Control a balloon’s altitude or ascent rate
The HAB Venter is a self-contained venting valve for latex balloons. It vents metered amounts of lift gas to control the altitude of latex balloons. Each time lift gas is vented the overall buoyancy is decreased. Vent enough lift gas and it is possible to achieve float. Continuing to vent will achieve a negative buoyancy. A negatively buoyant balloon descends at constant rate all the way back to the ground.
How do you use the HAB Venter?
The HAB Venter is controlled via the following interfaces: 1) short-range LoRa, 2) Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and/or 3) wired UART. The command structure is simple and in ASCII to permit control by either a flight computer or human operator. It can be monitored and tested on the ground using a smart-phone app, even while a flight computer is controlling it.
Options for different types of balloons
A bottom-mount version is available for standard single-neck latex weather balloons. It includes an integrated termination system that releases the balloon so that the valve and your payload descend via parachute at the completion of the flight. It requires four cold-protected batteries to operate. Two batteries for the primary valve and termination system, two batteries for the redundant termination system.
A light-weight top-mount version is available for dual-neck latex balloons. Using a dual-neck balloon increases vent flow rates by allowing the valve to be positioned at the top of the balloon. This change also permits all of the lift gas to be vented so the balloon envelope does not need to be discarded to terminate the flight. Dual-neck balloons can be special ordered from Totex (Kaymont in the USA). Hwoyee also fabricates dual-neck balloons but so far claims to only sell them to the Chinese military.
