I flew one 3 years ago. A picture is posted here somewhere :D

The problem I foresee is having a PC powerful enough to stitch the video in a reasonable amount of time.

On Thu, Aug 16, 2018, 8:29 PM Bruce Coates <bruce.coates@...> wrote:

Great stuff.  I'll be watching.

Weather (and forest fire smoke) permitting we're going to fly SABRE-27 next weekend.  Nothing special.  Just a traditional camera payload.

On 2018-08-16 8:11 PM, L. Paul Verhage KD4STH wrote:

I will fly one soon, but it may be a huge file when done. 

On Thu, Aug 16, 2018, 7:16 PM Bruce Coates <bruce.coates@...> wrote:

Hi Paul

You had me all worked up for a minute thinking you had flown a 360 degree camera.

Very interesting though.

73, Bruce - VE5BNC

On 2018-08-15 10:30 AM, L. Paul Verhage KD4STH wrote:

I posted a short 360 video I recorded of the balloon launches at the Nebraska Star Party. 

I shared a balloon with NSTAR and the second balloon was launched by the Nebraska Space Grant.

The video is located at, https://youtu.be/--p-FAzLLmo

--

Dr. L. Paul Verhage

Near Space Evangelist

I will fly one soon, but it may be a huge file when done. 

On Thu, Aug 16, 2018, 7:16 PM Bruce Coates <bruce.coates@...> wrote:

Hi Paul

You had me all worked up for a minute thinking you had flown a 360 degree camera.

Very interesting though.

73, Bruce - VE5BNC

On 2018-08-15 10:30 AM, L. Paul Verhage KD4STH wrote:

I posted a short 360 video I recorded of the balloon launches at the Nebraska Star Party. 

I shared a balloon with NSTAR and the second balloon was launched by the Nebraska Space Grant.

The video is located at, https://youtu.be/--p-FAzLLmo

--

Dr. L. Paul Verhage
Near Space Evangelist

Hi Paul

You had me all worked up for a minute thinking you had flown a 360 degree camera.

Very interesting though.

73, Bruce - VE5BNC

On 2018-08-15 10:30 AM, L. Paul Verhage KD4STH wrote:

I posted a short 360 video I recorded of the balloon launches at the Nebraska Star Party. 

I shared a balloon with NSTAR and the second balloon was launched by the Nebraska Space Grant.

The video is located at, https://youtu.be/--p-FAzLLmo

--

Dr. L. Paul Verhage
Near Space Evangelist

I posted a short 360 video I recorded of the balloon launches at the Nebraska Star Party. 

I shared a balloon with NSTAR and the second balloon was launched by the Nebraska Space Grant.

The video is located at, https://youtu.be/--p-FAzLLmo

--

Dr. L. Paul Verhage
Near Space Evangelist

https://youtu.be/_RoQxu1CBh8

73 de Mark N9XTN

I've checked aprs.fi intermittently since I posted this and have encountered no issues with it giving me Google Maps underneath.  It looks like a lot of progress has been made on the conversion to OSM.  Should aprs.fi suddenly be unable to map for you, or if you're interested in what the OSM version will look like, check out https://beta.aprs.fi.  Some small changes to interface, rendering, and overall look and feel but it's looking pretty good to me.

73 de Mark N9XTN

On Wed, Jul 18, 2018 at 11:38 AM Mark Conner <mconner1@...> wrote:

This is a copy of a message posted recently to the APRSSIG e-mail list.  Google has implemented a new pricing structure for Google Maps that are negatively affecting services like aprs.fi.  The current pricing would result in charges of ~$5000/mo to support aprs.fi's traffic.

Also note that a transition to OSM is not as simple as some believe.

If you are counting on aprs.fi for following ARHABs, you may need to reconsider.  

73 de Mark N9XTN

=============================================

Message: 6
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2018 12:15:05 +0300 (EEST)
From: Heikki Hannikainen <hessu@...>
To: aprssig@...
Subject: Re: [aprssig] aprs.fi and Google Maps API pricing in July
        2018
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.20.1807181206370.4231@...>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-15"; Format="flowed"

On Wed, 18 Jul 2018, Steve Dimse wrote:

>> Is it just here in Reno that we can't use APRS.FI to see the map?
>
> I see a map but it greys out with a tiled message saying "for 
> development purposes only". It seems to work - just hard to read.

Hi,

For some time this morning, Google Maps on aprs.fi displayed a pop-up 
saying "This page can't load Google Maps correctly". The map tiles 
were dark with "For Development Purposes Only" written on them.

This was because of a configuration accident on my part: the aprs.fi 
profile on Google Cloud console was not properly linked to the correct 
payments profile which has my credit card attached. That's now fixed and 
the maps load fine. For a few days (3-5?), starting now.

