Proposed launch of AURA & AURA2

[Andrew Myatt]

Hi all, – We are planning the following launches, subject to weather
etc etc. Trackers would be more than welcome particularly as the first
launch will be on a weekday, and the second if it runs early 5am in
the morning. Will reconfirm closer to the day.

Mission Name: AURA
Launch: Subject to weather conditions
Date: Tuesday 09 April 2013
Time: 10.30am (BST UK)
Location: Malvern,
Latitude: 52.1150 , Longitude : -2.3167
Landing: TBD
Expected Burst altitude: 33,000 m
Callsign: $$AURA
Lift:Hydrogen filled totex-1200 balloon

Camera's:
Canon A810 camera, running CHDK to take stills at 5 Second intervals
GoPro
4 x 808 ('gum' type camera's)

Micro controllers (x3):
Arduino Mega:
GPS and Sensor logging @ 3 Hz (I2C Master)
uBLOX GPS
2 x TMP36 Temp sensors
6 axis Gyro + Accelerometer
Barometer + Temperature sensors
MicroSD card

Arduino Uno: (I2C slave to mega)
Seedstudio GSM/GPRS Shield,
Telemetry to HABITAT/Spacenear.us , directly via GPRS switched on
below 3000 meters. Also backup SMS telemetry to personal number.

Ardunio MiniPro: (I2C slave to mega)
NTX2 transmitting continuous Telemetry.
Frequency: 434.075 MHz
Shift: 700, Baud: 50
Coding: 7 bits, no parity, 2 stop bits
Telemetry: Sentence ID, Lat, Lon, attitude, Internal Temp, External
Temp, Air pressure,

If the above is successful and recovered, and subject to weather,
final CAA approval etc there will be a further early morning launch:

Mission Name: AURA2
Date: Saturday 13 April 2013
Time: 05.00am (BST UK)
Location: Malvern,
Latitude: 52.1150 , Longitude : -2.3167
Landing: TBD
Expected Burst altitude: 33,000 m
Callsign: $$AURA2

The final confirmation will be provided close to the actual launches.

Best regards,

Andrew and Joe Myatt

[Costyn van Dongen]

Chris,

Search for 'keychain 808' on eBay to see what they're talking about. 

They've been known to jam GPS signals so it's important to shield them and/or test extensively beforehand. 

Cheers

Costyn

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On 2 apr. 2013, at 19:20, chris hillcox <ballo...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:

What are '4 x 808 ('gum' type camera's) ' ? Many Thanks Chris M6LZY

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[Andrew Myatt]

Costyn,

Yes good point about the possible interference. see
http://www.ebay.co.uk/ctg/AEE-MD80-Camcorder-Black-/109017020?_tab=1&_trksid=p2047675.l2644

Last time I stripped the cameras down, removing the plastic case and
battery, and powered them from a common set of AA lithium batteries to
provide the required record length. I also wrapped the pcb in a layer
of plastic tape, and then wrapped in thicker aluminum (takeaway
container) foil and had no interference problems at all. Interestingly
on the bench in tests they ran in that mode with no problems for 3
hours. On the actual flight the video on two failed and and all four
came down and were very hot at least 45 degree c. I'm taking some
measures to try and stop that happening this time (by better control
of input voltage). But for £5.66 each including postage from china I
think they are worth the effort.....although I have yet to be able to
remove the date/time but that is another issue!

Andrew

[Costyn van Dongen]

Andrew,

There is custom firmware available on the web that will remove the
embedded date. On my phone now so you'll have to google it your self.

Cheers

Costyn

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Sent from my mobile device.

[Andrew Myatt]

- AURA Launch tomorrow now very very unlikely -

The weather doesn't look at all great, but the main problem is that my
only radio receiver (EzCap dongle) has fallen apart ripping some PCB
tracks off. Try as I might I can't hack it back together.

Anyone know where I can get a replacement very quickly - I've just
looked on hab supplies and there seems to be none on stock.

Regards

Andrew

[Anthony Stirk]

Evening Andrew,

I stopped selling them as Cozy Cave were selling the R820 based ones at £8 however the performance of these sticks isn't great. In fact it would be safer to say the performance isn't full stop. They seem completely deaf to the weak signals even with a HABAmp and totally unsuitable for anything other than close testing.

If you can still get one the EZCAP with the E4000 is the best bet :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EZCAP-USB-DVB-T-Stick-Dongle-with-FM-DAB-RTL-SDR-with-RTL2832U-E4000-/190751067076?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c69a64bc4

(All the ones I saw had green PCBs). Can you post an image of the damaged dongle to IRC channel and I'll see if its fixable.

Anthony

[habjoe...@gmail.com]

Anthony,
Good info to know - was doing bench testing ..... perhaps i should invest in a fun cube dongle over the longer term?
Interestingly i did get some good returns from my own flight earlier in the year but agree that they didnlt work for weak signals.
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Sent from my Nokia phone

[Anthony Stirk]

FCD's are almost as good as a "real" radio and a worthwhile investment. 

Anthony

[Andrew Myatt]

Hi,

We're now looking to reschedule a AURA launch to 10:30am on Saturday
the 20th April - weather and replacement dongle permitting.
Same details although frequency will be 434.650 MHz 500shift.

I've checked but please let me know if anyone else is planning a
launch around that time next Saturday so that I can shift as
necessary.

Regards Andrew

[Andrew Myatt]

Chris, Hi

Sorry I missed your previous mail. AURA will be a 2:30am hour flight -
What time are you expecting to go (and duration) would it still be
9.00am as your first email. Let me know and I'll work around you. I'll
also look into changing frequency but I've had limited success in
(fine) control of NTX2's!

Regard

Andrew

On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 8:05 PM, Chris Stubbs
<chriss...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hello Andrew
>
> I had also postponed my flight and was planning to launch on Saturday the
> 20th.
> Our main payload is on 434.650 which may pose a problem with frequency
> clashes.
>
> Do you think it would it be possible to skew our frequencies slightly to
> avoid a clash?
>
> Regards
> Chris

[Andrew Myatt]

Chris,

No problem - lets discuss times later in the week.

Andrew

On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 11:05 PM, Chris Stubbs
<chriss...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> 9AM was the proposed time, but its hard to tell the best time yet as the
> predictions need to settle down (we need the best possible slot because we
> are so close to the coast). Perhaps we should coordinate launches a little
> closer to the time.
>
> Expected flight duration would be under 2 hours
>
> Regards
> Chris