New Pressure Sensor Kit

NearSys has been developing (slowly) a new pressure sensor kit to replace the Weather Station kit that it sold back in 2009. The NearSys Pressure Sensor kit will become part of a new weather station kit and is available as a separate kit for BalloonSats that only need to measure air pressure. Therefore, look for more kit offerings in the very near future that incorporate the NearSys Pressure Sensor kit.

The sensor requires calibration with a 35 mL syringe. The syringe can also be used for further vacuum experiments, like making water boil at low air pressures, as shown below.

Experiments with a Quadcopter

One of the neatest toys on the market today is the quadcopter. These flying machines basically fly themselves - just point them and they go. If you get nervous or scared, then just take your hands off the controls and they hover. Get really confused and just press the Return to Home button. I'm experimenting with using quadcopters to test near space payloads. In other words, as an exciting way to test BalloonSat avionics. The first test involved sending my Blade Chroma to maximum altitude with a pressure and temperature sensor from a BalloonSat. That along with a camera. Here is a picture from around 100 meters.

A flight at night recorded the following data. The altitude is based on ascent time.

My latest tests seem to indicate that my pressure sensor can detect changes in pressure altitude as small as 7.5 feet.