Radiosonde RS41 Weather Balloon - Teardown and Secrets!

A friend of a farmer friend of mine found a weather balloon in his field. I was asked if I wanted it to have a look at which of course I totally did! I had been after one for a while!
Let's dissect it and see how it works, see what hidden features it contains, and see how you too can obtain one and repurpose or reprogram it!
If you're interested in chasing down and re-purposing one then here are some useful links!
Radiosondy Site - For live tracking and serial number search
radiosondy.info/
Sondehub - another tracker site.
sondehub.org/
MySondyGo V2 - For building your own tracker
mysondy.alterv...
Another Radiosonde tracker (it didn't seem to have as good reception)
hackaday.com/2...
Connecting the board and programming it with Arduino IDE (with some nice header functions)
github.com/mar...
If you found this interesting, please consider subscribing and check out my other content!
#electronics #teardown
radiosonde
weather balloon
rs41
rs-41
rs41-sg
high altitude balloon
electronic teardown
arduino
free delevopment board

[@MrFelatio1]

This was very very interesting. I am very curious about your background as you seem to be able to know a lot about electronics, wheaterstations, transmitters etc. Could you do us a video about your background and how you did get such a experienced electronics repairer ? Anyone else who ia also interested in your story please give thumbs up ifunder this comment !

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks! I did a little bit of my background in the channel about page 👍

[@inothome]

The RFID, from what I remember is to activate it prior to launching. It registers it in the system and may set the frequency and other parameters in the unit. I was able to launch one in Antarctica. Did two contracts at McMurdo and the weather people let other personnel on station the opportunity to set up and release them. Cool system with a weight tied to the balloon as it's filling so you get the exact amount of lift that's needed to have consistent lift for each release. And they DO try to recover them in summer (I go in winter) in Antarctica, if the location it was reported at is safe to get too. To limit the waste they leave behind. Back in the US I had found a few that washed back on shore, but unfortunately after spending time in the salt water, they were totally useless. Cool walk through with an operational one!

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks, and interesting info! I don't think they have a recovery policy here in the UK as a lot of the ham radio guys go looking for them and the majority of the radiosonde end up in the sea.

[@inothome]

@@BuyitFixit I don't think anywhere has a recovery policy, except maybe Antarctica. They do try to minimize the waste left behind. You can't even piss in the snow, if you do you get sent off! For the American stations anyway.

[@BuyitFixit]

🤔😂😂😂😂

[@Sydney268]

Interesting, nice find, yes free microcontroller - genuine one to boot!

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, no cheap fakes here!

[@stoicgreg]

Great video, nothing better than hearing you talk so knowledgeable about things you find interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Gregory! Really appreciate that!

[@nathanw851]

It'd make a great bit of kit for HAM radio fox hunting. The device is the 'fox' and the idea is teams employ radio direction finding to hunt it down. The frequency range is perfect for the amateur radio 70cm band.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Nathan 👍👍

[@SlartiMarvinbartfast]

Great video and it opened my eyes towards the wastefulness and pollution caused by unrecovered weather balloons.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks M Jon's!

[@charlesmurphy1510]

I launched many radiosondes in the military (before GPS technology) which were radio transmitters. What appears to be missing on yours is a barometric pressure sensor. A calibration is required before launching which is what the connector is for.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Charles👍I think the RS41 uses GPS to guestimate the pressure, and I think the calibration or settings before launch can be done via RFID or the connector from what I remember. Thanks for commenting 👍

[@jagjay8033]

i bet you could use it as a tracker for the car or farm vehicles in case they get stolen

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Jason, yes I'd been thinking of something along those lines too!

[@MrEwool]

Wow I never knew there where that many weatherballoons really interesting to get a look inside one of them. I was just waiting for you to end the video with you saying that you installed doom on it...

[@BuyitFixit]

Ha! Good one, a friend of mine actually suggested that! I doubt it would be possible. Glad you found it interesting!

