Since the FlexTrak boards are self-contained with their own processor, they can be used standalone rather than connected to a Raspberry Pi. This saves weight and increases run time on battery, though at the expense of course of the functions provided by the Pi, such as photography. If you wish […]
Raspberry Pi SSDV with a Compact Camera or SLR
Many HAB flights now use SSDV to transmit images “live” from the balloon down to the ground, using a camera connected to the flight computer, providing an immediacy that is missing when just flying standalone cameras. Early SSDV flights used serial cameras connected to a microcontroller, but image quality (and, […]
Raspberry Pi “Skycademy”
If you … Are a teacher or youth leader (e.g. scout group) Are interested in applications for the Raspberry Pi Would love to help your class or group send a weather balloon into the stratosphere and take live images throughout … then read on. In August, the Raspberry Pi Foundation […]
Raspberry Pi Weather Station
I’ve recently put my Maplin weather station back online, feeding data to wunderground.com. This is a live object that links to the site to show the current local weather conditions: I bought mine from Maplin, where it is currently £99.99, however it is often substantially discounted during their sales. It includes […]
Driving a scrolling LED badge from a Raspberry Pi
For a while I’ve wanted to build a “Flight Readiness” unit that I can have near me when filling a balloon, and will show me if the tracker is running OK or if there’s a problem with the tracker or receiver (e.g. it may have drifted out of tune). To […]
HAB-o-Cam – Raspberry Pi Video Streaming to batc.tv
I usually run a video stream from my launches, using webcam attached to a laptop or more recently with my Chase Car Pi, so that people following the flight can see what’s going on. Following a suggestion by Anthony Stirk, I decided to set up a second streaming camera which […]
Raspberry Pi & Pint Talk
Last night I went into London to meet up with other Pi enthusiasts over a pint, and to do a talk about my Pi-based weather balloon activities. Thanks to Andy and Matt for organising it and inviting me! Here’s a pic from Andy of me in “action”: The talk seemed […]
Update – Chase Car Raspberry Pi with GPS, Video Streaming
Following my previous post, I’ve now packaged up my Pi Chase Car system, using the new Raspberry Pi GPS Board from HAB Supplies. The original GPS receiver, purchased on ebay, just wasn’t up to the task of getting a good GPS signal inside a Raspberry Pi case. The HAB Supplies […]
Chase Car Raspberry Pi Computer
Chasing balloons across the country is one of the best, and probably the most exciting, parts of high altitude ballooning, using a car kitted out with aerials, radios and at least one computer to decode the radio transmissions from the balloon and show the balloon on a map. I have […]
TARDIS And Raspberry Pi In “Space”
Raspberry Pi in a TARDIS takes stratospheric self-portrait For my fourth Raspberry PI weather balloon flight I wanted to pack as much into the flight as I could, making full use of what the Pi has to offer: 3G link for video and backup telemetry Send telemetry over 3G from […]