Ham'in It Up

It's official, I have my amateur radio license again!  This time I'm KJ6OSS.  Not crazy about the call sign itself, but since I'm mainly using it for this project, I can live with it.  I've been lazy and not posting updates (license was actually granted 5/13/11).  I got my papers from the FCC last week, and on the same day this arrived....

My Byonics MT-AIO APRS Transmitter

Sadly, it seemed like it wasn't going to work right out of the box like I expected it to (even though it was supposed to be programmed with my call sign and everything.)  I've tried several times last week, leaving it on for a few hours, even taking a walk around the neighborhood to make sure I had a good signal for GPS and the other ham stations.  Tonight, however, it was able to connect and report it's position for the first time (part of the reason I haven't posted until now).  Ironically, I failed to get it to connect with my laptop after buying and hacking together a 2.5mm to serial to USB cable today, but without any changes it seems to work okay now. Strange. 

The best site I've found for tracking is aprs.fi.  I'm able to access the raw data packets through that site, which can be quite useful.  Well, think I'm going to go for a drive now that it's working!

Launch = Success, Recovery = Fail

So on Saturday April 19th, 2011 I successfully launched my balloon.  After a last minute check of the Balloon Predictor 2.0, I selected the launch site to be across the street from Bel Air Presbyterian church on Mulholland Drive just above the Skirball Center (if you're familiar with LA).  The intended launch site was Chino, just East of the airport.  Flat and mostly farm fields with some neighborhoods scattered in between.


Everything went great with setting up for launch.  With my trusty tarp and helium tank, I was able to fill up the balloon in about 30 minutes while Jordan kept the balloon from blowing away or running away from me.  The Motorolla phone was tracking for most of the drive up the 405 and was charging the whole time.

Cameras were running Intervalometer script and secured inside the enclosure.  The cell phone was packed in a little pouch taped to the inside side wall.  After a few more pictures (and unsuccessful attempts to update the blog with pictures) we launched!  Went up pretty quickly and did not hit any planes. [Launch time was 11:50am]

Me with the BIG balloon

Jordan actually did most of the holding

All sealed up and ready to go

Up, up and away....forever

 More photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/m_albert/sets/72157626549964746/


Balloon Launch 1 from Michael Albert on Vimeo.

After we no longer could make out the white balloon, we packed up and headed to the landing area.  Took a while to get there, but the flight was supposed to last 2.5, so we still had some extra time.  Despite carefully searching the skies with binoculars, we were not able to spot it coming down.  Though spotting it was always an ideal (and very unlikely scenario), "Hey there it is!"  I was still hoping.  While we watched, we constantly checked the Instamapper location map on my phone.  After 20 minutes had passed after the supposed landing time with no indication of reconnecting to the network, we starting driving around.  Unfortunately there are a lot of orange things in that area due to the farms. It was almost like buck-fever, except with an orange parachute.  Sadly, the only orange things we saw were sand bags, plastic fencing, and barrels.  At about 4:00pm we gave up and headed back to my place.  Six days later and I still haven't gotten a call with someone telling me they found my box of cameras.  Could still happen, but not likely.

So what went wrong with the GPS tracking system?  Unfortunately, there's really no way of knowing for sure.  The only certain thing is that it did fail...big time.  A few possibilities:

1) Frozen - perhaps the battery got cold enough during the flight that it shut off and didn't restart when it warmed up back on the ground.
2) Parachute/enclosure failure - there's a chance that the parachute got tangled enough during the flight that whole thing fell like a rock because the parachute never inflated.  Upon impact, the phone might have been terminally damaged.
3) Bad landing site - An under-performing parachute or prediction error could mean that it landed much farther West than the target, up in Chino Hills where there isn't any cell coverage.

So what's next?  Trying it all over again...but better.  Already have another Powershot coming from eBay, and I'll be ordering the balloon soon since it took way too long last time.  I'll be using a more robust GPS system- either a SPOT or APRS system (specifically this one from Byonics).  It probably would be good to make a custom enclosure with a heating system and a common battery pack.

More to come, but AHAP-2 is underway.

Live Update: Balloon launch almost ready. Start tracking now!

