Hello Cody, I have launched 7 high-altitude balloons, including one during the August 2017 total solar eclipse. May I recommend the following upgrades for future launches? 1) A rigid styrofoam box painted orange for the payload container. The rigid stryrofoam insulates, contains, and acts as a crumple zone for the rest of the equipment. Painting it bright orange helps improve recovery prospects. 2) Some form of squealer for descent/after landing. I have had a number of launches where the only reason we got the payload back was thanks to the squealer. 3) To solve the battery issues, we ended up using both electrical payload heaters (The chemical ones rely on oxygen, and produce water as a byproduct. This means they don't work at apogee, and flood the payload with water and heat during re-entry.), and external batteries for all electronics. Extreme cold and lithium ion batteries do not get along. I have observed up to a 50% drop in capacity at -40C (Easily reached at altitude.) when testing a camera in a cold chamber. 4) I STRONGLY recommend procuring a gas regulator and building a dedicated balloon filler for future launches. The filler can be made for under $20 out of common PVC parts found at any hardware store, and the regulator found at most welding suppliers. Filling directly from the tank introduces a large risk of contaminating the balloon fill neck, or bursting the fill neck entirely. 5) Regarding payload spin: There are many strategies, with varying degrees of success. The strategy in section 3 of this paper seems to work well: via library depaul edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1037&context=ahac (Link intentionally broken because youtube's comment section is rubbish) Although I am not an expert on this subject, I hope that this helps.
Electrical heating is good too because it means that it can be regulated too! while your in the atmosphere the heating is fine but once you get into more vacuum like conditions the insulation becomes your worst enemy because the only way to shed heat is via radiation rather than convection (or so I have read)
Maybe not gopro next time. They apparently still have issues with batteries or something draining them. I think I've only had one that wasn't bad with battery and that was my first one, so an old model.
William Wakely You can post the link without breaking it. I always hear people saying that you can't post links, or they will get removed, or... whatever. I've never had a problem posting links. Everytime I reply to a comment, my link is still there. They don't even take down Emma's "I masturbate my put$$y on the canal," links. (I'm sure you've seen them. I still don't get what "on the canal" means. Birth canal? A waterway canal? ) Maybe if you post a link for something bad, it might get taken down. Or if people report it.
Cody you should contact your local weather forecast office and do a coordinated effort with them. I work for the National Weather Service in Glasgow Montana. We launch balloons twice a day every day. Looks like your balloon was very underinflated. Also you do not need a balloon that large. We use 600 gram balloons and regularly reach altitudes of 120,000 feet occasionally higher.
@@Michursky it was a floating balloon. They didn't use enough gas so the balloon settled at its neutral altitude until it seal failed. Gotta use more gas to get it to burst instead of float
I think Cody's right, when recording video it's going to use more energy than a cheap battery pack can supply. Ac to USB plug packs have to provide at least 1 and a half amps constantly at 5v when recording video on a phone to not send the phone battery backwards, that pack probably can't do that and if the GoPro is already dead then it'll shut off quickly.
It would be simple enough to log the power consumption while recording and extrapolate out how much battery you'd need to stay recording for x amount of time. You would need an external power supply capable of outputting enough current though.
I would be interested in what you do to reduce the spinning. Some folks in my local ham club are looking at building a reaction wheel to stabilize our balloons.
+David Schadlich Wouldn't a bearing/gimbal and some wind vanes help? I presume the spinning was from the cordage twisting/untwisting. I guess that was the downside of using so much length between the balloon and cargo.
Cool project! I did a number of launches like this ~10 years ago with some friends, we had about a 75% failure rate. You just have to stick with it until you get lucky or get really good on your logistics planning and testing. IIRC lithium primary cells work in colder weather than LiPOs (maybe that's changed since). Lately people have been doing really small cigarette pack sized payloads on mylar party balloons and a few of them have managed to stay up for weeks and circumnavigate multiple times!
I'm shocked you put everything in the lunchbox, activated the heaters, sealed it up, AND left it in the sun. All BEFORE you were even ready to go. That's why I think the camera shut off, it got too hot, the gopro session gets pretty hot by it's self when it's recording
As First Last said, it gets cold up there. But not just pretty cold, it gets REALLY cold. Yes, it's a strange "cold", but a lot of instruments will still be busted without proper heating.
Actually it's the government. Every camera has a backdoor in it and the government will go in and disable it if it can prove that the Earth is flat. (I say that as a joke but I could see flat earthers think that lol)
That would be cool, I don't think even NASA has footage of the bottom of the earth. Some say it's cone shaped but some say it's actually four pillars. Would be cool to actually get footage from it and find out. You'd have to launch it from Antarctica.
If only people could just enjoy wholesome content without any negative remarks about others, that would be really great. I'd much rather be around ignorant flat-earthers than rude people.
You're right, we should be nicer to the people who deny science and claim it's a massive cover-up sowing disdain for NASA and other science organizations. Which could lead to funding cuts. Hey, at least we have wholesome content and comments though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@altrogeruvah - oh, you're heading down a dangerous road. Learn to cope with the rude and inconsiderate people because sometimes they have A LOT to offer once they calm down. If you'd rather hang with those folks, I'm afraid it might already be too late. I see their ranks going +1.
Cody- make sure you space the rings out. Otherwise, you'll only be a captain instead of an admral, and everyone knows that Captain is the cooler rank in Starfleet! :)
Congratulations on a successful failure! You're now better prepared for your next launch. :D I appreciate your transparency regarding failed projects or failed steps in a process. I learn a lot from observing your failures as well as your successes. Thanks for posting the duds, it just makes the hits all the sweeter! Suggestions for the next "launch box": - recording barometer - stabilizer fins to dampen rotation - external thermometer - atmospheric sample canister Cheers. Keep up the good work!
For the camera a solution would be to directly use a bunch of 18650 cells in // connected in // with the internal battery (kept in case the camera has some kind of detection that you use the right kind of battery). Of course before connecting then in // make sure they have the exact same voltage to prevent high current flow between cells. Internal batteries are good for 1h of video and each 18650 should add 1h30 more (rough estimate) A solution to control the quatity of helium would be to use a weight scale with decent precision. Put a few kilograms on it using a single oblect that has a hook. Use tare function then add the load (lunch box). Then attach the balloon to the hook and add helium until you reach zero. Add a little more to be at -10% of the lunchbox weight. Detach from hook and let it go. The -10% is to stay up as long as possible. Go -20% or more to go up faster and pop sooner.
John E. Grant thompson just used a ready made stuff. He just assembled it, not made it. That too was very poor/slow at making liquid nitrogen and was very expensive which made it impossible for everyone to get it. A complete homemade machine under $500 would be perfect. Something like a joule thompsons expansion which is quite easy and cheap to make. Another thing that can be done is to make a 4 stage cascade refrigeration system. First stage using propane as refrigerant which will cool and condense second stage refrigerant (Ethylene) under pressure. This will take us down to -103*C. Now we can use this second stage cooling power to condense methane under pressure to get us down to -162*C. After this everything becomes easy. Just need to pass compressed nitrogen under 14 bar pressure through heat exchanger cooled by third stage and we will get liquid nitrogen out of it.
Very fun to watch. This has been on my list of things to do for a long time. Next time you do one I can help you out with the electronics. We can put several environmental sensors in there (barometric pressure sensor to record altitude) and log everything to an SD card.
Why didn't you use your drone to get an eye on the balloon's landing location? Obviously just looking for it works fine, but it would've been a good excuse to use it!
@LaserLord,, Drones can only fly for about 20 minutes on a charge. That balloon was up for about 24 hours, went 10 x's higher than the drone could ever and traveled way further over land than the drone could have ever traveled on a charge. For tracking, the drone was pretty much useless.
