Category Archives: balloon

High-Altitude Ballooning Hack Chat

Posted on February 4, 2019 by Fernando Gomes

Join us on Wednesday at noon Pacific time for the high-altitude ballooning Hack Chat!

The Cope brothers are our hosts this week. Jeremy, a computer engineer, and Jason, a mechanical engineer, have recently caught the high-altitude ballooning (HAB) bug. In their initial flights they’ve racked up some successes and pushed the edge of space with interesting and varied missions. Their first flight just barely missed the 100,000 foot (30,000 meter) mark and carried a simple payload package of cameras and GPS instruments and allowed them to reach their goal of photographing the Earth’s curvature.

Flight 2 had a similar payload …read more

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Posted in balloon, citizen science, gps, Hack Chat, Hackaday Columns, high altitude balloon, parachute, payload, space | Leave a comment

Samy Kamkar’s LED Balloon Network

Posted on January 24, 2019 by Fernando Gomes

Writing this in the frigid darkness of a Northern Hemisphere January evening, I have to admit to more than a little envy of Samy Kamkar and his friends. One of their summer events is a private party at a secluded campground somewhere that looks quite warm, which from here seems mighty attractive.

Samy wanted to provide a spectacle for his friends. What he came up with is glowing orbs; LED balloons that would float above the campsite and wow his friends with their pretty synchronised illumination. Thus an adventure in wireless communications, lighter-than-air flammable gasses versus electronics weight calculations, and …read more

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Posted in 2018 Hackaday Superconference, ATtiny24, balloon, Hackaday Columns, led, led hacks, nRF24L01+ | Leave a comment