Electronics for each rocket

How do you handle electronics for all your rockets? Do you have a set for each rocket or do you use a set of electronics and move them from bird to bird?

Right now I have two sleds. One for my smaller rockets and one for my 4” stuff. I have bees strategic in making my av bays hold one or the other sleds.

Just curious what everyone else does.

I have a NC that swaps between rockets easily for apogee deployment and telemetry. The main alts are usually in individual avionics bays (mid airframe) and I have multiple Ravens (6?) to avoid too much swapping.

Hi Roy,

I have two altimeters permanently installed in each of my rockets. My 38 mm minimum diameter has only on altimeter installed. This way I can prep a few rockets at home. I can still fly while waiting for the tree climber to arrive and get my first flight rocket out of a 70 foot tree.

Trees love swallowing up rockets at our high waiver field in Potter, NY.

All the best,
Bob

I try to keep my electronics married to a sled and then move that between rockets of the same diameter.

Ditto Keisling.

Keisling said:

I try to keep my electronics married to a sled and then move that between rockets of the same diameter.

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Bat-mite said:

Ditto Keisling.

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Same here, as much as possible.

Same here. I've got a 38mm redundant one set up, and a 54mm and up sled with redundant + a T3.

I have 5 or so sleds, each of which can be used in 2 or more rockets. Each rocket does have its own set of bulkhead plates and all thread.

I would love to get to an interchangeable sled, but I like to try different altimeters, switches, deployment technologies, configurations, etc. Eventually I will get to one interchangeable design for at least some of the rockets. In the meantime I likely have somewhere around 2 dozen altimeters, with most of the sleds being fully redundant.

Someone is going to love my hoard when I get out of the hobby.

Each rocket gets its own sled and electronics, except when i went through a PML CPR 3k phase.

I'm just going for DD with max alt so I have either an Adept 22 or RRC2+ in each of my rockets. They're very reasonably priced, MUCH less than the rest of the rocket/hardware package leaving the pad.

Troy is right. We are lucky that all of the altimeters available to us are very reasonably priced. I’ve used three different brands of altimeters and they all seem very reliable. That’s amazing since they are so inexpensive.

I build ebay/sled for each rocket the exact same design. No matter the size they are laid out and wired the same. I have a large set of Stratologger/RCC3+ that work interchangeable in all rockets.

My preference is a all-in-one bay that I can put it any rocket, use different altimeters and batteries in.

Here is my tracker bay

I have one sled that go to a couple rockets. Others have their own sled. I only have two altimeters at this time so I just move them between rockets. I’d like to have dedicated electronics and may start working on that here soon. I figure whatever you can do/afford is the right answer.

I have two stratologgers, two RRC3s, and a T3. Haven't justified purchasing alts for each rocket yet

I load them in rockets depending on what I want to fly at that month's launch.

Modified Giant Leap av bay module. Holds to altimeters, 2 batteries no longer made by GLR. Darn near crash proof. I found a lot of parts online, I have 2 built & am building 2 more. Once you load one, it lasts all weekend with out opening. Fits everything I have from 3"-9". You can do the same with a 2.5"-3" coupler tube and bulkplates.

I originally tried to go with building rockets that could accept a common bay design, but I quickly got away from that. The only thing I have now that is truly modular is my tracker. The main reason I got away from a common bay design is that my second HPR build required a different location for the switches, so I used screw switches instead of the schurter switch I used on my first build. I thought about using the design I have for my Aerobee scratch build, but due to the design of that build, I needed the screw switches in different locations as well. In the end, I used the same layout on the sled for the altimeters, but only the switches are moved. Plus, the cost of altimeters has come down a bit since 15-16 years ago, and now buying two altimeters for new builds sets me back about $120, not too bad in the long run. Plus, having dedicated electronics for each rocket means I can arrive at the launch site with them all prepped and ready, so I can fly more with less on site prep work.

I did pick up one of Steve Thatcher's 54mm modular bays a few weeks ago, and I can see myself using that as a bay that I can move between 54mm birds as I need to. But for my larger builds, I will stick with the dedicated electronics.

I have 2 x Eggtimer Quantums for deployment plus one Eggfinder for tracking. They are mounted on a sled that fits a 3" diameter payload bay. When I fly larger rockets, I have adapters that allow the sled to fit on the wider payload bays.

I like building the av bays more than I do the rest of the rockets I think. You can be as creative or as lazy about it as you want as long as it works safely. Every time I build one I find something I want to try differently.

Once I set up a computer for a particular rocket, it's married to that rocket for life. I mostly use RRC3s, but I have a few RRC2+s in the mix, and I'm planning on using a stratologger for the first time in my mini birds (go devil, etc).

As for trackers, right now I'm in the middle of a change over from Eggfinders to the RTX. I have one transmitter that'll be on universal sleds for fiberglass nose cones, and another for plastics. APE rings for fiberglass and MAC nose cone bays for plastics.

I tried the common bay/common sled technique but it's just easier to build airframe-specific bays and sleds for each rocket. I have a few altimeters that I use and each sled has permanently affixed mounting screws for the specific altimeter.

Dave A said:

Modified Giant Leap av bay module. Holds to altimeters, 2 batteries no longer made by GLR. Darn near crash proof. I found a lot of parts online, I have 2 built & am building 2 more. Once you load one, it lasts all weekend with out opening. Fits everything I have from 3"-9". You can do the same with a 2.5"-3" coupler tube and bulkplates.View attachment 364639

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Care to elaborate? Now I gotta know....

Here are a couple of my bays. I do the same with the mounting screws. I have the wire ends tinned and held in place so it’s real quick and neat when switching back and forth between rockets. The 4” goes in two different rockets and the other two go in an Estes D Region Tomahawk and Estes Interceptor E.

Wallace said:

Care to elaborate? Now I gotta know....

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Av bay is aluminum with al caps. I perfected it with making stepped lids that stay centered. It slides in a 3" coupler the has a threaded cap epoxied in the fwd end in every rocket. Av bay threads in and the hole on the outside lines up with the 2 switches. Charging cups plug in to cables on each end.

The Giantleap AV Bay was produced before it's time.

It is fantastic.

cwbullet said:

The Giantleap AV Bay was produced before it's time.

It is fantastic.

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Well GLR is still around maybe it can make a comeback!

Most of our rockets have redundant altimeters on sleds built specifically for them. With the low cost of reliable altimeters, each rocket has it's own system designed specifically for it. Everything with a 54mm coupler or larger has two separate altimeters, batteries and switches in them.

Electronic prices have come down over the years, so I buy dedicated altimeters for each rocket. This way I can hardwire in and reduce the wear and tear of swapping between different rockets. Admittedly, my last few flights have been plagued with recovery errors, and dedicated electronics is one way I hope to mitigate any possible issues.

^^^ This is one of the main reasons I try to not swap things around too much. Fortunately I don't have a big fleet so this is more the rule than the exception.