@@rickdees251 He didn't mean following the balloon all the way, though if that was possible that'd be really cool. I'm pretty sure he meant that as they got to the general area, they just get out and launch the drone to look for it
Cody, I’ve been watching your videos for probably about a year and a half now, maybe less but I’ve realized that you are usually really thorough with your experiments, and you also have a lot of the same hobbies I would like to at least try such as mining, beekeeping, the hydroponic garden you had (either indoor one or smaller version of the outdoor one) and actually plan on getting into chemistry soon if things go according to plan. I find your videos are entertaining and are good at explaining things, while at the same time being simple enough for most people to understand even with no background in formal learning for chemistry or anything. You are one of my favorite content creators and I love your work. I thought you’d like some feedback from a viewer that’s seen a decent bit of your content although nowhere near all of it. Thanks for the knowledge and the entertainment
veteran weather ballooner here. Failures are VERY common in ballooning. You could think of it like super cheap rocketry, in that it's surprisingly complex and lots of tiny details can cause huge failure conditions. The skies are more violent and unforgiving than we realize.
I'm not quite sure if I'm interpreting the question correctly. It sounds like you're asking just about regulation. Its hard to say because I'm in AZ and this is Utah, and I'm an engineer type pokemon, not a legal type pokemon, so I'm not sure how stuff works in Utah precicely. But for us, we have to put reflectors on the balloon for visibility, we have to register our specific flight with our identity for a specific time and location with the FAA. So its like reservation of airspace. My understanding is that the FAA can use this data to hand off the airplane control towers so they can route planes around the reserved area rather than possibly fly passenger airplanes through a payload of unknown material. They also want to know stuff like what the device actually is, only to the point of categorization though. Drone air regulations work differently from weather balloon regulations as well as are different from planes. If my memory serves, the cutoff is altitude. There's a certain altitude, at least in AZ, where above this level you need to register with the FAA that you're flying, what is being flown, where the launch location is, and launch time. This is actually important, because that means we have a launch window, and if we have bad weather, we can miss our launch window and have to reschedule for later.
Well that was a bit of a letdown. As for spinning you could use a ball bearing swivel on the lead with a styrofoam cross like arrow fletchings. or better yet you could use a crossbar attached to the balloon and use 2 leads to connect the load, that should provide a much slower rotation rate. Camera power could be a 15000mah or larger lipo USB power pack. It should run 2 cameras for quite a long time 1 horizontal and 1 looking down. Try using 2 balloons and fill them with less to get even higher! Don't forget the altimeter and an onboard GPS data logger. A bit of math should allow you to timelapse the shots and get the full rise and decent. If you really want some data throw in a raspberry pi with a full array of sensors. They are a good cheap data logger and allow for a vast array of sensors. Done correctly this could be a wealth of channel material! But what do I know.....JMHO
Cody, you're the best. For the spinning I would put a low friction SWIVEL and a FIN like in a WEATHER VANE and keep the camera a lot more stable. You just have to put the camera where you want it corresponding to the expected wind direction at the desired altitude. Good luck. I'm 54 years old and I want to be like you when I grow up. Thanks for all those videos.
I tried that for our first couple of launches. It actually made the spinning worse, as now the payload could catch the wind and spin freely, instead of winding up the string.
The continuous spinning in one direction implies more than some twist prior to launching. The balloon is rotating. Wind veins will help, but it might be better to attach several smaller, pneumatically interconnected balloons, like an inverted tripod to produce a system much less aerodynamically able to spin.
I love how sentimental this video was, in addition to the neat project feel and the science done! Made the video something only Cody could have done, which I like a lot.
Have to love Cody's videos and this one qualifies as the least preparated launch of the history. Not only wasn't the payload ready, it's been more or less improvised and then even the camera was not charged. Some radio ham friends launched one a pair of years ago and preparation took them weeks. I think the outcome it's pretty good for the effort applied.
I can't believe that you didn't prepare the payload before you got out in the field. Putting a second camera looking up at the balloon makes an interesting shot. The balloon burst is spectacular.
David Messer his usual style is no preparation and doing everything with his left hand while holding a cellphone in his right hand that records it all.
Why are you preparing your payload at the Launchsite? We allways built the payload indoors a couple of days before the launch. it takes a littlebit of stress out of the launch. Also, we use a Water bottle as a Weight to measuere when the balloon has the right amount of Lift while filling. There is a linear relationship between the lift over the weight of the payload and the rise rate of the ballon, so you can calculate the lfit you need for the specific rise rate you want. Also, we allways do a "full up test" on the payload (have it run for the predicted time of the flight) before we actually launch it to see if it at least works at ground level.
- "How high do you think it'll get?" - "Probably like a 120.000." I'm confused, that would be 120 km? I don't think you can get into space using a baloon ... 🤔
In helicopter rescue we used a load bearing swivel very much like a fishing swivel to reduce or completely eliminate load spin. I would think it would help in an overall plan to stabilize the load.
We also had one started in bavaria. It flew 36.000 meters high and landed in austria. We had put a mirror in front of the camera so you can see how much the ballon gets bigger, but the camera (GoPro) went off after 1 hour... Still exciting.
Pack the hand warmers into the camera compartment just before launch. Attach a rudder. Use more helium. Add two more cameras. First launch was a success. You learned a lot. I bet more lift equals a shorter flight too. Gets you to max altitude faster. Good vid. Going to go search for flight attempt number two.
- Let's launch a weather balloon with a camera! :D - Ok, did you charged the cam? - Nope, but let's go! :D - Sure, but what about the power bank? - Who cares? Let's do it anyway dude! :D
A good landing site. I have been part of such an event myself and a pine forest is worse to chase the equipment in. My experience is that batteries are a headache - and wire the batteries directly to the equipment and insulate them well since it can be pretty cold up there - cold enough to make the batteries freeze.
Why did you activate the warmer packs before you were ready? Doesn't seem like your typical level of planning and preparation. Also, wonder if perhaps the GoPro and/or battery pack overheated and shutdown. Yes, you had an issue with the battery early on, but if you were charging it at all, it should have lasted longer. Bet you cooked it. Activate the packs right before launch, will help avoid that. When you try again, wonder how you could design the package to reduce the spinning? Perhaps a balsa wood frame with a lightweight skin (plastic wrap/mylar) as a fin(s) to slow the rotation?
Blair Cox what, the 15 minutes early that he opened the hand warmers? That's inconsequential. It's actually good that they did because they found out that they get to hot to keep them in direct contact with the electronics, like they originally had them.
Hand warmers last hours. Like not just 1 or 2 but 6+ hours. Cody is right. It looked like a cheap 1A out usb battery pack. It will be unable to sustain the camera during the lift due to discharge being higher than the supplied current.
M3ta7h3ad being aware the warmers last hours - I would actually be more concerned activating them too early and having the insulated lunch bag sit on the ground too long. Check the cut-off temperature for a GoPro, it is very possible that the two hot packs causes the internal temperature of the enclosure to rise to the point that the high temp safety shutoff engaged.
Greetings Cody, I really enjoyed this video. Good science reports everything. You're probably aware that Nuts and Volts magazine has been running a series of near space articles involving launching various science related missions with balloons. I like how you launched the Geiger counter. A few years ago I had radioactive seeds planted in my prostate. Pretty crappy seeds as all they did was to impede growth and In fact contributed to the demise of my prostate. But I was curious so I read a couple good books about radiation and then built a few Geiger counters. The final one uses an expensive tube that detects alpha radiation as well as beta and gamma radiation. For a month I exceeded safe radiation levels for anybody in very close proximity. This meant no cats or wife sitting on my lap for a while. Please keep posting your videos, they are quite entertaining. Cheers, Eric
Hydrogens got a nasty habit of leaking uncontrollably from just about everything. It might not make it to popping altitude considering how thin the latex is.
eddiesadat isn't the Van der Waals radius of helium smaller than hydrogen? if you look at a periodic table with Van der Waals radii it gets smaller when moving right, right? Unless you are talking about atomic radii
Exciting experiment :) We made a low cost small balloon flight. I noticed that the camera recorded in higher altitude more louder sounds, like dog barking, motorbike sounds, which are more blocked/absorbed on terrain level by the surface obstacles.
