Looking to buy an Arduino Starter Kit for my kids any suggestions on possible kits and links
Below is a kit I found online what you think ?
Arduino starter kit
http://www.oddwires.com/arduino-uno-starter-kit-deluxe/
Marvin
Daniel
What time will you be at the hive today 12:30pm works for me to start discussing space ballon
Marvin
That looks really nice! Looks to have more stuff than the Sparkfun Inventors Kit that I bought last year.
Also check out Adafruit’s offerings.
MicroCenter has a big selection of micro controller stuff that’s easy to browse through and actually put your hands on instead of looking at pictures on a web site.
Ian
Hi Marvin, I think I’ll be at the hive after 3 today and sometime after 1 tomorrow. Anybody else think they can make it here?
-Dan
I am at the hive now
Marvin
Is helium the best choice? I’m pretty sure the National Weather Service uses hydrogen. Helium is a strategic gas, and quite expensive. It’s probably reasonble to avoid helium just for conservation reasons. I’m not sure about safety, but generating hydrogen is probably trivial. It might need a booster or something to pump it into the balloon. To be clear—I’m saying to research the question of helium/hydrogen, not to pick it based on heresay.
The NWS launches two weather balloons a day from the Wilmington office at midnight and noon GMT (currently 8am and 8pm EDT). It might be worth a call to see if they’ll allow a group to view a launch.
Matthew
Jason, we had a few questions about the parts you provided us with. Can you tell us about the balloon and parachute?
Thanks,
Dan
Sure thing! The ballon was bought on eBay in June of 2010. This is an equivalent item (same seller): http://www.ebay.com/itm/One-1-GIANT-Weather-Balloon-Meteorological-Military-8-Dia-Free-U-S-shipping-/370777117933?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item565409d4ed So, it’s intended to be inflated to roughly 8’ in diameter at sea level.
The parachute is from here http://www.armynavysales.com/products/5-ft.-parachute and as you can see was $20 +shipping. The choice of parachute was far from scientific; it was simply estimated at one of our planning meetings that 5-6’ was sufficient for the low weight payload we were planning in order to stay under weight for FCC regulations compliance.
Would be happy to answer any specific questions, though as you can see it’s been a couple years since the purchases so my memory may be (probably is) faulty.
Jason
I'm at the Hive now if anyone wants to join me. We have a spreadsheet
started to organize the effort, with sections dedicated to materials
needed, materials we have, the project objective, a "to do" list based
on the objective and a relevant links section. I intended on trying to
attach the file to one of the mailing group emails but realized that's
probably not the best way to go. I'm thinking adding the file to
google docs might be better so we can all access and edit the file.
Anyone have any better suggestions or anything to add to that thought?
Most importantly these are the materials listed as still needed:
-Prepaid Cellphone [Chris offered Motorla Droid (Android), we need
something with GPS and data connection]
-Disconnect
-Barometer/Altimeter
-Video TX Booster
-Video TX Antenna
-Hydrogen
-Hand Warmer [To heat electronics]
-Minimosd
-Radar Target
Marvin has offered to lend us a bunch of his quad-copter gear
including a video transmitter and HD camera so we can watch the whole
ascent/descent in real time! There was also discussion about trying to
get some of the remaining materials donated to our non-profit group.
Are there any volunteers to pursue wrestling free stuff out of
companies?
-Dan
I will be down there a bit later today
Below is link to the Excel Project sheet Daniel created
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuauCVBx3a0YdDBVakxmdGJvdTVESFpuMnFXVURSYWc&usp=sharing
Watching it in real-time sounds absolutely amazing!
How much do we need to raise? Can we just do a pledge or do we need to take sponsors?
Craig, I don’t really know the difference between doing a pledge and taking sponsors. It sounds like a pledge is a smaller affair with less money involved, is that right? We will have to take a look at the remaining parts we need and hunt down sources to purchase them from to get an idea of how much we’re going to need for this. I suppose that needs to be done anyway. Marvin, since you know more about the video transmission/receiving part of this would you mind hunting down sources for those components?
The hydrogen and cellphone with gps and data plan are some of the other components that could be pricey. Chris, if you’re still interested in sending your Droid into space that would be helpful. We’d still need to get some kind of throw away pay as you go plan to activate it.
Also, on an entirely whimsical note, I’ve noticed that these projects tend to require some sort of insulation stuffed inside the cooler to keep the stuff inside warm and from bouncing around. I was considering using something more creative for that purpose, like anything lightweight that we’d like to be able to say we sent into space (even if it’s only near space). My first thought was the dirty old socks I was wearing because I thought it would make for a fun anecdote. “So, what’d you do this weekend Dan? Oh, I sent my socks into SPACE!!”
-Dan
heh… SOOOcks in SPAaaaace!! what about a Hive Mascot sent up?
I had a friend suggest a Gopro Camera for the camera portion, He talked about the GoPro Black, apparently it can do stills at timed intervals while filming full video…(this makes me wonder if the audio channel could be used to record data for a ‘movie’ of the whole episode)
If the GoPro people were approached with this, could we perhaps get some freebies, or maybe a big discount for one? (assuming that it is decided to be the camera to use - I know there’s already two in the materials)
On the issue of return to earth… Not that this is something to do THIS time (I think it would be overcomplicating) But there is a parachute to slow the fall (and hopefully keep everything from breaking to smithereens) if a second one gets planned… what about a parafoil/parachute with a servo to steer it, and perhaps get it to glide to a predetermined landing spot? either back to ‘base’ or a spot that would make it easy to retrieve? There will already be some sort of GPS onboard. right? (granted, the tracking phone gps may not be accessable, but there’s some tiny ones the RC people use.
Nancy
Hmmm, do we even have a Hive Mascot?
It’s not this guy?
I was curious and looked up prices for some parts on the google spreadsheet:
BMP085 altimeter —$20 with arduino breakout shield from Sparkfun–https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11282
Video TX booster–$99 7W Booster v2 for 433Mhz from Flytron–http://www.flytron.com/openlrs/108-7w-booster-for-uhf.html
Video Tx Antenna–$50 16 dBi Yagi antenna from RFwel http://www.rfwel.com/shop/16dBi-2.4GHz-Yagi-Antenna.html?gclid=CLrivsHq4LYCFRN0MgodGhUAtQ
Hydrogen–could not easily find pricing online, saw one estimate of $0.20/cu.ft (plus tank). If the balloon is 8ft diameter (really big!), volume will be about 2100 cubic ft…or about $420. We could also look into electrolysis or the drano/alumininum reaction to produce hydrogen, might be more trouble than its worth though…
Someone else may find cheaper prices but it looks to me this project is in the range of $600.
Mike H
Edit: Read just a little more about high-altitude balloons, and it’s important to distinguish between the “launch” diameter and the “burst” diameter (they expand quite a bit as they rise). Not sure which number the spreadsheet was referring to…this will make a big impact on the project cost.
Mike
There’s an Airgas location on Mosteller, about 1.5 miles from iSPACE. I wonder if that’s where they get their helium/hydrogen. If not, it might be worth it for someone to ask about donating the desired gas or at least discounting it.
Ian
For an 8 foot diameter balloon the volume is actually 268 cubic ft. You will get 2100 if you use 8 for the radius. (4/3) * pi * r^3
At $0.20/cu.ft that comes to $53.6.