Building a Weather Station for a Near-Space Payload

1
Building a Weather Stationfor a Near-Space
Payload

• AEM 1905 Spaceflight with Ballooning
• University of Minnesota

2
Weather Station kit and instructions
3
Parts in Weather Station kit
4
Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
5
Wires for sensor cabling
6
Pressure sensor
7
Relative humidity sensor
8
Temperature sensor
9
Capacitor (unpolarized)
10
Resistor (unpolarized)
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3 x 3 pin male header for sensor cable
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Heat-shrink tubing (AKA shrink-wrap)
13
Solder resistor in place snip all excess leads
14
Solder the capacitor in place
15
Insert relative humidity sensor, making sure that
the open part faces capacitor
16
Avoid solder bridges on closely-spaced pins of
the relative humidity sensor
17
Insert the temp sensor, watching polarity
18
Insert pressure sensor, right way around
19
Strip both ends of each wire, exposing ¼ inch
length of the bare metal
20
Insert one wire through large hole then bend it
over and solder for strain relief
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Repeat with other 4 wires use black for ground
and red for 5 volts (at least)
22
Insert 3 x 3 header into a female
receptacle, like that in a BalloonSat Easy
computer
23
Orient 3 x 3 pin header next to the figure to
identify which pins to solder wires to
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Tin the 5 pins add a bit of solder quickly
25
Twist exposed ends of wires then tin them
26
Slide on shrink-wrap before proceeding. Use blue
shrink-wrap, not stuff in kit.
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Use Helping Hands to hold wire up to pin
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Solder 5 wires to pins, minimizing diameter
29
Slide shrink-wrap over solder joints once all
wires have been soldered
30
Shrink with heat gun while still plugged in, then
remove cable from receptacle
31
Completed Weather Station ready to be plugged
into a flight computer