nowfound

Life & fun · July 30, 2025

A high-altitude low-power flight computer for high-altitude balloons

I've been working on this for a while now, and I'm happy to share! I've been into launching weather balloons for a few years. One aspect of the hobby that really drew me in was the tracking side of things. Tracking systems let you follow the balloon's position throughout the flight and, most importantly, know exactly where it lands so you can recover the instrumentation. APRS is what I started out using during my first few years in the hobby, after I got my amateur radio license in 2020 (W0MXX). I designed a few small boards using the trackuino…

A high-altitude low-power flight computer for high-altitude balloons launched on July 30, 2025 with 42 votes, #602 of 9,223 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.

Visit github.com ↗Alternativestop 7% of July 2025

In plain words

This is a flight computer designed for high-altitude weather balloons that enables tracking and recovery of instrumentation. Built by an amateur radio enthusiast, it uses APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) technology to monitor balloon position throughout flight and pinpoint landing locations. The system evolved from custom board designs and incorporates amateur radio protocols for reliable long-distance tracking of payloads at extreme altitudes.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Horus Binary v2 HAB Tracker. Contribute to New-England-Weather-Balloon-Society/Tiny4FSK development by creating an account on GitHub.

WORK IN PROGRESS - Please do not rely on this as your only tracking system. Tiny4FSK is still in the R&D phase of development and testing. Tiny4FSK aims to be an ultra-tiny high-altitude tracking system. It runs on 1 AA battery that lasts for 10-17 hours (packet interval and power output can be adjusted to lengthen battery life). It runs on 4FSK (4-frequency shift keying), which means that it separates tones into 4 separate frequencies. Upon this, it uses the Horus Binary v3 system, which is a relatively modern system popularly used with RS41ng . High altitude balloons (HABs) allow space science enthusiasts to launch their own payloads to near-space (30km) at a cost of hundreds of dollars…from github.com

In the maker’s words, at launch

I've been working on this for a while now, and I'm happy to share! I've been into launching weather balloons for a few years. One aspect of the hobby that really drew me in was the tracking side of things. Tracking systems let you follow the balloon's position throughout the flight and, most importantly, know exactly…

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