Beepers?

I haven't seen anything on TRF about beepers for recovery that is recent. When I left the hobby 16 years ago, everyone had one. I wanted to add one to my launch box, but I'm curious, are they out of fashion, problematic, useless??? What am I not seeing? I'm broke, so I'm looking for a cheap way to help find rockets in tall grass (Bong, WI)...

See this recent thread and see if it helps:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?68837-Screamer

Greg

I have a couple like this - LINK - The "beeper" part is secured via a small Kevlar loop to the nose cone. The "pin" is attached (via the included blue strap) a few feet down the shock cord.

When the chute inflates and the shock cord is pulled out - it tugs the pin out of the alarm and sets it off.

I did have to "adjust" the metal "pin" with sandpaper. Originally the pin was a bit too tight and took too much force to pull it out of the alarm. For rocketry purposes, the pin should pull out easily, but not fall out of the alarm if shook.

I often use them if there is a chance I won't see the entire flight or the rocket will land someplace other than a wide open field of dirt. I don't know of many others at the rocket clubs that I attend that bother with them. There were a few people using them at LDRS. However, there were far more people with RF and GPS trackers than screamers.

CzTeacherMan said:

I haven't seen anything on TRF about beepers for recovery that is recent. When I left the hobby 16 years ago, everyone had one. I wanted to add one to my launch box, but I'm curious, are they out of fashion, problematic, useless??? What am I not seeing? I'm broke, so I'm looking for a cheap way to help find rockets in tall grass (Bong, WI)...

Click to expand...

When I was flying mostly mid power [before I bought a tracker] I bought a bunch of them when I found them on sale. Send me your address and I will send you one. Otherwise, remind me before the newt TWA launch https://www.tripoliwisconsin.com/ at Bong in September and I will bring you one.

I use one of these in all of my smaller rockets now, and often in some of the larger ones: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BD4YXC8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Drill a hole through it (after taking it apart and investigating the innards so you don't wreck it...) and thread a Kevlar loop through it. Attach the key ring to one quick link and the Kevlar to another quicklink at the other end of the shock cord and it will pull the pin upon deployment.

patelldp said:

I use one of these in all of my smaller rockets now, and often in some of the larger ones: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BD4YXC8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Drill a hole through it (after taking it apart and investigating the innards so you don't wreck it...) and thread a Kevlar loop through it. Attach the key ring to one quick link and the Kevlar to another quicklink at the other end of the shock cord and it will pull the pin upon deployment.

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I use the same one. They work really well. My method is to first remove the cheap chain on the pull plug and replace that with Kevlar cord with loop on one end. I then tape the body somewhere along the shock cord making sure not to fully cover siren openings. Then when prep'ing and closing up, slip the loop inside a quick link or other convenient attach point. Even though I have now graduated to GPS tracking, I plan to continue using these (and other more permanently mounted sirens in larger rockets) cause every little bit helps.

dixontj93060 said:

Even though I have now graduated to GPS tracking, I plan to continue using these (and other more permanently mounted sirens in larger rockets) cause every little bit helps.

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100% agree. Even if you have GPS or radio directional tracking, high grass or corn can make that very difficult to navigate. An audio cue will help immensely in these situations.

The bummer about this is that on two occasions I have chosen against putting the beeper in a rocket and subsequently lost it after seeing it land. I won't make that mistake again and I now have two beepers and an ample battery supply.

patelldp said:

The bummer about this is that on two occasions I have chosen against putting the beeper in a rocket and subsequently lost it after seeing it land. I won't make that mistake again and I now have two beepers and an ample battery supply.

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Probably famous last words... but if you exclude a couple of Mach Madness flights, I have not lost a rocket in over a decade. There is a reason for that. 99% of my flights have trackers and nearly that many go up with sirens. I almost lost a AT Mustang on an H motor a few MWP's back, but retrieved it with the help of Crazy Jim, that was the last rocket I flew at a major launch without tracking.

GRIFFIN said:

When I was flying mostly mid power [before I bought a tracker] I bought a bunch of them when I found them on sale. Send me your address and I will send you one. Otherwise, remind me before the newt TWA launch https://www.tripoliwisconsin.com/ at Bong in September and I will bring you one.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I found some cheap at Lowe's last night ($3, similar to the blue one posted above). Now I'm just puzzling over how to attach it. The y tracker is definitely on my "to buy later" list, and that list keeps growing and growing...

Thanks for the tips everyone! I'll be bringing it with me and probably figure out assembly/ attachment at the launch.

Here's the potential attachment... I'm looking for tips/pointers/thoughts. I've got the alarm on a keyring attached to a small ring which will also hold the chute, so after ejection, the beeper will be dangling from the chute without being directly attached to it. The pull pin is attached to the base of the shock cord mount by way of another keyring. Holding the nosecone shock cord and barely bouncing the rocket, the pull pin pulls out with a bit of spring on the shock cord, but not much. This is rigged in a Lil Nuke, about 16ozs. I'm not going for any speed or height records, just want to fire it out of sight and still recover with more ease of mind than with nothing but a chute.

