• Investigate longer duration pico flight
  • Increase the operating time of the payload through the use of power saving and additional solar cells.

• uAva board (Atmega328 + Ublox 6 GPS + RFM22b)
• External power regulator MCP1700 LDO 3.3v
• 2 x AAA Lithium energizers through a NCP1402 Step Up
• 2 x 3.6v 100mA Solar Panels through a diode

Li Energizer -------NCP1402----\
                                \
                                 ----MCP1700----- Payload
                                /
Solar Panels -------Diode------/

With this setup during the day when the solar panels are outputing a higher voltage than 3.3v (from the NCP1402) then they'll be used to power the payload, as the sunsets and the solar panel output drops it'll switch to the lithium energizers for night time. During this time the payload will be in a power save setup where it'll transmit periodically.