Avionics Pictorial Thread - Post Yours

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DRAGON64

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I find myself searching everywhere on this forum for tips and ideas on how to design and build a reliable avionics package for my rockets. I found during my search that there are some real pieces of art out there, but not all are in the same place. I thought many of you would not mind sharing builds here with a nice pictorial preview of your avionics designs. Having many designs on one thread would sure go a long way to helping many of the new to get a feel for how to build their own avionic set-ups.

No bars hold, we would love to see your avionics to include recovery electronics, cameras, and staging builds. Care to share them?
 
3" Bull Puppy converted nosecone altimeter side
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3" Bull Puppy converted nosecone tracker side
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54mm MD dual altimeter bay side A
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54mm MD dual altimeter bay side B
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4" Madcow Tembo converted nosecone tracker and C02 ejection side
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4" Madcow Tembo converted nosecone altimeter side
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will post more pics of two other bays as well as some nosecone dual tracker, only bays
 
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Note copper strip for integrated screw switch
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Basic dual deploy with GPS for a nosecone 24mm


Mid section AV bays for 24mm and 38mm
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Here's the bay I made for a 4" Madcow Phoenix. I should have epoxied the weight at the tip of the nose instead of leaving it in the bay. The board with the antenna is a Eggtimer remote switch.

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Phoenix bay 2.jpg
 
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RRC2+ mounted on Missileworks 38mm sled. Going in a LOC Weasel, the bay will stretch the Weasel four inches. I used a four inch section of body tube, two four inch couplers epoxied into the body tube, to create an eight inch bay. I used another coupler, sliced to fit inside the bay couplers to provide a shoulder for the bulkheads to seal against. The paper lug spacers will be replaced with aluminum tube. I plan to just run the charge leads through a hole in the bulkheads, and, seal with modeling clay putty. Any criticism or tips are appreciated!!

David

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Making a battery holder for the choking-hazard-sized LiPo for the Featherweight Raven:

ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1438132749.474726.jpg


Rough cut with Favorite Hobby Knife.

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Sanded to match, positioned in board.

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Steps added to achieve desired thickness--this is scrap balsa left over from an Estes Mega Mosquito build, by the way--and arm cut, soaked in CA, drilled for #2-#56, which is tapped into ply underneath.

ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1438132883.154107.jpg


Function test... all good from this end.


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Finally wired up. After this, conduit was added for aesthetics.

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Later!

--Coop
 
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This is a 4" avionics package I designed in SolidWorks a few years back...

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And these are the as built images from that model...

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The package was very robust, and would have bee great for someone who was flying their 4" design on an M or N motor.
 
I'd like to find out more about that program you mentioned....
 
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This is the avionics bay from "Europa Express" ...
All glass,, all scratch,, 3",, 54mm central,, 2-- 38 mm outboards that the Marsa 54L airstarts...
On one side is the Marsa 54L doing Primary duty...
On that same side are the 2 Eggtimer Rocketry electronic switches...
One the other side is the Eggtimer doing secondary duty,,
and the 2-- 2s lipo batteries powering the 2 altimeters....
The larger battery is the one powering the Marsa as it does the airstarts.....

Teddy
 
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This is the nose cone from "Europa Express"...
An Eggfinder on one side
and a Big Red Bee 70 cm beacon Tx on the other side..
These pic's are on the page of my website with the U bolts
to depict how I attach the threaded rod from the sled
straight through the bulkhead to the U bolt...
It is important to note that all of the steel stops short of the Eggfinders GPS Rx antenna
( the tan 3/4" square with the white square in the center of it )...
The Tx antennas for both units are mounted on the nosecone's bulkhead facing down so they are well away from the both units...

https://onebadhawk.com/stainless-steel-u--bolts.html

Teddy
 
From a 5" Shape Shifter. The charge canisters have some putty on the bottom so when I slide them into the holders it seals the bay. As with all my bays, the charges are wired directly to the altimeters. I have also eliminated most all switches and have gone to twist and tape.

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For those of you putting sleds into nose cones (particularly mpitfield and onebadhawk) what method do you use to keep the sled attached to the nose cone? I'm not quite seeing it from the pictures. I'm thinking of converting my MDRM cone into an avbay for electronic deployment, but haven't decided on a design yet.
 
