PongSat build

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello,

I have will sending a PingPong Ball on PongSat mission and have decided use the Arduino Pro Mini 5V.

I am hoping to be able to the log the following(on a micro sd card preferably):

  • Temperature
  • Altitude
  • Velocity

What other parts/sensors should I pick up? This is my first project on a scale this small.

Thanks,
Tony

2

i took a look at that pongsat thing, and i'm interested :slight_smile:
just some off-topic questions:
is it possible for european students too?
where do they get sent of to space?

and now on topic:
how will you get the power? because a pingpong ball is very small, and batteries can be big
if you use a pressure sensor you can measure the pressure and calculate the altitude, that way you have two things at once :slight_smile:
i think you'll have to push to get all this inside, i don't think many more sensors will be possible

3

A PongSat is an experiment that fits inside of a ping pong ball.

You must have different sized ping pong balls than we do. No way a Pro Mini will fit in our ping pong balls. Even a microSD reader would be a tight fit. And the altitude sensor? No, I don't think so.

And, how will you power this device?

4

I think you'd be better off logging to a serial EEPROM rather than an SD card. It'll take up a lot less space and use a lot less power.

Pete

5

I've seen pages that suggest a pro mini would fit. Am I wrong?

Here is one:
http://www.rustynailworkshop.com/Projects/Entries/2011/4/9_PongSat.html

6

I've seen pages that suggest a pro mini would fit. Am I wrong?

Sorry, I was thinking of the Nano, not the Pro Mini.

7

Steen:
i took a look at that pongsat thing, and i'm interested :slight_smile:
just some off-topic questions:
is it possible for european students too?
where do they get sent of to space?

and now on topic:
how will you get the power? because a pingpong ball is very small, and batteries can be big
if you use a pressure sensor you can measure the pressure and calculate the altitude, that way you have two things at once :slight_smile:
i think you'll have to push to get all this inside, i don't think many more sensors will be possible

For the offtopic questions:
I imagine it would be possible for European students. The september mission is full. There is another mission scheduled for April. The pongsat needs to be shipped to california, and it launched from Nevada. You could email the maintainer of the PongSat program and ask him if being in Europe would limit you. The only limiting factor would be cost of shipping the ball back to you.

and the onTopic:
Still learning as I go on this for power and sensors?

This page seems like a good starting point:
http://www.rustynailworkshop.com/Projects/Entries/2011/4/9_PongSat.html