Hey Cody! As part of my undergraduate study, we flew some weather balloons with Geiger counters. Your explanation about the radiation levels at altitude is incorrect. The fall-off we see after the fist maxima in the counts per second (CPS) is a result of the composition of the atmosphere at that altitude. The higher CPS at the beginning are a result of low energy secondary radiation from high energy particles interacting with the atmosphere. Think of secondary radiation as a glass ball being thrown at a really strong pinhead. The glass ball (high energy radiation) will shatter, sending little pieces (secondary radiation) in the direction of travel of the original glass ball. The CPS falls off after the first maxima because the atmospheric composition/density decreases the likelihood for high energy particle interaction (thus decreasing low energy particle events). The amount of high energy particles interacting with the atmosphere is more or less constant, so we see less CPS after 20-23Km ish because we’re not detecting all the little bits of shattered glass anymore, just the big glass ball. Once the payload starts descending, you’ll see the same CPS maxima at around the same altitude of the first. The CPS is almost completely independent of the position of the sun relative to earth. Our flight lasted 3 hours from release to touchdown. We flew an altimeter, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, 3 Geiger counters with different tubes, and a GPS. We flew about 20 times! Through thunderstorms, at night, during the summer and winter.
Use multi braid or mono filament for the tether lines, should alleviate a lot of the spin (double them up as well). A large lightweight foam board as a damper will also help.
Suggestion... *A light weight fin and and/or a small wind sock of some sort to stabilize the camera housing*. Love the concept of putting test materials in the "launch" bag too. Desiccating the leaf was brilliant, and some of the blueberries did what I hoped they would while trying to out gas.
Excellent Cody very very excellent...! I would put in 2 battery-powered gyroscopes. This will prevent the rotation or at least greatly reduce it. It's fun to see someone as brilliant as you learning something new. On the other side of the fence, it could have landed an Area 51. So it was extremely successful and it was great seeing you do something new. Thank you so much for sharing because we get to share adventures with you. Thank you and God bless you Cody..!
Not entirely true. Many planes in the past have had engines blown ingesting one ore 2 large birds. A 2x6 would certainly destroy the fan disk. The disk would become completely unbalanced spinning at thousands of RPM's resulting in disintegration of the engine.
The spinning image would have been working the GoPro processor to 100% having to re write every pixel continually, that probably killed it by self protecting with a thermal shutdown, and also it would be drawing max current from the battery. Also, a good trick when sealing up the balloon is to do the first zip tie then squirt in some dishwashing liquid, then do a second and third zip tie below that. The liquid creates an impermeable seal to helium. Anyway, great work despite the technical problems.
Frasier Canine was the first time I seen you. Just subscribed. Reading the comments subscribers are a special bunch. Thought someone would of suggested it. Thinking maybe put a wind/tail fin on lunch box for stability. Much like a weather vane. Pool noodle may work but probably need fins, but I’m sure your all over it. I enjoy your vids. Peace
Keep trying, there’s so many valuable lessons here. I’ve made many attempts before succeeding, no shame in trying.... only in giving up early! May I suggest 2 cameras, side and bottom views, possibly also a smart phone as well. Good luck !
John Smith I actually have seen more ufo than I can remember. But I don't think any of them where from an intelligent extraterrestrial life. ( some where probably extraerial in origin though )
I actually did something similar for a college course. Everyone was put into teams, and all did an experiment of their choice in near space altitudes. I pretty much just built the box, added and programmed several sensors. (The actual experiment was involving microbiology, didn't touch any of that.)
The oils on your skin compromise the balloon because it's so thin and latex is soluble in oil. Also why it says on latex condom packages not to use Vaseline or oil based lubricants.
If you try this again, consider putting a device in it to track the GPS location. You know you really want to know how far it drifts and what kind of dance it does while up there. Something with a barometric altimeter and logging capabilities would be ideal. You could probably find a somewhat cheap used cell phone to do both of these functions. To prevent the spinning, couldn't you put a long thin stick with fins on it (think of a weather vane) and attach the payload to the unpredictable flexible bits with a swivel? If the fins are large enough and wind more than a couple mph, it should only change direction when the wind changes or dies off. A carbon fiber rod that is a couple mm thick and 2-3 feet long and duct tape for fins should work and wouldn't be likely to hurt anyone.
David - I am a pilot. All my life. We have no radar onboard civilian aircraft that could detect these. ATC radar MIGHT pick them up, but without prior coordination the air traffic controllers would not be able to identify or provide separation from these. For all they know it might be a flock of birds. ATC does not warn aircraft of flocks of birds at any kind of altitude (maybe right at the airport surface if visual.) So I can tell you, without prior coordination or permission, there would be no way I can think of (after 25 years of my flying career) that we would be protected from this. But I am not denigrating Cody for flying it, just checking if he took precautions and/or reminding him to do so next time...
I'm sure this has been mentioned before but I think the reason the camera twirls is due in part by the string unwinding under the weight of the camera bag. Also the bag has flat surfaces and sharp corners to catch air. Thanks for attempting this. If you have the $$ think about building your own gyro image stabilizer.
cool effort ......but you knew the cam/battery/adaptor/jacks were F'd. Why risk using it after all that ? you coulda got a cheap-o(back-up/replacement) for less than that gas $ ..... you don't really need a good/time lapse cam, even any phone probably would have lasted till altitude especially with a back-up pack............you gotta redo this. But do try to fix the spinning issue next time......Live & learn.
I very highly doubt a mobile phone would survive anywhere near the -40C temperatures that can easily be achieved at altitude. Lithium-ion and Lithium-polymer batteries really don't like temperatures less than about 10C.
thats true....just say'n even a phone would get you nearly there & perhaps to altitude+ with back-up(batteries of your choosing) kinda meant a custom/modified(external) more then a back-up/booster.....though I bet even a regular good capacity Lithium booster would just about make it. Plus of course you would insulate it well & the heat the phone generates would help some perhaps more so if you left the screen on(though wasteful) & it would most surely make it if you diverted some of the battery towards heating. (though thats not what I said in my op).....I'd bet $50 on the well insulated phone with booster just making it. & its sure worth a try before spending hundreds or thousands imo. EDIT btw you're right about lithium batts & low temps which I was aware of.... I guess it would be worth looking a some charts 1st before lay'n down my $50 lol....that is Do they output 0 at -40 or just much less current etc & is the phones heat significant even if perfectly insulated etc.
If you want some good data logging stuff, which I've seen a couple tweets of people having used, use a Raspberry Pi with the 'SenseHat' addon. Not only do you have, if you use a 32GB MicroSD card, about 30 GB's worth of storage for various data, the SenseHat takes in a bunch of different data, such as temperature, humidity and pressure (and some others which I forget). You can also get a Camera addon for the RPi, which you can use as a makeshift timelapse camera, allowing you to send it all up as one thing, rather than have 3 or 4 different things inside your 'launch box'. The Raspberry Pi Twitter often retweets projects people have worked on that use a Raspberry Pi as the main thing that gets them all of their info, including some people who have used it for purposes similar to what you tried to do.
Spinning shouldn’t be an issue after a while, you can hold the string on the ground to try and get rid of most of the wind within the string. You can also try using a different type of string or cord. Test the entire thing on the ground for 48 hours. Use a gopro 6 with a 264gb card at 1080p24 and get a large external battery that automatically starts charging when a USB is plugged in. The piggyback battery will be needed if you want more than an hour of footage. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have two cameras plus a 4K time-lapse camera. Have the gopro split the footage into 15 minute clips.
I can't believe you only had 1 camera, 1.5 million subs and 1 camera, I would have thought you of all people you would have thought this through better. Should have had atleast 4 cameras. I'm so disappointed. PS don't take me too seriously 😀.
more weight means more helium which means it will pop at lower altitude, so for the best possible results you want it as light as you can make it. Just my thoughts..
Toe warmers are meant to be inside a winter boot, so limited oxygen flow and correspondingly slowed burn rate. In open air they'll burn faster. Hand warmers by contrast should burn at a more appropriate speed in open air.
Hey Cody, as an idea I'd love to see you try to cool a computer with liquid mercury, comparing it to regular conventional coolant in a water cooling loop :D
humm.... and you'll make the blocks from wich material..... you can't use aluminium nor copper, and the mercury can't get in touch directly with the chip. My challenge is to make a cooling system out of a freezer.... damn that should be interesting and relatively cheap.
The pump and probably tubes would have to be much stronger though and shouldn't form an amalgam with the passing mercury. The entire computer in a tub of mercury would be quite nice of a way to cool it, but sadly everything would be shorted that way. Also the specific heat capacity of mercury is 140J/kg, much less than the 4182J/kg and per volume mercury is still inferior at 1900J/L and water at 4200J/L (density 13.5 and 1 kg/L).
