What did you do rocket wise today?

I tallied up an order for $747.82 worth of LPR rockets and motors for our after-school rocket club - it should be a fun year!

redleder said:

Estes support rocks. I sent them an email with some pics last night and by noon today they had already processed a warranty claim and are shipping a new rocket and motor. Should be here in a week or so. At least I get more practice with epoxy again.


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They didn't cover the retainer?

Woody's Workshop said:

They didn't cover the retainer?

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I think they are sending the entire kit. The other one came with a retainer.


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markkoelsch said:

That looks very cool. A great many leds. What battery, and for how long will the battery last.

I love the i245 green. AT Mojave Green is my favorite.

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There are 3000 3528 Led's in the main tube and 72 purple 3528 Led's in 5 of the tube fins. Grand total of 3360 Led's.
Powered by 8 ENELOOP AA NIMH Rechargeable Batteries (two banks of 4 in two opposing tube fins). I get about 30 minutes with all the lights before some of the bands cut out. For some reason the red band stays on the longest at about an hour. I might eventually change over to Ultimate Lithium cells which should last longer and are considerably lighter (but are pricey). The nightbow in the nose cone will run for at least a day on 9 volt Duracell.
My upscale Solar Flare draws a lot more current and is powered by a 5000 mah lipo cell. I have about 20 min with it before I need to cut off the power to prevent damage to the lipo's (but it is seriously bright).

The red LEDs use less energy for the same brightness since the wavelength of red light is longer than the other wavelengths and thus has less energy. Does that sort of make sense?

Wow, after the last few rockets in this thread, I feel small..... Started a Semroc Bandit in the hotel last night. Ordered a Qualman fin guide since the Estes one I have seems tweaked and never can get them perfect with a home made guide.
Did calculations for the baffle assembly in a BTH-70 Bandit upscale. I should be able to upscale the original baffle without blowing up the rocket.

patelldp said:

Nice tubes!

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Yep, they sure worked out well for the purpose! Thanks for the special, It was definitely a great deal.

Incongruent said:

The red LEDs use less energy for the same brightness since the wavelength of red light is longer than the other wavelengths and thus has less energy. Does that sort of make sense?

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Perhaps, but these 300 and 600 led strip lights are simple and yet complex circuits at the same time. There is a lot of variation in the LED intensity and power draw of the strips. In other designs, it has been the green Led's that have lasted the longest. The human eye is most sensitive to green light and is the best choice if you need to use one color for a night launch. I can take a single 9 volt Duracell alkaline and power a 300 Led green strand for an hour (and some of the individual led's can glow faintly for a week).

Light up the Night!

Finishing up a test stand for a different kind of rocket engine:

That's just a small block...HP?

markkoelsch said:

Eric, your i55 was good as well. How high did your go?

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No clue....old school motor eject. If I had to guess, probably 3500'. Good times!

Order of events from last night:

1) Received my first Perfectflite product, a SLCF
2) :horse::marshmallow::grin:
3) Realized I didn't order the data cable interface with it
4)
5) Placed order for cable in shame

Did some more work on the steampunk rocket: nose cone, nose cone detail, and aging.
The nose cone is paper covered with 1/64 inch plywood.
I tried acrylics for aging because 1) I had acrylics and 2) I'm too impatient for oils.
Next up:
Repeat cycle of putting (too much) paint on and taking (too much) paint off.
Recovery system.

That thing is over the top on steam punking.
I believe the steam punk theme is sometimes suited more to be called cast iron punk.
But I guess the cast iron and steam era were one and the same.
Any plans of doing something in a larger scale?
I think you would real good at it.

Woody's Workshop said:

That thing is over the top on steam punking.
I believe the steam punk theme is sometimes suited more to be called cast iron punk.
But I guess the cast iron and steam era were one and the same.
Any plans of doing something in a larger scale?
I think you would real good at it.

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Thanks. I plan on doing a Quinstar next and then some larger rocket, probably one of the Estes PS II ones.

Still trying to dry out the shop after yesterday's flooding on the floor above.

Sanded primer on an Estes 220 Swift, a Star Trooper, a Mini-Comanche 3, and a Trajector (I'm going for something different than the stock scheme). It was too windy and cold for spray paint. Then I gathered all the pieces/parts to build my own Ventris SRB this weekend. I also inventoried my motors (minus my order from Chris that shipped today).

Finished assembly of the motor mount/baffle on the Semroc (Estes) Bandit.
Placed an order with eRockets for his last LOC Star Fighter, a new 24/40 casing, some BTH70 tube & some 1/4" dowel.

Well, I did this:

[video=youtube;UyqHIdR9bNs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyqHIdR9bNs[/video]


Not exactly "rockets", but at some level also piloting practice for flying R/C Rocket Boosted Gliders. And with a better FPV camera, on a Quadcopter, I hope to be able to find some lost rockets sometime.

