Author Topic: In need of a fresh perspective- remote inflation and release of balloons  (Read 5444 times)

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Offline soldar

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Hydrogen isn't a bad gas to use for small balloons to be used outdoors, away from naked flames. It's cheap, renewable and the environmental impact is minimal. The risks can be minimised by mixing it with an inert gas such as nitrogen. It only has to be lighter than air to work.
Many years ago I was attending a wedding where people were very nicely dressed. It was sort of a garden event with a big tent with food and drinks. Some lady came into the tent with a bunch of balloons. Some guy standing right behind her thought it would be funny to burst a balloon with his lit cigarette. The explosion was huge and luckily no one was seriously hurt but there were a bunch of ladies knocked to the ground and not looking so elegant any more.

Also, when I was a teenager and playing with chemistry sets I was generating hydrogen by the method of acid plus metal filings. Except that I could see no obvious signs of hydrogen being produced so I thought a flame would indicate if it was happening. Even though the quantity of gas must have been negligible the explosion blew the whole setup to pieces and I was lucky to not have lost an eye or two. I was wearing no face shield or any other protection.

Beware of hydrogen.
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Offline beanflying

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Have any of you balloon moralist's realised the new member and OP hasn't been back since you started talking the evils of Balloons?

They never stated anything about tether or not and balloon type and we may not see them back because of it.
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Offline james_s

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Obviously hydrogen requires care, but it's an excellent lifting gas for un-manned devices. If you haven't played with it before it's worth setting off a few hydrogen balloons in a controlled situation, it's fun too.
 
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Offline soldar

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Have any of you balloon moralist's realised the new member and OP hasn't been back since you started talking the evils of Balloons?

They never stated anything about tether or not and balloon type and we may not see them back because of it.
That happens in many threads. The OP seems to have no interest and, in the meanwhile, a lot of people are asking questions and speculating. A lot of OPs are "drivebys" where the OP loses interest and doesn't return.
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Offline beanflying

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It does happen for sure but Driveby Moralising with little to no information about the OP's intentions from the peanut gallery doesn't help.
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Offline M4dsc1enti$tTopic starter

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Lol so yea, kinda hard to have conductivity without tethering the balloons,so yes they will be tethered. Lol this thread really went off on a tangent. Planning on having the setup in the country unmonitored,will be triggered via gsm. I won't be doing it anywhere rural bc I don't want to electrify water lines or blow any electronics. Buckets will be full of silica,and grounded with a copper pipe thru the bottom. Copper wire to tether to the balloons. The base with the buckets will be a ways off from all the electronics and where the balloons will inflate,and I'll have a mechanism that holds onto the tether during inflation,so when released, the balloons will be pulled off to the side as far away from the circuitry as I distanced the buckets.do a Google image search of fulgerite,stuff looks pretty cool. Thought it would be fun to try making. sorry it took me so long to get back here
« Last Edit: May 07, 2019, 11:54:28 pm by M4dsc1enti$t »
 

Offline M4dsc1enti$tTopic starter

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Also I'm no expert, but I think it's a pretty safe bet that lightning will instantly vaporize the balloons,for all you anti balloon ppl
 

Offline beanflying

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It sounds like a fun project.

So Battery driven then makes a lot of sense and Lithium if they need to sit idle for extended periods as they will hold charge?

GSM or maybe even consider LORA even data over HAM band of some sort or similar to avoid needing a SIM card?

For the Balloon release mech either cheap Solenoids and or maybe R/C servos to open gas valves?
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Offline M4dsc1enti$tTopic starter

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 Yea idk why I said power supply hehe,I meant battery. As for Lora and ham radio,I'm 90km from where it would be set off so I don't think it would work with that distance. Grandparents own several acres of unused land,so there'd be less chance of it being tampered with there
 

Offline M4dsc1enti$tTopic starter

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I do like the idea of using a servo for the gas. Someone also suggested using a spring loaded clip to hold onto the balloons and then a pulse of a solenoid to quickly release them without much power consumption,which I think I might go with
 

Offline M4dsc1enti$tTopic starter

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Well I had decided to go with two plastic plates positioned on top of each other with holes drilled in them for the one way nozzles for the balloons, one plate would be fixed and the other would be motorized to pinch the nozzles.. But for the life of me I couldn't think of a way to keep pressure on the connection between the line for the gas and the nozzles themselves, not to mention it would have had to be about 66" to accommodate as many balloons as I wanted.  Then I thought of a whole new design that solves such problem. I'm going to have two pvc tubes, one that fits inside of the other almost perfectly, so not too snug so they cant move. Same idea with pinching the nozzles,but this way I can seal the ends of the tubes and the whole assembly will be pressurized during inflation. I have a worm gear motor coming in from Amazon, and I'm going to see if I can special order a rack and pinion gear that will fit with my motor to move the inner pvc tube to apply pressure to the nozzles. Possibly add a thin layer of silicone caulk around the edges of each hole as makeshift gaskets. I've attached some crude drawings I did at work today instead of my actual job.
 

Offline beanflying

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Had a very quick look online these valves look easier to lock onto your manifold due to the step in the inflation tube. Drop an o'ring in the stem section somewhere to retain the gas while inflating.



And use a driven comb like this below actuated by solonoid/s or to retain and release?

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Offline beanflying

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So I was bored with cleaning up my shack  ;) Coffee and CAD ideas.
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