HABAXE2 - PICAXE and LoRA High Altitude Balloon Tracker

srnet

Senior Member
Well it darn works, ought to after all the testing.

You can see where its getting to here;

http://tracker.habhub.org/

Currently 110km south of Paris at 8000M.

The temperature is being reported incorrectly (it has a -128 offset), but the real temperature at altiude in the dark is down to -38C.

And its still working !
 

The bear

Senior Member
@ srnet,
Congratulations, I don't confess to understand the workings.
However, its a real achievement.
You must be well pleased.
Regards, Bear..
 

srnet

Senior Member
Its gone offline for now, down to -38C when last heard from, it may reappear.

The main objective was to test the LoRa telemetry, and that was a success. The tracker transmitted a payload of its location etc using LoRa telemetry from a RFM98, limited to 10mW due to UK restrictions.

Looking at the logs I kept (and using an online calculator) the LoRa payload at 1000bps and 10mW only was last recieved error free at 269km.

Antenna was a vertical omni directional Diamond co-linear, no additional LNA used.
 

srnet

Senior Member
A summary of the comms testing is,

1042bps packets at 10dbM, 10mW had a max range of 279km

98bps packets at 2dBm, 3mW had a max range of 242km

Simple battery powered ground station receiver, no LNA needed or in use, antenna was an omni directional vertical co-linear.
 
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MFB

Senior Member
Well done! Just noticed its reappeared near Avignon in the South of France. Must be a bit warmer down there.
 

srnet

Senior Member
I did some higher rate tests too, at BW 500Khz, SF7, CRF 4:8, 13.7kbits.

I reciecved packets at 7dBm at 105km.

Switching on the LNA does help with the low spreading factor rates (lower allowable SNR) and in this case my masthead LNA allowed me to recieve the same packets at 2dBm. Therefore at 10dBm, 10mW, the distance for 13.7kbps should improve to 250km !
 
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