HobbyKing Altimeter

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kencraw

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Has anyone successfully gotten the HobbyKing altimeter to work for their rocket? What sort of battery did you use? How difficult was it to get the right USB driver to be able to upload the data? Did it give accurate results?

It seems like the cheapest/lightest solution out there but also seems poorly supported.
 
Has anyone successfully gotten the HobbyKing altimeter to work for their rocket? What sort of battery did you use? How difficult was it to get the right USB driver to be able to upload the data? Did it give accurate results?

It seems like the cheapest/lightest solution out there but also seems poorly supported.


I had never seen this product.

Looking at the specs I don't beleive it is suited well to rocketry

Sampling Frequency: 1hz/2hz/4hz/8hz

Max 8 samples per second is pretty course granularity for our flights, although I suppose if all you're looking for is Apogee you should get pretty close with that.
 
Yeah, that's the one I was referring to Teddy. Sorry for not being more clear.
 
Oh that's quite all right Kencraw,,,,,,,,,,,,
Someone from my local club just brought up a good point,,,,,,,,,,
These aren't certified by NAR for use in competition rocketry..............

I think that's why they use the Altimeter 1 even though it's more expensive...........

I think the next time I place an order with Hobby King
I'll order one of these,,,,,,
They're not super expensive,,,,, less risk if it get's lost in the crops,,,,,
and the young people at the launches enjoy so much putting an altimeter in their rockets...............

Teddy
 
The Estes altimeter is cheap ($27.19 at Hobbylinc) and we know it works for rockets.

Admittedly not a recording altimeter, never mind.
 
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Took a quick look. At $30 plus you having to figure out how to power it (since it's supposed to be plugged into an RC receiver) it's probably not worth the trouble in my opinion. Definitely not a turnkey solution for kids to use.

For a tiny recording altimeter (not yet but hopefully soon to be OK'd for NAR competition) look at the Altus Metrum MicroPeak. More expensive but self-contained. Very simple to use.

Yes, you have to also buy an interface device to download the data (peak reading is done with a blinking LED) but the interface software runs on PCs, Macs and Linux machines. (I have used it on PCs and Macs, anyway.) I'm just a satisfied customer, by the way.

For answering kids' "how high did it go?" the Estes unit or the Adept ALTIM1 or A1 are all in the same ballpark, pricewise, as this thing from Hobby King with no DIY aspect to get it powered but no data to download.

"Poorly supported" is pretty much the norm for Hobby King electronics.
 
"Powered by your Rx"

Translates into, Plug the power cable to a 3.7 to 7.4 volt battery. Well, I read the voltage range it can accept, and it lists 3.7v (one Lipo cell or a Lithium Coin battery) to 7.4V (two Lipo cells in series). Of course it could also use three of four 1.5V batteries in series, for 4.5 to 6 volts, and other possible sources (like a 12V smoke alarm battery to a 5 volt 7805 regulator)

In the photo, the cable cord on the lower right plugs the white connector into the altimeter, and the black connector into a receiver. The black wire is ground, red wire Positive, and the white wires would not be used by that cable

22630%281%29.jpg


It is interesting. That is darned lightweight, though without the necessary battery. Not certified for use in NAR contests, but otherwise it might be good for other flying (do not get me started in the botched mess of NAR altimeter certification for contests).

The 8 hz sampling rate is not that bad. A lot of rocket altimeters sample at 20 Hz, but except for detecting "launch", that 20 Hz sampling rate is not that critical. Well, if a person wants to really do extreme analysis of every data point for a flight, especially the fastest portions of the boost phase, it could matter. For the vast majority, not so much.

The company has shut down now (owner retired) , but for years Winged Shadow Systems sold the How High altimeter, aimed at model plane use. But the NAR finally did get around to testing it and accepting it for contest use. And for a year or two, Quest sold a version of the How High made for rocket use, it used big coin type battery to power it. IIRC, the How High sampled at something like 2 or 4 Hz. I used a couple of them, they worked nicely.

Anyway, the How High also was powered by plugging into a receiver, for the power source. With an optional add-on battery source much like the battery the Quest version had used. So, you might want to take a look at how it worked.

https://www.wingedshadow.com/howhigh.html

That one only reported the highest altitude, period. Although there was an additional piece of equipment, the "See How", that was able to download flight data that was stored, just not accessible any other way than using the See How.

- George Gassaway
 
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Gee, George, I didn't know Dave West had shut down Winged Shadow....but I see that he has. The most recent version of the How High was tinier and had the self-powered bit handled well.

I guess I'd better not lose any of mine now (one How High SP is somewhere in the neighborhood south of our parish playfield along with the payload section of my original Constellation....)

If I were to fly one of these HobbyKing units I'd try a single LiPoly cell as used in micro RC models (after making up an adapter to mate that cell with the input of the HK unit). My biggest worry would be getting the software to download the data to work. It doesn't appear there is any way to read it without a computer - probably a Windoze computer.

The inability to read without a computer is the main reason the Polish Adrel USB and its recent update aren't on the NAR list.

I'm curious enough about altimeters in general I may try one of these HK units anyway, even though I recommended against it in my previous post and stand by my recommendation of the little Altus Metrum unit for a tiny recording altimeter that "just works".
 
UPDATE - On the HobbyKing page for the altimeter, click on the purple "files" tab (A few inches below the price and "Add to Cart").

That will bring up a list of files, such as software for displaying the altimeter data, and USB driver files. No actual instructions that I can see.

There is a discussion on RC Groups:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1623196

- George Gassaway
 
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