Chris' Punisher 4 L3 build

[watermelonman]

Ten pounds is a lot of propellant!

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Agreed. My wallet won't stand up to that punishment.

Ten pounds is a lot of propellant!

 

[o1d_dude]

Nice work as usual, Chris. Hope to see your cert flight down at Dairy Aire.

 

[CzTeacherMan]

Looks great... Maybe I will grab a 4" Punisher...

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Thanks guys. It's been a fun build.

 

[kevinkal]

Very nice build Chris!

 

[ChrisAttebery]

I received the final couple decals yesterday.





I also got all of the recovery gear installed.

 

[rfjustin]

Looks good, when does it fly?

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Unfortunately I won't be able to fly it until May 21st at Dairy Aire. We just have too much going on until then. I'm planning to do my ground testing on Friday and then prep it for launch early on Saturday.

 

[4kids49]

Great build Chris. Good luck with your flight.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

I *WAS* done, or so I thought, but I've been thinking about onboard video more and more lately. I had a Mobius camera and I got some decent video with it, but I was never satisfied with it. Then I saw the Mythbusters rocketry episode and there was one onboard clip that was super sharp and I got the bug again. I made contact with someone who worked on the episode and found out that they used GoPro Session 4 cameras. That led to the inevitable searching for reviews which led me to to Sony's FDR-X1000V. It can shoot up to 4k p30 video and can shoot stabilized video up to 1080p60. It was out of my price range but the features and shape looked perfect. I'd thought I'd follow a search on eBay in case one popped up. Last week one came up for about 1/2 or retail and I snagged it.



I worked on the mount design yesterday. I have it about 80% done. The camera will look down the side of the rocket at a 22.5 degree angle so that the booster just show up in the bottom of the frame.

 

[ECayemberg]

I received the final couple decals yesterday.

View attachment 284927

View attachment 284928

I also got all of the recovery gear installed.

Chris, Beautiful looking Jayhawk...err Punisher! Looking great sir; can't wait to see how she does in the air!!!

-Eric-

 

[ChrisAttebery]

It's been a while since I updated this thread. I've completed the camera and altimeter tray design. I'll try to cut the parts this weekend. I need to order the longer coupler and vent band next week.

 

[woferry]

That looks really great, Chris!

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Thanks Will!

 

[ChrisAttebery]

I got the tray parts cut last night. The parts fit with a little sanding here and there.

 

[kevinkal]

Nice work Chris. What material did you use for the camera mounting frame?

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Thanks Kevin. It's 1/8" G10 fiberglass.

 

[Rocketboss1]

Excellent camera and altimeter tray design.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

I received a 4" long vent band and 11 1/8" long coupler on from Wildman on Friday. I spent about 45 minutes getting them sanded perfectly square. Then I mounted the coupler in my drill press and spent another 45 minutes or so sanding the NC end to fit the cone. I worked my way up from 60 grit up to 600 and then put a coat of Johnson's paste wax on the shoulder. The fit into the cone is nice and smooth now.

Yesterday I glued the vent band into place. Then I spent some time trying to figure out how to clamp the assembly onto the table of my mill. I finally cut a 1" length of scrap body tube in half and taped those pieces in place to support the ends. I clamped it down and adjusted it until it was perfectly parallel with the table.

This morning I used the mill to cut the opening for the camera and holes for the screw switches. I was afraid that the tube would vibrate and chatter but it was very minimal and the edges are very clean. I slid the camera tray into the bay and it looks like everything lines up perfectly. So far so good

Now comes the hard part. The shroud is going to be made from three pieces. The top curved section will be made from a section of 29mm tubing cut to length and split down the middle. I'll epoxy a small triangle of 1/16" G10 to the edges of the tubing to form the straight sides of the U shaped piece. Then the whole thing will be sanded at a 20 degree angle to match the vent band. I hope that makes sense. I cut a section of tubing yesterday and started sanding it, but I realized that I really need the sides in place to judge how much to take off the front end. So tonight I'll cut the sides on the mill.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Today I cut the triangles of 1/16" G10 and CAed them to the tubing half. I used my bandsaw to cut the tubing at a matching angle leaving about 1/16" to sand down. I used my 4" belt sander to sand the tubing down to match the triangles. All of this took about 15 minutes and was much easier than I had envisioned. :surprised:

I placed it on the vent band and it matches up pretty well. I'll have a small gap to fill with epoxy. It looks like I could sand another 1/8" off the bottom of the shroud and still have clearance for the camera.

I took a small video to check the framing. It looks like the booster tube will just barely be in the bottom of the frame. I might shim the front of the camera slightly to bring up a little more.

 

[rfjustin]

Mounted camera looks good!

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Thanks Justin!

 

[kevinkal]

Nice Chris. I'll have to stop by to take a closer look.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Today I drilled two more 1/4" vent holes in the coupler 120 degrees away from the shroud. I also drilled two holes in the shroud to access the camera's Record button and Record indicator. I really don't want a repeat of the problem I had at Aeronaut last summer where I turned the camera on, couldn't see the power indicator and then turned the camera back off again before the flight. I'm still disappointed that I didn't get video from that flight. One nice thing about this camera is that it is WiFi enabled. I can start recording from my phone right before the launch to conserve battery and memory. The camera also has built in GPS. Their video editing suite can add speed, distance and a track to the video. I'm interested to see how that will work out.



I mixed up a batch of Rocketpoxy and glued the shroud into place before I got ready for work this morning. It should be ready to primer and paint this weekend. I also have a little more work left to get the altimeters wired up and integrated to the tray.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

I got the bay completed this morning. All that's left is to solder up the switch for the RRC2+.



Here's a snapshot from the camera. The booster is in the very bottom of the frame.


I got clearance from the boss to go to tomorrow's launch at TCC. I've been looking at motors for a test flight. I'm leaning towards a J760WT at the moment. That'll put it up to about 4000'

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Well, BAR was out of the J760 so I picked up a J449 BS instead.

 

[bill2654]

Good luck on your flight Chris. Cant wait to se the video. Excellent build.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Thanks Bill!

 

[watermelonman]

That camera mount looks even better in person.