sf-hab.org RP2040 based PicoBalloon Tracker PCB generation 1 for STEM education, designed by AG6NS
This RP2040 based PicoBalloon Tracker PCB gen1 project is intended for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) educational purposes.
Please refer to the Wiki
I will only answer questions from people who are a part of a STEM education program (student, teacher, mentor, advisor, ...), please send them via email (my call sign @ arrl.net). The answers to these questions will also be added to the Wiki for the benefit of all other STEM education groups.
Note: I will most likely ignore all emails from people who are not part of a STEM education program. If you are not a part of a STEM education program, please do not waste your time sending any questions.
When I started designing this PCB, I asked another member "What CAD software should I use?" and the answer was EasyEDA. I had only used Eagle before for designing my PCBs, so I had to learn it just for this project. The biggest reason we chose EasyEDA is because it is easy to link to the JLCPCB parts library. We only use JLCPCB for PCB fabrication and PCB assembly service, we thought this was a good decision at the time...
Anyway, this PCB was designed with a specific version of the EasyEDA Pro --- easyeda-pro-linux-x64-1.8.39. You can download it from Here.
Since my PicoBalloon firmware is still half baked, I have ported the existing well known PicoBalloon tracker firmware --- LightAPRS-W-2.0 to this Tracker board.
The ported version of the repository is added to this project as a git submodule, so once you clone this repository you need to do:
git submodule init
git submodule update
The original LightAPRS-W 2.0 tracker uses two different chips (Si5351A and Si4463) for supporting both HF and VHF bands, but my ported version only uses the Si5351A/MS5351M to generate both HF (WSPR in 20m band) and VHF (APRS in 2m band).
creative commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Oct 2021 - attend to SF-HAB (San Francisco Bay Area High Altitude Balloon) group's Amateur Radio Pico Balloon presentation at Pacificon 2021, then joined the group
Dec 2021 - start writing firmware for existing W6MRR V6.6 Pico Balloon Tracker boards
Oct 2022 - at Pacificon 2022, meet a group of people from San Diego doing Pico Balloon / Ocean Buoy STEM educational programs for local high school students. They are looking for a new Tracker board that is specialized for their STEM education programs. They mentioned about the idea of using RP2040 as a controller chip, run tracker software in 1st CPU Core and MicroPython in 2nd Core for students to customize / extend the tracker functionalities. The tracker should be open source and open hardware, and not expensive
Jan 2023 - during a SF-HAB online meeting, I was assigned to design a RP2040 based next generation Pico Balloon Tracker board
Jan 2023 - start designing a tracker board
Feb 2023 - order and receive the v0.1 prototype boards
Mar 2023 - update design, order and receive the v0.2 prototype boards
Apr 2023 - launch the v0.2 tracker AG6NS-11 from Hayward California, flown for 12 days then stop working above Iran
May 2023 - launch another v0.2 tracker K6EAU-11 from Milpitas California, flown for 77.9 days (2.7 circumnavigations)
May 2023 - update design, order and receive the v0.3 prototype boards
Jun 2023 - launch the v0.3 tracker W6MRR-27 from Milpitas California, flown for 1.5 days (accumulated ice destroyed the balloon? altitude dropped from 13km to 3km during night, then slowly back to 13km)
Jun 2023 - launch another v0.3 tracker AG6NS-12 from Milpitas California, flown for 1 day
Jul 2023 - launch another v0.3 tracker AG6NS-13 from Milpitas California, flown for 1 day (balloon failure, landed in Mexico then keep transmitting signal for 3 days)
Jul 2023 - update design, order and receive the v0.3.1 prototype boards
Aug 2023 - launch another v0.3 tracker WB6TOU-14 from Lodi California, as of Mar 30 2024 still flying for 234 days. It requires high sun angle due to the tiny single solar cell therefore reports are limited during winter.
Sep 2023 - launch the v0.3.1 tracker AG6NS-14 from Milpitas, California, flown for 1 day (balloon failure, landed near Mono Lake then keep transmitting signal for 53 days)
Oct 2023 - launch another v0.3.1 tracker AG6NS-15 from Milpitas California, as of Mar 30 2024 still flying for 174 days and completed 16.8 circumnavigations
Nov 2023 - release an Ocean Buoy with the v0.3 tracker KQ6RS-12 at 420 miles WSW of San Diego California (from a boat), as of Mar 30 2024 still floating on Pacific Ocean for 144 days
Kazuhisa "Kazu." Terasaki, AG6NS
if you are insterested in, here is my latest updates