Throwing Pis Into The Stratosphere

Raspis in Near Space

It’s always exciting to see the photos from High Altitude Ballooning (HAB) outings. While it’s no surprise that the Raspi is a popular choice—low cost, convenient USB jacks, etc.—this is the first build we’ve seen that uses an OLED during the trip to show real-time data on-screen to be picked up by the on-board webcam. (Though you may have to squint to see it at the bottom middle of the above image).

[Fabrice’s] payload made it to 26,000m, and the screen he chose, an ILSOFT OLED, performed admirably despite the extreme conditions suffered (temperatures can reach -50C). The last time we saw a near-space Raspi payload was a couple of years ago, when [Dave Akerman] was closing in on UK balloon altitude records. [Dave] hasn’t stopped launching balloons, either, testing new trackers and radio modules, as well as his most recent build that sent a Superman action figure to the skies—all recorded in glorious HD.

Check out both [Dave] and [Fabrice’s] blogs for loads of pictures documenting the latest in High Altitude Ballooning, and stay with us after the jump for a quick video of [Fabrice’s] OLED in action.

26 thoughts on “Throwing Pis Into The Stratosphere

  1. not exactly the most efficient way to show information. I could only read it once in the entire video. maybe next time closer and with more contrast, or two cameras at angles to see this view and one closer to the display?

    1. That’s because it should be spelled “Pi’s.” I thought he left off an s. Wondered why anyone would want to throw urine into the stratosphere.

  2. I’ve done a couple HABs with screens placed like this, the main problem was that it was being driven by an arduino, and as it got colder, the screen refresh rate got slower and slower

  3. Damn, the disadvantages of not being a native English speaker, thought piss was spelled pis. :/ Well well, joke is on me.

    1. Yeah that was my thoughts and is the way i intend to do it. Ive got all the components but the cam assembled and trying to find a good USED GoPro or may just go with a Mobius

  4. An OSD using netPBM tools and mjpegtools would have been an option.

    Then again I used to hate 35mm trip cameras that used 7 segment LED’s to put dates on photos.

Leave a Reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.