Misc

MMP

It is voting season here in New Zealand and I hope you'll excuse me while I talk a little bit about MMP. We have used the MMP system since 1993, however now we are faced with a choice on what voting system we would like to have. I have written a bit about MMP these last couple of days and am sharing my thoughts here.

A common complaint I have heard is "there are too many MPs in parliament, MMP sucks". Unfortunately this logic is a little flawed as every system in the referendum mandates 120 MPs in parliament, the committee in charge of the referendum has stated that this is not something that will change. In all the available voting system there will always be opposition MPs and all the bickering and infighting that brings. What changes is how fairly each voting system represents the desires of New Zealanders in the makeup of their parliament.

Another common suggestion I have heard is "NZ politics sucks, I want change". Firstly, what is it you wan...

High Altitude Balloon Experiments: Part 2

(Continued from part 1)

My first test was a total success, but I had bigger plans. Happy that I could easily track my balloon from the land, and that the transmitter was powerful enough, I set about designing version 2 of my tracker.

Version 2 had one big improvement: a GPS receiver. Now I'd be able to track it's exact latitude, longitude, and altitude. Other changes included:

An Arduino Pro microcontroller module which is vastly more powerful than the PicAxe I had used previously. It is programmed in C++ and has plenty of storage and processing power. A 10v DC/DC converter that runs the transmitter at a higher voltage, in theory increasing its output power and hence range. A new lightweight PCB, made from flexible kapton material. A buzzer that beeps very loudly once every 15 seconds, so that once it had landed I might hear it even if I couldn't find it. This turned out to be a waste of power and space. Two 1.5v AAA Energizer lithium batterie...

High Altitude Balloon Experiments: Part 1

In between my usual adventures I always have about 10,000 projects on the go. Lately some of these projects have been getting rather "lofty", in a series of high altitude ballooning experiments.

My eventual goal is to attach a camera to a helium filled balloon and take photos of the earth from way up above the clouds. It's been done many times before and there is nothing new about it, but it's still fun to try, and not without many many challenges. It doesn't take an genius to work out how to tie a camera to a balloon and let it go; the challenge is to get the camera back again at the end!

Transmitter Range Testing

So for some time I've been pondering how to do this, and then one day something clicked and I started making it happen. The first thing I decided was that I needed some way of knowing where the balloon was, which meant some kind of transmitter. Without a radio license though I am fairly limited in how much power I can transmit with, and power me...