Brainstormz123
Well-Known Member
This week, I realized I have an I500 and don't want it anymore, so what better to do with it than send it really really hard this weekend. I forged some fiberglass fins to surface mount onto the case, and have a resin printed nosecone and avionics bay for the flight. iHop is the name because it has an I impulse motor and "hop because it's gonna hop off that pad". This first picture is when I did a test printed PLA nosecone.
Some info on the fins:
I made both forged carbon and forged fiberglass fins in the same size. The carbon ones were noticeably stiffer than the fiberglass, but fiberglass looked cooler, so I chose to use the fiberglass fins. The fin molds are printed in PLA and then composite strands and epoxy are mixed into the mold and then squeezed really tight a la easycomposites (). These turned out really well, and there is a groove in the fins in order to do inlayed almost "tip to tip".
This is a printed tower modified off of @Model_rockets really epic tower using electrical conduit. It mounts to a 1010 rail at the top and bottom with the conduit connecting them together. I don't own a long 1010 rail to test fit it, so I printed tiny little pieces just to make sure everything aligned.
This here was my first openrocket sim, the rocket was designed to be really really lightweight, and I think I did a pretty good job doing it in reality. Expected to be firmly in the mach 2 range and around 10000 ft in altitude when starting out.
As for electronics, I have a custom flight computer I designed that I may fly on its first flight. It's called "Sparrow" and was designed to fit in an 18mm coupler. It has a built in 433mhz RDF beacon in order to track.
Capabilities:
4 channels
200g 3 axis Accelerometer
16g 6axis accelerometer + gyro
barometer + temperature
flash for logging things
buzzer
LED
Built in RDF 433mhz beacon (will require external wire whip antenna)
Headers for future GPS and better telemetry expansion as a stacked board (didnt feel like cadding those)
Dimensions: 16mm x 37mm (0.64 x 1.4in) Pictured with an 18mm Estes motor below
I wanted to do the inlayed tip-to-tip on these fins since the fiberglass is just really weak at least compared to carbon and I am fairly worried about flutter, given it will be very fast very low down. I gave a "pseudo-prepreg" technique a try for these. The steps were to cut a fin template out of paper, then put a sheet of mylar, a layer of carbon, wet out the carbon, place the second sheet of mylar on top, place the template on top of the sandwich and cut out the shape. Then remove the top layer of mylar, place the cut shape on your fins, press it into place, and finally remove the final mylar layer. This helps to make sure you dont tear/separate the fibers on the sheet when doing the layup.
All 3 layers on picture before cleaning up:
Some info on the fins:
I made both forged carbon and forged fiberglass fins in the same size. The carbon ones were noticeably stiffer than the fiberglass, but fiberglass looked cooler, so I chose to use the fiberglass fins. The fin molds are printed in PLA and then composite strands and epoxy are mixed into the mold and then squeezed really tight a la easycomposites (). These turned out really well, and there is a groove in the fins in order to do inlayed almost "tip to tip".
This is a printed tower modified off of @Model_rockets really epic tower using electrical conduit. It mounts to a 1010 rail at the top and bottom with the conduit connecting them together. I don't own a long 1010 rail to test fit it, so I printed tiny little pieces just to make sure everything aligned.
This here was my first openrocket sim, the rocket was designed to be really really lightweight, and I think I did a pretty good job doing it in reality. Expected to be firmly in the mach 2 range and around 10000 ft in altitude when starting out.
As for electronics, I have a custom flight computer I designed that I may fly on its first flight. It's called "Sparrow" and was designed to fit in an 18mm coupler. It has a built in 433mhz RDF beacon in order to track.
Capabilities:
4 channels
200g 3 axis Accelerometer
16g 6axis accelerometer + gyro
barometer + temperature
flash for logging things
buzzer
LED
Built in RDF 433mhz beacon (will require external wire whip antenna)
Headers for future GPS and better telemetry expansion as a stacked board (didnt feel like cadding those)
Dimensions: 16mm x 37mm (0.64 x 1.4in) Pictured with an 18mm Estes motor below
I wanted to do the inlayed tip-to-tip on these fins since the fiberglass is just really weak at least compared to carbon and I am fairly worried about flutter, given it will be very fast very low down. I gave a "pseudo-prepreg" technique a try for these. The steps were to cut a fin template out of paper, then put a sheet of mylar, a layer of carbon, wet out the carbon, place the second sheet of mylar on top, place the template on top of the sandwich and cut out the shape. Then remove the top layer of mylar, place the cut shape on your fins, press it into place, and finally remove the final mylar layer. This helps to make sure you dont tear/separate the fibers on the sheet when doing the layup.
All 3 layers on picture before cleaning up: