RockBlock Sat based module

[MarkH]

If you get the weekly Sparkfun new product emails you probably saw this... this could have use as a satellite based tracker in a high dollar Black Rock flight or similar, in place of RF tracker or perhaps as a redundant tracker.  Minimum dimension for the bare device is 76 mm which is a tad on the fat side.  The price on the manufacturer site is ~ 180 USD. 

RockBlock

[Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOJ_VtSikAA]
[video=youtube;NOJ_VtSikAA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOJ_VtSikAA[/video]

can' figure out the video embed, oh well

http://www.rock7mobile.com/

[rstaff3]

Nice that you can pay as you go for the Iridium service.

[caveduck]

Pretty cool overall. The "naked" module is only 51.5 mm wide, but 19mm high so it is not going to sled into a 54mm tube, but should easily go in a 3" or better tube. You do have to pay > $10 for any month in which you use it. Requires external antenna and a decent battery (quoted 100mA @ 5V). Can provide inflight readings regardless of altitude as long as the GPS stays locked. No cell coverage or ground RF propagation issues...there's a lot to like here.

[T34zac]

That's really cool. I like that you can get two units and they can talk to each other anywhere in the world. Would make getting data back from a high altitude project very easy.