Mastodawn

AI6YR Ben Feb 27

Going to order the parts for a pico #hamradio balloon. Has anyone tried the Traquito WSPR balloon kits? Apparently you just upload hardware files to a third party PCB manufacturing company! I'm going to try to build one (or probably two... any new project, always buy 2x parts).

https://traquito.github.io/tracker/#jetpack-technical-details

#wspr #electronics

Jetpack WSPR Tracker - Traquito - WSPR Pico Balloons

AI6YR Ben Feb 27

First hurdle: The PCB manufacturer won't let me use their website, it insists I am a robot. I suspect this is because I am using a Linux machine. PEOPLE, THE ELECTRONICS/MAKER FOLKS WHO WANT TO USE YOU SITE ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE USING LINUX THAN NOT!!

AI6YR Ben Feb 27

Choices were to order 5 or order 10 boards (!). So, I ordered 5 boards. Enough for 5 balloons, lol. Cost using the cheapest shipping option will be approximately $12.50 for each of the add-on-boards. Will require also Raspberry Pi picos and tiny solar panels. #picoballoon #hamradio #wspr

AI6YR Ben Feb 27

In addition to circuit boards:

Ordered: Raspberry Pi Picos (2)
3 50 inch random Chinese Party Balloons
100 tiny little solar panels

Was going to order from Adafruit, but they have different spec "pirate" Pi's and a billion notices on their website about shipping delays, and people here have been complaining about lack of shipping/customer support... not sure what that is about.

The party balloons and solar panels apparently only available via Bezos Bazaar :-( -- in particular, buying anywhere else is fraught with de-minimis/tariff surcharge hazards. I'm not sure why the Bezos Bazaar doesn't have those issues, but it probably involves some kind of political payoff. 🤔

AI6YR Ben Feb 27

The presentations I have seen say it's preferable to fill these balloons with HYDROGEN (hello Hindenberg!), instead of Helium. In particular, it's apparently quite difficult to source full strength Helium now (due to Helium shortages, a nonrenewable gas...). Apparently not easy to get Hydrogen, either. 🤔

AI6YR Ben Feb 27

Ooh, there are a lot of amateur balloons bouncing around the world right now, actually!

#hamradio #wspr #aprs #balloons

AI6YR Ben Feb 28

Antenna wire. 26AWG magnet wire. I guess you can use smaller, but already have this. #antenna #picoballoon #hamradio

AI6YR Ben Feb 28

Party balloons acquired. I guess some folks like clear better. I feel the mylar has better odds of being mistaken for a UFO, and/or being shot down by jumpy people with joysticks and a giant laser. Or a Tomahawk missile. #hamradio #picoballoon

AI6YR Ben Feb 28

May also potentially have some helium. Maybe. It has some helium, the question is if it has enough to launch the payload. But apparently 80% helium might not get you to 40,000 feet. Also, no idea if there's much left in here, acquired from our local "hazmat reuse" center awhile ago when I first was thinking of this project, but then the US military was shooting down party balloons thinking they were giant Chinese surveillance balloons. #picoballoon

Raspberry Pico's acquired, tiny solar panels acquired (tiny!!!)

AI6YR Ben Mar 2

Photo of the Pi's and apparently 100 tiny solar panels

#hamradio #picoballoon

AI6YR Ben Mar 2

First lesson: Yikes! These solar panels may weigh nothing, but they are exceedingly fragile! Already broke two just picking them up. 300mW output indoors. #picoballoon #electronics #hamradio

AI6YR Ben Mar 4

Piggyback ballon transmitter boards being shipped via "Global Standard Direct Line". I guess these are being built overseas. Wonder if I'm going to get a big tariff bill. 🤔 We'll see if they get here anytime soon or not.