I got some FPV gear in late December, but have not done much with it (broken arm, and bad weather). Did a couple of quadcopter flights but it was windy and not fun (not fun due to the wind, not the Quad, plus I was rusty at flying Quads) And tried it on a 20" span flying wing in way too much wind, really bad.

Weather was very good today (Tuesday), not much wind. So I flew FPV on an EasyStar, a well-proven model for doing FPV flying with power planes. Had a GREAT flying experience. Except for a very scary moment at the end, but it ended well.

The model was a bit tail heavy. I trimmed the elevator but still it stalled at times. Any time it seems like it just "stops" in mid-air, it had slowly pitched up in a stall and slowed down, then stalled, nosed down a bit and picked up some speed. I'll adjust the CG.

Years ago, I saw a Youtube video of FPV, the camera in an EasyStar. i've wanted to do FPV ever since, but the price was way too high for all the gear. Now the grand total for low-end gear can cost less than $100. Not the best gear, but it works well enough.

Here's what I wrote for the video description:

FPV flying an EasyStar for the first time, a LOT of fun! On a low-wind da,y not too cold, great day to fly. Using a 6 gram Eachine TX03 Camera/Tx powered by a 3 gram 150 mAh 3.7V lipo, and Eachine VR D2 goggles to record. No audio. The first minute or so was by eye, to do the climb and to work out the rudder and elevator trim as it had not flown in about 2 years and with a new model memory.

The flying went so well that the 3.7V 150 mAh lipo for the camera/Tx died before I could land! Good thing was it was coming my way anyway and I saw and landed it without any problem. For the future I'll run the TX03 off of a 3.7V tap from the 2200 mAh 3S Lipo pack. And also will bump the TX-03's output from 25 milliwatts to 200 milliwatts (that is a big reason for some of the signal loss as the model did not get that far away. And many of the video static moments were wth the house or ground between me and the model. That is why when I saw it go from solid video to 100% snow, I realized the video battery had gone dead.

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BTW - here's a photo of someone else's EasyStar. I mounted the camera above the nose on mine, tilted down about 10 degrees from horizontal to see a bit more of the ground.



And, a photo of the TX03 camera-Transmitter, a 3.7V battery (70 mAh, not the 150 mAh I used), and an 18mm engine for a size comparison.

Woody's Workshop said:

That's just a small block...HP?

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The stand was built for SBC and BBC. The one that's on it in the picture is just a basic 350 with MAYBE 300 hp. Next one on it will be a 383 in the 400-ish hp neighborhood. Then a 460 big block...

Is that your Manson George?
If so, you've got a really nice place!
And a nice BIG field right next door.
I guess I have something to do today.
Be trying to find your place on google earth...
btw, how you like the snow?

Noooo, I do not own that house! I am fortunate enough to be able to fly there.

I wouldn't have waited so many years to try FPV, and drive a 1999 Hyundai, if I had that kind of $!

I finished designing an altimeter sled for my Mongoose 54. The old fiberglass sled worked, but wire management and clearances were too close the way I built it. So with a 3D printer on order I set about designing a new one. There are a couple things I'm worried about in the design (overhang), but refining it will be a good learning experience. Just 5 more weeks of back order to wait out. All the holes are for zip ties to tighten the battery and along the sides for wire management. The risers on the back side are for the two magnetic switches. The two pits on the back are sized for the lipos I run this setup on.

Added rust and more grime. Did recovery system. I started a stand which I will also steampunk and will make a flight nose cone. (The current cone is dangerous!)

georgegassaway said:

Noooo, I do not own that house! I am fortunate enough to be able to fly there.

I wouldn't have waited so many years to try FPV, and drive a 1999 Hyundai, if I had that kind of $!

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I was going to say, that Manson is no where near Homewood, AL.
There's no open field for 20 miles in any direction of Homewood.
Only took me 30 seconds on google earth to realize Homewood is a burb of Birmingham.
So I guess me asking to move into the guest wing is out of the question, aye?

Still sanding, and finishing my Sprint XL. Added a 3" payload section at the top, will paint it black. So it will have the same paint scheme as the place card, just a wider black stripe.

My wife found this desk on a fb swap shop type page. Perfect for a workbench. Many other options are more expensive but you can't sit underneath it. So for $30 and they delivered it for me I can't complain. I did buy my 2 co-workers lunch which they wanted tacos and that was about $14. I'm happy as can be. Plus have storage and can put storage cabinets for parts etc on top too.


Michael

Looks like an Steel Case Desk.
Is that name stamped in the steel someplace?

Doing a slow casual Semroc Bandit build in a hotel room. Something to unwind with after shift at 4AM....
Rounded fins edges & installed motor mount. Glued the nose block in the bottom of the payload section.
Printed the fin guide from Payload bay & glued it to a piece of foam board.

I bought more rocket motors for my 29mm MD rockets for this weekend's launch. I already have an H226, two I224s for them. Whoosh!