Oh heck I don't care about any of those types of details, even if it just ran for a few hours before everything corroded. I just know they make liquid metal thermal paste from gallium now and it works amazingly well. Liquid metal transfers heat better than regular paste or regular coolant so I thought it would be interesting since Cody is about he only content creator I've seen that has enough mercury on hand to even attempt it.
The freezer PC build has been attempted before, usually results in the same ending, the freezer motor burns out just like had you left the door open on it.
As is often the case with Cody, a great idea marred by poor production control. You need to hire a production manager, who would have known to charge the camera and have a backup camera for contingencies. Instead what we get is shaky handheld videos shot on cellphones. You have 3k supporters on Patreon and revenue from RUclips ads, so I find it difficult to imagine that you can't afford to hire a part time production manager and a part time editor. Look at Strange Parts, for example. His storytelling skills have dramatically improved over time, and so has the production value. This while his subscriber count is half of Cody's.
The Serious Account yeah I agree. I don't mind "failed" experiments-I enjoy the fact that this channel is all about trying out ideas and every attempt presents an opportunity to learn. Still, a video has its own technique and quality: there are such things as good and bad videos, which is a matter determined by a combination of technical skills, creative inspiration, equipment, etc. I'm a bit confused as to why, after all these years, Cody's videos still lack the basic things needed in a decent video such as clear editing, decent shots (get a steadicam! They're not that expensive; it's tiresome to see poor video quality), and equipment that doesn't fail due to carelessness. I appreciate that some of the equipment Cody buys is probably insanely expensive (x-ray gun?) but a decent rig for shooting his videos ought to be a priority also. Not everything has to be shot on cellphones and not all chemical experiments have to be conducted using whatever old jar caps that he happens to have lying around.
We dont need a production manager that cant see past the basics and thinkof things like over heating, pressure, and all the stuff the actual scientists look at :P Though this clearly wasnt meant to be a serious experiment. Nothing was pre tested, and he just kind of threw some random stuff in to see what happens.
Can't wait to see your next balloon!!! Suggestion: put some kind of sail, fin or just a long strip of on cloth on the "payload", maybe behind the camera; it will help to stabilize the image avoiding payload spining.
Try using 4 balloons on a square PVC setup. Place one on each end of the square PVC setup and in the middle attach the go pro with your equipment. This will greatly reduce the spinning effect and give you more stability in your video. Good luck!
Here's hoping you do it again soon, and everything goes right! Still a neat first attempt in that you learned something. Suggestions: 1. Do two cameras, one facing out to the side like this one was, and one facing down. It'll give you a. redundancy for reliablility, but also b. 2 different views. 2. Maybe find a non-fisheye lens camera. Everyone seems to do these with fisheye lenses that distort the view, which kind of defeats the purpose of getting pictures of the curvature of the earth. With a fisheye I can get "curvature" images from my front porch haha Hope to see a part 2 of this soon, especially since you've got some helium left!
Hello Cody,
I have launched 7 high-altitude balloons, including one during the August 2017 total solar eclipse. May I recommend the following upgrades for future launches?
1) A rigid styrofoam box painted orange for the payload container. The rigid stryrofoam insulates, contains, and acts as a crumple zone for the rest of the equipment. Painting it bright orange helps improve recovery prospects.
2) Some form of squealer for descent/after landing. I have had a number of launches where the only reason we got the payload back was thanks to the squealer.
3) To solve the battery issues, we ended up using both electrical payload heaters (The chemical ones rely on oxygen, and produce water as a byproduct. This means they don't work at apogee, and flood the payload with water and heat during re-entry.), and external batteries for all electronics. Extreme cold and lithium ion batteries do not get along. I have observed up to a 50% drop in capacity at -40C (Easily reached at altitude.) when testing a camera in a cold chamber.
4) I STRONGLY recommend procuring a gas regulator and building a dedicated balloon filler for future launches. The filler can be made for under $20 out of common PVC parts found at any hardware store, and the regulator found at most welding suppliers. Filling directly from the tank introduces a large risk of contaminating the balloon fill neck, or bursting the fill neck entirely.
5) Regarding payload spin: There are many strategies, with varying degrees of success. The strategy in section 3 of this paper seems to work well: via library depaul edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1037&context=ahac (Link intentionally broken because youtube's comment section is rubbish)
Although I am not an expert on this subject, I hope that this helps.
Totally spitballing here but maybe it would be easier to process the spinning footage into a 360 video and then stabilize the virtual perspective?
Electrical heating is good too because it means that it can be regulated too! while your in the atmosphere the heating is fine but once you get into more vacuum like conditions the insulation becomes your worst enemy because the only way to shed heat is via radiation rather than convection (or so I have read)
snigwithasword that's actually a good idea. But throw on a few more cameras, and make a full 360 camera at all times. That'd be interesting
Maybe not gopro next time. They apparently still have issues with batteries or something draining them. I think I've only had one that wasn't bad with battery and that was my first one, so an old model.
William Wakely You can post the link without breaking it. I always hear people saying that you can't post links, or they will get removed, or... whatever. I've never had a problem posting links. Everytime I reply to a comment, my link is still there. They don't even take down Emma's "I masturbate my put$$y on the canal," links. (I'm sure you've seen them. I still don't get what "on the canal" means. Birth canal? A waterway canal? ) Maybe if you post a link for something bad, it might get taken down. Or if people report it.
Guy: Let’s launch a weather balloon for data and science.
Cody: Let’s put some blueberries in that.
XD
@@BLAndrew575- XD rawr
You're in Utah, every balloon is high altitude.
lol
Does that mean you can see the curve from ground level? 😝
erikz1337 no.
The Terrible Animator woosh
🍔
(I'm toasting to you with a cheeseburger)
Cody you should contact your local weather forecast office and do a coordinated effort with them. I work for the National Weather Service in Glasgow Montana. We launch balloons twice a day every day. Looks like your balloon was very underinflated. Also you do not need a balloon that large. We use 600 gram balloons and regularly reach altitudes of 120,000 feet occasionally higher.
Cool! Nice of you to share your experience! I hope I hope he calls your office or something next time :)
Senconded. i used to do the launches at Grand junction. Had over 600 before I moved to my office that doesn't do upper air any more.
Your town should twin with the original city of Glasgow here in Scotland
well the issue is the balloon popped too late so it traveled so far
@@Michursky it was a floating balloon. They didn't use enough gas so the balloon settled at its neutral altitude until it seal failed. Gotta use more gas to get it to burst instead of float
- Did you say "launch box" or "lunch box"?
- Yes
Laughed at this part too.
"Oh did you bring your Magic-Flight Launch Box?"
GoPros ternd to run quite hot. I guess your thermal insulation simply caused it to overheat and shut down.
battery could be stuff , if you don't discharge them every now and then ,they don't hold so much charge after year or so
Not hot enough to kill it in less than 5min...
Remember it's wrapped in insulation and toe warmers, which makes it much hotter.
I think Cody's right, when recording video it's going to use more energy than a cheap battery pack can supply. Ac to USB plug packs have to provide at least 1 and a half amps constantly at 5v when recording video on a phone to not send the phone battery backwards, that pack probably can't do that and if the GoPro is already dead then it'll shut off quickly.
It would be simple enough to log the power consumption while recording and extrapolate out how much battery you'd need to stay recording for x amount of time. You would need an external power supply capable of outputting enough current though.
The spinning is kind of peaceful
Practical Engineering i know you.
+Cody'sLab How did you decide what size parachute to use?
I would be interested in what you do to reduce the spinning. Some folks in my local ham club are looking at building a reaction wheel to stabilize our balloons.
+David Schadlich Wouldn't a bearing/gimbal and some wind vanes help? I presume the spinning was from the cordage twisting/untwisting. I guess that was the downside of using so much length between the balloon and cargo.
David Schadlich ham club? Ham sandwich club?
Cool project! I did a number of launches like this ~10 years ago with some friends, we had about a 75% failure rate. You just have to stick with it until you get lucky or get really good on your logistics planning and testing. IIRC lithium primary cells work in colder weather than LiPOs (maybe that's changed since).