#picoballoon #hamradio

AI6YR Ben Mar 11

Circuit boards arrived! #picoballoon #hamradio

AI6YR Ben Mar 13

20m dipole on toilet paper rolls for the picoballoon. Maybe will have time to solder all these. Need to figure out the physical arrangement for the solar panels... considering some balsa struts. #picoballoon #hamradio

AI6YR Ben Mar 13

Picoballon Pi soldered to daughter board, GPS antenna attached, 20m dipole affixed. Next step is softwsre loading and the solar panel assembly. #picoballoon #hamradio

AI6YR Ben Mar 13

Unit programmed... GPS is not receiving, no view through my RF shielding roof. Transmitted some WSPR, not sure if it went anywhere, lol. Major annoyance: THE GUI to configure this board requires an Internet connection, and either Microsoft Edge (gag) or Google Chrome (Gag). I absolutely HATE those kinds of apps (that goes for the configuration of Mesh devices, too... how can you sell your mesh device as offline if you need an Internet connection to configure it? 🤔 )

#picoballoon #hamradio

AI6YR Ben Mar 13

The problem is these apps use "WebSerial"

Which you can read about at webserial.io

WAIT, NO, it won't let you read about it because you're not on Chrome. #loser

AI6YR Ben Mar 13

Next up: solar panels. Looks like these balloons look like eeny-teeny-weeny satellites.

https://relife.sk/pikobalon/

https://w0tx.org/2024/06/23/club-pico-balloon-launch/

https://nibbb.org/blog/

#picoballoon #hamradio

AI6YR Ben Mar 13

LOL I have been reading instructions from K9YO... maybe I should put a "please do not shoot me down" message on the balloon.

Space.com "...It turns out that the object blasted out of the sky over the Yukon on Feb. 11 by a U.S. Air Force jet might have been an amateur radio "pico balloon" — specifically, one called K9YO-15, which launched from Independence Grove Forest Preserve in Libertyville, Illinois, north of Chicago...."

https://www.space.com/mystery-object-shot-down-yukon-amateur-ballloon

#picoballoon #hamradio

Mystery object shot down over Yukon may have been harmless 'pico balloon'

The 32-inch-wide amateur balloon K9YO-15 was in the area and went missing shortly thereafter.

Space

AI6YR Ben Mar 13

Current GFS sounding at approximately my location (heat dome). I guess these float at 30,000 to 50,000 feet, which is (if I am doing the conversion correctly) at around the 250 to 200hPa pressure range. Looks like almost a cloud layer there right now (the green and red lines almost meet). Also looks like it's awfully windy up there, not sure how much that matters for the balloon (I assume it just gets pushed off by that wind...) 48-57 knot wind (55-66 mph) in that particular range, blowing to the southeast. (not that I am ready to launch anything... but curious to see what these and real soundings look like... maybe launch on a rocket launch day, they have equally limited tolerance for wind, too). #picoballoon #skewt #hamradio #wx

AI6YR Ben Mar 13

There's actually a weather balloon out of Vandenberg, but it appears its sensors failed or it has no temperature/humidity sensors?!? #picoballoon #wx

AI6YR Ben Mar 13

Oh look, a ham radio operator with an entire air force bombing range named after them, LOL. I don't know anything about his politics, probably terrible, I imagine.

(Barry M. Goldwater, K7UGA)

🍊𝕎𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕆𝕣𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕕 ❄️Mar 13

@ai6yr I grew up driving by his (K7UGA) house on occasion and would see the big ass antenna on his radio shack. Strangely, my G-pa, a blue collar Dem, used to play golf with him on occasion too. Different times.

Scooter8647 🇺🇦 🇳🇿Mar 13

@mangotable @ai6yr My dad (KB7FA) knew him too as they sometimes shared the stage at ham radio events. Young BG was pretty conservative alright but got a bit more liberal as he got older, as did my dad. LBJ did a pretty good job of painting BG as a war-monger, but he struck me as a bit more pragmatic than dangerous. Nothing like the current idiot.

