I'm building a 4" dia. HPR rocket lander with four landing legs- each 36" long 5/8" square poplar sticks to give a wide 40" stance when landing. Rocket will weigh around 7 pounds. One of the ways I could hold the legs in place during flight is small electromagnets- I found some that are powered by 12V and have 2.5KG lifting force.
I know just enough about electromagnets to screw this up. My biggest question is: how can I use the "MAIN" deployment circuit on a Perfectflight SL100 altimeter to cut the 12V power to the four electromagnets?
If there are other smaller electromagnets that you would recommend, I'm all ears. Any advice in general relative to the electromagnets would be wonderful. I'm completely out of my element here.
If you have questions as to how I plan to land this thing- first, I need to launch it on a relatively calm day. Two side drogues located in side motor pods will bring the rocket down at about 60fps to start the descent- tail first (the side pods each have "D" motor reloads that burn for 8 seconds but at only 0.5 pounds of thrust- just for show during descent) . Then at 500 feel, the main chute will deploy from the nosecone, and will be sized to reduce the descent speed to 15 fps. Lastly, at 100 feet, another main chute of the same size, restrained up to this point by a JL Chute Release, will deploy that chute, reducing the descent to about 7.5 fps.
I know just enough about electromagnets to screw this up. My biggest question is: how can I use the "MAIN" deployment circuit on a Perfectflight SL100 altimeter to cut the 12V power to the four electromagnets?
If there are other smaller electromagnets that you would recommend, I'm all ears. Any advice in general relative to the electromagnets would be wonderful. I'm completely out of my element here.
If you have questions as to how I plan to land this thing- first, I need to launch it on a relatively calm day. Two side drogues located in side motor pods will bring the rocket down at about 60fps to start the descent- tail first (the side pods each have "D" motor reloads that burn for 8 seconds but at only 0.5 pounds of thrust- just for show during descent) . Then at 500 feel, the main chute will deploy from the nosecone, and will be sized to reduce the descent speed to 15 fps. Lastly, at 100 feet, another main chute of the same size, restrained up to this point by a JL Chute Release, will deploy that chute, reducing the descent to about 7.5 fps.