Embedded Lab

Ray Visser posted an instructable on making a simple high-altitude balloon cam with minimal payload containing a smartphone to text its GPS location and a Canon Powershot digital camera to take pictures.

High-altitude ballooning, or HAB, involves sending a payload of cameras, scientific instruments, or other items on a journey into the stratosphere, strapped to a weather balloon. When the balloon bursts, a parachute brings the payload gently back down, where it (and your data/photos/freeze-dried food) can be recovered!

Most HAB systems are electronically complex, so we wanted to drastically simplify it. Our payload is only a smartphone designed to text its GPS location (for accurate recovery) and a Canon Powershot digital camera set to take a photo every few seconds until its memory is full.

Read on to see how we built it! Ours is far from the best design, and hasn’t yet been field-tested, but the instruments work well enough. This is designed more as a starting point and a collection of tips.