Flight testing of altimeters and GPS Tx using drone

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

egp

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 9, 2017
Messages
62
Reaction score
9
Anyone use a drone to flight test avionics? I’m thinking of tie-wrapping my avbay sled to a drone to test my missileworks RTx, RRC3 and RRC2 setup.
 
No need to. They are all exceptional products!

This is what you do. Stick them in a rocket and use a lower powered motor to keep the rocket within sight or keep the outta sight time to a minimum.
You get to see how the system performs and build confidence. Once you're comfortable and have the venue, punch it out of sight for the entire flight.
Go to the last known position and hopefully you'll be within the ground footprint of the tracker or it's within eye shot. Kurt
 
Agreed. Fly your tracker first in something that doesn't really need one so you get familiar with it, before you stuff it in your out of sight mach buster.
 
With respect to testing altimeters on a drone, take note that *some* rocketry altimeters detect launch by measuring a certain rise in altitude over a short period of time: perhaps hundreds of feet in 3-5 seconds, for example. Without detecting launch, they may not be collecting data.

Mark
 
Last edited:
The rrc3 has an arming altitude which can be set (default is 300 ft).

I was out flying my drone and testing my RTx today, and just thought it might be cool to strap the sled on the drone! On the Rx, I have it connected to the missileworks LCD module, and it would be nice to get some experience reading the output in a slower and less stressful environment!
 
Eggtimer altimeters start recording at typically 200' AGL and do not consider the rate of rise, a few of them are programmable. For example, the Quantum cycles through the entire allocated flight memory (about 2000 samples) for "pre-flight" recording, so at 20 samples/sec you have about 100 seconds to get to 200'. That would be a pretty slow drone...
 
"testing your setup" of altimeters usually means wiring and deployment events. You are better off doing that on the ground with the altimeter's test functions or using a vacuum chamber of sorts. Barometric altimeters are pretty robust and do what they are supposed to do.

Practicing GPS tracking and recording is a good idea, whether on your drone or on the ground.
 
Back
Top