Hey! Saturday, June 1st the University of Washington launched three weather balloons with various bits of student created instrumentation on board. Myself and a couple other guys put together the telemetry systems that get the data to the ground.
Check out the 2013 Launch page to see what we’ve got!
I recently purchased a number of uBlox Max6Q GPS modules from HAB Supplies and etched some boards to attach them and the supporting components to. Rather then testing each one individually, waiting for it to lock, etc. I stuck all six of them on a breadboard at the same time and let them run till they all locked. It ended up being pretty cool when all six modules locked and got their PPS (Pulse Per Second) outputs synchronized.
I’m going to be flying one of my transmitters soon on a weather balloon, so I wanted to make sure it would work properly at the cold temperatures normally experienced there. So I went over to the local Fred Meyer and grabbed a block of dry ice. I stuck the block and my transmitter in a cooler overnight, and watched the data roll in.
Looks like the onboard temperature sensor got down to about -50C and the board ran quite happily. Looks like I’ll be good to go for the flight.
Here’s a photo of it covered in a bit of frost right after I took it out of the cooler.
A little bit ago the gal and I went on a short hike in the area. The place we went is called Federation Forest, and here’s a few pictures I took out there.
Not a terribly long post this time, just thought I’d mention that the gal, some friends, and I went to see The Coats a few nights back. For those who aren’t familiar, they’re a local a capella group of whom I’ve been a fan of for some time. They put on a great show and we really enjoyed the experience. Afterward we hung around for a few and the gal and I got a photo with them. Check it out!
P.S. This is my 300th post! Woo!