PICAXE in Space

Paix

Senior Member
Not sure either, but a butane torch, silver based solder and a separate flux might well do the job. the elements being supported, in use, on the arms of a short cruciform as the heat is likely to affect the temper of the carbon steel tape measure at the joint. It's unlikely to happen this side of Christmas though . . .

Thanks also Manuka, didn't know about the citric acid as a flux, but have a bag of it, no peeling needed . . . Can't help but play with cut ends of tape measures whilst talking on the radio to look down to a hand full of blood . . . well, almost a hand full.
= = =
The $50sat launch is almost imminent.
 
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Hemi345

Senior Member
I probably missed mention if it, but are you going to be tracking how the solar cells work out? I'm curious how much more efficient they'll be without all the atmosphere dimming the light!

I guess they won't be more efficient, you'll just get peak power more often. And i see on page 3 that you'll be transmitting the solar volts and battery volts.
 
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srnet

Senior Member
The solar panels should produce around 30% more in space than they would under best conditions on Earth.

Knowing how well the solar panels are working is probably the most critical aspect of the mission, there is not a lot of space on a 50mm cube for panels and to do anything useful you need enough power to run a transmitter. The solar panel voltage and current are sent out in a data payload (which might be too weak to receive) and as FSK RTTY, which we should definitely receive.

However by recording the audio ident beacon (slow FM Morse) you can work out from the tone frequency what the battery voltage is, and the Morse rate will tell you what the solar cell voltage is.
 

srnet

Senior Member
$50SAT was designed from the start based on external dimensions of a 50mm cube, so the PCBs were fixed at 40mm square to allow for room for chassis and wiring.

The picture is of the insides of the Engineering Model under construction, it will be tidied up in flight model.

Radio and processor board (RFM22B & 40X2) on top, solar panel maximum power point tracker in the middle, battery on the bottom.

Lots of space inside ...............
 

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Dippy

Moderator
Good luck with that.
Are you getting any TV time on progs like Sky At Night?
Contact them, they'd like it.
 

Paix

Senior Member
Do I understand it correctly, that Eagle-2 is a payload of UniSat-5 and that Eagle-2 may be quiesced until released from UniSat-5 in January 2014?

A very worrying time for the Eagle-2 team, but a great New Year gift for the Amateur Radio Satellite community.

Nader Omer ST2NH has produced the graphic above which shows satellites to be deployed. It is thought UNiSat-5 may not deploy its satellites until January (2014).
 

srnet

Senior Member
Do I understand it correctly, that Eagle-2 is a payload of UniSat-5 and that Eagle-2 may be quiesced until released from UniSat-5 in January 2014?

A very worrying time for the Eagle-2 team, but a great New Year gift for the Amateur Radio Satellite community.
I believe that was the original plan, but I did ask Prof Twiggs about this a couple of weeks back (we have regular web conferences on a Thursday evening) and the update from the University of Rome had been that Unisat5 would be deploying its Satellites almost immediately.

But then one thing you soon learn about the satellite business, is that plans are very flexible

I am just about ready, I shall be finished my 30W UHF amplifier tomorrow, I hope. Its needed to boost the signal from the RFM22 on the ground for the command uplink;

http://www.minikits.com.au/electronic-kits/rf-amplifiers/rf-high-power/RA-UHF-Amplifier

And the filter of course;

http://www.minikits.com.au/electronic-kits/filter-kits/uhf-lowpass-filters
 

srnet

Senior Member
Some time last Friday, we think in the afternoon, $50SAT detected its first Single Event Upset (SEU).

This was a byte that was changed in the scratchpad RAM.

There have been some significanty solar storms recently, but we had been led to believe that relativly unshield sateallites such as $50SAT are prone to RAM corruption.

It’s a surprise to us that it has taken 16 months for the first SEU to be detected.
 

srnet

Senior Member
Is it possible for them to fix it? Peakeaxe in space? :confused:
The way it behaved in the last days before it was heard no more, did suggest it was doing exactly as planned, if the battery or power generation got too low to operate reliably, it was to stop transmitting to avoid any possible interference.

Its still being tracked by NORAD, so we will keep an eye on it, you never know it might go past the ISS and they could put out a net and do a repair, they seem to be doing that sort of stuff every day.
 
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