Manuscript

The PICOLO Flight Computer for Stratospheric Ballooning

---

Abstract

The "Pico Instrumentation and Control for Optimal Logging and Operations" (PICOLO) flight computer is an educational avionics package well-suited for stratospheric ballooning. The PICOLO costs approximately $125 and is assembled on a custom printed circuit board (PCB). The design can also be implemented on a solderless breadboard. The PCB version of the PICOLO gives students a highly-expandable platform with which to log general flight data, with the possibility of adding additional sensors and actuators to aid in specific research projects. PCB implementation aside, users can gain more exposure to coding, system architecture, multi-core computing, and wiring by assembling the PICOLO sensor suite on a solderless breadboard. The PICOLO is designed around the Raspberry Pi Pico W, but can use any of the Raspberry Pi Pico family of microcontrollers. The PICOLO features an Adafruit BNO055 9-DOF IMU (9 degree of freedom inertial measurement unit), a HiLetGo GY-63 MS5611 pressure sensor breakout (which logs temperature, pressure, and can estimate pressure-based altitude), plus a u-blox NEO-M9N/M8N GPS breakout (so that data can be stamped with latitude, longitude, and gps altitude). The PICOLO has on-board power systems that provide 3.7 volts to the Pico and are powered by either by a 3.7 volt Lithium-Ion battery or by any battery with a voltage of 3.7 to 5 volts. For example, the PICOLO can be powered by a 5 volt USB power bank. The PICOLO flight computer also includes a micro-SD card breakout (with which to record data on a micro-SD card for post-flight analysis), two thermistors (wide-range temperature sensors), two indicator LEDs and a 0.96’’ OLED screen (to provide real-time feedback to the user), plus terminal block and/or female header access to many of the remaining pins on the Pico W (for integrating additional sensors and/or actuators). The PICOLO has been flown in student-built payloads on stratospheric balloon flights at the U of MN Twin Cities by freshman seminar students and by our extracurricular ballooning team. It has proved to be a useful teaching tool and a reliable data logger in extreme stratospheric environmental conditions. In addition to the basic sensors, so far PICOLO flight computers have been used to log data from light sensors, humidity sensors, and Geiger counters, as well as to control servo motors and drone propellers.

Keywords: flight computer, Raspberry Pi Pico, stratosphere, stratospheric ballooning, weather balloon

How to Cite:

Vojjala, R. & Flaten, J., (2025) “The PICOLO Flight Computer for Stratospheric Ballooning”, Academic High Altitude Conference 2025(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/ahac.20148