After several months of hiatus the team will finally launch another balloon! We are pointing to April 24, but that is still to be confirmed. Stay Tuned!!! More details about the location, communication and concept of this launch will also be coming soon!!!
See you from above!
The first edition of Lisbon MakerFaire has come and gone! We were looking forward to this event because it gave us an opportunity to meet with the makers community, introduce our project and connect with thousands of people.
We spent the weekend showcasing BALUA, its activity, equipment and developments, chatting with thousands of curious and interested people about what BALUA is, what have we done and will our future be. We also launched a balloon from the exhibition site which was both a huge technical and social success. There were lots of people attending the event and we managed to recover all our payloads. Moreover, BALUA founder and coordinator – Carlos Diogo Henriques – was a featured speaker and did a presentation on Sunday about Stratospheric Balloons: A Scientific Platform For The Future.
Our MakerFaire weekend was capped off by BALUA being awarded as one of the projects that demonstrated greater creativity, ingenuity and innovation for their MakerFaire exhibition. We are thrilled by the recognition and we guarantee the Arduinos and Bitalino will be pu to good use in near the future.
We loved the experience and we can only hope that this will start to become a yearly event. Until then we will be seeing you from above!!!
The flight of today (September, 20) was a huge success!!! The launching site was amazing and landed safely in Santarém.
We collected some awesome photos in Lisbon. The full set of images will be in our gallery section soon.
And don’t forget to visit the balua stand tomorrow in Pavilhão do Conhecimento.
As we already said before BALUA will be present in MakerFaire Lisbon. This event will occur this weekend (20 and 21 of September).
And yes, as you might have guessed, we will have another launch! This time on the roof of Pavilhão do Conhecimento. You can watch it happen tomorrow (September, 20) at about 12.00am.
Here is the launch information:
Launch coordinates are: 38.762297, -9.095591.
It will be broadcasting APRS (144.800MHz) with callsign CS5CEP. You can follow us here.
SPOT tracker link.
Seeing you from above!
Balua was officially announced as one of the groups that will be present in the Portuguese edition of the Maker Faire!
For more information check the official website of the event and a small synopses of our work HERE!
If you don’t know what Maker Faire is:
The Maker Faire is the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth — a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement. It’s a place where people show what they are making, and share what they are learning.
Makers range from tech enthusiasts to crafters to homesteaders to scientists to garage tinkerers. They are of all ages and backgrounds. The aim of Maker Faire is to entertain, inform, connect and grow this community.
The original Maker Faire event was held in San Mateo, CA and in 2014 celebrated its ninth annual show with some 1000+ maker exhibits and 120,000+ people in attendance. World Maker Faire New York, the other flagship event, has grown in three years to 500+ makers and 55,000 attendees. Detroit, Kansas City, Newcastle (UK), and Tokyo are the home of “featured” Maker Faires (200+ makers), and community-driven, independently organized Mini Maker Faires are now being produced around the United States and the world.
Information taken from here.
There is a new article in Exame Informática about Balua and our latest launch in Évora, Portugal.
The title of the article is “Engineers from IST launched an high altitude balloon to communicate with all of the Iberian Peninsula” . The online version of the article can be found here (in Portuguese) and it is an excellent description of our concept and the work developed in that launch.
Tomorrow at 14.00 GMT our new tracker will be tested. Launch coordinates are: 38°34’28″N 007°54’19″W.
It will be broadcasting APRS (144.800MHz) with callsign CR6BAL. You can follow us here.
We will also have a crossband repeater with uplink 145.950MHz, tone 123Hz, downlink 435.950MHz and 1W of power.
SPOT tracker link.
Live feed: (available soon)
We are very proud to announce that our new tracker has arrived. The boards were designed by our team and are already here but the stencil is still to arrive.
Meanwhile, since we are eager to test it, we’ve started hand soldering one of the boards.
Test reports as soon as we finish soldering it! Here’s a picture of our amazing pcb.
Falcoaria-Cetraria
English
This company’s specialty is the use of birds of prey in different situations. From recreational activities to the control of harmful birds for various economic activities. They also provide shows with birds of prey, where the public has the opportunity to closely observe birds in flight or wrist. The viewer has the opportunity to discover the morphology and natural behaviors of each species presented.
http://www.falcoaria-cetraria.com/
Portuguese
Esta empresa é especialidade na utilização de aves de rapina em diversas situações. Desde actividades ludicas até ao controlo de avifauna nociva para diversas actividades económicas. Também providenciam espectaculos com aves de rapina, onde o público tem a oportunidade de observar de perto os pássaros em vôo ou no pulso. O espectador tem a oportunidade de conhecer a morfologia e comportamento natural de cada espécie apresentadas.
The new Balua launch, which will be done in collaboration with Escola Secundária D. Maria II, is set to April 4th (Friday) at 14.30 GMT.
The launch coordinates are: 41°32’56.1″N 8°25’05.2″W,
Will be emitting APRS (144.800MHz) callsign CR5BAL. You can follow it here: http://aprs.fi
The SPOT tracker link.
The live feed is available at: http://www.qsl.net/lars/
You are all welcome to join us tracking the balloon!