For those of you putting sleds into nose cones (particularly mpitfield and onebadhawk) what method do you use to keep the sled attached to the nose cone? I'm not quite seeing it from the pictures. I'm thinking of converting my MDRM cone into an avbay for electronic deployment, but haven't decided on a design yet.

Post # 13 is the nose cone from "Europa Express" Oberon........
Or check the link to the U bolt page on my site...
That has all of these so you can see how I use the U bolts....

Teddy
 
Teddy (or others with trackers) - What connectors do you use to pass the BRB antenna through the bulkheads? I'm looking to get a BRB unit for a 3" project and i was trying to look at other peoples designs to figure out if you can mount the antenna in the recovery bay, since it appears too long to completely contain within a 6" coupler. Also, im assuming from the pictures that the antenna is durable enough to survive ejection charges/recovery gear deployment?
 
Teddy (or others with trackers) - What connectors do you use to pass the BRB antenna through the bulkheads? I'm looking to get a BRB unit for a 3" project and i was trying to look at other peoples designs to figure out if you can mount the antenna in the recovery bay, since it appears too long to completely contain within a 6" coupler. Also, im assuming from the pictures that the antenna is durable enough to survive ejection charges/recovery gear deployment?

It's a jumper cable...
You can get them from a few places the easiest of which is ebay I guess...
Just remember---The antenna connection on the Eggtimer is RP-SMA...
The antenna connection on the Big Red Bee is SMA...

RP stands for "Reverse polarity"...
The center pin is in the opposite connector...
No matter,, they must match..

Teddy

I'll find ya some links...
 
For those of you putting sleds into nose cones (particularly mpitfield and onebadhawk) what method do you use to keep the sled attached to the nose cone? I'm not quite seeing it from the pictures. I'm thinking of converting my MDRM cone into an AV bay for electronic deployment, but haven't decided on a design yet.

Here are some pics of a 3" nosecone AV bay I designed specifically for the Mutitronix TelemtryPro system. I focused on making the nosecone as metal-free as reasonable. The TelemetryPro transmitter slides into a 54mm MMT tube, sitting on an inner tube that keeps it about .5" off the bottom of the tube. Then a small ring goes over the top of the transmitter to prevent it from moving forward, straightforward design.

This pic is looking from the bottom of the nosecone up into it; you can see the secure ring I added to connect to the bottom bulkhead using tow short machine screws into self-clinching nuts. The indents in the sides of the ring were sanded out to allow the Kevlar to pass through. The ring is precision CNC cut and allows no slack for the 54mm MMT to pass through; it's a perfect fit.
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This pic shows the 54mm MMT, which is epoxied to the bottom bulkhead and recessed into a ring, which you cannot see. This makes for a very precise and tight fit. You can see the short top collar sticking out the top of the MMT.
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This shows the stack of spacers and the blank which is .02 longer than the TelemtryPro to allow a slight bit of wiggle room
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Here is the tube sliding out of the bottom of the nosecone and you can see the 11/32 Kevlar, which I purchased form Teddy @ One Bad Hawk, and the holes it goes through on the bulkhead are the smallest holes you could ever squeeze that stuff through. Once it is through the hole it expands back to its original size then it is epoxied to the MMT...it is on there for good. Even if the MMT was not there, the harness would not pull through due to the embedded epoxy.
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I opted for the Kevlar loop instead of a traditional eye or U-bolt because I wanted to avoid using metal and this rocket is already overstable, so I wanted to avoid any additional mass. I loop my recovery harness through it without using a quick-link

Another shot of the Kevlar epoxied to the side of the MMT
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When not flying Kate, I also have another sled that can slide into this tube and holds my TeleGPS on one side and the Comspec AT-2B on the other. It was also CNC cut and fits perfectly without any slop.

I will post another one from a 54mm MD build, that also uses dual trackers.
 
This is a 54mm MD nosecone, for a carbon fibre rocket with the nosecone and coupler being FW/FG.

