[McHUG] Dirty Bird I

[Rich Mitchell]

I have successfully modified one of the failed balloon modules from the Hamfest weekend to be a "Dirty Bird I" (We don't scrub).  The module is very similar to the one that flew at the hamfest, except the photocell has been replaced with a voltage divider so we can monitor the battery.

Here is a description of a Dirty Bird I
It uses one half of the Radio Shack 276-159 Dual General-Purpose IC PC Board (these are pre-perforated to snap in half)
It uses the 08M PICAXE and the small TX-443
The PICAXE is set up for on-board reprogramming
It uses 2 3v coin batteries
It monitors outside temperature and battery voltage
It fits nicely into coffee cup packaging
It is light enough to fly with party balloon helium
The code includes ID on every tenth frame (K3PZN)
The code turns off the transmitter between frames
It still has 3 bytes of program space left!
Since it is very similar to the Hamfest Balloon module it should have a battery life of at least 2 hours at whatever altitude the Hamfest Balloon flew.

73 Rich N3III
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McHUG - Physical Computing ;) 
MicroController Ham User Group