Hobby Rockets - Where to find accurate sensors and How to transfer data?

[DaiGurenMK42]

Hey there. I am currently researching hobby rocket stuff. My team plans to launch a rocket 30,000 ft in the sky. I am looking for help on three things.

 

1. Microcontroller - Looking for a fantastic microcontroller to implement the sensors and communicate data. So far just looking at options from Arduino due to various options and robust library. 

 

2. Sensors - Where to find high precision sensors that will work with said microcontroller. Need stuff like GPS, Gyroscope, Temperature/Humidity, Pressure maybe even camera. The type of accuracy I am looking for is stuff like real time GPS, sensor able to recognize up to 30G pressure, gyro that can give rotational data etc. 

 

3. Communication - Looking for a method to communicate the data from the sensors live from the rocket. Current idea is to use HAM Radio. Currently limited to the public wavelengths that do not require license. So transmitting the GPS, Gyro, Pressure in real time is something I am looking for. Best possible option would be a method that can also transmit video of any quality. 

 

Currently thinking of getting arduino setup to work with sensors, transfer that data to a raspberry pi. The pi would then be connected to the radio stuff to transmit the data to a base station. The base station would do calculation and plot the data. Unless if the arduino is capable of transferring the data through a module of some sort. 

 

Thank you for any help. 

 

 

Edit: Forgetting about radio. Moving on to LoRA or LTE-M

[Himommies]

You might need to find a slightly more specific forum

[mariushm]

WSPR transmissions may be what you're looking for.

A guy on another forum sends weather balloons around the world with a radio transmitter and gps and other things and periodically sends status updates by radio back to him

It's really low bandwidth, and maybe not suitable for your needs... I think his stuff sends data every 2 minutes or so, it seems like you want very often and very fast.

Anyway, see  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/you-might-find-this-interesting/

and his website has a bunch of kits and documentation (see menu on left side) : http://qrp-labs.com/ultimate3/ve3kcl-balloons/ve3kcl-s9.html

 

In your case, for what you want probably some transmitter on old analogue TV spectrum would work  ... i don't know what else would work up to 30k feet height

[bob345]

Whats your budget? By the sound of it, the kind of sensors you require are well out of range of typical hobby electronics. I also hope this is not your first big rocket. 30k feet is no small task.

[DaiGurenMK42]

6 hours ago, Himommies said:

You might need to find a slightly more specific forum

I am hoping someone here can help guide me to one. 

[DaiGurenMK42]

6 hours ago, mariushm said:

WSPR transmissions may be what you're looking for.

A guy on another forum sends weather balloons around the world with a radio transmitter and gps and other things and periodically sends status updates by radio back to him

It's really low bandwidth, and maybe not suitable for your needs... I think his stuff sends data every 2 minutes or so, it seems like you want very often and very fast.

Anyway, see  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/you-might-find-this-interesting/

and his website has a bunch of kits and documentation (see menu on left side) : http://qrp-labs.com/ultimate3/ve3kcl-balloons/ve3kcl-s9.html

 

In your case, for what you want probably some transmitter on old analogue TV spectrum would work  ... i don't know what else would work up to 30k feet height

Interesting. Will look into it. 

[DaiGurenMK42]

2 hours ago, bob345 said:

Whats your budget? By the sound of it, the kind of sensors you require are well out of range of typical hobby electronics. I also hope this is not your first big rocket. 30k feet is no small task.

I am just doing the electrical portion. Budget is up to 800. Do you have suggestions for forums or specific websites that deal with this stuff?

[JSFetzik]

For a small and powerful microcontroller check out the Teensy family. Arduino compatible in a small form factor with a number of versions available. Plus they have a good forum.

[Salacious B Crum]

Arduino's come in small form factors down to the size of a quarter if you plan on sending it up with the rocket the pin out will dictate which one you will choose there are many accurate sensors for these micro controllers and are programed in C there are options such as data loggers, sd card adapters, wifi and bluetooth and every sensor you can imagine and cheap overall they are also power friendly so the overall package weight may certainly be shot into the sky keep us updated on this sounds like a good one!

[Pixel5]

since you want to have a camera you should look into the raspberry pi zero, together with some ADC´s you should be able to connect all sensors to it andsave everything on the device.

 

regarding transmission of the data it ill be a whole nother story to make this happen.

[DaiGurenMK42]

On 10/10/2017 at 1:18 PM, mrbilky said:

Arduino's come in small form factors down to the size of a quarter if you plan on sending it up with the rocket the pin out will dictate which one you will choose there are many accurate sensors for these micro controllers and are programed in C there are options such as data loggers, sd card adapters, wifi and bluetooth and every sensor you can imagine and cheap overall they are also power friendly so the overall package weight may certainly be shot into the sky keep us updated on this sounds like a good one!

I will try to see about making some videos as we go through this. I am excited to record the project and will post back if people want.