The plan for flights started when fellow HABber Mark Jessop suggested we fly two balloons, mine with Hydrogen and his with Helium, to see which gets higher and by how much. The maths gives a certain figure but recent flights in the UK seem to show that hydrogen does rather […]
Read More5th Hucknall Scout Group Flight
About 2 months ago I received a message via this blog, from scout leader Andrew Anderson of 5th Hucknall Scouts, asking for help with a HAB project he and his scouts had planned. Some surprise monetary restrictions meant that having purchased a GoPro camera for their flight, they had nothing […]
Read MorePIE1 – Raspberry Pi Sends Live Images from Near Space
HAB (High Altitude Ballooning) is a growing hobby where enthusiasts use standard weather balloons to put small payloads typically 100g-1kg into “near space” at altitudes of around 30km or so, carrying a tracking device (so the balloon position is known throughout the flight) and usually some sensors (temperature, pressure etc) […]
Read MoreBUZZ5 and CLOUD5 Flights
Usually my flights have been from my home village in Berkshire, but for a while I’ve been wanting to launch with other enthusiasts from one of the 2 permanently NOTAMed sites in Cambridgeshire. Also, another enthusiast (also called Dave – hereafter known as Dave B) wanted to fly his first […]
Read MoreBuzz Lightyear’s Space Walk
This was a more ambitious launch day than previously, with 2 flights and 3 payloads. Also it was the first time I had put items outside of the payloads to photograph, and the first time I’d used hydrogen. It was a joint launch with fellow “balloonist” Anthony Stirk who had […]
Read MoreDash Display
The car PC installation was very useful for the balloon chase last weekend, but it would have been a lot better with a display closer to the driver’s line-of-sight. I knew that having the monitor buried down at the bottom of the dash wasn’t ideal, so I always expected to […]
Read MoreFoiled Once Not Twice (or Tree Times)
With the jet stream spoiling my plans for a latex balloon launch, I decided to try a foil balloon flight instead. Latex balloons stretch with altitude, eventually bursting at roughly 100 times their volume at ground level, and typically at altitudes of 30km or more. Foil balloons however do not […]
Read MoreCar PC Tracking Software
I’ve added a new page to the technical section, showing the car PC software I will use on the next launch.
Read MoreCloud4 Payload Build
This is the build of my latest photographic payload carrying, as usual, a Canon compact camera and a Kodak HD Video Camera. At less than 700g it’s my lightest yet with this configuration. The tracker has UHF telemetry as usual, plus an SMS backup. To help get the weight down, […]
Read MoreAn Egg Is Laid
This is the build of my smallest and lightest payload yet, using the tracker that I made recently. First job was to solder 3 Lithium Energizer AAA cells together and strap them to the tracker: I deliberately placed the cells next to the radio transmitter, and put some hot-melt glue […]
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