Raspberry Pi Forums

My friend and I are looking to launch a small 'hobby' project with the Raspberry Pi.

All seems achievable, however we're having real difficulty finding a way of connecting the Pi to the internet at high altitude.

We're basically looking at connecting to the Pi while its attached to a helium balloon heading for the stratosphere.

Does anyone know of any solutions for this? I may be missing something simple here.

Thanks in advance

I'd say radio is probably the best way. Look for APRS equipment.
Cellular signals only work up to a certain height, so thats probably out.
Maybe satellite communication could be an option, but probably expensive, and not sure if reliable enough.

APRS is a best option but requires HAM Radio license.

another option is 433MHz/915MHz connection
433MHz is free for Europe
915MHz is free for America
I fly my drone with this radios called 3DR Radio or MAVlink, connection is bi-directional, and have a program called MAVproxy this software convert radio communication to UDP/TCP protocol
this radio can easily connected to R-pi using UART interface or using FT232 and USB
MAVlink is designed to RX/TX telemetry data

Internet from a high altitude balloon is only going to happen with a suitable satellite modem. It'll be slow and/or expensive.

Which leads me to .... what is it that you actually want?

For the most part, hobby weather balloons just send down position data (telemetry) and perhaps images too. APRS is possibly an option however you will need a ham licence, and you will only be able to launch in or fly over a country that allows airborne amateur radio transmissions. The USA for example is one such; the UK is not.

APRS is bi-directional though for balloon use it's pretty much always used for transmission only from the balloon.

If APRS is not an option for you, then there are some ISM (e.g. 434MHz in Europe) transmitters and these are typically used with RTTY encoding and a ham radio receiver on the ground. Telemetry and images can be sent (albeit image transmission is very slow). Don't buy a matched transmitter/receiver pair as these typically use high data rates meaning that the maximum range from balloon to ground station will probably not be enough to track the balloon throughout the flight.

I suggest you start at the UKHAS wiki (www.ukhas.org.uk) as this is a wide subject and you need to do plenty of reading to make sure your flight is a success.

Dave