the flashlight. Not sure if it was not working correctly or not as I managed to slam it into the wall hard enough to break off one of its 'eyes'. I need to fix that and try again.

Finished a simple robot with the VEX kit. I'm going to have to change it to get more torque and also add on a arm. Its not a robot without an arm! Not sure if I should use tank treads or wheels...

Also got my shiny new HD camcorder. I'm going to try and cut a mounting hole in my canopy on the EasyStar plane and try to take some HD video while flying.

Robots!

I ordered a mousebot from Make yesterday. Going to put it together with the Daughter. Nothing says nerd family more then soldering with the kids.

I also need to break out the Vex robot parts I have and make a robot with the video camera transmitter attached - good times chasing the cat around / finding Sarah Conner.

FPV anyone?

I tried some FPV flying of the easystar last week. I lost total control of the plane very shortly after takeoff. I got lucky and the plane was already in a gentle turn and just drifted right back and landed. No damage. I'm thinking it was because the video transmitter is located too close to the receiver and drastically reduced the ability of the receiver to pick up the signal. I've ordered a short sma cable to move the antenna for the video transmitter to the back of the plane. That way the receiver and transmitter will be separated as much as possible.

We are already thinking about balloon flight 3. This time we want to do HD video. One long video of the entire flight of the balloon. This should be pretty easy as they now have 720P solid state video cameras that are actually pretty cheap. We were also thinking of some sort of cut down device - perhaps triggered via a RC transmitter. This would have saved us alot of trouble when the last package got stuck in the tree. Not sure about the mechanics of how the line/lines are cut yet. We are thinking of launching in the Fall when it is cooler. This should help with the picture as the air will not be so hazy - also we should not have the lens fog problem on the way down if the temperature is cold.

Kaplah!

...thats Klingon for success for you non-nerds.

Flight 2 was a complete success. We have pics and video!

We also made it to 108,277 feet!

We launched at 9:37am and it landed at 12:30pm. We ran into some issues when filling: first the Helium tank was not filled to the pressure we used last time, so the balloon took longer then expected to fill. Also because of the wind it was hard to get an accurate measure of the lift force of the balloon. So we took and educated guess. After tying it off we were sure it was overfilled and even compilated opening it up and letting some gas out. However we launched without letting any gas out.

The only bad thing is that we did not get the launch on video from the balloon. We had timed a 5 minute window from starting the camera program before the payload would take a 5 minute video. Getting the computer ready took longer then that so we missed that window. However everything else went ok.

The chase was also differed from the first launch as the balloon traveled much slower (around 30mph most of the time) and went south east. This caused some concern as it was headed straight towards Bloomington. It started heading west before getting over Bloomington however.

It burst a little after noon and reached 108k feet! It cleared I155 by only a couple of miles or so during landing. It landed on someones property and we asked the owners if it was ok to go look for it. We were receiving gps signals the whole time from decent and even after landing. After walking though some woods we found it very easily as it was a good 30+ feet up in a tree.

After a futile effort of thowing sticks, we left for the hardware store. We returned shortly and were able to pull it down using a dog toy: a large slingshot that shoots tennis balls that we tied a string to.

Notes:

New antennas worked great! We received many more transmissions then last flight.

Need to make sure to bring retrieval things (string, pole, etc..) in car. We had to make a run to the hardware store.

The kitchen timer never went off. I'm not sure why - but we did not need it this time. We found it right away.

We calulated the fall maxed out at about 130+ mph. I was expecting it to be faster then that.

The path the balloon took this time and its speed were a surprise, much slower. There were periods where we just pulled off to the side of the road to wait as the balloon passed overhead.

Flight 2 update

Depending on weather Flight #2 will either be Saturday or Sunday.

I've made all the changes listed in the previous post with the exception of the additional camera.

I tested out the new antenna on the car and was able to pick up other hams at a greater distance so I have high hopes of being able to receive more signals from the balloon.

Also I was able to configure xastir to display my position on the laptop in addition to the object being tracked. This should help alot with tracking the balloon.

Flight2

Working on flight number 2! This time with pics! (we hope)

We hope to launch on June 28th.