[@miftosaurus]

.... as Pif once said, "Miammmmm"! nice dev board! :D i live in Romania, really low chances to see one of these flying happily thru my window! :) that thing looks like is a 1.8V system, because i never heard about 2v stabilisers, linear or not, and main voltage being 3V, not 3,3... that "grate" part on sensor tail is a humidity sensor, yes... the most simplest one: at a given humidity, between these tracks there is a defined resistance, if humidity will grow, their resistance will be lower, so, you can estimate accurate enough humidity around... temperature... most semiconductors are temperature dependent, so, again, simplest form of a temperature sensor... interesting that TTGO LoRa, i think i will order one, not necessarily for sondy, but for my own fun! :D

[@BuyitFixit]

Have a look on the website I mentioned on the video, they launch balloons all over the world, some may venture near you.

[@miftosaurus]

@@BuyitFixit ... most closest is in Bulgaria! :))))))

[@BuyitFixit]

Another video you may like is the RGB laser that I repaired or the solar inverter where I had to reverse engineer the software to get a service password.

[@nightbutchers]

I love the idea of free electronics from the heavens 😁 so I went n ordered a lillygo board from the link..see if I can't track me one down with a my sondy go

[@BuyitFixit]

Nice! I had a look on the radiosonde site that I posted, and about a month back there was around 3 balloons that landed near me. I really need to set up something that continuously monitors and perhaps logs the GPS location to SD card or something.

[@JAYG6390]

Shame there wasn't a repair to be done, but interesting stuff none the less 😁

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes, not a repair but I thought people might find it interesting if they haven't came across them before.

[@wisher21uk]

Very interesting knowing my luck I would find one and end up getting a knock on the door lol.. thanks mate

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Cucumber Man. Knock on the door? No lol. There's whole sites and groups etc that chase them as a hobby! And it also helps clean up the mess. The majority actually end in the sea....

[@wisher21uk]

@@BuyitFixit I thought they needed to be returned to the person who set it off lol thanks I will look around, probably wouldn’t get as far as South Shields lol

[@BuyitFixit]

@@wisher21uk There's about 5 launch sites in the UK and 2 or 3 in Ireland. There's one near Newcastle which is the nearest launch site to us both. (I wasn't expecting the one I got to come from Ireland I thought it would have came from Newcastle). You can see where they all ended up from the Newcastle launch site via this link: radiosondy.info/maps/web_map.php?startplace=Albemarle+(GB)&launch_site_map=1 Keep zooming in for finer detail, and you'll see a few dropped around your area!

[@wisher21uk]

@@BuyitFixit hi mate I will have a look thanks, sorry I didn’t catch this earlier been really busy grrrrr

[@chrisbartlett6022]

Interesting, even though you didnt have to get the Soldering Iron out 🙂 Just looked, One splashed down not far from Sellafield, think it might have been the one you showed. LONG way from burst to land but they go flipping high

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Chris, yes sometimes over half the distance they travel is after they burst! Also the predicted landing site can be some distance from the last reading, that's why I think it's best to build your own receiver, then you have until it's batteries run out to easily locate it exactly!

[@drorhaz]

Very nice video.. you are very smart! Keep the good work BiFi 🤙

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks black panther!

[@allenrussell6135]

Im wondering if any viewers shower up at your door by using the serial to see where you lived. Veru informative, i knew nithing about these and now ill keep an eye out for one. Sadly the tracking site shows none in the state of New York

[@BuyitFixit]

😂😂😂👍

[@snipersquad100]

Interesting.

[@BuyitFixit]

Cheers John 👍

[@evoor665]

3/29/24 I found one on my property today, Ventura Ca

[@BuyitFixit]

Nice 👍

[@ralphj4012]

Interesting. I was surprised at how frequently it seemed to be transmitting, considering the GPS capability as well, these must have a short battery life. Appreciate they need to monitor the weather somehow, but what a waste. RFID seems a bit pointless on such a device.

[@BuyitFixit]

Speaking to a friend he thought the RFID is used in automated launches so they are put in a hopper and checked just beforehand. The battery life is supposed to be around 3h. I might do a future video if I get my receiver set up so it's permanently monitoring, and attempt recovery of one myself.

