Flextrak Raspberry Pi kit is a tracker used as one of the elements of the on-board computer during the missions of stratospheric balloons.
Included:
– FlexTrak plate,
– battery holder and clip,
– spacers (4 x 11 mm) with screws for attaching to Pi +
– RG174 to make a simple antenna – see instructions execution,
– Raspberry Pi Zero W board with a cable for the camera (camera not included),
– 32 Gb SD card with FlexTrak code
The FlexTrak board comes with a LoRa 434/868 or 915 MHz radio transmitter. To track the flight location, you also need a suitable radio receiver, antenna and a desktop computer on the ground. There is an option to enable tracking a moving balloon using a mobile phone connected to the LoRaGo device.
Advantages:
– efficient built-in power regulator providing over 20 hours of work with 4 Energizer Lithium Ultimate AA cells,
– very sensitive UBlox GPS receiver, suitable for altitudes up to 50 km,
– temperature sensor,
– battery voltage monitoring,
– allows you to use the Raspberry Pi camera,
– mounting holes and spacers for a solid connection to the Raspberry Pi,
– the tracker will still work even if the Raspberry Pi fails.
Open source software provides the following features:
– radio telemetry with GPS and UKHAS sensor data – for tracking on habhub.org
– image transmission by radio using the SSDV standard,
– variable image size depending on the height,
– stores images in full resolution and also transmits smaller images at the same time,
– automatically selects better images to download,
– delivered as a github repository with instructions,
– optional APRS transmission with additional hardware,
– optional external temperature probe.
Weight:
– FlexTrak plate – 16g
– spacers – 14g
– battery holder with a clip – 13g
– Raspberry Pi Zero W and cable – 14g
For information, we would like to inform you that the weight of the Energizer L91 Lithium (AA) batteries is 14.5 gx 4 – batteries are not included in the set.