The first time I saw a satellite photo of my house on Google Earth, I expressed shock at the “Big Brother” implications of an all-seeing, commercial eye-in-the-sky. But meanwhile, I was also secretly disappointed with the picture quality and clarity because (Orwellian angst aside) I needed better overhead images for my own use — to help me lay out a new driveway and complete a birds-eye-view CAD drawing of our lot. So I decided to design and fabricate a simple helium balloon “satellite” camera platform, tethered to the ground for ease of control and retrieval, and dedicated to a single purpose: to capture aerial images of my house and surroundings.
Here’s how I completed this project using inexpensive and readily available components — helium balloons on a nylon kite string, a drugstore camera perched on a platform made out of an old CD, and a PICAXE microcontroller housed in an empty pill bottle.
Ah, stupid question – voltage regulator. Got it.
I bought a Shift3 at a CVS in Massachusetts in November 2010.
Answering my own question: the camera has “compressed” and “uncompressed” modes which allow 60 and 20 photos, respectively, in hi-res mode. I can’t really see a difference in the quality.
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How does one track where this balloon lands?