With the breadboard prototype proven, May 2025 took us into the sophisticated end of the work: PCB design and 3D modelling. This phase was about transforming a functional but fragile prototype into something compact, robust and — we'll admit it — good-looking.
The brain: custom flight PCB
We designed the board carefully around three constraints that fight each other in a small form factor: component placement, signal integrity and power distribution. Getting optimal performance out of a constrained space is mostly a matter of deciding what to sacrifice, and being honest about it.
The body: 3D chassis design
In parallel, the 3D model took shape. Material selection and thermal management drove most of the decisions: the payload has to survive a temperature gradient on the way up, stay rigid enough to protect the board, and remain light enough that the balloon does the work.
| Design driver | Approach |
|---|---|
| Component placement | Signal-path first |
| Power distribution | Isolated rails |
| Thermal management | Material selection |
| Structure | Aerodynamic stability |
Assembly and the road to flight
From June 2025 onward the work has been dual-pronged. On one side, continued communication range testing with refined encoding and decoding methods. On the other, PCB bring-up and the meticulous assembly of every component into the finished unit.
- Board bring-up rail by rail, before any sensor was trusted with power.
- Harness integration into the printed chassis, with strain relief where it matters.
- End-to-end rehearsal: sensor to radio to ground console, exactly as it flies.
The result is on this site. The flight record the mission control console replays came from this hardware — which is the only review a design like this really gets.