Online Balloon Tracking

I'm getting ready for a launch tomorrow (Saturday April 16th, 2011)!  To track the location of the balloon live, check out the embedded map below.  I'll post again tomorrow to let everyone know when it's happening.

FYI - You won't be able to see tracking data for the whole flight, just for the lower altitudes where the phone has reception.

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

Balloon Delivery!

It's been quite a while since my last update, mainly because there were no real updates to speak of.  After placing my order about a month ago, I finally received my balloon from Kaymont.  I got a very nice KC1200 which is rated for a 1kg payload and a 33 km burst altitude.

Now it's go time.  Since I have the day off tomorrow, I'll probably be working feverishly to try and get everything ready for a (potential) launch this Saturday!  Some minor work needs to be completed on the enclosure including attaching the balloon and parachute cords.

Cell reception

One of my biggest fears for this project is that the payload will come down safely with no damage to the cameras but have no cell service to send its GPS coordinates to Instamapper, leaving me absolutely no idea where it is.  Now I'll have a general idea using the balloon tracking predictors mentioned earlier, but if that's off by a mile or two, it will make searching for it very unpleasant (and finding it less likely).

LA County coverage map (boostmobile.com/coverage)

But after a quick check on the coverage map for the phone, it turns out I should be adequately covered at both the launch site in the desert and the general landing area in the IE.  There are a few splotches of "Fair" coverage which I will avoid if possible, but I'm pretty confident now that cell reception won't be a problem. Whew!

My second camera

Found another great deal on Craigslist- this Canon A480 10 megapixel camera for only $40!  It was in surprisingly good condition, with barely a single scratch on the entire thing.  Everything works great (and I have an extra 1Gb card now too).

Of course the first step once I got home was to install CDHK.

So to recap-

Get 2 cameras:      Check
Buy new SD cards: Check
Install CDHK:         Check

I now have all my electronics hardware! The final things to finish are picking the balloon, making the enclosure, and attaching/testing the parachute.

CHDK up and running

After a few false starts, I got the correct version of CHDK running on the SD400! 

Start-up splash screen

Script menu with Ultra Intervalometer running

Figured out how to load up the 'Ultra Intervalometer" script, and wanted to test it out.  What better way than to slap the camera on my windshield and drive on the freeway?  Yesterday on my drive into work I set up the camera to take a picture every 5 seconds.  Everything worked as expected and the suction mount stayed in place.  Combined all the photos into the video below (for the HD version check out vimeo)-

More Inspiration

In an unrelated search today on Arduino boards and GPS units (for another overly-ambitious project), I stumbled upon another California group doing high altitude balloon launches. The California Near Space Project.  They use HAM radios and APRS for tracking with various different setups.  I love how small their payloads are. Compact and efficient!

Their payload from the August 30, 2010 flight (CNSP)

They've already done 4 flights to date from the San Jose area, and actually have one scheduled for this Saturday (Feb 5, 2011)!  Check them out if you're into Ham radio.
[I used to be N3XUP, but that expired 5 years ago.  Somehow I still show up on this directory for Cogan Station, PA.  So does my Dad and a few of my friends.]

The winds, they are (always) a changin'

While I'm trusting my phone to tell me the final GPS coordinates of the payload, it's helpful to know the general area in which it will land.  Not only for reasons of finding it but also for planning.  If I launched the balloon from my condo, for example, it would end up way out in the Pacific past Catalina.  Not ideal.  Thankfully there are a few online trajectory predictors out there which can help with this.

The best one is CUSF Landing Predictor 2.0 provided by the University of Cambridge. The preset locations are all in England, but you can input any starting coordinates you want (as well as ascent and decent rates too).  Once the simulation is done, the flight path is overlaid onto Google Maps.  And if you want, the raw data can be exported as CSV or KML files.

Because the exact wind patterns are always changing, I won't really know my exact starting point until the day before the launch.  My target landing area is still Riverside/Moreno Valley.  Not many mountains or people to deal with, and I'd like to avoid LAX traffic for obvious reasons.  And there are plenty more chances of landing in a field were recovery is easiest. Since I'm really at the mercy of the winds, I very well might delay the launch until the winds are the way I like them.