Lately people have been doing really small cigarette pack sized payloads on mylar party balloons and a few of them have managed to stay up for weeks and circumnavigate multiple times!
Now waiting for "My first atomic bomb"
he will make the thought to be possible tsar bomb the 100 megaton bomb
well tsar was made but
it is 50 megaton but was able to be a 100 megaton
He'll make a ten microton cold fusion bomb and use it to make a popping sound.
Resow First privately owned nuclear reactor.
I'm shocked you put everything in the lunchbox, activated the heaters, sealed it up, AND left it in the sun. All BEFORE you were even ready to go. That's why I think the camera shut off, it got too hot, the gopro session gets pretty hot by it's self when it's recording
Well it does get pretty cold up there ,and it was a learning experiment.
As First Last said, it gets cold up there. But not just pretty cold, it gets REALLY cold. Yes, it's a strange "cold", but a lot of instruments will still be busted without proper heating.
I knew it!!! The camera went off because Cody didn't want us to find out that the earth is ACTUALLY flat!!! HAHA!
jk...
Actually it's the government. Every camera has a backdoor in it and the government will go in and disable it if it can prove that the Earth is flat. (I say that as a joke but I could see flat earthers think that lol)
Bro, we can’t trust the government. Once i found a microphone in my dog and it said “Made in the white house” on the side.
If flat.. cody just has yet to accept it. His own vid debunked rockets in space..
I had a suspicion that there was a mic in him, so i cut him open. RIP REX
Here come the men in black
Hey Cody! One small step for Cody. One giant leap for Mankind! Ride ride ride!
What if you fill it with sulfur hexafluoride and make your first low altitude balloon?
That would be cool, I don't think even NASA has footage of the bottom of the earth. Some say it's cone shaped but some say it's actually four pillars. Would be cool to actually get footage from it and find out. You'd have to launch it from Antarctica.
MAKE MORE VIDEOS
You need to make more videos sir, get off of Codys Lab and make me edutainment, damnit.
with that we all see the under of the flat earth :)
also Cody needs to see your Sulfur Arsenide intro video!
(did I write that correctly? not a chemist)
We got rid of the spin with a fishing swivel and an air fin, wasn't perfect but better.
Thats clever, cheap, codylike.
@@FirstLast-fr4hb all hail Cody
You should try again
Yeah, you can't let the flat-earther's win. They'll say NASA sent EMP waves to your gopro to shut it down. 😂
Brian P its quite interesting to hear some of the crap that their brains can formulate as it makes for sone annoying but funny entertainment.
If only people could just enjoy wholesome content without any negative remarks about others, that would be really great. I'd much rather be around ignorant flat-earthers than rude people.
You're right, we should be nicer to the people who deny science and claim it's a massive cover-up sowing disdain for NASA and other science organizations. Which could lead to funding cuts. Hey, at least we have wholesome content and comments though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@altrogeruvah - oh, you're heading down a dangerous road. Learn to cope with the rude and inconsiderate people because sometimes they have A LOT to offer once they calm down. If you'd rather hang with those folks, I'm afraid it might already be too late. I see their ranks going +1.
Not charging the camera is so Cody's lab.
Yup, as interesting as his ideas are on paper, he is terrible at execution on most of his videos.
Didn't he say he charged it all morning? Not saying thats enough time... but he still tried
Cody- make sure you space the rings out. Otherwise, you'll only be a captain instead of an admral, and everyone knows that Captain is the cooler rank in Starfleet! :)
Congratulations on a successful failure! You're now better prepared for your next launch. :D I appreciate your transparency regarding failed projects or failed steps in a process. I learn a lot from observing your failures as well as your successes. Thanks for posting the duds, it just makes the hits all the sweeter!
Suggestions for the next "launch box":
- recording barometer
- stabilizer fins to dampen rotation
- external thermometer
- atmospheric sample canister
Cheers. Keep up the good work!
Imagine it landing in Area 51.
For the camera a solution would be to directly use a bunch of 18650 cells in // connected in // with the internal battery (kept in case the camera has some kind of detection that you use the right kind of battery).
Of course before connecting then in // make sure they have the exact same voltage to prevent high current flow between cells. Internal batteries are good for 1h of video and each 18650 should add 1h30 more (rough estimate)
A solution to control the quatity of helium would be to use a weight scale with decent precision. Put a few kilograms on it using a single oblect that has a hook. Use tare function then add the load (lunch box). Then attach the balloon to the hook and add helium until you reach zero. Add a little more to be at -10% of the lunchbox weight. Detach from hook and let it go.
The -10% is to stay up as long as possible. Go -20% or more to go up faster and pop sooner.
A video on Home made liquid nitrogen generator would be awesome for cryo/cold temperature lovers.
Dollar Projects
I have a couple videos on the subject in the works, I still need to liquify hydrogen.
You can use my project as base for liquifier. :)
Grant Thompson has a video showing how to make one. It was probably the last good video he made.
John E. Grant thompson just used a ready made stuff. He just assembled it, not made it. That too was very poor/slow at making liquid nitrogen and was very expensive which made it impossible for everyone to get it.
A complete homemade machine under $500 would be perfect. Something like a joule thompsons expansion which is quite easy and cheap to make. Another thing that can be done is to make a 4 stage cascade refrigeration system. First stage using propane as refrigerant which will cool and condense second stage refrigerant (Ethylene) under pressure. This will take us down to -103*C. Now we can use this second stage cooling power to condense methane under pressure to get us down to -162*C.
After this everything becomes easy. Just need to pass compressed nitrogen under 14 bar pressure through heat exchanger cooled by third stage and we will get liquid nitrogen out of it.
ZockerTwins that's my dream :D
Very fun to watch. This has been on my list of things to do for a long time. Next time you do one I can help you out with the electronics. We can put several environmental sensors in there (barometric pressure sensor to record altitude) and log everything to an SD card.
Why didn't you use your drone to get an eye on the balloon's landing location? Obviously just looking for it works fine, but it would've been a good excuse to use it!
LazerLord10 it was probably because it wasn’t his land
Because it was hundreds of miles away?
@LaserLord,, Drones can only fly for about 20 minutes on a charge. That balloon was up for about 24 hours, went 10 x's higher than the drone could ever and traveled way further over land than the drone could have ever traveled on a charge. For tracking, the drone was pretty much useless.
@@rickdees251 He didn't mean following the balloon all the way, though if that was possible that'd be really cool. I'm pretty sure he meant that as they got to the general area, they just get out and launch the drone to look for it
Cody, I’ve been watching your videos for probably about a year and a half now, maybe less but I’ve realized that you are usually really thorough with your experiments, and you also have a lot of the same hobbies I would like to at least try such as mining, beekeeping, the hydroponic garden you had (either indoor one or smaller version of the outdoor one) and actually plan on getting into chemistry soon if things go according to plan. I find your videos are entertaining and are good at explaining things, while at the same time being simple enough for most people to understand even with no background in formal learning for chemistry or anything. You are one of my favorite content creators and I love your work. I thought you’d like some feedback from a viewer that’s seen a decent bit of your content although nowhere near all of it. Thanks for the knowledge and the entertainment
Awwww such a shame you didn't get all the data and video. Ah well. We're just going to have to wait till you try again. Very interesting video anyway.
veteran weather ballooner here. Failures are VERY common in ballooning. You could think of it like super cheap rocketry, in that it's surprisingly complex and lots of tiny details can cause huge failure conditions. The skies are more violent and unforgiving than we realize.
Shartnita, Do you have to get FAA clearance before launching? or will any open empty space work?
I'm not quite sure if I'm interpreting the question correctly. It sounds like you're asking just about regulation. Its hard to say because I'm in AZ and this is Utah, and I'm an engineer type pokemon, not a legal type pokemon, so I'm not sure how stuff works in Utah precicely. But for us, we have to put reflectors on the balloon for visibility, we have to register our specific flight with our identity for a specific time and location with the FAA. So its like reservation of airspace. My understanding is that the FAA can use this data to hand off the airplane control towers so they can route planes around the reserved area rather than possibly fly passenger airplanes through a payload of unknown material. They also want to know stuff like what the device actually is, only to the point of categorization though. Drone air regulations work differently from weather balloon regulations as well as are different from planes.
