Weight

I completely forgot to weight individual parts before putting everything together, so this table gives only approximate values:

Component Weight
Styrofoam box 10oz
APRS tracker with GPS 3oz
Canon A1100is camera 5oz
10xAA L91 batteries with battery holder 9oz
Beacon with battery 1oz
Hand warmers 3 oz
Parachute 5oz
Glue, velcro, misc 4oz
TOTAL 2.4 lb

Plug this weight into HABHUB Burst Calculator, and it generated the following altitude prediction:

Altitude prediction

Altitude prediction

Translation:  HAB-1 needed 105 cubit feet of helium, which generated 2.5kg (5.5lb) neck lift; balloon was expected to ascend for 78 minutes at 5m/s (15ft/s) rate and burst at 26km (85,000ft) altitude.

Helium

We bought a size “S” tank with 120 cubic feet of Helium. Rent of the cylinder was $50 and Helium itself cost $90.

Helium tank

Helium tank