Due to the volunteer / charitable / non-profit uses in Amateur Radio 
circles (SAR, disaster relief, etc) aprs.fi has had a generous free use 
limit from Google, even after the pricing went up in 2012. With the recent 
pricing model changes for Google Maps APIs, the free use quota got lost, 
because they were not automatically migrated in the transformation. It was 
a bit uncertain whether it'll stay there or not, but now it's obvious it's 
gone.

I'm trying to reach out to them and see if it can be reinstated, or if a 
generous volume discount can be applied. If someone has insider Google 
contacts who are amateur radio operators, please email me and them in 
private.

If not, I might be looking at a bill of 4000-5000? ($4500-6000) per month, 
which obviously is something that I can't do. The billing has now started, 
and I got a small credit for the transition & try-out period, which will 
last for a few days, and I can pay the bill for a few more days after 
that, but then I'll have to turn it off or quickly migrate away.

To reduce the loads a bit, I'll be disabling the Embedded maps feature 
right now.

There is a risk that I'll have to replace Google Maps with something, but 
it'll be a development effort which will take quite some time, and the end 
result might not be quite as smooth; the Google Maps API has been pretty 
great.

Remember folks: It's not just about the map graphics - it's the API, and 
all the software from Google to load the graphics and draw things on top, 
and make them pan and zoom nicely.

    - Hessu, OH7LZB

------------------------------

Message: 7
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2018 13:55:26 +0300 (EEST)
From: Heikki Hannikainen <hessu@...>
To: aprssig@...
Subject: Re: [aprssig] aprs.fi and Google Maps API pricing in July
        2018
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.20.1807181340250.4231@...>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

On Wed, 18 Jul 2018, Heikki Hannikainen wrote:

> There is a risk that I'll have to replace Google Maps with something, but 
> it'll be a development effort which will take quite some time, and the end 
> result might not be quite as smooth; the Google Maps API has been pretty 
> great.

And before everyone and their dog yells "Hey, just switch to 
OpenStreetMaps, you have that already in the menu right?", please note 
that:

When you select the "OSM" option from the current aprs.fi menu, it just 
tells Google Maps API to download OSM tiles; that does not stop the paid 
use of the Google Maps API.

The Google Maps API has provided quite a few things:

* The source map material (vector maps drawn by people and algorithms, 
often purchased from other mapping companies)

* PNG map tiles (the source map material drawn and zoomed and rendered as 
small PNG image files), these are what are actually downloaded and 
displayed in the web browser

* The tile servers run in Google's cloud, which convert the source map 
material to the PNG tiles; the web browser downloads the tiles from these 
servers, not aprs.fi!

* The Maps API javascript library, which performs the downloading of the 
tiles in the browser, zooming and panning functions, and draws things like 
APRS symbol graphics on top, and lines between them, when aprs.fi simply 
gives sets of geographical coordinates to the library.

* Address search (what are the coordinates for a street address); need to 
use something like Geonames for that, but it won't be half as good as 
Google's free text address search

>From OSM you only get the first one, the source vector map material. You 
can't simply download map tiles from their tile server all the time (see 
https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/tiles/ ).

Then I'll need something like Leaflet to replace the javascript library, 
it's some work to convert to that.

Then I'll need to download the tiles from somewhere, either from one of 
the free or paid tile servers, or perhaps set up my own tile server, which 
takes quite some work and plenty of server capacity to run 
(https://switch2osm.org/serving-tiles/building-a-tile-server-from-packages/ 
- see below "Import map data" and "Hardware" headlines).

https://switch2osm.org/ describes the process quite well. It's plenty of 
work, but I'll have to look into it.

   - Hessu, OH7LZB

I use findlotsize.com professionally for property surveys. It tells me (usually) how many buildings may be on a property and approximate sizes of them. The site recently made login and measurement tools changes. More steps involved now. Didn't know the map source had changed.

Chris

KB8UIH

-----------------------------------------

From: "Joe WB9SBD"
To: "GPSL"
Cc:
Sent: Friday July 27 2018 9:31:49AM
Subject: [GPSL] Google Maps Issue.

I remember there might be an Issue with tracking systems not being able to use Google Maps in the Future. Well at least for free.

I just ran into a possible alternative. I use a site that used to use Google Maps, it is a real estate site, that you can find lot sizes by drawing boundaries on the map etc.

I just came from there to check on our Field Day site and found this message..

Find Size of a Home Lot or Plat of Land

July 13, 2018 - FindLotSize.com has changed our mapping services to use Apple maps. With Apple, as the maps provider, we can offer our measurement services for free. Please note that street view is not available.

If you prefer to use Google Maps then we offer a paid service at MeasureLotSize.com.

The Maps are dated, Because, in the close up image below is from a good 6 years or so ago. Had a bad roof on my house and had a blue tarp on it back then,  But other than dated the level of quality is not too bad.



Joe WB9SBD



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