🍊𝕎𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕆𝕣𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕕 ❄️Mar 13

@Doppelganger75 @ai6yr this is worth a read.

https://a.co/d/03AnupoN

Amazon.com

🍊𝕎𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕆𝕣𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕕 ❄️Mar 13

@Doppelganger75 @ai6yr Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus https://a.co/d/0igmLQuy

Amazon.com

Stormgren Mar 13

@ai6yr Have you tried Opera? I've used it as a workaround for stuff that needs WebSerial and WebUSB.

AI6YR Ben Mar 13

@Stormgren No, but good idea! But... still, requiring an Internet website to load stuff, annoying.

Stormgren Mar 13

@ai6yr Oh, it's fantastically dumb, but I can understand why they have it as the preferred path, it's a bit easier than getting complete newbies to install other toolchains or other strange hoop-jumping mechanisms.

I usually just go find whatever the devs use to push code while they're working on it, or happen to know that it'll need esptool, or can be put into firmware loading mode via double button press where it acts like a USB drive or something.

Thomas Sibley Mar 13

@Stormgren @ai6yr Opera (and Edge) are essentially Chrome underneath, hence why they work with WebSerial.

It'll be okay, we'll make it.Mar 13

@ai6yr Screw that, no way. If an embedded board can't be programmed over USB or WIFI, I don't want it.

Olivier Mehani Mar 13

@ai6yr FWIW, WebSerial is back in the works for Firefox https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=926940#a384060408_714603

But yeah, it doesn't beat a non web-based programmer, in case a browser and/or connection is not available.

926940 - (webserial) [meta] WebSerial API

ASSIGNED (gstoll) in Core - DOM: Device Interfaces. Last updated 2026-03-06.

Taran Rampersad Mar 13

@ai6yr dude. That sucks.

Comrade Weez Mar 13

@ai6yr foam core panels for model r/c airplane/glider from ye olde hobbye shoppe

AI6YR Ben Mar 13

@weezmgk Ooh, thanks, good idea.

BakersRelay Mar 11

@ai6yr They look like Klingon ships.

I've gotten a few cheap things via aliexpress with a quick "item has cleared customs" and they took care of what ever extra charges there was.

Κέχ (👻🏴‍☠️)Mar 4

@ai6yr JLC has always given me a line item for tariffs during checkout, before they start fab. I'd be surprised if they didn't include that for you.

AI6YR Ben Mar 4

@xek Shipping from Hong Kong. Well, we'll see.

Κέχ (👻🏴‍☠️)Mar 4

@ai6yr Oh, that may be well under a limit still. I'm used to orders at work, which have another zero on them, and therefore are definitely hitting tariffs.

Frank Bennett 🇯🇵Mar 2

@ai6yr Do they still function after the breakage at the corners, or is that curtains?

AI6YR Ben Mar 2

@fgbjr They're still running, just not full output I guess. I guess I have to make some kind of array of them to attach to the pi. There was some circuit board kit from the Traquito people, but I neglected to notice it before buying the rest of the kit, and would incur additional shipping to get the mini circuit boards. That said, i see a lot of the picoballoon people just soldering wire to the right places and using that as the physical supporting structure for the panels....

mau 🏳️‍🌈 #EndFossilFuels Mar 3

@fgbjr @ai6yr A broken corner will reduce the maximum current the cell can generate - voltage should change little-, but it'll still work.

In this demo you can see how some broken areas of the cell go dark when stepped on, but then become bright again when the pressure is released and the broken parts make contact again - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qdyxIybmoc

Invisible damage from walking on a solar panel

YouTube

AI6YR Ben Mar 3

@mzedp @fgbjr OH NO! That video almost requires a CW for solar panel abuse 😂

mau 🏳️‍🌈 #EndFossilFuels Mar 3

@ai6yr @fgbjr This one's better but had less EL images - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK8Sw8iMGMI

We Break Solar Panels (So Yours Won't)

YouTube

AI6YR Ben Mar 3

@mzedp @fgbjr Interesting, wonder if this is some of the lesser lifetime in"flexible" solar panels for portable use. (though, the flimsy packaging on those also subject to stress failure!)

mau 🏳️‍🌈 #EndFossilFuels Mar 3

@ai6yr @fgbjr I'm sure it contributes, that and the encapsulation becoming opaque over time.

