thef-equals-ma-isstrong
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Designing an electronics bay for my college's rocket team. I'm actually going to school for mechanical engineering, but the masochistic part of me decided that I should step out of my lane and design a low-EE-skill-required electronics bay, so here I am.
I'm creating a high-powered rocket electronics bay for the first time, estimated apogee is 10,000 feet, would love people to tear apart my initial design so I can make the necessary adjustments before I find out the hard way.
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My plan is to use two StratologgerCfs for redundant flight data tracking. They'll both be powered by two 9-volt batteries. I'll be integrating two remove-before-flight switches as well for both of the stratologgers.
For telemetry we're planning to use an Altus metrum telemega (AMT), and looking into seeing if we can hook in our stratologgers for active telemetry reporting. I'm currently in the process of getting my ham radio license so we have all the legalities sorted out before using it.
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A couple questions I have:
1. Are their more inexpensive components that are just as reliable that don't take a whole lot of electrical-engineering know-how?
2. We're looking into redundant telemetry/rocket-locator components: As last year's rocket we ended up relying on one mediocre GPS module that ended up not working (read: We spent 12 hours in a New Mexico desert in the hottest week of the year looking for our rocket so we really don't want to make this mistake again). Seemed a bit overkill to get two AMT's, are there any suggestions about a backup system we could get that wouldn't be ask expensive?
3. Any other things I forgot/should be paying extra-special attention to when designing this electronics bay?
Thank you so much in advance for any advice you have to offer.
I'm creating a high-powered rocket electronics bay for the first time, estimated apogee is 10,000 feet, would love people to tear apart my initial design so I can make the necessary adjustments before I find out the hard way.
-----
My plan is to use two StratologgerCfs for redundant flight data tracking. They'll both be powered by two 9-volt batteries. I'll be integrating two remove-before-flight switches as well for both of the stratologgers.
For telemetry we're planning to use an Altus metrum telemega (AMT), and looking into seeing if we can hook in our stratologgers for active telemetry reporting. I'm currently in the process of getting my ham radio license so we have all the legalities sorted out before using it.
-----
A couple questions I have:
1. Are their more inexpensive components that are just as reliable that don't take a whole lot of electrical-engineering know-how?
2. We're looking into redundant telemetry/rocket-locator components: As last year's rocket we ended up relying on one mediocre GPS module that ended up not working (read: We spent 12 hours in a New Mexico desert in the hottest week of the year looking for our rocket so we really don't want to make this mistake again). Seemed a bit overkill to get two AMT's, are there any suggestions about a backup system we could get that wouldn't be ask expensive?
3. Any other things I forgot/should be paying extra-special attention to when designing this electronics bay?
Thank you so much in advance for any advice you have to offer.