Some changes:

• Re-soldered the battery connections to the camera
• Changed the camera program to make it very obvious if the program is running
• Purchased a new larger antenna for the car which should help maintain contact
• Purchased a larger and lighter antenna for the balloon
• Will add a swivel connector between the payload and parachute lines. This should help cut down on the tangling of the line and twisting of the payload
• Fix the problem of the software running on the laptop (xastir) not showing the cars position (was only showing the balloons)
• Will add a simple kitchen timer set at about 2 hours to the payload. This is just so it beeps when it is on the ground to help with finding it.
• Might add a cheap camera on the outside pointing up to capture low res pics of the balloon as it expands
  

Partial Success

Launched at 10:39am.
Recovered at 1:16pm
Reached altitude of 101,529+ feet.
Reached at least 122 mph.
Travelled about 65 miles.


You can view the aprs data here

Things that went wrong:
The Camera! We have no pictures. The program on the camera did not run. We had all sorts of problems with the camera not getting power. We thought it was running but evidently not.

The mapping software on the laptop was correctly showing the balloons position but not the car. This made it hard to figure out where to go. Had to keep referencing a hand help gps.

We lost gps signal for a few mins occasionally. We probably need a bigger antenna on the car.

Traveled much faster then expected when it hit the jet stream (120+ mph). Were playing catchup for a while, but when it hit around 65k feet it started to go back west and moving much slower.


Overall except for the camera it went pretty well. We lost lock around 100k feet and did not pick it up until around 45k feet on the way down. This was probably because of its tumbling and moving very fast it lost the gps signal. Our last point before hitting the ground was 1400 feet. We were then able to drive to that location and reacquire the signal on the ground. Our gps got us within 100 feet or so. It took 10 or so mins to locate it in the wheat field.

Balloon Specifics

Here is a rundown of the equipment for the balloon launch:

1200g kamont sounding balloon
3ft Parachute
Home made 1.5 inch syrofoam container with about 8 square inch interior
RDF beacon from Bigredbee operating in the 70cm band for secondary payload location during recovery
MicroTrak gps/aprs transmitter for primary location / gps reports operations on standard aprs frequency (144.39 Mhz)
Garmin gps lvc 18
Canon SD950 camera with 8Gb SD card running SDM
4 AA Lithium Battery pack for the camera
8 AA Lithium Battery pack for the MicroTrak/gps

Camera Program Finialized

Ran some tests to determine how many pictures we can fit on an 8GB card. Looks like 10 pics in a row with 7 seconds between followed by a 20 second movie will allow over 4 hours of pics/movies until it runs out of space. That should cover the whole ascent/descent or at the very least the ascent.

T-3 days!

T - 5days

We finished our payload box Saturday. Its uglier then sin, but should work. Its made of dense Styrofoam 1.5 inch thick. Our weight is about 1kg - just about perfect. Just about ready to go for a launch on Saturday (weather permitting). We are going to redo the strapping on the payload box but otherwise everything looks good.

I need to buy a larger SD card for the camera to store all the pictures. Right now its going to take a picture every 10 seconds 10 in a row then a 20 second movie then repeat.

I ran a battery endurance test last night with the gps transmitter. It ran for over 4 hours and only dropped 1.5 volts on the 12v battery pack. So I expect it to last well over 8 hours especially with the lithium batteries.

Still a slight unknown is how the helium connection is going to go, I don't really know what sort of hose connection I need until I get the tank - but we should be able to buy what we need when we get it.

Balloon Update

I received the switching regulator for the camera power. I started to work on the program for the camera. The plan is to have the program when started to wait a few minutes (to close up the capsule), then beep a few times and start a 3 or so min movie (to record the launch). Then it will go through its loop of taking pictures and short movies.

After I get the program working and finalized I'll run it for as long as the batteries last as a duration test.

Mark got confirmation from the FAA that since we are under 4 pounds we are exempt from most of the FAA part 101 rules concerning un-manned balloons - i.e. we don't need a radar reflector, multiple cut down devices, or need to file a 'Notice to Airmen' with the FAA. So that makes everything easier.

We plan on trying to construct the actual payload container Saturday. This should give us the final weight (if we get the parachute by then...)

We are looking at a tentative launch date of next Saturday (June 13th).

Successful balloon tracking test

I was able to track the 'buzz' module from my car and track its progress real time. I also was able to produce a kml file for import into google earth.

All I did was place the gps transmitter in my car and drive around with the laptop connected to my radio. This is equivalent to following the balloon - provided the balloon was in the car. But my radio did pick it up and the computer was able to plot its every 15 second updates correctly.