[@inothome]

The RFID from what I remember sets the configuration for the radiosonde and registers it in the system prior to release. Probably cheaper than a cable and connectors now that RFID shit is so cheap.

[@fotografm]

Please give details of how you used your LilyGo T-Beam to locate the device and to get the GPS data. I am intrigued !

[@BuyitFixit]

It's a program called "MySondy Go" mysondy.altervista.org/mysondygo.php

[@NicksStuff]

Do you know some cool projects that repurpose this hardware?

[@BuyitFixit]

I think there was some on github which turned it into a fox hole hunt style beacon or your own trackable weather balloon. Search RS41 github 👍

[@kennybacchus1488]

Weather. Balloon radiosonde. Tear down. Not. a. Chinese. Spy

[@garyeast7259]

I dont know if you have done it before but u seem like the kinda guy who could do it but. You said u made a tracker for a weather balloon but have u thought about trying to pull down data from weather satellites. I think you can do it with open source software but im not sure about hardware. I think you can get decent results with pretty basic stuff. Make a interesting video either way.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Gary, I've not pulled data from weather satellites. I did look into it at one point and I think you can do it with a SDR dongle and a laptop, and running some decoding software to obtain the image. I've got a few SDR devices so might have a go at some point.

[@ferguswilkie9907]

hi, when you are connecting the radiosonde to the laptop, what are the the 3 connections you have made? Are they RXD - TX, TXD - RX, Gnd - Gnd?

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes. I'm trying to remember if tx went to txd etc but if not just swap tx and rx over if you don't get a response.

[@cajuncoinhunter]

That's pretty cool , Where's the furthest one that made the distance ??

[@BuyitFixit]

Not sure buddy. You'd have to look up on the radiosondy site

[@cajuncoinhunter]

@@BuyitFixit Sure will....

[@MarianoBillinghurst]

what app are you using in the phone ?

[@BuyitFixit]

Mysondygo 👍

[@MegaTerryWogan]

Not Chinsese? Howay - ya never knaaa 😆

[@BuyitFixit]

Lol, well I bet some components were 'Made in China' 😂😂😂

[@bikerdave1274]

Yerp I canny speeeel TowelSearch

[@bikerdave1274]

If found, Please Return To Sender......

[@mikethedigitaldoctorjarvis]

So them things are sent up that many times as a once only use and not collected and re-used !? if that is the case it is a bloody waste !

[@BuyitFixit]

Yep correct Mike. The majority are actually lost at sea. Fun hobby can be going chasing them and retrieving them. You could make them into one of them remote garage openers that cycle through every possible combination lol like they did with the IMME pink pager thing or add a display to it or something as well.

[@mikethedigitaldoctorjarvis]

@@BuyitFixit Lost at sea is even worse,there is already enough plastic in it ! finding them like the geo hunting thing people do (can't remember what it's called) but youhave to have the gadgets to find them ! if you did find them,i suppose you could turn them in to tracking devices !

[@BuyitFixit]

@@mikethedigitaldoctorjarvis Geo-caching. Yes it's not great the waste, if you look at the radiosondy site you can see the ones that are lost, and that's the majority of them. Most of the UK ones end up in the north sea or at least the ones from the nearest launch site to me do.

[@mikethedigitaldoctorjarvis]

@@BuyitFixit Thanks for the reply fella,i'm glad you do what you do repairing stuff ! and teaching people,i repair stuff too ! but i think some stuff we can't change no matter how much waste there is 😞

[@garyeast7259]

As soon as you fix it an power it on. Expect a visit from a chinese official.

[@BuyitFixit]

😂😂😂😂

[@shaunmorrissey7313]

Every day's a school day👍👍

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes indeed! Thanks Shaun!

[@bikerdave1274]

PROPERTY OF THE IRA. Gis it back naa yas English Koont. From the head orifice of da Tee-Shock ...te be shuur.

[@BuyitFixit]

Lol