If my memory serves, the cutoff is altitude. There's a certain altitude, at least in AZ, where above this level you need to register with the FAA that you're flying, what is being flown, where the launch location is, and launch time. This is actually important, because that means we have a launch window, and if we have bad weather, we can miss our launch window and have to reschedule for later.
shartnita zodkeesian that's exactly what I wanted to know, thanks!
Did it in high school and somehow it worked the first time.
Well that was a bit of a letdown. As for spinning you could use a ball bearing swivel on the lead with a styrofoam cross like arrow fletchings. or better yet you could use a crossbar attached to the balloon and use 2 leads to connect the load, that should provide a much slower rotation rate. Camera power could be a 15000mah or larger lipo USB power pack. It should run 2 cameras for quite a long time 1 horizontal and 1 looking down. Try using 2 balloons and fill them with less to get even higher! Don't forget the altimeter and an onboard GPS data logger. A bit of math should allow you to timelapse the shots and get the full rise and decent. If you really want some data throw in a raspberry pi with a full array of sensors. They are a good cheap data logger and allow for a vast array of sensors. Done correctly this could be a wealth of channel material! But what do I know.....JMHO
-40C temperatures and Lithium (polymer and/or ion) batteries don't get along very well...
You could add a couple of super bright LED spotlights shining at the ground call the next video how to build your own UFO 101. LOL
Cody, you're the best. For the spinning I would put a low friction SWIVEL and a FIN like in a WEATHER VANE and keep the camera a lot more stable. You just have to put the camera where you want it corresponding to the expected wind direction at the desired altitude. Good luck. I'm 54 years old and I want to be like you when I grow up. Thanks for all those videos.
maybe a fishing swivel will help stop the spinning a bit.
Ping - yup, I’ve no idea why none of them use them.
I tried that for our first couple of launches. It actually made the spinning worse, as now the payload could catch the wind and spin freely, instead of winding up the string.
Cody! We need some more exciting videos from you! Can you do like "Cody folds laundry"? or maybe "Sorting 1000 mismatched socks"? :P
if you sweat in a sweater, aren't *YOU* the sweater?
'To become the sweater, one must wear the sweater.'
That would make you (the sweater) and the sweater wetter...
🎵The best time to wear a striped sweater... is all the tiiime🎵
Nah you’re just the sweaty
Naw he's homestar runner
The continuous spinning in one direction implies more than some twist prior to launching. The balloon is rotating. Wind veins will help, but it might be better to attach several smaller, pneumatically interconnected balloons, like an inverted tripod to produce a system much less aerodynamically able to spin.
Launching a model rocket from a high altitude balloon
and where would the launch pad be ?????
launchpad? Where we’re going we don’t need launchpads
I love how sentimental this video was, in addition to the neat project feel and the science done! Made the video something only Cody could have done, which I like a lot.
“Footage for the first time ever, ‘Earth spins beneath atmosphere’...”
Have to love Cody's videos and this one qualifies as the least preparated launch of the history. Not only wasn't the payload ready, it's been more or less improvised and then even the camera was not charged. Some radio ham friends launched one a pair of years ago and preparation took them weeks. I think the outcome it's pretty good for the effort applied.
I can't believe that you didn't prepare the payload before you got out in the field.
Putting a second camera looking up at the balloon makes an interesting shot. The balloon burst is spectacular.
David Messer his usual style is no preparation and doing everything with his left hand while holding a cellphone in his right hand that records it all.
Everything he does is jerry rigged together, and on the fly. An experiment to see what happens and how it goes.
"Alright, I am going to tie... A noose! [chuckle]"
having the camera charging while in with those heaters was a recipe for disaster. probably overheated
It didnt reach cooler altitudes fast enough
yeah because it was sat around on the ground for like an hour it looks like XD
Why are you preparing your payload at the Launchsite? We allways built the payload indoors a couple of days before the launch. it takes a littlebit of stress out of the launch. Also, we use a Water bottle as a Weight to measuere when the balloon has the right amount of Lift while filling. There is a linear relationship between the lift over the weight of the payload and the rise rate of the ballon, so you can calculate the lfit you need for the specific rise rate you want. Also, we allways do a "full up test" on the payload (have it run for the predicted time of the flight) before we actually launch it to see if it at least works at ground level.
It wasnt meant to be a super serious experiment.
- "How high do you think it'll get?"
- "Probably like a 120.000."
I'm confused, that would be 120 km? I don't think you can get into space using a baloon ... 🤔
They're using feet. 120,000 feet (22.7 miles) is about 36km.
of course, thanks 🙈
In helicopter rescue we used a load bearing swivel very much like a fishing swivel to reduce or completely eliminate load spin. I would think it would help in an overall plan to stabilize the load.
As Cody goes chasing the shadow
That's where shadow people come from. ;-P
We also had one started in bavaria. It flew 36.000 meters high and landed in austria. We had put a mirror in front of the camera so you can see how much the ballon gets bigger, but the camera (GoPro) went off after 1 hour... Still exciting.
If you isolate the powerbank too much it gets too hot but if you isolate it lesser or not, it will probably go off. You gotta find the middle.
I was shocked to hear Elko, lol I grew up there! It will always be my "home"
He launched it from where I live
It's a shit hole, and I can say that because I'm here.
@@adamfoster6278 was back a couple years ago, a lot of things have changed lol
Pack the hand warmers into the camera compartment just before launch. Attach a rudder. Use more helium. Add two more cameras. First launch was a success. You learned a lot. I bet more lift equals a shorter flight too. Gets you to max altitude faster. Good vid. Going to go search for flight attempt number two.
- Let's launch a weather balloon with a camera! :D
- Ok, did you charged the cam?
- Nope, but let's go! :D
- Sure, but what about the power bank?
- Who cares? Let's do it anyway dude! :D
Codys lab in a nutshell. "Lets try this and see what happens!"
A good landing site. I have been part of such an event myself and a pine forest is worse to chase the equipment in. My experience is that batteries are a headache - and wire the batteries directly to the equipment and insulate them well since it can be pretty cold up there - cold enough to make the batteries freeze.
Why did you activate the warmer packs before you were ready? Doesn't seem like your typical level of planning and preparation. Also, wonder if perhaps the GoPro and/or battery pack overheated and shutdown. Yes, you had an issue with the battery early on, but if you were charging it at all, it should have lasted longer. Bet you cooked it. Activate the packs right before launch, will help avoid that.
When you try again, wonder how you could design the package to reduce the spinning? Perhaps a balsa wood frame with a lightweight skin (plastic wrap/mylar) as a fin(s) to slow the rotation?
Blair Cox what, the 15 minutes early that he opened the hand warmers? That's inconsequential. It's actually good that they did because they found out that they get to hot to keep them in direct contact with the electronics, like they originally had them.
Hand warmers last hours. Like not just 1 or 2 but 6+ hours.
Cody is right. It looked like a cheap 1A out usb battery pack. It will be unable to sustain the camera during the lift due to discharge being higher than the supplied current.
M3ta7h3ad being aware the warmers last hours - I would actually be more concerned activating them too early and having the insulated lunch bag sit on the ground too long. Check the cut-off temperature for a GoPro, it is very possible that the two hot packs causes the internal temperature of the enclosure to rise to the point that the high temp safety shutoff engaged.
Greetings Cody,
I really enjoyed this video. Good science reports everything. You're probably aware that Nuts and Volts magazine has been running a series of near space articles involving launching various science related missions with balloons. I like how you launched the Geiger counter. A few years ago I had radioactive seeds planted in my prostate. Pretty crappy seeds as all they did was to impede growth and In fact contributed to the demise of my prostate. But I was curious so I read a couple good books about radiation and then built a few Geiger counters. The final one uses an expensive tube that detects alpha radiation as well as beta and gamma radiation. For a month I exceeded safe radiation levels for anybody in very close proximity. This meant no cats or wife sitting on my lap for a while. Please keep posting your videos, they are quite entertaining.
Cheers,
Eric
Like they say Cody. If first you don't succeed, screw it.