Because I wanted easy access to the nosecone avionics for quick arming at the pad without putting a switch in-line, I opted for a removable nosecone from the coupler. To clarify the need for this, if your recovery system is connected to your nosecone and the shear pins are in place, then you cannot easily remove the nosecone on the launchpad. However, in my case, I simply undo three screws pop the nosecone off, and it does not disturb the carefully packed recovery system or shear pins. The coupler is attached to the nosecone with three screws and self-clinching nuts epoxied inside to the coupler, as can be seen looking up from the bottom of the coupler. You can also see the same secure ring epoxied into the bottom of the coupler, which is how I secure the bottom bulkhead
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This is the G10 CNC cut sled that has the TeleGPS on one side, with its battery zip-tied vertically and horizontally. Then the Comspec AT-2B is zip-tied onto the other side, using some of the empty holes you can see in the picture as well as some that are under the mounted TeleGPS.
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I used Kevlar, but in this case, I tied a knot and put a small amount of CA just on the knot, being careful not to allow the CA to soak into the rope and make it brittle. Keep in mind with these nosecones there is not a lot of mass, and the main chute is attached to the 3rd loop on my One Bad Hawk harness
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Side view showing the holes for the self-clinching nuts to screw into, at the top, and the holes below with self-clinching nuts epoxied into the back for the shear pins.
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The bottom bulkhead, which is two bulkheads epoxied to each other. The top one being the inside diameter of the coupler, making for a tight fit as well as a strong bulkhead. I also like to use a washer with a lock washer. Again the Kevlar harness loops to my main recovery harness without a quick-link.
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This is a 3" AV bay for dual altimeters, one per side of the board. This is the same design on used for my 54mm MD sled, which is mounted centrally between the stainless threaded rod. The sled is attached to the all-thread using what I call dog bones which are epoxied to each end of the G10 sled.

This AV bay used dual CNC black anodized blast canisters, which have holes in the bottom that the e-match passes through directly into the AV bay and connects directly to the altimeters. This one is still wired up from testing I was doing on it last week. The e-match passes through the hole, and you slip a small o-ring onto the lead then using an Allen wrench you tighten the canister down on the bulkhead, and it squeezes the O-ring into a depression on the side of the bulkhead and canister sealing the e-match lead. This prevents and blow-back into the AV bay and works very well.

SL100 side of the sled. You will also notice magnetic switches on all my altimeter sleds, which is my go-to switch and works very well.
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SLCF side of the sled
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Here you can see the e-match leads coming out of the hole on the underside of the bulkhead, the Allen bolt in the middle.
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This is the end of the AV bay which is removable using wing nuts. You can see the e-matches recessed in the blast canisters. I was experimenting with cutting back the plastic shield on the e-matches.
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This end of the AV bay is permanently mounted to the threaded rod and sled, using acorn nuts.
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A side view showing how everything is orientated and spaced as evenly as possible to keep it reasonably balanced.
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MAN you do some gorgeous work Michael..
I have said this before,,
actually each time I see another example of your work..
Tight,, neat,, meticulous,,
Geez man,, talk about attention to detail...
Really cool Michael..

Teddy
 
3" AV bay for my Hyperloc 300 using PerfectFlite StratoLogger 100 and 8-12G Peregrine CO2 System.


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MAN you do some gorgeous work Michael..
I have said this before,,
actually each time I see another example of your work..
Tight,, neat,, meticulous,,
Geez man,, talk about attention to detail...
Really cool Michael..

Teddy

Thanks Teddy, coming from you that is a big compliment because I know the attention to detail that you have.

3" AV bay for my Hyperloc 300 using PerfectFlite StratoLogger 100 and 8-12G Peregrine CO2 System.

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Hey TimeBadit, have you had any failures on that C02 system due to the charge driving the C02 into the pin with too much energy?
 
I am blown away here; there are some beautiful builds posted on this thread... these opening up some very some good possibilities for future builds on my own rockets.
 
I am blown away here; there are some beautiful builds posted on this thread... these opening up some very some good possibilities for future builds on my own rockets.

It was a great idea to start this thread. I thank you for bringing the community together to show off the best ways to build an Av-bay.
 
Oberon, go out to John Coker's site and watch his video on how to modify nose cones. His way certainly isn't the only way, but it is a nice step-by-step lesson in how do it one way.

I am in the process of doing one right now for my Leviathan. I have a small sheet of 1/4" finished plywood (dance floor), a new drill press from Harbor Freight, some T-nuts, a piece of brass tubing, and eyebolt, and I am reading to start drilling and cutting.
 
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