Getting Close!

     Successful test of the imaging system! I was able to get 139 minutes of quality video out of the batteries. Enough to get to 100,000 feet. Next I need to do a full scale test of the tracker. Weather isn't looking too good for Saturday, but I hope to have that testing completed by then anyway.

Flight Delayed

    I'd rather be saying it's postponed due to weather; it is too bad to fly, but I'm just not ready. With spring planting and building a chicken coop, I'm going to put it off for just 2 weeks.

I built a capsule, but it was heavier than expected; over 100 grams. So I build a second one and it's much lighter. The capsule itself weighs in at under 40 grams. The tracker, sans batteries is 70 grams and the cams weigh around 15 gm each (x2), so I'm looking good for a total weight of 250 grams. Might even have room for a very small payload of some sort.

Tracker Finished

     The tracker went togehter rather easily. The GPS locks within seconds.
I hung it up just 15' from an antenna and it was picked up by a local station a few miles away and gated to the internet as seen here:

Next up is to assemble the capsule.

New GPS and Scaled Down Flight

     After several months of messing with a Motorola GPS module, I finally gave up and bought a different unit. This Argent GPS is tiny compared to the Mototrola.

      This is the radio transmitter. (Bayonics MicroTrak 300) It transmits on the 2 meter Ham Radio band at 144.390 Mhz with about 300 mW of power. It should be able to be received for better than 60 miles.

     I've also decided against sending up the Arduino as a flight computer on the first flight. The plan now is to send up a small camera and GPS/Radio tracker and that's it.

     I have the rip-stop nylon fabric for the parachute, (black and lime green) that I cannibalized from an old Rokkaku kite I had built several years ago but broken one of the spars on. I just need to sew it together.

     Testing of the tracking unit should begin soon as I solder together this twinlead j-pole antenna.
  
     The first flight is now scheduled for March 26, 2011.