Other Projects - 2007

Other 2007 Projects

Pegasus High Altitude Balloon Project

By James Coxon - Project Website

The Pegasus High Altitude Balloon project is a UK based amateur student run project that involves launching payloads to "Near Space" (between an altitude of 60,000ft (20km) and 325,000ft (99km). This is achieved through the use of helium weather balloons which are designed to burst at a certain height and then the payload returns to earth via parachute. We have launched 3 payloads:

• Pegasus I - (Gumstix basix + waysmall HWUART board) - reached an altitude of 20295m
• Pegasus II - (Gumstix connex + waysmall STUART + CFstix) - lost
• Pegasus III - (Gumstix connex + GPSstix) - reached altitude of 19495m
• Pegasus IV - Under Construction

Features of gumstixs used:

• GPS (serial, compact flash and onboard)
• Interfacing with mobile phones (gnokii)
• Interfacing with radio (Aerocomm 868mhz radio modems + 434mhz beacons)
• Using GPIOs to trigger camera shutters + cutdown circuits
• Batteries

NTP Clock

By Steve Falco

I used a gumstix with a netCF and GPSstix to build an NTP stratum 1 timeserver. I have an LCD display, showing time of day, location, satellites in view, etc.

A number of mods were done to the GPSstix. I added a pulse-per-second interrupt and a GPS reset circuit. I also hacksawed the 60-pin connectors off a tweener so I could superglue the tweener to the GPSstix (and white-wire it to the uart).

I also bisected the netCF with a hacksaw, so I could bulkhead mount the ethernet connector part of the board (and yes, I am a little bit crazy...).

Anyway, I'd be happy to make the code and schematics available if anybody wants to build something similar. Some pictures and a bit more info here: NTP Clock

Mobile Phones

"Homebrew" mobile phones are being developed using a Gumstix at their core. The "Silicon Valley Homebrew Mobile Phone Club" (SVHMPC) is a collection of enthusiasts centred on developing such phones.