After the tracker failed again last mission, I decided to build my own Arduino based tracker, called a Trackuino. I messaged Tom a few days and told him my plan, and he promptly replied, telling me who I could speak to in Cape Town and would be able to help me, and that he would send down a PCB board for the tracker to my address. Yet again I was stumped by the generosity and the kindness. He sent me an email with the bill of materials needed to build the tracker and a basic outline of what to do, however I needed to collect the components myself and do some research into building it.
Instead of directly ordering everything online, I wanted to try and buy things locally to save shipping costs, however I soon realized that the parts I needed were highly specialized and from what I was told, no one stocks them in Cape Town. Going and collecting all the components and pieces that were available took four days of travelling all around Cape Town, and ultimately I had to end up buying the parts online, but with a week’s less time.
When I went to the post office to collect the board that Tom sent me almost a week ago, they told me that it hadn’t arrived yet, due to postal strikes and it would probably take a while. Seeing as I only have six days before my final launch from the school, and I still have a lot of work to do for that, and half the components were mission for this tracker, and I didn’t have the expertise or a radio license, I came to blindingly obvious conclusion that I would have to shelve the Trackuino for a later stage once the projects were completed, and would have to do it in my own time.
I asked Mike if it would be okay for him to track the radiosonde remotely, and he reminded me that Intermet was closed on Friday’s, however he would be able to remote in and start the software and our little piece of code, which would upload the location to the website for everyone to view.
I only made the website live today, and it is still in its infancy, as most of the features I wanted will have to be built at a later stage, due to time constraints.
Over the next few days I will be working on making sure that Operation Dragon goes smoothly, as I will be on display for a few spectators! I need to organize a new helium regulator, as I found out that the one I got from My Gas didn’t support a hose attachment, which is absolutely vital for filling a balloon of this size. I will also need to redesign and make a new housing that is both lighter, and houses the GoPro on the side, instead of underneath, since the footage I got the last time was not that impressive. I will also need to find a way to safely attach the 360° camera without compromising the field of view of the camera. Not sure how I’m going to do that yet, but I know I’ll find a way…
