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They are saying that in the event you love one thing, you need to set it free. That doesn’t imply that you need to spend any extra on it than it’s important to although, which is why [EngineerGuy314] put collectively this Raspberry Pi Pico high-altitude balloon tracker that ought to solely set you again about $12 to construct.
This simplified bundle turns a Pico right into a monitoring beacon — join an inexpensive GPS module and photo voltaic panel, and the system will transmit the GPS location, system temperature, and different telemetry on the 20-meter band utilizing the Weak Sign Propagation Reporter (WSPR) protocol. Do it proper, and you may monitor your balloon because it goes all over the world.
The challenge relies partially on the work of [Roman Piksayin] in his Pico-WSPR-TX bundle (which we coated earlier than), which makes use of the Pico’s outputs to create the transmitted sign instantly with no need an exterior radio. [EngineerGuy314] took this a step additional by slowing down the Pico and doing a little intelligent stuff to make it run a bit extra reliably instantly from the photo voltaic panel.
The system is usually a bit fussy about energy when beginning up: if the voltage from the photo voltaic panel ramps up too slowly, the Pico can crash when it and the GPS chip each begin when the solar rises. So, a voltage divider ties into the run pin of the Pico to maintain it from booting till the voltage is excessive sufficient, and a single transistor stops the GPS from beginning up till the Pico alerts it to go.
It’s a neat hack that appears to work effectively: [EngineerGuy314] has launched three prototypes to date, the final of which traveled over 62,000 kilometers/ 38,000 miles.
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