Just leave for someone else to find...now, it'll be their problem
I'll bet the hole in the balloon is too big for that...
Very Cool, I love balloons, shame the GoPro crapped out...
Why not hydrogen vs. helium for the balloon? It lifts better and is about 1/3 the cost if you buy it, but you can generate it yourself also.
Hydrogens got a nasty habit of leaking uncontrollably from just about everything. It might not make it to popping altitude considering how thin the latex is.
So does Helium.
Nerdy, Retro, Gaming - Burning seems irrelevant to me with that cheap payload.
Mini GP Racing
Yes but helium molecules are still larger than hydrogen molecules.
eddiesadat isn't the Van der Waals radius of helium smaller than hydrogen? if you look at a periodic table with Van der Waals radii it gets smaller when moving right, right? Unless you are talking about atomic radii
Exciting experiment :) We made a low cost small balloon flight. I noticed that the camera recorded in higher altitude more louder sounds, like dog barking, motorbike sounds, which are more blocked/absorbed on terrain level by the surface obstacles.
LegjobbNap interesting
Tonight : "UFO SITGHTINGS IN NEVADA"
Hey Cody!
As part of my undergraduate study, we flew some weather balloons with Geiger counters. Your explanation about the radiation levels at altitude is incorrect.
The fall-off we see after the fist maxima in the counts per second (CPS) is a result of the composition of the atmosphere at that altitude. The higher CPS at the beginning are a result of low energy secondary radiation from high energy particles interacting with the atmosphere. Think of secondary radiation as a glass ball being thrown at a really strong pinhead. The glass ball (high energy radiation) will shatter, sending little pieces (secondary radiation) in the direction of travel of the original glass ball.
The CPS falls off after the first maxima because the atmospheric composition/density decreases the likelihood for high energy particle interaction (thus decreasing low energy particle events). The amount of high energy particles interacting with the atmosphere is more or less constant, so we see less CPS after 20-23Km ish because we’re not detecting all the little bits of shattered glass anymore, just the big glass ball.
Once the payload starts descending, you’ll see the same CPS maxima at around the same altitude of the first. The CPS is almost completely independent of the position of the sun relative to earth.
Our flight lasted 3 hours from release to touchdown.
We flew an altimeter, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, 3 Geiger counters with different tubes, and a GPS.
We flew about 20 times! Through thunderstorms, at night, during the summer and winter.
I recently found in the garden a radio Sonde from a balloon.
Use multi braid or mono filament for the tether lines, should alleviate a lot of the spin (double them up as well). A large lightweight foam board as a damper will also help.
Pleas do this again
Suggestion... *A light weight fin and and/or a small wind sock of some sort to stabilize the camera housing*. Love the concept of putting test materials in the "launch" bag too. Desiccating the leaf was brilliant, and some of the blueberries did what I hoped they would while trying to out gas.
PS... You could proof of concept with a kite.
New challenge! Watch the end of this video on VR while spinning in a chair going to your right...
Excellent Cody very very excellent...!
I would put in 2 battery-powered gyroscopes. This will prevent the rotation or at least greatly reduce it. It's fun to see someone as brilliant as you learning something new. On the other side of the fence, it could have landed an Area 51. So it was extremely successful and it was great seeing you do something new. Thank you so much for sharing because we get to share adventures with you. Thank you and God bless you Cody..!
Wow. 120,000 feet for a larger balloon. Get sucked into the engine of a Jumbo Jet passing through 35,000 - 45,000 feet. Great video!
electronicsNmore those engines can digest a 2x6 safely, and birds daily... im sure itll handle some latex and plastic if it was ever to happen.
electronicsNmore As I understand it they register the balloon with the FAA so that they can alert planes to its presence.
Just add a "radar reflector" made of 3 sheets of aluminium.
Not entirely true. Many planes in the past have had engines blown ingesting one ore 2 large birds. A 2x6 would certainly destroy the fan disk. The disk would become completely unbalanced spinning at thousands of RPM's resulting in disintegration of the engine.
True, the FAA is usually contacted, but the path of the balloon was way off the predicted track.
The spinning image would have been working the GoPro processor to 100% having to re write every pixel continually, that probably killed it by self protecting with a thermal shutdown, and also it would be drawing max current from the battery. Also, a good trick when sealing up the balloon is to do the first zip tie then squirt in some dishwashing liquid, then do a second and third zip tie below that. The liquid creates an impermeable seal to helium. Anyway, great work despite the technical problems.
Nobody likes people who comment "First"
I did it once. Biggest regret of my life man
I bet their girlfriends hate that too, when they announce they came first.
foot warmer is designed to be in shoe..less air so it got hot faster. For the spinning put something like a planes tail. Great experiment
Everyone has their first high altitude balloon
Frasier Canine was the first time I seen you. Just subscribed. Reading the comments subscribers are a special bunch. Thought someone would of suggested it. Thinking maybe put a wind/tail fin on lunch box for stability. Much like a weather vane. Pool noodle may work but probably need fins, but I’m sure your all over it. I enjoy your vids. Peace
what kind of rope did you use?
if you used a piece of that crappie twisted stuff that's probably the source of most of the spinning.
That white twine he had could have done it. I thought of that right away.
I'm so dizzy my head is spinning, like a whirlpool that's never ending.
Is that a Steven Universe shirt?
kevin2themax me
kevin2themax we
ikr
I thought Mr. Universe was named Greg
It's carl's jr.
Keep trying, there’s so many valuable lessons here. I’ve made many attempts before succeeding, no shame in trying.... only in giving up early!
May I suggest 2 cameras, side and bottom views, possibly also a smart phone as well. Good luck !
Someone might think that's a UFO.
If you can't identify it, it IS a UFO! The U in UFO stands for unidentified. UFOs are actually quite boring. 💙💚💛💜
John Smith I actually have seen more ufo than I can remember.
But I don't think any of them where from an intelligent extraterrestrial life. ( some where probably extraerial in origin though )
I actually did something similar for a college course. Everyone was put into teams, and all did an experiment of their choice in near space altitudes. I pretty much just built the box, added and programmed several sensors. (The actual experiment was involving microbiology, didn't touch any of that.)
couldn't the payload container have been built and prepared prior to taking it to the launch point ????
too much work :)
Where’s the fun in that?
The spinning is due to the cord unwinding. Suggest using a braided cord. Excellent watch. Thanks.
why do they have to wear gloves ?
the salt in your hand will pop the baloon when it's inflated.
that baloon is damn skinny.
Probably the same reason you don't touch the quartz envelope on certain light bulbs without gloves
fss1704 why don’t they just make it stronger ballon?
The oils on your skin compromise the balloon because it's so thin and latex is soluble in oil. Also why it says on latex condom packages not to use Vaseline or oil based lubricants.
The spinning is counterproductive to lift, slightly. Very cool video! Cannot wait for the next installment of "Cody With Altitude".
why are your videos always overexposed?
It's not overexposed. It really is that bright out there. Actually, the video doesn't adequately capture how bright it is out there in the desert.
looked perfectly normal to me
If you try this again, consider putting a device in it to track the GPS location. You know you really want to know how far it drifts and what kind of dance it does while up there. Something with a barometric altimeter and logging capabilities would be ideal. You could probably find a somewhat cheap used cell phone to do both of these functions.
To prevent the spinning, couldn't you put a long thin stick with fins on it (think of a weather vane) and attach the payload to the unpredictable flexible bits with a swivel? If the fins are large enough and wind more than a couple mph, it should only change direction when the wind changes or dies off. A carbon fiber rod that is a couple mm thick and 2-3 feet long and duct tape for fins should work and wouldn't be likely to hurt anyone.
What precautions did you take to make sure the balloon would not interfere with air traffic?
Plane radar can pick them up.
David - I am a pilot. All my life. We have no radar onboard civilian aircraft that could detect these. ATC radar MIGHT pick them up, but without prior coordination the air traffic controllers would not be able to identify or provide separation from these. For all they know it might be a flock of birds. ATC does not warn aircraft of flocks of birds at any kind of altitude (maybe right at the airport surface if visual.) So I can tell you, without prior coordination or permission, there would be no way I can think of (after 25 years of my flying career) that we would be protected from this. But I am not denigrating Cody for flying it, just checking if he took precautions and/or reminding him to do so next time...