I also purchased an external power supply for my camera, I'm going to feed the camera from a battery pack consisting of 4 AA lithium batteries. I measured the cameras draw and it would spike over 500 mA when taking pictures. The micro switching regulator I'm using to drop the voltage down from 6v to 3.7 (what the camera needs) is only rated to 500mA. I have a slightly beefier one on order. When I receive that I will do a battery test to see how long the camera can continue to take pictures and video. I'll use alkaline batteries for the test as the lithimums are expensive.

I also weighed all the components: camera, gps tracking module (buzz), rdf beacon, 12 AA batteries, battery holders etc - came out to only 545 grams. This does not include the weight of the foam box nor the parachute, but I think we are on target for less then 1050 grams which is what the balloon manufacturer lists as the ideal payload weight.

Mapping Goodness

I received the cable to connect my ham radio to my laptop today. I was able to configure the xastir program to receive data from my tm-d710a and was able to track other hams live on a map. The program has the ability to track a target in real time and also save the tracklog and kml file for later importing into GoogleEarth. This is the final piece to make sure we can track the ballon during its flight.

Keep it simple

Well, we have decided to simplify the balloon design. For this first flight all we want to do is get as high as possible and get as many pictures/videos as possible. So we are leaving out the arduino/camera tilt portion. We will just have the camera pointed out the side running a looping program to continuously take pictures and videos. No arduino, servo, temperature probes, etc...

This will lighten the load considerably (especially because of the reduced number of batteries needed) and simplify the payload. If this flight succeeds we can make another with a more complicated payload.

Successful test of gps tracker!

We successfully programmed the new Micro-Trak (called 'buzz') and hooked it to the garmin 18lvc gps. It sent out its current location via aprs and was picked up both by my mobile radio and an aprs igate! This is an important test as buzz will be the primary means of tracking the balloon.

Still need to fine tune the duration and power of the output and test battery life.

KC9PUN

Got my callsign! Also received my shiny new radio - a Kenwood TM-D710A. I installed in in my car Friday despite the rain and was receiving gps data from various sites via the built in APRS function. Just today I hooked up my older garmin gps to it and was able to broadcast out my location via APRS. It showed up on the internet almost immediatly, which allows me to post my location at any time. Very cool/nerdy.

Also was able to do some flying today as the weather was nice. Flew the easystar with the camera 'pod'. I had some problems with the servos controlling the camera glitching so I flew with the camera in a static postion. I flew normal while Mark wore the goggles. He reported the view was very cool. I just need to fix the servo problem so I can point the camera in flight. I also ordered some small magnets so I can more securly attach the camera pod, as I'm worried about it flying lose during flight - which would not be a good thing.

Also got some time in with the mini ultra stick. No crashes all around - always a good thing.

Ham Radio

I took the ham radio Technician test Saturday and passed! So I'm officially a licensed nerd now. I have not yet gotten my call sign, and have to wait until it appears in the FCC database before I can legally transmit. It should show up in a few days. As I do not have a radio yet that is not an issue. I've been eyeing the Kenwood TM-D710A, its gotten very good reviews and has APRS capability built in, which I need for tracking the balloon.

Also purchased and have put together my new Easy Star plane. Its ideal for FPV. I also bought a brushless motor upgrade which significantly increases the power of said plane. I still need my camera mount which should arrive shortly and also need to rig some sort of Y-adapter for the power to go to the speed controller and the camera.

Flying...

I have not done much with the arduino in the last couple of days... I mounted the camera on the mount and still need to create the software to tilt and take pics.

Did do some flying yesterday as the weather was very nice. Flew both the magpie and did quite a bit with the ultra stick. I'm digging the ultra stick. I currently only have one battery for it, but I just ordered another in addition to a new easy star with brushless combo which will become my new fpv plane.

Camera Goodness

Camera SDM software is working!

After posting a message to the SDM newsgroup, one of the developers (Dave / aka microfunguy) has been emailing me test versions. After a conversion spanning 85+emails so far he has managed to fix it! I was able to make the camera take a video via a script ... I get better support from Dave then we get from our vendor at work that we pay huge amount of money. Anyway Dave has been great and I'm going to try a full functional test later today.

Nearly killed myself....

So my water heater was on the fritz. I woke up to nearly boiling water. I replaced the thermostat and all appeared well. The next day the water was lukewarm. I thought I would test to make sure there was power.

...this is where it gets dangerous.

My water heater works on 220v. Which needless to say is very dangereous. I was aware it was on and had my shiny new meter set to measure the AC. When I touched the probes to the contacts the following happened: A huge bang, a bright light, and me nearly soiling myself.