Videos (not mine)

Found a great collection of videos today from similar balloon projects.  Gives you a good idea of what it should look like.  One of the videos is by a group in Livermore, CA made back in March 2010.  Pretty cool, but still haven't found an example from SoCal.

http://wn.com/High_altitude_balloon

"New" Camera (1 of 2)

On Sunday I picked up this Canon SD400 camera off Craigslist for a reasonable price of $37.  She's a little beat up, but works perfectly.  This one should do well as my horizontal camera.  Once my new SD cards come in later this week, I'll get to work loading CHDK and setting up the intervelometer.

 Still searching for the second camera (and contemplating on whether to add an IR one as well), though I may just go with a new Canon A490, which are relatively cheap, even new.

Parachute assembly

To my detriment at times, I usually follow two mantras- "if it's worth doing, it's worth OVER-doing" and "DIY". I realize I could have just purchased a parachute somewhere, but any idiot can order a parachute online.  It takes  a semi-skilled idiot to make their own parachute.  After finding a template for a hemispherical chute, I picked up the brightest orange rip-stop nylon I could find.

Not having access to a sewing machine and not wanting to sew the whole thing by hand, I found an inexpensive compromise...

What you're looking at is a $15 sewing "machine" I found at Target.  How well does it work?  Well, as good as you would expect from something of that price.  Actually, if you just use the wheel to advance the needle instead of the motor (which is way too fast to control) it works pretty nicely.  Expect some sore fingers.

 

Next up will be to attach the cords and test it out.  I'm still not set on using this one, but I'll wait to see how well it works.  I have a feeling it needs a much larger vent.

GPS tracking is on track

Since finding the camera payload is a pretty important part of the 'mission', a GPS system is the second most important passenger other than the cameras.  Past solutions sometimes were fairly complicated, consisting of GPS receivers, an Arduino/microprocessor board, and a transmitter.  Maybe it's not that complicated, but there are much more simple ways of doing the same thing.  Like I mentioned before, there are at least two examples of people using only a GPS enable phone.

Going for the easiest, COTS solution, I picked the Motorola i296 prepaid phone ($49.99 at BestBuy, $0.35 a day for unlimited data). You'd be surprised that a simple little candy bar phone that looks like it belongs in the late 90's would be capable of live GPS tracking (I was!).

I've always hated the Motorola UI because it was terrible.  Thankfully, it isn't too much of a pain to set up the phone.  All one needs to do is install a small Java program provided by the tracking site InstaMapper. It's a totally free and totally awesome site.  I'll send out a link later where people can track the balloon live on launch day. 

 

Granted this isn't the most robust solution for GPS tracking, since it needs to be within range of a cell tower to transmit the GPS data.  This isn't a huge issue, because I care more about where the payload is at 0 ft than I care about where it is at 80,000 ft (though that would be nice too).

As you can see, the phone is all set up and ready to go!  I'll make sure the battery is freshly charged, but other than that, she's ready to track.

A new project!

I often get ideas for cool new projects, sometimes original, and other times I'm inspired by what other people are doing.  In this case, I was mainly inspired by the success and simplicity of this project. (Shouldn't be surprised by what kids at MIT can do.) Of course there was also this British guy who got his balloon up to 22 miles, and this dad from NY who used his iPhone for video and GPS tracking.  I definitely got jealous every time I read a new story about this.

In case you can't tell by now, my plan is to strap some cameras to a big helium balloon and launch it from the desert.  From what I've seen, no one has ever tried this in Los Angeles or Southern California (and maybe not even on the West Coast).  I figure it's about time someone does.  Of course launching it is one of the easier parts of this whole project (just let go).  Recovering the cameras and images is obviously the ultimate goal.  I'll be using the same GPS tracking method as Project Icarus, since it's cheap and also lets other people track it in real time on the web.  I'll have at least 2 cameras going up- one for the horizontal view and one looking down.  The shot to get with the horizontal camera is the curved surface of the Earth with the black backdrop of space.  (The balloon won't technically go to space, just the stratosphere)  For the down camera, the shot to get is the coastline of Los Angeles and maybe Catalina and the Channel Islands if things work out just right.

So I've created this site to keep track of my progress, which should keep me motivated and also save me the time of documenting everything later.  Expect plenty of pictures and updates over the next several weeks until launch.