Integrated Flight Computer for a High Altitude Balloon

Integrating a number of pieces of scientific equipment for in flight use on a stratospheric balloon requires a common flight computer. This is especially important if one wants to tie data from sensors such as an accelerometer, magnetometer, and GPS to a piece of equipment such as a Geiger counter. We are designing and building an integrated flight computer that combines flight sensors, and can be used to collect data from other systems based around the Arduino microcontroller. The system logs data for altitude, pressure, and temperature as well as a 3 axis magnetometer and a 3 axis accelerometer to record forces on the payload. GPS data is also being recorded to match the data that is acquired to a specific location. The system is expandable to record data from other devices (such as a Geiger counters) and to control external hardware (such as a camera or sample collector). Results from system testing will be presented.