PI_CE3 Flight

On Sunday the 27th of September flight PI_CE3 took place and managed over 36'000m, 118'000 feet in altitude.  The flight went very well with pretty much going to plan(except the tree landing).

The Sony RX100 functioned well except just before the balloon burst it appears the servo stopped working. Maybe because of the cold etc but you can hear it stop on the go pro video. It does start backup on the download journey but the camera will have auto powered off at this point.

It would look like i have sorted the issue with the GoPro Hero 4 Black shutting down due to heat as it ran perfect for the length of the flight. The full video can be found here

Flight Data

GoPro Hero 4 Black heat issue update

Well been doing a fair bit of testing today and during a discussion in IRC someone suggested looking at the heat sink built into the exiting waterproof cover. 

I have never paid that much notice to it as never been used. Checking it out it I found a metal heat sink that sits around the lens and dissipates heat. 

Well managed to free it from my case and then make a quick 3D print to act as a template for cutting out. Fitted it all together and included a frame to clean it all up and hold it in place.

So having done some more testing, as long as I have a slight flow of air on the outside it has continued to function fine. 

GoPro heat issues

Looks like I'm going to have more heat issues with the GoPro hero 4 black at 2.7k 50fps. It showed up at times during testing outside the payload and it's happening all the time once mounted inside. Some of it I expected and hence additional testing. Only getting about 30 mins recording before it shuts down.. And that's with the lid off.

Might have to look at dropping down the resolution to see if that improves the run time due to heat. Not exactly worth having the hero 4 if it can't run even in a 19 degree room. 

Looking out on the web it would seem that a lot of people mount it in an metal cage, not really an option at 138g.

On a more positive front i might have managed to save 65g by removing additional batteries to power the pits. Depends a bit on how the testing goes on GoPro.

Power testing underway

Started this evening doing some power testing. With a view to reduce some weight i'm looking to see if i can run the PITS and GoPro off the same batteries.  On paper this should be fine but reality can sometimes be very different.

Does look a bit like a xmas tree with all the LEDs, might have to see what i can turn off.

Also pleased to report now issues with the GSM tracker and the rpi etc.

Changes seemed to have worked

Well the few changes to the GoPro lens hood seem to have done the job and just remains to be stuck in place.

It might not look that changed in photo but 3mm made a fair difference to fitting it.

Adjustments for GoPro lens hood

Made a few adjustments to the original design to help avoid the lens hood being in shot. Shortened the snood so its will be both wider and shorter.

openSCAD file

Lens Hood fitment

Lens hood will beed a few small changes just to make it fit better bit a few mm off each end will do