Okay, here we are. Solar panel array, 3 designs. Got the fancy foam-tac glue recommended here in the thread. Balsa wood with struts, balsa without struts, and foam with some extra balsa struts for structural support. Will decide whether to solder these later or wait for the low temp solder coming from Mouser. #picoballoon #hamradio

Okay, balloon deflated, but not without running into a few things... hopefully didn't cause any structural damage to the balloon that will cause later early failure. Have determined a possible way to arrange solar panels with the board, just by strategic cuts in foam. I will try building out some solar arrays after this, by first gluing the solar panels but providing access to where I need to solar wires. Hopefully gluing them down before soldering will eliminate the snapping of panel edges. #picoballoon #hamradio

New challenge: deflating the pre-stretched balloon. "using a vacuum cleaner" did not work per the instructions I see online.. I think the vacuum cleaner too powerful, and it collapses the tubing. So, just plugged it into the reverse port on the pump to see if that will work. 🤔 If not, off to find a metal tube or something I can shove in there and try the vacuum cleaner up close. #picoballoon #hamradio

Almost there. Yeah, you can raytrace and reconstruct my patio from this. #picoballoon #hamradio

Aha! These have sections that separate out... hence the need for pre stretching. #picoballoon #hamradio

Pre stretching the balloon. This balloon is sausage shaped... like the Hindenburg. It is unclear to me if this is expected or not. It's the recommended one from websites. I swear the ones in the videos are rounder. #balloon #picoballoon #hamradii