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Originally Posted by CapturingTheNight
Great work Jo! Thoroughly enjoyed the video and pics. You can get free lens profile corrections for go-pro images if the excessive curvature bothers you. My local astronomy club is in the planning phase for a HAB flight of our own. How did you go with the CASA regulations for the flight? It seems to be our biggest stumbling block at the moment. Did you use a gimble for the Spot? We have had advice that you need to gimble them in flight to maintain a signal and make sure it is up the right way on landing. We plan to track using a Spot and APRS signals (just in case). Glad you eventually found yours.
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CASA was ok, just got to tell them all the details like accent speed, flight path, launch time, flight time, etc. You pretty much just have to show that you have thought it all out properly. I followed an example CASA application by Robert Brand, you might be interested to have a look at that.
If you are going to use a Spot tracker, I would recommend the Gen 2 instead of the Gen 3. The Gen 3 has motion sensors and stops signalling when it stops moving which is not what you want. The Gen 2 does't have this.
No I didn't use a gimbal, one locked onto satellites it holds them pretty good. I did tests with tipping my Spot upside down etc and it still held the satellites and transmitted. I'm not sure if the trouble I had was due to the tracker being close to the other electronics.
Anyway if I ever use it again I am going to tie it onto the payload line a few metres above the payload. Have seen it done on another video and it worked great, and from what I have seen I think that would be the way to go.
APRS will be awesome if you can get it, what type of setup will you use? Make sure it has a GPS that will work over 60,000 ft.
Byonics sell a 10W APRS tracker specially made for HAB's, that come fully configured with your call sign and ready to run, I think I might look into getting one of those.
Cheers
Jo