Flying an Arduino Mega 2560

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello there!

I am a graduate student in astrophysics, and my research group is working on a high-altitude scientific balloon experiment. We are flying a new type of UV detector which will be used to map the intergalactic-medium in the 'relatively' local universe!

Our commands get uplinked to the balloon and come out as a parallel dataword, which I need to convert to a serial signal and forward to our instruments. I'm pretty sure I can do this with an Arduino, but my hesitation is whether it will survive the flight. We had been using a Xilinx Spartan 3E FPGA for previous flights, but the hardware has changed and a full FPGA is overkill anyway since we just need a very simple parallel in -> serial out thing.

I have done a little research and come across other examples of people having used Arduinos in balloon flight, and that's reassuring to some degree. There's even ArduSat, which is a space mission! But I need to be very certain before I tell other people on my team 'yes, let's use this', because if it breaks, we lose our communications.

So, it would be incredibly helpful if anybody knows a reliable source for any of the following:

  1. Pressure/temperature specifications for Arduinos - what can they survive?

  2. Groups using Arduinos in flight who might be able to help out and share their experiences with this.

Thank you very much! I really hope I find something convincing enough that I can move forward with the Arduino. It would be so much better than trying to get 9-year-old software up and running to reprogram the Xilinx board.

Donal

2

Pressure - not specified.
Temperature- down to -40C
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en/integrated-circuits-ics/embedded-microcontrollers/2556109?k=atmega328P
You can add small heater to keep it warmer.
Step up to 1284P to have 4 full 8-bit ports available. (vs none on 328P unless use software serial so PORTD (where hardware serial is) can be used for 8-bit port).

3

I don't know if Ardusat is in a pressurized environment.

4

CrossRoads:
I don't know if Ardusat is in a pressurized environment.

Hi CrossRoads, thanks for the fast response!

I see in your link the ATMEGA328P chip goes down to -40C but I have an Arduino Mega 2560 which uses the ATMEGA2560 chip. Would you think they're the same?

I just chatted with someone on ArduSat and they said they don't use a pressurized environment. They sent me these links to show them launching their payload to high-altitude:

My main problem now is that Ardusat seems to have manufactured their own specific board, which makes me wonder how robust a board like the Mega2560 is by comparison.

5

dbosul:
Hi CrossRoads, thanks for the fast response!

I see in your link the ATMEGA328P chip goes down to -40C but I have an Arduino Mega 2560 which uses the ATMEGA2560 chip. Would you think they're the same?

I don't think that the ATMega chip would be the failure point, Cold temperatures on Capacitors and Crystals would be your failure point. Also low pressure.

If you have access to a barochamber, test to destruction!

Chuck.