Leading Edge Rocketry Fireball

Ever since my first night launch experience, with my meeger flight of the Estes Astro-beam, I've been wanting something more. I had become smitten with Leading Edge's "Alien" rocket, but was deterred by the amount of meticulous electrical work it requires - my fingers aint made for that... It's funny that a was a day or so away from commiting to the alien, when I saw the ad for the Fireball. Hold the phone! "This thing really looked cool, and all of the business is in the nosecone, so it's probably already done, right". I checked the LE website at first chance, and there was no mention of this new night flier, so I decided to wait it out. When I saw the article on RP announcing it's availability, I put my order in.
My first dissapointment was imediate, when the mailman delivered a box in terrible disarray. I know it traveled from the Pacific North-west to the east side of the Midwest, but they could have at least put it IN the truck! I cut it open immediatly just in case. Fortunately the kit was fine, just a slight distortion to the body tube.
Upon inspection of the kit, my hopes faded fast. Seems the electronics do need to be built, but it's not as big of a deal as is on the Alien. I can live with this. Only hitch is that I need to get a polarized soldering iron, my go-to iron is not. The nuts and bolts of the build are basic, the buisiness of the lighting will be a bit more involved. More to come when I get back home. Pic1- Box, Pic2- Mechanicals, Pic3- electricals

"a polarized soldering iron". I have never heard of this. Is this a DC/battery powered iron? And why would you need such to solder LEDs and caps and resistors? I have soldered PICs, ICs, and surfaced mount items with a 25 watt RS iron with no trouble. The only precaution is to ground yourself when you solder.

Does the instructions say why you need this iron and where to buy one?

I am very curious.

Karl
KG8GC

beemerguy said:

"a polarized soldering iron". I have never heard of this. Is this a DC/battery powered iron? And why would you need such to solder LEDs and caps and resistors? I have soldered PICs, ICs, and surfaced mount items with a 25 watt RS iron with no trouble. The only precaution is to ground yourself when you solder.

Does the instructions say why you need this iron and where to buy one?

I am very curious.

Karl
KG8GC

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The instructions say that a non-polarized (having only the two-pronged plug) soldering iron, generates a magnetic field that can damage some components. It's all greek to me, so I have little choice but to believe them.

"Two prong plug." Now it makes sense. The three prong plug has a grounding prong.

An iron with a three prong wall plug should be available at Radio Shack or any electronics parts place or maybe even at Loew's or Home Depot at a reasonable price. I think I have seen one at Sears Hardware.

Be careful when you handle the IC. Make sure you only touch the case and not the pins. I would recommend getting a wrist grounding strap from Radio Shack or somewhere and use it when building the electronics anyway.

JMHO

Karl
KG8GC

beemerguy said:

"Two prong plug." Now it makes sense. The three prong plug has a grounding prong.

An iron with a three prong wall plug should be available at Radio Shack or any electronics parts place or maybe even at Loew's or Home Depot at a reasonable price. I think I have seen one at Sears Hardware.

Be careful when you handle the IC. Make sure you only touch the case and not the pins. I would recommend getting a wrist grounding strap from Radio Shack or somewhere and use it when building the electronics anyway.

JMHO

Karl
KG8GC

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I will do that, and thanks for the advise. This type of assembly will be a first for me.

I was out riding my scooter today, man what a beautiful day, and happened by a Radio Shack. RS has the iron you need: 15 watts, three prong plug and only $8.99 with a very small rest. It has a silver conical tip made for small places and things. Ask for the grounded soldering iron.

Good luck and post a photo when you finish please. A night photo would be good.

Karl

Great, I'll pick one up tomorrow. I'll be documenting the build, so there will be plenty of pic's to come. Thanks again Karl.

You are very welcome, I'm glad I could help.

$8.99 it was, thanks again.
Got a start on the assembly yesterday, making a minor modification. Though I was happy to see that kevlar was provided for the shock cord lead, It looked a bit "zippery" to me if not tied off before the end of the BT. To change this, I slotted the fore centering ring to accept 1/2" wide muletape. This eight foot length will be the only shock cord, no elastic will be used.
This will not be news to some, I just want to comment on the quality of this Leading Edge kit. Very complete and very good quality, right down to the provided engine retention hardware. Stainless retainer, socket-head capscrews, tee-nuts, and they even include a wrench! This is a top notch kit.
I'm going to try to stretch this build process out as long as possible, so I don't have to sit and stare at the finished product for too long. First flight is planned for MWP9, which is a looooooong way out. I really should be working on my L2 project anyway...