Turns out I still had the meter red lead plugged into the port to measure current - not voltage. i.e. when I plugged it in I created a short.

Luckily I did not electure myself, however it had the following effects: Water hearter contacts blackened, shiny new meter test probe melted at end, circuit breaker tripped, fuse blew in meter, and the best part: it blew the tracing right off the circuit board in my shiny new meter. Later I was able to solder a jumper over the damaged circuit board, but I don't know if I will trust it to accuratly measure amperage...

Eventually it turned out to be just a bad element in the water heater. I replaced it and all was well....

GPS good, Camera bad

Got my multimeter and a variety of test leads in today. Used said leads to try once again to hook up the GPS 18lvc and try and update firmware. Still no go. I double checked all the connections and it looked good. Then I had not not so brilliant idea of trying to view its output with a terminal program - and it was happily spitting out GPS data! Even better in the data it occasionaly said it was running version 3.0 of the firmware! This is the latest version and includes the update to work above 60k feet which is what I was concerned about. I don't know why the garmin updater was not connecting, but I don't need it now that I know it is at the proper firmware level.

I've had some communication back and forth with the SDK newgroup about my problems with getting the SDK firmware to load on my camera. Still not working, CHDK works fine, but SDK will not load. So this means as of right now - no video, only stills. I'll keep an eye on the forums and see what happens, worst case senario either I go with no video, or buy a used canon camera that is known to work with SDK.

Camera Woes

I spent hours last night trying to get the camera control to be able to take a movie via a usb signal. Looks like CHDK cannot do it. However SDM can, in fact sdm looks perfect - its specifically made to make such tasks easy so you can put a camera on a kite. However when I try and boot the sdm software the camera comes up only for a few seconds and then shuts right back down....arrrgh. I've posted my problems on the sdm news group, so hopefully somebody may be able to help me. One user says it works fine with his SD750 - it may be an issue with my canon firmware (which is old) however I see no updates on the canon web site to update the firmware.....

Various updates

I found a really nice ready made tilt mechanism for the camera. Looks pretty nice and will handle the tilting of the camera bettery than any mechanical contraption I could create. I don't think I will have any problems with the program to tilt the camera and take pictures. However I'm not so sure now on triggering a movie. Looks like the current version of the CHDK software does not support switching camera 'modes' to movie mode. On my camera it is a physical slide switch that has to be moved to go to movie mode. I'll look at physically moving said switch, but that could be difficult as its a small tab that would need to move horizontally.

I also need to work out via the CHDK software if it is possible to disable the review feature, the flash, and autofocus. I just want the focus set to infinity and the flash would be worthless. Disabling these would increase battery life.

I still have not had success in getting my gps18 to talk to the computer so I can update the firmware. I've tried multiple times but the garmin software says it cannot find the device. I don't know if the problem lies with my wiring, the gps itself, or the computers....arrrrgh. I should be getting my new multimeter in the mail soon. I'll use it to double check all the connections and also maybe try a different computer so I can elimate that angle.

More Arduino Fun

Last night just for fun I created a 6 led 'cylon light' with the Arduino. It was pretty cool. I managed to wire it up without refering to any web pages. I did grab the code off the internet and modify it - but I think I could write it from scratch. Its pretty easy to program.

After that I created a usb cable to plug into my canon point and shoot (SD750) and connect the the Arduino prototype board. I was able to have the Arduino send a command to shoot the camera! Unfortunatly it was not able to tell the camera to shoot a movie. I think I need a different version of the CHDK software on the camera that allows the setting of modes. I'll try that out later.

Shiny new Gadget!

I went geocaching in the woods earier as I had the day off. Found one close to the trail. I could not find the second. My gps (garmin eTrex Legend) was jumping all over the place and loseing its satallite lock. I went back home and my new gps was waiting on the porch! Its a Garmin Colorodo 400t, which has very good reviews and is very geocaching friendly. I've already transfered some geocache locations over to it and am looking forward to trying it out.

Updating GPS

Well I tried to update the firmware on my garmin 18 lvc gps. This is the hockey puck looking gps that I plan on sending on the balloon. It needs a firmware update so that it can read altitudes above 60k feet. It comes with bare wires which I attemped to hook up via a breadboard to a 5v power source and a serial connector to a computer. I tried several times but could not get the firmware program to see the gps. I don't know if it was my shoddy wiring, the gps, or the computer. Arrrrrgh. I'll try again later...

