Austin Arduino and MicroController Meetup

This is the monthly design status and update meeting. Participation is both in person and online.

Members of Austin Physics for Fun are now involved in the effort. -- https://www.meetup.com/physics-1/

The meeting will be held at a private makerspace, Diogenes. It is located in the same building as the adult club Colette Austin. The door is at the left end of the building, Suite C. Go to the back of the first floor workspace and head upstairs.

.If you have questions please feel free to submit them in the comments below or send them to me directly.

Zoom meeting details will be posted about a half hour before the meeting begins.

HABEX - High Altitude Balloon Experiments

The reference to experiments is two-fold. The first is in regard to the actual balloon construction and flight processes. The second is a reference to the payload and what it does during the flight (e.g. images, environmental measurements, etc.). To be clear, there will be two design processes going on in parallel, the balloon proper and the payload. This initial flight is really focusing on the balloon to get that process pinned down and clearly defined. The initial payload should be simple (e.g. digital camera taking pictures).

One of the primary design considerations will be the use of CanSat techniques in the design and construction process. We may need to build a technology demonstrator for this (i.e. dummy payload) before the actual flight process.

CanSat -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CanSat

Design Process:

Design/Buy > Assemble > Test > Loop (Will it fly?) > Flight Plan

Meeting Sequence:

Pilot - Initial meeting (possibly two) to gauge interest and get first round of participants.

Design - Group responsible for the first four stages of the Design Process. - Multiple meetings.

Pre-Flight - Review process to date and verify readiness - Set the date of launch - Possibly two meetings

Launch - Two teams (Launch and Recovery)

Clean up - Launch team cleans up launch site and transitions to tracking and telemetry

Recovery - Recovery team (possibly several groups) chases the balloon and tries to stay ahead of it.

Post-Flight - Review, analysis, and release of flight report (including experimental results if any).

Flight Plan:

• Pre-Flight
• Schedule
• Assembly
• Launch
• Tracking
• Recovery
• Review/Release Results

Constraints:

• COVID 19
• Budget
• Resources/Tools/Facilities
• Legal (e.g. FAA rules about weight and number of modules)
• People
• Transportation

You do NOT need to sign up for this event. It is a placeholder only.

You DO need to check with this site regularly for the latest event information and schedule -- https://cns.utexas.edu/events/series/texas-science-festival (Each of the colleges have their own activities as well, so check their main pages for more info.)

The Texas Science Festival has this to say...

Science for Everyone

Celebrate STEAM (science, tech, engineering, art and math) and dive into exploration at talks, demos, shows and tours for learners of all ages!

Arduino and MicroController has this to say...

Feel free to use the questions/comments on the front page of our meetup, or in the comments below, to arrange specific event engagements with other members.

This is NOT a placeholder, you DO need to sign up if you want to celebrate Pi by eating Pie! (Actually, you could just show up :)

Pi Day was created in 1988 by an employee of The Exploratorium in San Francisco. I was fortunate enough to be working with a hands-on science museum here in Austin, TX. called Discovery Hall and got to participate in the first one (and every one since).

Besides eating pie other activities are telling silly Pi Day jokes and wearing Pi Day clothing. The local grocers finally caught on a few years ago and now bake Pi pies without a special order.

Pi Day -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_Day

Pi Day Countdown Clock -- https://days.to/until/pi-day?day=14

The Exploratorium -- https://www.exploratorium.edu/pi

The Exploratorium -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploratorium

Discovery Hall -- https://txarchives.org/aushc/finding_aids/00673.xml