Chad;
I've been waiting to hear more about this kit, and I'm surprized that there isn't a video on YouTube yet. Thanks for your evaluation and documenting the build. But you might be surprized by MWP 9. It will be here before you know it.

Flatlander said:

Chad;
I've been waiting to hear more about this kit, and I'm surprized that there isn't a video on YouTube yet. Thanks for your evaluation and documenting the build. But you might be surprized by MWP 9. It will be here before you know it.

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Events do have a tendency to sneak up on me, but I'll be ready with time to spare. I'm not fooling anyone (especially myself) by trying to stretch this out. I have the fins tacked in place, will get them permanantly secured later today. Going to get on the electronics this weekend, unless the weather allows me to do some yardwork, grumble.

As I suspected, I was able to get the fins permanantly secured this evening. On the last few builds I've done, I've been "doweling" the inner fillets of the TTW fins. On the smaller ones like this, I use bamboo kabob skewers. They are very pliable and have a nice rough, almost fluted, surface that really grabs the epoxy. Though you can't see the inner dowels in the picture, they are there. Four dowels per fin, one in every corner. I think the rough finish is to keep the shrimp from spinning out of control on the grill, a job the skewers also handle nicely. I've found that this method of reinforcement makes for a very strong fincan, and I also use quite a bit less epoxy - a win-win all the way around. I'll get the aft centering ring set and it'll be ready for primer.

I didn't have a chance to get to the electronics this weekend, so I picked away at the main airframe a minuite here/minuite there. Got it all filleted, sanded, and on the rotisserie for a first coat of primer. I'm using white primer cuz I'm thinking about painting the fins some shade of red, instead of the all-black on the facecard.

Any pictures of the electronics?

Edit:Never mind...

After reading the instructions a couple more times, and trying to pawn the job off entirely to an electrician friend of mine, it's time to just do it! The instructions are very good, so I'm confident the results will be good. Will report back a bit later.

The circuit board looks really simple. This should be a great beginners project. I'm sure it will come out fine.

Just make sure all of your components are in the correct orientation before soldering. Soldering is fairly easy, desoldering can be a liitle more difficult for a novice so best to get it right the first time.

A few basic soldering tips:

Apply heat to the component lead and the pad evenly and apply solder to the lead not the iron or the pad. The solder will flow onto the pad. This will prevent cold joints.

Total time per node should be short, about 1 second. Some components are more heat sensitive than others. Start with your resistors to get a feel for it, do your ICs last.

If your circuit board hasn't been pre-tinned you need to make sure that the copper is bright and shiny and free of oxidation. A light burnishing with a scotch bright pad will accomplish this. Becareful, not so much presure as to lift any runs from the board.

I was all worked up for nothing, what a difference it makes when you're not trying to solder with plumbing solder! There were a couple issues, but nothing common sense couldn't solve. This is the bulkhead/battery holder assembly and the completed LED assembly.

The LED assembly has a fiber type base, and is simply glued to the top of the bulkhead assembly. The circuit board is then epoxied to the bulkhead and the final connections are made.

Thanks for the video--looks to be about as bright as the Wildman/Don Ball Nite Bow. I bet that will not get lost at night very easily!

Wow! That's really bright!

Good job man.

JPVegh said:

Wow! That's really bright!

Good job man.

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Thanks. It is CRAZY bright! I can't wait to fly it now! Oops, better finish painting it. I was at first put off by the involved construction of the LE Alien, as well, maybe I'll order up one of those too.:dark:

Thanks for the great build documentation and video!!

Happy Flying!

chadrog said:

https://youtu.be/uEDy47dOs5A

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Awesome! I bet that will be really fun to watch at night! Be sure to get the night launch video for us to enjoy! Thanks!

WizardOfAZ said:

Awesome! I bet that will be really fun to watch at night! Be sure to get the night launch video for us to enjoy! Thanks!

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No worries there, my friend - I'll fly it untill I get a good video!

Just pluggin' away at the finish now. Fins have been painted Krylon banner red, now several coats of black to finish it off.

In the home-stretch now.

Even though this kit is supplied with a full compliment of high quality vinyl graphics, I'm going to hold off on applying all of them. I'll save the remaining half-set in the event repair work should be needed. In the meantime, I will anxiously await the arrival of the LE Alien that I just ordered.

Has it flown yet?

See post #9.

The first flight is scheduled for MWP9.

G.D.