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Main tracker package with the 5w transmitter in the red bag on the left. Experimental package in th orange box on the right. You can see the horizontal camera opening on the side. On the top ther is a momentary pushbuton to activat the flight computer that controlled the cameras. There is also an LED that shows the computer is operational.
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Main tracker package's Cloth bag took a beating but managed to hold everything together. The laminated card glued to the bag explaind what the package was and how to contact us for recovery.
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A little closer look at the interior when we opened the box after recovery.
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The main experimental package. Rubber bands held the cameras in place an foam blocks held the HTX-200 and one of the battery packs in place.
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Opening for the downward pointing camera.
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Both camera openings
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Main experimental payload: 9v battery pack to power the HTX-200 and allow for 1w power output. HTX-200, OpenTracker OT1x connected to Holux GM-210 GPS. 9v pack for OT1x and GPS. Olympus camera used for horizontal shots. two 6v packs, ont to power flight computer and Opympus camera the other to power the Sony camera used foro downward pointing shots. Terry already took the Sony camera and flight computer home.
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Main tracker package ready to open up.
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Bag removed
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Construction panel cut down and hollowed out to fit the components of the tracker. 12v pck for radio, Maxon DM-0515 data radio, 9v pack for OT and GPS. Foil covered OpenTracker. We saw that there was a problem on the ground with the transmitter keyd down constantly after first position beacon. We covered the OT with foil and that seemed to fix the problem but it showed up again at 79000'. The GPS is a Rockwel Jupiter engine with ahombuilt attached interface board for 5v regulation and TTL to RS232 translation, an amplified antenna is attached with its 15' of cable coiled up in a cavity ion the foam.
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When I first opened the package i found it like this with 2 batteries loose from the 12v pack. It would seem that landing shook loose the batteries and that is why it suddenly stopped transmitting.
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The foam with it's several iteration of cavity cuttouts as I tried to figure out where to put the components and in some cases what components to use.
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The componets extracted from the foam.
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Flipped the GPS over so you could see the interface poard I built.
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34 Lithium AA batteries to power this project.
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Batteries and containers weighed 1lb 7.8oz.