For those of you putting sleds into nose cones (particularly mpitfield and onebadhawk) what method do you use to keep the sled attached to the nose cone? I'm not quite seeing it from the pictures. I'm thinking of converting my MDRM cone into an AV bay for electronic deployment, but haven't decided on a design yet.
Here are some pics of a 3" nosecone AV bay I designed specifically for the Mutitronix TelemtryPro system. I focused on making the nosecone as metal-free as reasonable. The TelemetryPro transmitter slides into a 54mm MMT tube, sitting on an inner tube that keeps it about .5" off the bottom of the tube. Then a small ring goes over the top of the transmitter to prevent it from moving forward, straightforward design.
This pic is looking from the bottom of the nosecone up into it; you can see the secure ring I added to connect to the bottom bulkhead using tow short machine screws into self-clinching nuts. The indents in the sides of the ring were sanded out to allow the Kevlar to pass through. The ring is precision CNC cut and allows no slack for the 54mm MMT to pass through; it's a perfect fit.
This pic shows the 54mm MMT, which is epoxied to the bottom bulkhead and recessed into a ring, which you cannot see. This makes for a very precise and tight fit. You can see the short top collar sticking out the top of the MMT.
This shows the stack of spacers and the blank which is .02 longer than the TelemtryPro to allow a slight bit of wiggle room
Here is the tube sliding out of the bottom of the nosecone and you can see the 11/32 Kevlar, which I purchased form Teddy @ One Bad Hawk, and the holes it goes through on the bulkhead are the smallest holes you could ever squeeze that stuff through. Once it is through the hole it expands back to its original size then it is epoxied to the MMT...it is on there for good. Even if the MMT was not there, the harness would not pull through due to the embedded epoxy.
I opted for the Kevlar loop instead of a traditional eye or U-bolt because I wanted to avoid using metal and this rocket is already overstable, so I wanted to avoid any additional mass. I loop my recovery harness through it without using a quick-link
Another shot of the Kevlar epoxied to the side of the MMT
When not flying Kate, I also have another sled that can slide into this tube and holds my TeleGPS on one side and the Comspec AT-2B on the other. It was also CNC cut and fits perfectly without any slop.
I will post another one from a 54mm MD build, that also uses dual trackers.