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balloon wifi comunication

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mrn

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This might sound odd, but I had the idea of having a balloon up in the air that has a wireless router attached that can recieve signals from another wireless router on the ground connected to my computer.

The router on the ground would have a diy cantenna radar attached to like a old dish satelite or something like that to beabable to beam the signals to the balloon router.

My question is, how would i turn signals that the balloon router gets into output signals to drive things like servo's and what not?

I would have a onboard battery or solar panels to drive the router on the balloon.
remember this is just a idea so far.



I know I could use radio comunication, but would require alot of equipment and a probably a license and what not.
 
Check your local model shop for 2.4GHz radio control gear. The're licence free, made for the job and a lot cheaper than anything you can build.

Mike.
 
Yep as he said.

Put a directional antenna on a RC plane controller and it will reach further than you will be able to see even with a good pair of binoculars! ;)
 
interesting, and im assuming I could controll like servos and what not from the radio signals? maybe with like a arduino or something?
 
Or with a standard issue off the shelf RC servo control unit like what the planes and RC cars use. :p

To me this seems blindingly obvious.:rolleyes:
 
...
I know I could use radio comunication, but would require alot of equipment and a probably a license and what not.

Why do you need to get signals from the ground up to the balloon? Most want telemetry/video coming the other way.

Getting a Ham Technician License is very easy. You can buy a **broken link removed**
ANSR (of which I am a member) is doing a balloon launch Wed Jun 26, 2013. Click on Photos
 
I wouldn't have thought wi-fi would reach 80k feet, even with cantennae? As others have said, the RC stuff looks a better bet.
 
Unless it's a long range directional antenna it wont. Typically WiFi is good for a moderate sized home. Plus powering an off the shelf router...

They do make long distance XBee radios, again once the ballon gets high enough you'll probably lose sight of it. Plus you may have to contact the FAA if it's a high altitude ballon.

I'm going to say this project is going to need the OP to get their radio license at the very least. Wouldn't hurt.
 
@alec: no it wouldnt with just the cantenna alone it would have to be mounted to a bigger reflector like a old dish/directTV satelite however, im not sure if it would require a hire voltage to beam the signal that far.


@Chris: I would have a router connected to my computer on the ground, that has the entenna that is beaming up signals to another wireless router onboard the balloon, and is somehow itercepting the signals and transfering them into usabable commands for the arduino. via a cat5 cable.
 
How do you plan to keep the antennas tracking each other, balloons generally won't go strait up. Is this part of your 128 solenoid project?
 
I don't see the point of going the long expensive indirect route of using a Wi FI system which is normally designed for short range use and an arduino as a converter when a common 6 channel RC plug and play receiver can be had for less than $20 and it would fit in an area about the size of a cigarette lighter. :confused:

That and any decent 6 channel RC transmitter unit with a line of sight range of around 10,000 feet without a directional antenna is less than $150.

Like I said. I am just not seeing the logic here of using the wrong gear to to a simple common off the shelf RC system job.
 
@blueroom: no its just another idea I had, I am still working on the other project though.

@tcmtech: I need it to go alot higher then 10,000 feet though is ther any way of boosting this with the rc unit?
 
You have the choice.

Wifi, designed for 30 ft range and not good at controlling things without lots of software.

Or,

Radio control gear, designed for out of sight range and controlling anything.

With either you will need very specialized aerials and will probably fail.

If you start telling us what you want to achieve then we may be able to help.

At this moment in time you are asking us how to fix your solution to the problem. If you tell us the problem they we may be able to suggest a solution to the actual problem.

Mike.
 
@tcmtech: I need it to go alot higher then 10,000 feet though is ther any way of boosting this with the rc unit?

Directional antenna conversion of the transmitter and a high gain antenna on the receiver.
 
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