Bergen STEM Amateur Radio High Altitude Balloon (ARHAB)

Zachary touched up the poster, Ian finalized the abstract, and Sadik is trying to graph the test flight data. We also measured the parachute-to-balloon cord and the parachute-to-package cord, which were 37' and 29' 4", respectively. In the meantime, the biologists took our remaining 5 Petri dishes to sterilize them and add agar for the launch. This leaves us with one Petri dish for testing. Yesterday, we finished rendering the payload in Fusion 360. This included two Petri dish assemblies, two Spot GPS holders, one APRS holder, one battery holder with two batteries and three camera casings (two in the box, one in the lid). The circuit board has not been included yet; we're still waiting for the digital pressure sensor and thermistor.

Today, - Zach added styrofoam shimming to one of the Hero 3 camera constructions to keep it in place - Ian continued work on box outlining - Still waiting for the rods, sheets, pressure sensor and thermistors to arrive.

Today, we continued work on the extras around our project while we wait for parts and prints to be delivered: - Zach continued work on the poster for the presentation on August 9th - Joshua R and Ian worked on another draft of the abstract for the Fall AGU Meeting - Ian started an outline for a complete rendering of the box with all parts included

Today all parts excluding the petri dish assembly have finished printing and can be used properly. All of them fit the parts that they were designed for. Kassem made a final review for the petri dish prototype and this has now been sent to professor Balzarette to be printed.  A rough draft for the abstract to be submitted for the AGU Fall Meeting 2018 is also in production, and work on the poster for the presentation on August 9th has also begun.

The next batch of payload components (battery, APRS, and Spot cases) are finished. On a less positive note, we may need to rework the net. The one we currently have doesn't quite fit the box we're using, so Ian sketched a new net design we could use.

The good news is that we have received three top pieces and one bottom piece of the camera casings. However, since we simply took last year's SolidWorks drawings for them, the dimensions of the bottom piece were incorrect, and it will not fit around the top pieces. Otherwise, the top pieces are fine. We had to transfer the SolidWorks models into fusion and make sure they actually fit together. Clearances had to be added and sides of the design had to be given the right dimensions to fit. Additionally, Zach weighed the top pieces as well as some of the other components of the payload, namely one of the Hero3+'s, the net, a battery pack, and two of the available boxes. The data for this can be found under the Tuesday July 17 post.

We are almost ready to print a first test of the petri assembly, but before we do that a few small changes need to be made. One side is still missing a locking mechanism a better way to attach the motor-holder We started work on a google form to start collecting volunteers for our launch day.

Today Joshua R. and Alejandro weighed the major components of the box such as the APRS, Spot GPS, circuit board and GoPros. APRS - 11.3 oz APRS Casing - 0.9 oz Hero 3 (with cable and housing) - 5.7 oz SPOT gps - 2.9 oz SPOT casing (Yellow) - 1.0 oz SPOT casing (Blue) - 0.7 oz CircuitBoard (fully loaded, but might be changed) - 1.4 oz Top Hero Camera Casing - 2.3 oz Bottom Hero Casing - 1.7 oz Netting - 2.8 oz Battery - 7.3 oz Battery Casing - 0.4 oz empty box - 9.5 oz - 9.7 oz depending on which box is weighed A full camera assembly (camera, Top, Bottom) - 9.7 oz We are also planning another test flight for the circuit board components such as pressure gauger, Altitude indicator, and GPS modules. Zach counted the nuts, bolts, and washer that were needed for the final assembly of the care package that will be sent up to fly. These numbers are added as comments into each Fusion design. Ian is preparing an abstract to be submitted for the AGU 2018 Fall meeting...

End of Week II of Summer 2 - 7/12/2018 Our beloved mentor Professor Griffo will be leaving us for the next two week to take a well-deserved vacation. When professor Griffo returns we will only have about two weeks before we need to be ready to launch. This means that we, as a team, need to come together and work hard to complete as much as possible. Alejandro and Ian sat together with the professor to come up with a to-do list for the following weeks; this includes printing at least one completed petri assembly that has been tested, printing all casings, and generally getting ready for a launch in August. Progress Today, Thursday the 12th, we had to present our progress to the rest of the groups working here during the summer. The presentation went well, but we clocked in 7 minutes and 7 seconds from an allowed 3 - 5 minutes. Below is the presentation, if needed for further reference. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1whJQM1j4RCveDmQKPiAkz8o1wdrj7RuAVJhWfwd0pDA/edit?usp...

Week 2 July 9 - 13 Today we fixed the designs of our for the camera fixtures as well as the fixtures for the APRS, Spot GPS, and batteries. We spoke to our 3-D printing advisor for revisions on the design and other advice we would need for the 3-D printed components. We continued working on perfecting the petri dish design based on the advice Kassam gave us.

Week 1: 7/3/2018 Today we: modified the GoPro Session inside casing to be fitted into the lid. (Ian) decided it will be lighter to use polycarbonate rods and sheet instead of the original aluminum that we had in mind. The sheet would carry an estimated weight of 0.50625 lbs One rod would carry an estimated weight of 0.08568 lbs This gives us an estimated total of 1.18386 lbs https://www.mcmaster.com/# 8574k243/=1djy9gy https://www.mcmaster.com/# 1753k63/=1djybyz These parts were ordered. Professor Griffo and Ian called the GoPro customer service with hope to receive a better answer for our failing cameras. However, this was not very helpful and they simply said to update the software. Professor Griffo also brought in 3-inch nuts, bolts and washers the bolts have a diameter of 4.94 mm and this needs to be modified into our designs. ( !!!!! )

Summer II - 7/2/2018 Week 1; Today marks the halfway point with the beginning of Summer II. A new member, Joshua Remer, will be joining us with the departure of Jennifer. Today, we: tested the cameras outside with the lenses in the shade, hoping to identify the problem of the cameras shutting off. (Team) Doing this gave us confusing data. We expected the cameras to run longer, but they all shut off before we picked them up at the end of the day. Camera #1 (GoPro Session) lasted for 2 hours and 5 minutes Camera #4 (GoPro Hero 3) lasted for 2 hours and 26 minutes Camera #5 (GoPro Hero 3) lasted for 2 hours and 58 minutes SP360 camera lasted for 43 minutes modified the covers for the GoPro Hero 3 (Ian) Made them smaller and and cut out the holes for the lenses and battery cables.