The rings you are using are OK, at least much better than the cheap chains that come with many of those alarms, but I think you are going to be quickly disappointed when the plastic eyelet on the body breaks and you loose your alarm. I would strongly suggest using a high quality electrical tape and taping the body without covering the square opening (tape would be on the right side of the body as shown in the pictures above) to a point along your shock cord. After that, proceed with tying the pull plug end to a hard point on the rocket (airframe or nosecone attach).

^^^^Yes, this^^^^

Or better yet, disassemble the body and choose an appropriate place to drill a hole and feed Kevlar/Nylon cord through. Very secure and not that hard to do.

Also, how many pairs of underwear did you disassemble to get that shock cord? ;-)

OK, tonight's plan is to drill a hole and attach with cord (don't have Kevlar cord at the moment). Taping to the shockcord will be the next attempt... Doesn't that make it difficult to swap between rockets? Hell, for the price, I could put one on every rocket I own until I get a tracker, but I'm stingy.
Only 5 pairs of underwear were disassembled... Actually, just ordered some extra Kevlar 1/4" to make a new shockcord for this one.
And thanks again! Old dog, new tricks and all that.

CzTeacherMan said:

Taping to the shockcord will be the next attempt... Doesn't that make it difficult to swap between rockets?

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No, not really. You only have to do two or three wraps to hold it tight. After the flight, just unwrap the electrical tape and throw the beeper in your launch box.

Because I'm a tinkerer and I want gadgets, here's what I did... I drilled the hole in the beeper, tied nylon paracord directly to it, tied a bowline knot at the end. This attaches to the same parachute link as before. The pull pin still attaches to the shock cord mount as before with keyrings. Thoughts?

That should be OK, but to be honest, I've never tried to use one with elastic shock cord, so that's an added variable I cannot comment on.

I have had launches where the pin wasn't pulled from the beeper and I wasn't using elastic. I would think elastic would increase the chances that there wouldn't be enough of a snap to pull the pin. On the other hand, up until recently, I was using 495 pound test coastlock swivel and there is a chance the swivel snagged on the kevlar and that is why there wasn't a pin pull (I have just replaced all of my swivels to be on the safe side)

Fully stretched, the elastic is about six feet, and the beeper is attached at the top and the bottom of it, so I can't imagine it won't pull. I'll probably launch on an E just to test before I go shoving a G in the tail and putting it out of sight. Who knows, maybe put a baby H and go for level 1

Ummmmm,

One can get an N-cell battery holder, flashing LED, piezo buzzer, epoxy and shrink tubing to make their own screamer. Connect the components in parallel on either end of the battery holder and solder the connections. Apply epoxy to secure and add shrink tubing to make it look like a commercial unit. Tape in a 12V N cell and will be ready to go. Can make a lot of 'em for cheap.
I had a link to a schematic on a rocketry site from a long time ago but I can't find it now. Kurt

Ok, found the link: https://archive.rocketreviews.com/reviews/all/scratch_locator.shtml
It's an old EMRR.

ksaves2 said:

Ummmmm,

One can get an N-cell battery holder, flashing LED, piezo buzzer, epoxy and shrink tubing to make their own screamer. Connect the components in parallel on either end of the battery holder and solder the connections. Apply epoxy to secure and add shrink tubing to make it look like a commercial unit. Tape in a 12V N cell and will be ready to go. Can make a lot of 'em for cheap.
I had a link to a schematic on a rocketry site from a long time ago but I can't find it now. Kurt

Ok, found the link: https://archive.rocketreviews.com/reviews/all/scratch_locator.shtml
It's an old EMRR.

Click to expand...

Yeah, but I don't think that gives you a 120db warbling tone like the Sabre alarms, which by the way I have found for $5 at local grocery stores.

dixontj93060 said:

Yeah, but I don't think that gives you a 120db warbling tone like the Sabre alarms, which by the way I have found for $5 at local grocery stores.

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True, but it is louder than one of the Pratt beacons. Although I was surprised how well even a faint beacon did with guiding me to a lost rocket in a cornfield.
A Sight N' Go feature on some Garmin handheld GPS units can help immensely when trying to recover a rocket one has a line of sight to on descent. Shoot a line to the descending rocket just before touchdown and follow the datum line. When one gets close, hearing takes over.
If the rocket is relatively close and can "walk the line" a beeper is amazing to guide one in, in tall vegetation.

I found a Zenith II in a cornfield after I used an E9-0 to a C6-7.

If one's rocket is expected to completely disappear, an Rf tracker is really needed. I've had that happen and nothing was seen. With the GPS tracker used, I could tell the apogee and main events were fine. I wouldn't have known which way to go to even start a search. I just followed the datum line on the handheld mapping GPS and it brought me right to the pristine rocket lying in the corn stubble. It was surprising that at 75' away, I still couldn't see the rocket. The chute didn't get tangled in the stubble and the whole affair was lying between the rows. The particular Raven altimeter I used doesn't beep out anything so it can be used as an aural guide.

If one is going to fly way high, I tell you, I've seen rockets gyrate around with the winds aloft and there was no way to predict which way to look to re-acquire a visual without having a real time mapping solution going on the ground. If the rocket and parachute has a small profile it might not be seen on the way down if it's far enough away. Kurt