Microcontroller programming

I went ahead and did my first micro controller program for the Arduino - a simple 'hello world' program that flashes a led at a set internval. Very easy. So I took the plunge and hooked it up to control a servo based on a potentiometer setting. This is similar to what I want to do with my automatic servo control of the camera in the high alt ballon. Very cool...of course these are both step by step examples found on the web - next step is to create my own program to sweep the servo to set positions at set times...

Electronic Goodness

Got my soldering accesories today. Organized the downstairs to create an area for my hobbies (plane stuff, electronics, castle moulds, etc..) Note the Star Trek Enterprise picture - crucial to any Nerd Lair.



Finished soldering the protoshield! Was pretty easy and having the right tools for the job definitely helped. The completed protoshield is pictured in the vise and the Arduino is at the bottom of the picture.

Arduino

Got my Arduino kit in the mail yesterday. Contains the arduino itself a protoshield and some other odds and ends. I'm looking forward to soldering the protoshield together, but am still waiting for my new solding station to arrive. My soldering skills are pretty rusty and I don't think I've soldered any small components since high school - so hopefully I won't mess it up.

Geocaching fun

Went geocaching again today with the Daughter, brother and his son. We found two. The second was literally 1/4 inch metal case magnetically attached. Got really lucky finding it. I've seen a different type of container every time now - small coffee can, a small flashlight like container then this tiny metal thingy with the screw type lid and magnet.

First FPV flight

Just finished my first FPV (first person view) flight successfully! It was fairly windy, but we threw caution to said wind. Mark (copilot) kept a eye on the plane while I flew it completly via the video googles. At first it was a little difficult telling how level I was flying since the camera is pointed slightly down. But after a little getting used it it was hellu cool. Mark reported it was very strange to see me staring off into space in completly the wrong direction while the plane is flying behind me.

Here are some minor problems I had:

1. Too windy
2. My plane is not really situated for this - its a puller so the camera was looking through the prop. Need to perhaps get an EasyStar
3. Forgot to set the timer when I started flying - its the only way I can keep track of how much battery juice the video transmitter has
4. Video quality was ok, but not great. Should try and mess with the goggles video settings to see if I can improve it.
5. Did not get the video recording setup. I only messed with it a little bit, but could not get my Archos to recognize a video signal.
   

Overall it was very cool - I'm looking forward to doing it again when the wind is calm.

Camera control idea

So here is my idea for the camera on the balloon: Camera on a mount which is tilted via a servo. Arduino controls servo and basically moves it to 3 different positions: down, up and sideways. This part should be pretty easy as servo control via the arduino is simple. The tricky part is telling the camera when to fire, If I just want to snap a picture thats pretty easy - but it would be really cool to tell it to take either a picture or a short video. I've seen that with the CHDK software running on the camera you can measure the state of the usb input and it will count how many milliseconds there is 5v applied. So with a uBasic script you count the number of milliseconds and either take a pic or take a video based on that value. I've seen a example program and it looks doable. I'm eager to try it out when I get the arduino.

Also I'll need to make some tests of how long the battery(s) will last doing this. Most likely the little battery for the camera will be insufficient and I will have to wire in an external lipo - should not be too hard. Same deal with the arduino since it will be powering itself and the servo. Also need to calculate the needed SD storage space based on how many pics / videos I will end up taking over x amount of time.

I have not even touched the communication / gps part yet besides some basic stuff. Can't really do much until I have my ham radio license - I'm taking the test May 9th. I do have a Garmin 18x lvc gps (looks like a hockey puck with bare wires). With a firmware update it is capable of working above 60k feet (which most gps devices are not)

FPV tomorrow (maybe)

I'm hoping to fly my RC plane tomorrow (weather permitting) via the camera / video goggles setup (i.e. fpv - first person view). This should be hella cool. I'll also try and record it via my Archos AV500 personal dvr. This will be my frist use of the video googles for this!

Arduino

I've ordered an Arduino. I've always been interested in electronics, and this looks pretty darn cool. Lets you interface with real world objects via a simple C++ based language to program it.

I'm thinking of creating a program which will control a servo to tilt a camera up, down, and sideways on the high alt ballon and take a pic/video from various angles. I'm stealing this idea from this ballon project.

High Altitude Ballon

So I wanna send a ballon into the stratosphere - 100,000 feet or so. Take some neat pics, perhaps video. I've decided to create this blog to talk about that and other 'nerdly musings'