In this post is a graph of internal and external temperature (all in Kelvin) against time. The graph we see is very much expected and we are fortunate it was like this as the batteries would not have worked terribly well if it dropped too much.
The external temperature reading themselves aren’t what I’d expect. Temperatures go down below zero in some parts of the atmosphere. I put this down to the fact the temperature sensor is mostly enclosed in some Areldite (glue) to reduce chance of shorting of leads in ‘wet’ environment. We are also going very quickly through the various zones of the atmosphere which means we might not have enough time for the temperature to settle.
What is interesting is the lag between internal temperature and external temperature. The Internal temperature was recorded inside a Polycarbonate box, which inside was generating some heat itself – majority from the RFD900 radio and other electrical components.
A most interesting read Joe. Val sent me this link, we were in Perth just over a week ago but missed seeing him. That’s quite a height the balloon reached, what is the highest theoretical altitude you could get to?
I bought a Beaglebone Black months ago but been too busy to use it and forgotten what I wanted it for 🙂 Will have to invent some application.
Was that a GoPro camera? I hope to borrow one for my ski trip to Whistler in Feb.
Cheers
Charles
Hello Charles,
I’m glad you found the posts interesting.
I’ve read that Balloons can “theoretically” float far enough to escape the influence of Earth and its gravity. Of course there are practical limitations that make this next to impossible. The highest altitude flight (called BU60-1) travelled 53km up in 2002. (Space legally starts from 100km). BU60-1 used some fairly special material (balloon rubber) to get that far up. As a bit of a comparison, BU60-1 (balloon and its equipment) was just shy of 40kg, my flight had a total weight of 2.55kg. (Balloon + payload).
I did not use a GoPro and now wish I had. I used a HackHD, which unfortunately doesn’t have automatic white balance control and this resulted in a terrible video. All a good learning experience.
Joe