Getting Ready to Build Astrocam: Any tips?

[brockrwood]

I am finally getting around to building my Estes Astrocam (kit 7308). Does anyone have any tips for a problem-free build?

I don’t really like the rubber shock cord but it looks like the shock cord anchor is specifically designed for it.

 

[brockrwood]

The fin can just snaps together? Not even plastic model cement needed?

 

[brockrwood]

OMG. The whole thing snaps together. No glue needed.

 

[brockrwood]

Methinks I can use the camera nose cone on any BT-50 size rocket that I wish.

 

[brockrwood]

String is a bit short.

 

[brockrwood]

Used my own string. Everything else is stock.

 

[brockrwood]

Charging time for the camera is 2 to 3 hours! Shoot. No flying it today.

 

[brockrwood]

The Astrocam launch vehicle is the “Starship Octavius” with slightly different fins. Oh, and a 1080P camera lashed to the nose cone.

 

[GlenP]

On the way down it will probably spin a lot. I would try adding a snap swivel on the chute line to the nose cone and maybe another one below the nose cone on the cord to the body.

 

[BABAR]

Build it stock and see how it flies and how the videos come out.

Mine stock had some moderate spin on boost. @Ronz Rocketz OTOH seemed to have little if any roll (then again, most of his camera birds have impressive alignment.)

I put a tab of folded paper in between camera and nose to angle the camera OUT a bit, stock IMO has too much rocket body in the field of view.


If roll is a problem with yours, and you can’t somehow correct it, you can easily build another rocket body with the following mod that worked great for me.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/box-fin-modification-for-estes-astrocam.165893/

 

[smstachwick]

Methinks I can use the camera nose cone on any BT-50 size rocket that I wish.

A trick I’m kicking around: The Estes Ghost Chaser comes with a BT-50 to BT-20 transition with shock cord anchor points at both ends, so it’s fully reversible. You could theoretically take any BT-20 rocket, remove the nose of that rocket, and go BT-20 airframe > Transition > BT-50 (cut to desired length) > camera module. The tricky bit would be airflow over the fins if they’re on the stubby side, but I’m thinking this is mitigated somewhat by the camera and transition weight.

The Ghost Chaser uses that same fin can, precut tube, and shock cord attachment assembly too, so you would have spare parts lying around. Obviously there is a lot of potential for mixing and matching too.

 

[Back_at_it]

It's a nice rocket. Two recommendation are this.

- Use CA to glue it together. I have seen several of Estes snap together rockets come apart in flight.
- Add Kevlar as the attachment point for the shock cord. The camera is addictive and you're going to want to fly this rocket often so now is the time to build it right.

 

[brockrwood]

Thar she is. Built. I added the snap swivels. @GlenP I used some 1/8” flat elastic cord instead of the rubber shock cord that came with the kit. I replaced the shroud lines with my own made out of button/carpet thread.

We shall see how she flies!

This thing is much smaller than my old Oracle video camera rocket!

(The Oracle still flies, just without recording anything. It’s big and red and flies on D12’s. Another crowd pleaser.)

 

[GlenP]

View attachment 599755

Thar she is. Built. I added the snap swivels. @GlenP I used some 1/8” flat elastic cord instead of the rubber shock cord that came with the kit. I replaced the shroud lines with my own made out of button/carpet thread.

We shall see how she flies!

This thing is much smaller than my old Oracle video camera rocket!

(The Oracle still flies, just without recording anything. It’s big and red and flies on D12’s. Another crowd pleaser.)

I see one small problem there…

Try to put that on the launch rod in that camera orientation!

Ow, my EYE!

 

[Joekeyo]

I don't know if Estes has improved this or not, but the camera battery does not hold a charge long. I recommend keeping the battery charging until it is needed. Try to launch soon after turning on the camera. Takes nice video.

 

[brockrwood]

I see one small problem there…

Try to put that on the launch rod in that camera orientation!

Ow, my EYE!

Minor on-pad adjustment. NASA does those. Hold the T minus countdown while we rotate the nose cone. Alan Shepard will have to just urinate in his space suit. ;-).

 

[brockrwood]

The Astrocam first flight is complete!

On a B6-4. Light wind. Did not go very high. Maybe 200 feet.

Successfully recovered.

The snap swivels helped minimize the spin @GlenP on the way down, but the whole kit and kaboodle still did a low RPM circle under the parachute canopy.

The nose cone takes up a large amount of screen space in the movie. I agree with @BABAR about that. Maybe I will try to wedge something under the camera unit to make the camera point a little more away from the nose cone. Also per @BABAR suggestion.

