Re: Launch Announcement - HABANERO2 - Sunday 30/06/2013

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Costyn van Dongen

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Jun 24, 2013, 10:31:33 AM6/24/13
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As has been pointed out to me, the 29th is Saturday, we'll be
launching Sunday the 30th.

Cheers

Costyn.

On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 4:26 PM, Costyn van Dongen <cost...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> Hackerspace RevSpace in the Hague, the Netherlands is going to launch
> another HAB on Sunday the 29th.
>
> We'll be testing a new (passive) stabilised camera platform (more
> details if it works or not after the flight :) ) and we'll be sending
> up a science payload with a 9-dof IMU, a UV meter and an
> electromagnetic field measuring device.
>
> Radio details:
> 434.25MHz USB RTTY
> 100 baud
> 460Hz shift
> ASCII-8 no parity 1 stop bit
>
> We'll be launching at around 12 or 13:00 UTC; the exact time still
> depends on the changes the predictor is going to have before that
> time.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Costyn.

Costyn van Dongen

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Jun 30, 2013, 2:03:57 AM6/30/13
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Hello all,

Launch is going ahead today, due to predictions we'll be launching
earlier than initially announced, likely around 9 UTC / 10 BST / 11
CET.

Additionally, we're going to have a livestream during launch and
recovery, like last time. Livestream will be available here:
http://ustre.am/SMza I will announce on IRC when I turn it on.
Unfortunately due to predictions we won't be able to at our
hackerspace, we've had to move the launch point south, where we won't
have wifi but only 3g. The livestream won't be of that great quality.

Here's the predicted flight path for today. Still somewhat close to
large bodies of water, but I think we'll be ok:
http://habhub.org/predict/#!/uuid=dc5c8538bf4bb05579ceb35b57ca0711dc793de4

Thanks in advance to all who are tracking.

Cheers

Costyn.

Costyn van Dongen

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Jul 3, 2013, 3:45:44 AM7/3/13
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Hello all,

Just wanted to report that we had a great flight last sunday. Here's a
recap and some more details on our payloads.

We launched from a slightly more southern position than last time.
Predictor said otherwise we'd end up in one of several large bodies of
water (big rivers and estuaries mostly). Measuring necklift was a tad
tricky due to gusts of wind, but turned out ok. Launch was made
interesting by the camera platform (see pics) being the last in the
train, and the balloon was being blown somewhat sideways by the wind.

The triangular camera platform worked fairly well. There were no
pictures of the sun :), and although it did turn and wobble a bit, it
certainly wasn't as bad as when using a single small payload box. The
video is actually watchable without getting ill. :) We had both the
stills and the video pointing slightly downwards as we wanted more
ground detail than sky detail, this also worked fairly well. We also
used 2 ball bearing swivels (the fishing kind) between the balloon and
parachute and parachute and lower payloads. In this way any turning of
the balloon or parachute would not induce turning of the payloads.

The triangle is made of fiberglass tubes (the kind found in kites) and
we had a box at each corner. On 2 corners of the triangle we had the
video and stills camera. On the 3rd corner we had the science payload;
that's the box with the smiley. The 2 eyes are the UV sensors, one
with a filter to be able to differentiate some frequencies. It also
had a 9-DOF IMU on board (3-degree accellerometer, 3-degree
compass/magnetic field, and 3-degree gyroscope); the board also had a
BMP-085 pressure sensor on it.

Chase was fun. The predictor on the tracker showed 1 area for a long
time, but after burst it moved about 25km southeast, no idea why. If
anyone can elaborate, that'd be great.

As was seen on the livestream, the payload landed in several low
trees, we were able to get it out by pulling on the lines and we had
gear with us (pole with a hook) and got everything out.

Images from the flight can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/Jnktr

We're looking into integrating/overlaying the flight data into the
video, this is going to take some more time; I'll post it when we have
it available. Unfortunately the GoPro stopped filming before burst due
to the battery running out. We didn't have enough time to make an
external battery pack for the gopro and the batteries needed would
have significantly increased the payload weight.

Also the science data from the 9-DOF IMU and UV and electromagentic
field strength measuring device are still being processed and
interpreted. Will also give a shoutout when that's done.

Some statistics from the day:
* Balloon: Hwoyee 1200
* Payload train weight: 810g
* Necklift: 2000g
* Max altitude reached: 34060m
* Time at launch: 09:34:51 UTC
* Time at landing: 12:20:53 UTC
* Flight time: 2 hours 46 minutes
* Pictures taken: 4023 on the Canon A480 with CHDK
* Video: 14GB of HD footage on the GoPro Hero HD
* 3G data sent through livestream: 500MB.


Thanks to all those who listened in.

Cheers,

Costyn.

Costyn van Dongen

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Jul 17, 2013, 6:57:27 AM7/17/13
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Hello all,

Wouter (PA3WEG) has put the GoPro video online:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFnbWy5kFIU We haven't had the
chance to embed telemetry data in the video unfortunately.

Unfortunately the batteries ran out before burst; last time they
lasted well after burst, so no acrobatics unfortunately. The video
does however showcase the stability of the triangular camera platform.

Cheers

Costyn.
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