So: What's next?

After all the excitement of the first flight I needed a break! Actually I am planning a second flight, but I have concerns about the relative difficult landing zones situation here in Switzerland.

My overall new specs are:

-          Same weight class of about 1500g

-          Same balloon, but with less free lift

-          Perfect center of gravity setup

-          2 or 3 isolated capsules looking at each other, connected by carbon fiber rods

-          Live LCD with flight info on video  and/or OSD.

-          Long range telemetry (868 MHz, 500mW with a 17dbi rx antenna)

-           More or less same camera setup + 2 additional 720p video

-          2 Tracker of the same – reliable – type

-          Better GPS module for the Data-Log

-          Additional sensor (particle).

-          Check the battery setup. Some batteries where still full while other dropped under 3.3V. I think a voltage regulator is the better solution here than single Li-Po’s.  Sadly I didn’t noted what battery was connected to what device.

Optional planned (maybe for 3^rd flight)

-          Steerable parachute with Autopilot board. So I set give a safe landing zone while the capsule is coming down. As Auto-Pilot I will use an Ardu-Pilot baord.

-          GSM-model connected to the log-board. I want to have more information by SMS if the live data-link is down. A better GSM antenna should give me a GSM connection from min. 3’000m off ground. A Siemens TC35 –module on and Arduino (maybe the main-board) would do the job.

-          An UART camera connected to the data-link. So I can have live low-res images.

… to be continued