Explorer report

T17:11 COORD gurgle blub blub ALT blub burble glug glug spark sizzle 0.00V 55F FANS splashing gurgle fizzle...

Still hopeful.... but only a little :) It could have been up this whole time wandering north/south above Lake Michigan. If it's quiet in the morning, it seems *very unlikely* that it'll come back.

Winds aloft

Well... we might be stuck over Lake Michigan. Or, we might be *in* Lake Michigan. One or the other, but I'm pretty sure we went over the lake at about 3AM or 4AM.

Worst case, it went too high with the sun and popped in the morning, then came down. 2nd worst case is it's still there and will come down at sunset. Hopefully, it comes down, drops ballast, and we hear from it in the morning.

Hopefully, it's high and dry right now... and the batteries are "good enough" :)

Network is failing to email, but here's the SMS contents we got between 1:50 and 2:06 AM

T2.04 COORD 41.86228 -87.65212GPS ALT 14265ft 5mph HDG 131 ALT 17557ft TARGET 7000ft TO 14299ft. FANS OFF. 22F 3.77V HSDPA1900 -89 ECIO 19.0 AT T 310-410 used 2 ballasts. Debug info 268K 87adc 887v 7.47PSI

Below updates are older but came out at the same time:

T23.23 Coord 41.93382 -87.88205gps ALT 666ft 5mpg hdg145 Alt 17342ft Target 7000ft to 14796ft. Fans DOWN. 13F 3.67V GSM1800 -82 snr 2 310-410 used 2 ballasts. Debug info 263K 88adc 897v 7.54PSI

T20.05 Coord 42.11766 -87.95353gps ALT 13625ft 4mph hdg144 Alt 16697ft Target 7000ft to 14299ft. Fans DOWN. 22F 3.83V UMTS1900 14 ecio 23.5 used 2 ballasts. Debug info 268K 91adc 927v 7.74PSI

T19.15 COORD 42.16292 -87.99477GPS ALT 14767ft 3mph HDG148 ALT 13222ft TARGET 7000ft TO 13329ft. Fans off. 40F 4.07V EDGE850 -83 SNR 2 310-410 used 2 ballasts. Debug info 278K 108adc 1101v 8.89PSI

T17.59 COORD 42.23459 -88.03546GPS ALT 13815ft 6mph HDG171 ALT 12667ft TARGET 7000ft TO 11490ft. FANS DOWN. 58F 4.13V GSM1800 -0 snr 1 0-0 used 2 ballasts. Debug info 288K 109adc 1111v 8.97PSI

T17.21 COORD 42.27236 -88.02183 GPS ALT 1814 5mph HDG240 ALT 8741ft TARGET 7000ft TO 10602ft. FANS OFF. 67F 4.24V 0-0 used 2 ballasts. Debug info 293K 132adc 1345v 10.53PSI

T16.45 COORD 42.29093 -87.99460GPS ALT 561ft 2mph HDG259 ALT 3087ft TARGET 7000ft TO 10167ft. FANS OFF. NOT OK TO SLEEP. 85F 4.24V UMTS850 -106 ECIO 17.0 310-410 debug info 298K 168adc 1712v 12.99PSI

Explorer report

T1.46 Coord 41.86228 -87.62512gps ALT 14265ft 5mph hdg131 Alt 17794ft Target 7000ft to 14796ft. Fans off. 13F 3.81V HSDPA1900 -88 ecio 16.5 AT T 310-410 used 2 ballasts. Debug info 263K 86adc 876v 7.40PSI

Explorer report

T21.32 Coord 41.99827 -87.91445gps ALT 12831ft 5mph hdg187 Alt 16261 Target 7000ft to 14299ft. Fans DOWN. 22F 3.77V HSDPA850 -90 ecio 31.5 AT T 310-410 used 2 ballasts. Debug info 268K 93adc 948v 7.88 PSI

It's in the air

Ivorycopter is in the air. let's see how often is messages (battery / sun / RF dependent)

9:30 update: You're lookin' at it. Nothing to report, except that this is pretty common for these things to report slowly...

Explorer report

T16.29 Coord 42.29049 -87.99664gps ALT 570ft 1mph hdg356 Alt 8888ft Target 7000ft to 9995ft. Fans off. Not OK To Sleep. 85F 5.20V HSDPA1900 -61 ecio 6.0 AT T 310-410 debug info 303K 186adc 1896v 14.22PSI

Explorer report

T16.18 No GPS. Alt 910ft Target 7000ft to 9995ft. Fans off. Not OK To Sleep. 85F 4.24V HSDPA1900 -95 ecio 10.5 AT T 310-410 debug info 303K 186adc 1896v 14.22PSI

Explorer report

T15.37 No GPS. Alt 910ft Target 7000ft to 9995ft. Fans off. Not OK To Sleep. 85F 4.79V HSDPA1900 -94 ecio 9.0 AT T 310-410

HW failures - launch on hold

Looks like we managed to botch another piece of hardware. These pads are not easy to solder to, and on top of that the good one we have might have been bad to start with for unrelated reasons.

So.. launch on hold until tomorrow.

Explorer report

T18.21 No GPS. Alt 910ft Target 7000ft to 12404ft. Fans off. Not OK To Sleep. -41F 4.18V HSDPA1900 -93 ecio 7.0 AT T 310-410 used 1 ballasts.

Some pictures of the Ivorycopter

Here's two pictures of Ivorycopter.  You can see the weight is about 30 grams for the chassis, and we added 56 grams of ballast.  The antenna, transceiver, camera, and batteries are about 75 additional grams (not pictured here)

 

Stay tuned! Launch 9/3/2009 evening

Please be patient while pre-launch testing is done.

Thanks,
The Management