Category Archives: Uncategorized

On Sunday I presented my project at the “Raspberry Jam” in Egham, Surrey. Over 30 Pi fans braved the snow and ice to attend. I managed to stretch my 15-minute slot to over an hour, but even so I didn’t … Continue reading →

Back in June 2006 a guy called Steve Carter posted this in the pistonheads.com photographic forum I decided to send my tiny teddy bear on a world trip (via post to other people) and get photos of him in as … Continue reading →

Someone (apart from me!) thinks so, according to a comment on my flickr account! Also the same photo (see below) is now on Steve Randall’s Random Engineering site. So to return the favour, if you’re planning your own weather balloon … Continue reading →

Back in May 2011, before even my first launch, I was at the Smithsonian Air & Space museum in Washington DC and spotted one of these cute little potential astronauts: Back then I was still building my first and very … Continue reading →

For Buzz6 I wanted to make the lightest payload I can, to try and beat the world altitude record. That record was in the hands of Steve Randall who’d beaten the previous record a couple of weeks before. I helped … Continue reading →

My first flight had a miniature Buzz Lightyear “Commander” on board. Now I’m going to step that up and fly a much larger Buzz within view of one of the onboard cameras to photograph Buzz “flying” in space. To do … Continue reading →

I’ve added some a technical section to the site to help those who are building their own payload, or are simply interested in how it all works. See the new menu options above. Here’s the latest page: SMS Gateway

Here’s a photographic step-by-step showing the build of a small, lightweight (16g) tracker from off-the-shelf modules. First, the modules, from left to right the BMP085 pressure and temperature sensor, Arduino Mini Pro 3.3V 8MHz, RFM22B radio transceiver, and a Falcom … Continue reading →

There are lots of reasons for wanting to get the payload weight down – it can save money (less helium / smaller balloon), or can mean more height with the same size balloon. Also very small payloads are used for … Continue reading →