Michael Busch Mar 3

That depends on how the wires are set up inside the panel.

AI6YR Ben Mar 3

@michael_w_busch @fgbjr I'm still trying to understand where to attach the wires. This is actually a solar cell, so I think I have to solder on both sides (ie one on the back to the front of the next panel... I assume somewhere along the centerline).

Michael Busch Mar 3

Is it just a single busbar down the center of each cell, with fingers out to the edges?

AI6YR Ben Mar 3

@michael_w_busch @fgbjr The front has single bar down the front with fingers.. the back has only a gray strip on either side and a which center strip

AI6YR Ben Mar 3

@michael_w_busch @fgbjr

Kenneth Finnegan Mar 3

@ai6yr @michael_w_busch @fgbjr yeah, so you're dealing with a single cell, so I'd expect to get 0.6V out of it. The whole square is the single junction, and if memory serves it's typically negative on top??? So you'll need to solder to the front busbar and the back busbar to get your 0.6V. All the tiny lines on the front are the grid fingers collecting charge current since the semiconductor isn't a great conductor and metal isn't transparent.

Kenneth Finnegan Mar 3

@fgbjr @ai6yr as long as you don't have any dangling bits of the top fingers shorting out the cell. Handling raw Si cells is an exercise in pain, so good luck!

mau 🏳️‍🌈 #EndFossilFuels Mar 2

@ai6yr Cells, strictly speaking :) They'll be "minipanels" if you encapsulate them. But yeah, they're delicate as hell.

John Tinker Mar 2

@ai6yr
I know what you mean about fragile. But I think they will both still work.

azstefano Mar 3

@ai6yr They're the best for power to weight ratio, and price. I use a low-temp bismuth based solder + flux to solder them - it's easier on the electrode strip.
The amorphous-Si flexible panels are heavier for the same power, and UV eventually degrades them.

The chipped ones in your photo should still be usable.

AI6YR Ben Mar 3

@azstefano Oooh, soldering them is going to be a challenge, I see. I will likely test-solder a bunch first. Good thing they give you 100 for almost no money, lol

Muro deGrizeco Mar 3

Vague memory of some sort of sucky device for picking up packaged semi devices from a tray.

Worked in a debug group 30 years ago.

Oh, a tool kinda like...

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/chip-quik-inc/HVPB6/1164270

HVPB6 | DigiKey Electronics

Order Chip Quik Inc. HVPB6 (HVPB6-ND) at DigiKey. Check stock and pricing, view product specifications, and order online.

DigiKey Electronics

AI6YR Ben Mar 3

@murodegrizeco Oooh yeah, that would do it.

Κέχ (👻🏴‍☠️)Mar 3

@ai6yr @murodegrizeco It seems like a post-it note might work =)

What's the part number for those solar cells? They seem like a fun thing to have around.

Muro deGrizeco Mar 4

Traquito site shows...

"100pcs 0.5V 400mA Micro Mini Solar Cell for Solar Panels 52mmx 19mm/2‘’x0.75” Polycrystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Solar Cells Sun Power for DIY Cell Phone Charger"

...which might be similar to what Ben got?

@ai6yr You'll need to solder to front and back of that middle strip. Yeah, they're potato chip fragile.

@ai6yr that looks a little finger slicey :|

AI6YR Ben Mar 3

@alex Maybe

Taran Rampersad Mar 2

@ai6yr really cool to see you doing this.

I was going to, but there's this flotilla in the Caribbean right now...

AI6YR Ben Mar 2

@knowprose LOL yeah, that might become an international incident

Taran Rampersad Mar 2

@ai6yr Yeah. It could get very exciting very quickly.

Would be fun, but the price might be too high. 😂