Rocket Project

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jctj
 
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Rocket Project

Post by jctj »

Hello,

I teach in Minnesota, USA and I am planning a project for my class to build rockets. We will use Sketchup (or some other software) to design the small scale rocket, a 3D printer to make the rocket, insert the rocket engine, and then see how high the rockets actually go (that being the design optimization criteria). I will give the kids a starting model that does nothing but house the rocket engine and they can design the rest of the rocket.

Problem: how to accurately measure the altitude of each rocket? I have found an altimeter microSensor V4 at http://www.eagletreesystems.com/index.p ... duct_id=60 and I suspect it is the best approach as it is already tiny and optimized for R/C models. But, I was wondering if there was a way to get one of the barometric sensors to be able to independently record altitude during a flight. The combined sensor needs to be fairly small and light-weight, so no strapping an entire Arduino board + 9V battery to it. The altimeter microSensor can work in stand-alone mode but then you only get the max altitude, not the data of the entire flight.

My current plan is for the kids to design a (safe) way for their rocket to carry the sensor and then just interchange the sensor between rockets. With 2 or 3 sensors, we can launch 2 or 3 rockets at the same time for more fun....

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Rocket Project

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

You could use something like a barometric sensor and an Arduino Micro. The Micro is available without headers. And if you log the altitude data to EEPROM, you can save the weight if an SD card. The tradeoff of course is limited storage (1KB max).

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jctj
 
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Re: Rocket Project

Post by jctj »

Thank you!
Current plan: Micro Arduino (w/o Headers) + BMP183 + 2 x 2032 Coin Cell Battery Holder + 2 x 2032 batteries = rocket altimeter. I will maximize memory usage by having the arduino NOT save any data until there is a 10' change in altitude and, depending on how fast the memory fills up, it can stop recording once it drops 100' from its max height. Cost ≈ $38, weight = 16g, and I get either 1K of flight data

If I went with the Eagle Tree altimeter MicroSensor V4, Cost ≈ $43, weight = 14g, and I only get the max height - no flight data collection. Arduino wins!

So - any problems with my cobbled-together stand-alone rocket-borne altimeter and flight recorder? Any improvements?
From the way you responded last time, I am guessing that I cannot use any of the memory other than the EEPROM 1K for saving flight data?

Thank you in advance.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Rocket Project

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

You could save memory in SRAM also. But it is volatile. Any interruption in power and it would be lost.
We also have some FRAM memory breakouts - butthey would add another gram or two (plus wiring): https://www.adafruit.com/search?q=FRAM

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jctj
 
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Re: Rocket Project

Post by jctj »

Thank you!

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