Author Topic: High Altitude Balloon Payload, with sensors, Moteino, LoRa, GPS  (Read 2462 times)

kreeve

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High Altitude Balloon Payload, with sensors, Moteino, LoRa, GPS
« on: November 06, 2017, 04:58:24 PM »
A group of kids that are part of Cache Makers 4-H club, built a payload box - 1600 Gram Weather Balloon that flew to 126k feet (~38400 meters) from Idaho to Utah on October 28th.  The control system for the payload box was a Moteino Mega USB with 900 MHz LoRa radio system. 

Attached to it was a:
Because Learning/Ardusat Space Board https://store.ardusat.com/products/ardusat-space-board

Sparkfun Datalogger openlog.   https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13712?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7cfqufeq1wIVT2F-Ch2cKwFxEAAYASAAEgJTYvD_BwE

Byonics GPS  GPS5HAOEM  https://www.byonics.com/gps


We built a receiver using the standard Moteino with LoRa.

We had the LoRa send a datastream of LAT, LON, Altitude, Speed, Temperature, and Luminosity,  every 10 seconds.

We had receivable data the entire flight.  Balloon travelled 23 miles up and 60 miles North to South in Southern Idaho, Northern UT.
The youth worked with Arduino and the space board to learn about the sensors and become sensor specialists.   

I am really impressed with the  Moteino boards, with the LoRa Radio.  Impressive distance.   

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One receiver was built using a regular Moteino with LoRa and an 4 line ISP display.  Data was received the entire flight (circa 60 miles span), even from 126k feet altitude (23 miles up).  There is a photo of the receiver display on the ground at about 115k.
Another receiver had a small yagi PCB antenna attached to another Moteino in the chase car with the kids. Pointed to the sky they received data constantly during the trek to intercept.

LoRa does a great job and so nice to already have it attached to the Moteino micro-controller is a huge bonus.

Flight Tracking: https://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FCMAKER-5&timerange=43200&tail=43200

And some photos:




« Last Edit: November 09, 2017, 02:04:41 PM by Felix »

TomWS

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Re: High Altitude Balloon Payload, with sensors, Moteino, LoRa, GPS
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2017, 08:03:55 PM »
Great Job!  What a fun project!  And quite a learning project for everyone!

Well done! 

Tom

syrinxtech

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Re: High Altitude Balloon Payload, with sensors, Moteino, LoRa, GPS
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2017, 10:19:02 AM »
That looks like a really cool project.  Good work to everyone!