Richter Recker night launch modifications

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terryg

terryg

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With our upcoming Desert Heat launch and It's night launch I decided I needed to add to my night launch fleet. I have had a Rickter Recker kit in the build pile for several years, so I blew the dust off of it and decided to convert it to a night launch vehicle. The advent of cheap and easy to work with LED strip lights have opened up a lot possibilities for night launches. I purchased a 5 meter 300 LED strip light from a Chinese ebay source ($6.95 and free shipping).

https://www.ebay.com/itm/5M-3528-SM..._Lights_Fairy_Lights&var=&hash=item72182d89e8

I built the Richter Recker kit with the following mods. I substituted basswood for the balsa fin stock and used 1/4 inch launch lugs with standoffs of screen molding to give clearance for the led lights. I added an extra coupler in front of the motor mount to give extra strength on landings and a 1/4" Kevlar shock cord and nylon parachute to keep both pieces together for recovery (the base is not lit). The nose cone was coating in epoxy and a baffle was also coated and used to make a battery compartment at the nose. It sims out to 900 to 1000 ft altitude with three E12-6 motors.

1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg
 
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Super neat. Please try to get some footage of that flying; I'd love to see the effect.

I know for a fact from modeling that you can run 50 bright LEDs for at least 15 hours off a 9 volt. One thing to look for is at what voltage they will activate, usually being somewhere from 3.2 volts up. You can also use resistors to use highter voltage sources. You can even add leds that have the "blinker" integrated, making sweet marker lights.

https://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/ledlights1.html

PS- If I remember my German correctly, might be funny to name it "Lichter Recker". I think Lichter is plural for "light".
 
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273paine said:
I wish I could be there. Are you doing a night launch?
Click to expand...

Unfortunatly, no I will not be night launching at this event. We have another night launch in October, on the 12th I am hoping to have my night rocket ready then. :(
 
The 3528 LEDs are pretty good about power consumption. The 5050 LEDs consist of three 3528 grouped together and are more power hungry. The 3528 LEDs can be run on voltages in the 7 to 14 volt range. They are blindingly bright on 14 volt, very bright on 12 volts and pretty bright even on 9 volts. On my test run with used 9 volt cells from my altimeter, I got about 30 to 45 min of light before I could tell it was getting dimmer. It kept getting dimmer, but was still producing significant light 6 hrs later (plenty of light to be able to find it on the ground in the dark). On the actual flight I am going to use a 9 volt lithium battery which has twice the maH rating and is lighter also. A fellow SARA light launch fanatic has built a 4" rocket that he has covered in blue 3528 strips from the tip of the nose to the fins (1500 LEDs at the last count). He used 8 AA cells to power it and it was still going strong after 4 hrs.
I have considered using LiPo cells but I am leary of the fragility of the cells. I would hate the have the rocket burst into flames after a very hard landing damaged the LiPo cells.
 
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terryg said:
The 3528 LEDs are pretty good about power consumption. The 5050 LEDs consist of three 3528 grouped together and are more power hungry. The 3528 LEDs can be run on voltages in the 7 to 14 volt range. They are blindingly bright on 14 volt, very bright on 12 volts and pretty bright even on 9 volts. On my test run with used 9 volt cells from my altimeter, I got about 30 to 45 min of light before I could tell it was getting dimmer. It kept getting dimmer, but was still producing significant light 6 hrs later (plenty of light to be able to find it on the ground). On the actual flight I am going to use a 9 volt lithium battery which has twice the maH rating and is lighter also. A fellow SARA light launch fanatic has built a 4" rocket that he has covered in blue 3528 strips from the tip of the nose to the fins (1500 LEDs at the last count). He used 8 AA cells to power it and it was still going strong after 4 hrs.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's very cool. I wouldn't have expected those sorts of run-times. I would hope that you would have recovered your rocket at night well within the 6 hours!!

The only night-launchable rocket I've got is one of the Leading Edge kits - I think it had about 30 LEDs on it, from memory. I'm going to have to look into something like this :)

Krusty
 
The strips can be cut every 3 LEDs (solder the power leads to the pads at the end of each segment) and can be used to outline fins and other rocket details. I like the green color since it is most visible at night (the human eye is most sensitive to green light).
 
MG13 said:
Super neat. Please try to get some footage of that flying; I'd love to see the effect.

I know for a fact from modeling that you can run 50 bright LEDs for at least 15 hours off a 9 volt. One thing to look for is at what voltage they will activate, usually being somewhere from 3.2 volts up. You can also use resistors to use highter voltage sources. You can even add leds that have the "blinker" integrated, making sweet marker lights.

https://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/ledlights1.html

PS- If I remember my German correctly, might be funny to name it "Lichter Recker". I think Lichter is plural for "light".
Click to expand...
Das ist richtig!:tongue:

Pretty cool stuff at that link! Man, all these temptations to spend my money!:rofl:
 
Those lights ARE great! Here is a picture by Kevin Johnson of one I built a couple of years ago. It's powered by a 3 cell lipo putting out 11.1 volts... VERY bright! This one had the lights flashing around the model for a few seconds, then all on for two. One word of caution, on some of the light strips the adhesive SUCKS!!!

night launch.jpg
 
rokitflite said:
Those lights ARE great! Here is a picture by Kevin Johnson of one I built a couple of years ago. It's powered by a 3 cell lipo putting out 11.1 volts... VERY bright! This one had the lights flashing around the model for a few seconds, then all on for two. One word of caution, on some of the light strips the adhesive SUCKS!!!
Click to expand...

I've used these type of strip LED's on RC planes for a while now and always set them up using a 3s lipo (I've tried a 2s but it wasn't bright enough). They do make some really small 3s lipos that are not much bigger then a 9v. Only draw back to lipo is you need a lipo charger.

With a helper it is possible to remove the tape backing and spray the backside with 3M 77 spay adhesive. Of course the longer the strip the harder it is to do that.
 
I launched the Rickter Recker at Desert Heat's night launch at the end of March. It was a great flight, a slow majestic launch to about 900 ft. The appearance of the burn was different then the H and I that engines that I normally launch at night. You could see all three flames and the flame trail was a diffuse band that was impressive. On a normal night launch the flame is so bright you do not see the lights till engine burn out. With the E12 cluster the lights were visible and bright thru the entire flight. Perfect ejection at apogee and a gentle landing. The photos did not quite capture the appearance of the flight. I will see if I can get better images at its upcoming flight in 3 weeks at Spring Blast.

On the way to the pad:
https://fotos.nahcpj.com/dh2013/night1/h5987a05e#h59bf026c

The flight:
https://fotos.nahcpj.com/dh2013/night1/h59BF02A6#h59bf02a6

After the flights (Ricker Recker and Cat Toy):
https://fotos.nahcpj.com/dh2013/night1/h59BF18B4#h59bf18b4

Cat Toy up:
https://fotos.nahcpj.com/dh2013/night1/h5987a05e#h5987a05e

Cat Toy down:
https://fotos.nahcpj.com/dh2013/night1/h59BF05FE#h59bf05fe
 
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