Link to the video:

https://www.eurekais.com/misc/astrocam_2023_08_26.avi
The date in the video says June 19, 2017. Hmm. There is a text file called "TIME" on the camera's MicroSD card. It says June 12, 2017.

Do I edit that text file to get the time and date on the video to come out correctly? I am a little reluctant to mess with the MicroSD card since it seems to work fine.

The movie is 1080p. It has a duration of 1 minute, 20 seconds and it has a file size of 195 megabytes!

Here is a pic of the Astrocam after recovery. Unharmed. No dent. No zipper. No scorched parachute (I am never sure if I am putting in too much dog barf or not enough).

 

[BABAR]

The Astrocam first flight is complete!

On a B6-4. Light wind. Did not go very high. Maybe 200 feet.

Successfully recovered.

The snap swivels helped minimize the spin @GlenP on the way down, but the whole kit and kaboodle still did a low RPM circle under the parachute canopy.

The nose cone takes up a large amount of screen space in the movie. I agree with @BABAR about that. Maybe I will try to wedge something under the camera unit to make the camera point a little more away from the nose cone. Also per @BABAR suggestion.

Link to the video:

https://www.eurekais.com/misc/astrocam_2023_08_26.avi
The date in the video says June 19, 2017. Hmm. There is a text file called "TIME" on the camera's MicroSD card. It says June 12, 2017.

Do I edit that text file to get the time and date on the video to come out correctly? I am a little reluctant to mess with the MicroSD card since it seems to work fine.

The movie is 1080p. It has a duration of 1 minute, 20 seconds and it has a file size of 195 megabytes!

Here is a pic of the Astrocam after recovery. Unharmed. No dent. No zipper. No scorched parachute (I am never sure if I am putting in too much dog barf or not enough).



View attachment 600326

Congrats.

I took the liberty of YouTubing your flight. Still processing, but should show up here. If you want me to take it down I will.

 

[brockrwood]

Build it stock and see how it flies and how the videos come out.

Mine stock had some moderate spin on boost. @Ronz Rocketz OTOH seemed to have little if any roll (then again, most of his camera birds have impressive alignment.)

I put a tab of folded paper in between camera and nose to angle the camera OUT a bit, stock IMO has too much rocket body in the field of view.

Put the tab of folded paper down in this slot?




So it sticks out like this?

 

[BABAR]

Put the tab of folded paper down in this slot?


View attachment 601796


So it sticks out like this?

View attachment 601804

Exactly!

 

[brockrwood]

Voila!

 

[brockrwood]

Just FYI, to get the Astrocam recordings to state the correct date and time in the lower left corner of the movie, edit the “TIME” text file on the MicroSD card to the current date and time. Then (if it is not installed already) install the MicroSD card into the camera. Turn the camera on. Turn it back off. That sets the internal clock in the camera to the correct date and time.

 

[BABAR]

L

Voila!

View attachment 601814

Let me know what you think of the videos with more ground and less rocket in field of view.

 

[DocSeuss]

The movie is 1080p. It has a duration of 1 minute, 20 seconds and it has a file size of 195 megabytes!

Your video, being recorded in realtime, likely doesn't have any compression on it. You could probably run that through the video compression software Handbrake on a quick 1080p60 or 1080p30 preset and get that filesize way down. I compress movies with it and once took an 84gb 4K movie down to about 18gb.

I do a lot of real time recording work for my job, and recording in real time means no significant optimization to the video, so I can get files in the hundreds of gigabytes.

 

[GlenP]

I wonder if there is another way to keep the camera from spinning too much on the way down by adding another shroud line with a small streamer on it to the nose cone opposite the camera. Something like a tail of a kite or a weathervane to keep the camera oriented in the same direction on the way down instead of spinning. Not sure if this would just get tangled up in the chute or shock cord. Could also try to attach something like that to one fin.

 

[DanSavage]

My brother Daren and I have been flying our AstroCams in drag races. We've got several threads.

Drag Racing, AstroCam Style!...
AstroCam 3-Way Drag Races!
More AstroCam Drag Races
More Savage Bros. Drag Racing 5/6/23

We found that the best way to minimize the roll on the launch is to visually sight the fins to make sure none were bent on the previous landing.

We also found that snap swivels tend to increase the roll on the way down, so we don't use them.

As you've found the camera orientation in the nose cone cuts off half of the video. To fix this, I designed a new nose cone that lays the camera flat.



Here's the 3D printed nose cone.



Here's the video test of the new 3D printed nose cone(s).

 

[BABAR]

That’s just perfect. Enough fin and body to give perspective. Also like the landscape orientation.