History

This has been a very long term project for me. I original had the idea about 7 years ago, but lacked the expertise to build such a device. This project has been through many iterations.
The first project was going to use an Arduino, but only having one UART, I was going to flip between Radio and GSM control using FETs. The stitching caused such spikes on my UART lines that the project was un-workable.

These are the remains of a very early prototype based on a Wavecom data modem. Arduino's had only just started to become popular and it seemed like, as now, people knew there were a good idea but didn't know quite what to do with them. I read an article in new scientist of someone launching a HAB and I was captured by the dream. As a kid I always wanted to be an astronaut, but thus dreams being very much behind me, this seemed like as close to space as I would ever get.

 I ran into some fairly unpleasant voltage level converter problems, that could only be solved with some ridiculously undersized components.
(this little blighter converted 3v3 logic levels to 1v6. This work was all done without the use of a microscope!)

I went through quite a lot of Arduino based solutions, but never managed to get off the ground.
(Yes thats a Minidisc charger in the background. Thats how long ago this was!)

The second generation used an Raspberry Pi, and an old radio that needed PWM RTTY. The Raspberry Pi was not accurate enough to PWM at the rate I needed, so I was going to interface to an Arduino, to do the bit bashing, and the Pi to be the main flight computer. But my ability to program the Arduino tripped me up as a complicated interrupt driven system was required.

I began to once again develop Arduino only solutions, I actually got through about 12 circuit spins as I started to learn more and add more and more features to the project. Here is a picture of one I made with an SD card, before there were any libraries to drive an external SD card, I had to write my own, and ended up creating my own basic filing system!

I still lacked the expertise in software to bring all the individual parts together.

Given enough time, I evenually learned how to program multi threaded code. This would be the key I needed to crack the software side of things. Finally, I found the BeagleBone. The cloud9 development system on it is so easy to get started on, and due to a recent hardware enhancement, some of the sensors I wanted were already on the board. A little help from the guys at SanCloud are enabling me to achieve this very long term plan.