I'm sure this has been mentioned before but I think the reason the camera twirls is due in part by the string unwinding under the weight of the camera bag. Also the bag has flat surfaces and sharp corners to catch air. Thanks for attempting this. If you have the $$ think about building your own gyro image stabilizer.
Another video! Yayyy!
Cody, I am such a fan of what you do and I stand in awe of your Renaissance intellect
cool effort ......but you knew the cam/battery/adaptor/jacks were F'd. Why risk using it after all that ? you coulda got a cheap-o(back-up/replacement) for less than that gas $ ..... you don't really need a good/time lapse cam, even any phone probably would have lasted till altitude especially with a back-up pack............you gotta redo this. But do try to fix the spinning issue next time......Live & learn.
I very highly doubt a mobile phone would survive anywhere near the -40C temperatures that can easily be achieved at altitude. Lithium-ion and Lithium-polymer batteries really don't like temperatures less than about 10C.
thats true....just say'n even a phone would get you nearly there & perhaps to altitude+ with back-up(batteries of your choosing) kinda meant a custom/modified(external) more then a back-up/booster.....though I bet even a regular good capacity Lithium booster would just about make it. Plus of course you would insulate it well & the heat the phone generates would help some perhaps more so if you left the screen on(though wasteful) & it would most surely make it if you diverted some of the battery towards heating. (though thats not what I said in my op).....I'd bet $50 on the well insulated phone with booster just making it. & its sure worth a try before spending hundreds or thousands imo. EDIT btw you're right about lithium batts & low temps which I was aware of.... I guess it would be worth looking a some charts 1st before lay'n down my $50 lol....that is Do they output 0 at -40 or just much less current etc & is the phones heat significant even if perfectly insulated etc.
If you want some good data logging stuff, which I've seen a couple tweets of people having used, use a Raspberry Pi with the 'SenseHat' addon. Not only do you have, if you use a 32GB MicroSD card, about 30 GB's worth of storage for various data, the SenseHat takes in a bunch of different data, such as temperature, humidity and pressure (and some others which I forget). You can also get a Camera addon for the RPi, which you can use as a makeshift timelapse camera, allowing you to send it all up as one thing, rather than have 3 or 4 different things inside your 'launch box'.
The Raspberry Pi Twitter often retweets projects people have worked on that use a Raspberry Pi as the main thing that gets them all of their info, including some people who have used it for purposes similar to what you tried to do.
Cody your hair style has gone nerd factor 11. Go short back and sides for more social camouflage.
Spinning shouldn’t be an issue after a while, you can hold the string on the ground to try and get rid of most of the wind within the string. You can also try using a different type of string or cord.
Test the entire thing on the ground for 48 hours.
Use a gopro 6 with a 264gb card at 1080p24 and get a large external battery that automatically starts charging when a USB is plugged in. The piggyback battery will be needed if you want more than an hour of footage. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have two cameras plus a 4K time-lapse camera. Have the gopro split the footage into 15 minute clips.
I can't believe you only had 1 camera, 1.5 million subs and 1 camera, I would have thought you of all people you would have thought this through better. Should have had atleast 4 cameras. I'm so disappointed. PS don't take me too seriously 😀.
More mass = more money spent on helium.
They already bought the helium. More subscribers = more cash
Dubsy Dubs He doesn't do this for money. This was to gain data for his own use
I take it you didn't read all of my comment.
more weight means more helium which means it will pop at lower altitude, so for the best possible results you want it as light as you can make it. Just my thoughts..
Toe warmers are meant to be inside a winter boot, so limited oxygen flow and correspondingly slowed burn rate. In open air they'll burn faster. Hand warmers by contrast should burn at a more appropriate speed in open air.
Hey Cody, as an idea I'd love to see you try to cool a computer with liquid mercury, comparing it to regular conventional coolant in a water cooling loop :D
humm.... and you'll make the blocks from wich material..... you can't use aluminium nor copper, and the mercury can't get in touch directly with the chip. My challenge is to make a cooling system out of a freezer.... damn that should be interesting and relatively cheap.
make a r232a cooling system, at least that have the chance to cool your processor below ambient temperature without too much toxic shit.
The pump and probably tubes would have to be much stronger though and shouldn't form an amalgam with the passing mercury. The entire computer in a tub of mercury would be quite nice of a way to cool it, but sadly everything would be shorted that way. Also the specific heat capacity of mercury is 140J/kg, much less than the 4182J/kg and per volume mercury is still inferior at 1900J/L and water at 4200J/L (density 13.5 and 1 kg/L).
Oh heck I don't care about any of those types of details, even if it just ran for a few hours before everything corroded. I just know they make liquid metal thermal paste from gallium now and it works amazingly well. Liquid metal transfers heat better than regular paste or regular coolant so I thought it would be interesting since Cody is about he only content creator I've seen that has enough mercury on hand to even attempt it.
The freezer PC build has been attempted before, usually results in the same ending, the freezer motor burns out just like had you left the door open on it.
- Start a stratospheric balloon
- Put in a camera with dead battery
Logic.
As is often the case with Cody, a great idea marred by poor production control. You need to hire a production manager, who would have known to charge the camera and have a backup camera for contingencies. Instead what we get is shaky handheld videos shot on cellphones.
You have 3k supporters on Patreon and revenue from RUclips ads, so I find it difficult to imagine that you can't afford to hire a part time production manager and a part time editor. Look at Strange Parts, for example. His storytelling skills have dramatically improved over time, and so has the production value. This while his subscriber count is half of Cody's.
Google Minus this video was so frustrating to watch. It was just total chaos with no plan. Nothing was accomplished.
The Serious Account yeah I agree. I don't mind "failed" experiments-I enjoy the fact that this channel is all about trying out ideas and every attempt presents an opportunity to learn.
Still, a video has its own technique and quality: there are such things as good and bad videos, which is a matter determined by a combination of technical skills, creative inspiration, equipment, etc.
I'm a bit confused as to why, after all these years, Cody's videos still lack the basic things needed in a decent video such as clear editing, decent shots (get a steadicam! They're not that expensive; it's tiresome to see poor video quality), and equipment that doesn't fail due to carelessness.
I appreciate that some of the equipment Cody buys is probably insanely expensive (x-ray gun?) but a decent rig for shooting his videos ought to be a priority also. Not everything has to be shot on cellphones and not all chemical experiments have to be conducted using whatever old jar caps that he happens to have lying around.
We dont need a production manager that cant see past the basics and thinkof things like over heating, pressure, and all the stuff the actual scientists look at :P
Though this clearly wasnt meant to be a serious experiment. Nothing was pre tested, and he just kind of threw some random stuff in to see what happens.
Put a fishing swivel in the string to help with the spinning. It won't eliminate the spinning, but it will help reduce it.
Would have Hydrogen been too expensive?
Do you want another Hindenburg?
Smaller molecules leak out more quickly
I was wondering why they didnt use hydrogen, I didnt think of the leaking factor.
Its cheaper isnt it? not to mention lighter.
Can't wait to see your next balloon!!!
Suggestion: put some kind of sail, fin or just a long strip of on cloth on the "payload", maybe behind the camera; it will help to stabilize the image avoiding payload spining.
I love that Steven Universe star tshirt, definitely aiming for the stars
Try using 4 balloons on a square PVC setup. Place one on each end of the square PVC setup and in the middle attach the go pro with your equipment. This will greatly reduce the spinning effect and give you more stability in your video. Good luck!
yeah that's cool and all, but have you sent garlic bread to space?
bearlyrandom I got the reference 😉
Glad someone did
Here's hoping you do it again soon, and everything goes right! Still a neat first attempt in that you learned something.
Suggestions:
1. Do two cameras, one facing out to the side like this one was, and one facing down. It'll give you a. redundancy for reliablility, but also b. 2 different views.
2. Maybe find a non-fisheye lens camera. Everyone seems to do these with fisheye lenses that distort the view, which kind of defeats the purpose of getting pictures of the curvature of the earth. With a fisheye I can get "curvature" images from my front porch haha
Hope to see a part 2 of this soon, especially since you've got some helium left!