Thanks to Adafruit Prototyping Pi Plate Kit , I’ve setup a payload with RPI, OLED screen, OneWire temp sensor, GPS breakout and radio modules that
recorded picture and movies from the stratosphere with a OLED screen still
running fine at -50 degrees.
I’ve successfully recovered my HAB payload last week! The payload was
integrating a RPI with OLED screen, I’ve created a blog describing the
project (and linking to adafruit for the hardware) here.
…Since a couple of years, I was thinking about launching a high altitude balloon to the stratosphere. Taking my own pictures of blue atmosphere next to the blackness of space was a dream for me.
…I tried to include new experiments in the payload: testing the robustness of a display in stratospheric environment and taking full frame pictures/video in parallel with one RPI camera module.
The screen should handle extreme temperatures (-50 degrees C), deliver very high brightness images with low flickering. I have tested several OLED screen, selected the ILSOFT Oled model, then tuned the driver (sources available here) to increase the brightness and refresh rate by dividing the display height by 8 and optimising other parameters: the goal was to avoid flickering because of the camera shutter speed.
…The Rasperry PI will display the flight status on this screen (altitude, external temperature, …) while the RPI camera will be recording. The temperature and brightness requirements with ILSOFT OLED have been successfully validated during the stratospheric flight! ….
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Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: CircuitPython 2025 Wraps, Focus on Using Python, Open Source and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!