Overview?

Did you know that embedded computers are literally falling from the sky throughout the U.S. every day. This is a standard MySonde style Radiosonde weather balloon tracking device built from a LilyGo TTGO board. It can be used to track NOAA weather balloons you can find on www.sondehub.org to the "last mile"

What makes it special?

The device comes with the standard 433 Ghz TTGO antenna, which we find has very limited range at the ~402 to 406 Mhz range of most NOAA weather balloons in the U.S. So in addition to the standard antenna we provide a custom made quarter wave monopole antenna tuned to have an SWR of less than 2 for frequencies around 404 Mhz.

Its crazy the range you can get with this with the right antenna. In the photo shown I'm picking up a balloon shortly after launch 132 miles away! using the same antenna you will receive with the device.

The device has a built-in 18650 battery that gives you a number of hours of runtime and charges via USB cable. Note the power switch must be "turned on" for the device to charge.

It comes in the 3D printed case as shown and includes a paracord lanyard that is handy to throw around your neck when trekking after a balloon but can be removed.

Important note about firmware

These devices come default pre-installed with the open-source rdz_ttgo_sonde software. The MySonde Go software is much better - MySonde Go allows you to pair with your phone app using Bluetooth among other things. However I am not licensed to distribute MySonde Go. We will be more than happy to install and configure whatever firmware you provide us - for example MySonde Go - after you make your purchase. We have made a web page here: Provide Us Your Copy Of MySondy Go Firmware where you can easily download your own copy of MySonde Go and then send it to us to install on your device. If you do this please also consider making a donation to the MySonde team (here) for the great work they've put into their awesome application.

Wait, how does this all work?

OK, NOAA launches weather balloons generally twice a day from locations all over the US. After the balloons burst and fall to the ground you have an hour or two to find and retrieve them before their batteries die. Until the batteries die the balloons constantly transmit their location.

My process to chase down a weather balloon is as follows: 1. Watch www.sondehub.org and use the "Generate predictions" feature to watch if balloons are likely to land near my home. 2. If a balloon is launched that looks like it will come near, I watch it on Sondehub until it bursts. This is because bursting even a small time sooner or later than predicted can have a big impact on where the balloon lands. 3. Once it bursts I start driving to where Sondehub says its likely to land. Every 5-10 minutes I check Sondehub and see if I need to change my destinaton. 4. Once the balloon starts getting nearer you pull out this Radiosonde tracker device and start directly tracking the balloon. If running MySonde Go you can pair it with your phone and use the app to navigate directly to the balloon. 5. Once the balloon lands it will still transmit until the battery dies. This tracker will use the GPS coordinates transmitted by the balloon to get you to with a few feet of its location.