NSL2008 Night Launch Project

I'm getting close to finishing my NSL2008 Project and figured that you may like to see it.

A micro-proceesor controlled 5 watt RGB LED( full color ), that has multi patterns store in a selectable format at the push of a button.

still have not powered it to full brightness, still working on battery saving, so to last longer. So far about (1) hour, trying to get 2 to 3 hour out of it, so I just added a PWM to the LED controls. Test to come!!

Verry nice!
Just one Q:
What's the rocket body made from?

38mm Fiberglass, don't remember what brand

The whole rocket is not fiberglass, this was a addon I'm working on that can be flown on any 38mm rocket, kinda like a airframe extention. The battery and controller is hidden inside the coupler.

Cool

My apologies if this turns out to be a thread hijack, but I thought this info might be helpful---

If you have a "dollar store" near you, it might be good to check out their valentine section. I found red plastic champagne (if that's how you spell it) glasses, two-for-a-buck, that would be easily adaptable to rocketry. A NC for 50 cents ain't bad, even if it does need a little work to finish it off.

I would volunteer to go back to Dollar Tree and buy what they have to mail out to you guys but the added cost of postage would increase the cost to where this isn't such a bargain.

Anyway, they are an excellent NC shape, they are rigidly molded from what appears to by styrene, they are very clear and would hold a goodly number of lighting systems. They have an outside diam of 2.0(0?) inches at the base and would make a great NC for some old centuri two-inch tube.

Hope this helps someone out there who is looking for ideas?



Hey WolfStar, is that light system something you designed? Is it offered by a vendor? Any other details?

powderburner said:

Hey WolfStar, is that light system something you designed? Is it offered by a vendor? Any other details?

Click to expand...

\\

Yes, it the next level of my NiteBow critters, Designed by me

only one has made it to a full production, BSD's "Diab-Glo"

5 different levels now, but by far the brightest

but here's a few of my other critters!

Hi Don:
There is talk of doing a night launch at the April BattlePark event. Actually, Rob Edmonds wants to also do night electric R/C aircraft flying. People were asking about rocket kits and I mentioned the https://www.bsdrocketry.com/kits/diabglo.htm and the https://www.leadingedgerocketry.com/catalog/sportster_detail/LE_11.html

But people seemed more interested in the prospect of buying lighting kits from you. So, what's the story on getting some lighting kits into production?
Best wishes,
Will

WolfStar said:

\\

Yes, it the next level of my NiteBow critters, Designed by me

only one has made it to a full production, BSD's "Diab-Glo"

5 different levels now, but by far the brightest

but here's a few of my other critters!

Click to expand...

I have a 20" flying saucer with 54mm MMT that I plan to add lights to. I have some 30 leds and I want to get them all to flash, but don't know how to do that. You have any circuit ideas I could use?

BTW your saucer looks cool!

Thanks a lot,
Mike

WillMarchant said:

Hi Don:
There is talk of doing a night launch at the April BattlePark event. Actually, Rob Edmonds wants to also do night electric R/C aircraft flying. People were asking about rocket kits and I mentioned the https://www.bsdrocketry.com/kits/diabglo.htm and the https://www.leadingedgerocketry.com/catalog/sportster_detail/LE_11.html

But people seemed more interested in the prospect of buying lighting kits from you. So, what's the story on getting some lighting kits into production?
Best wishes,
Will

Click to expand...

At one point I did think about doing just that, but after a long hard look at rocketry, then Night launch interest as a whole, choose to not do it.
I do however do some special design requests. Diab-Glo was a design I did on a mod of BSD Diablo, didn't think it would get as much attention as it did!

Maybe I should take another look at the market?
Thanks

I'd buy the light kits from you if you ever sold them...

Hey Nightwolf! I get info from National Semi and they had a couple of interesting Analog by Design presentations specifically about power circuits for high power LEDs. You might want to check in on them.

https://www.national.com/nationaltv

They had a few interesting bits about the best circuitry for powering these LEDs.

Aslo, have you looked at the LM4970? I am working on a night vehicle design using this chip. Since it has a audio response circuit, I am thinking of putting a mic on my rocket and having the launch noise drive the LEDs for part of the flight.

And I found a company that makes PCBs pretty cheap. They are only double sided but the charge is $2.50 a square inch plus a $10 setup/shipping fee. Turn-around time is 2-4 weeks depending on when they can get a big enough batch of boards to place an order. It seems to be a service offered by Sparkfun since the contact address is the same.

https://www.batchpcb.com/