MAC Hyper 54 L2 cert build

I set the RRC3+ at backup dual deploy mode. I then set the main at 700 ft then set the apogee drogue to plus two seconds.

I’ve got Telemini V3 main set at 300m and drogue set to apogee.

Flew my Hyper 54 at Blackrock this year on a CTI L1030. Beautiful flight, never saw it again. Tracker showed it still sitting on the pad. Additive Aerospace FARG shattered under the load imposed by the L1030. My unsolicited advice is don't be in a hurry to fly the L. I should have done more flights to confirm tracking reliability.

Joel Levinson said:

Flew my Hyper 54 at Blackrock this year on a CTI L1030. Beautiful flight, never saw it again. Tracker showed it still sitting on the pad. Additive Aerospace FARG shattered under the load imposed by the L1030. My unsolicited advice is don't be in a hurry to fly the L. I should have done more flights to confirm tracking reliability.

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It’s a shame that happened to your rocket. I’ve had one university multistage flight have that happen with a WARP9 on an AT I1299N fast burner load (0.3s) where tracker reports only launch coordinates, it was a 168G flight with TeleGPS onboard. The battery disconnected to tracker on launch and we manually found the tracker on a salt flat elsewhere by mere luck hours later while picking up pieces in a trash bag. We never found the battery. GPS units usually hate high acceleration flights past 70G’s. I’ve personally pushed TeleGPS to 70G’s successfully. It’s extremely hard on mounting of units and batteries. We had other groups push a Featherweight gps to Mach 1.69 and it tracked entire flight until about 100ft trees 1.4 miles away and they scary attached it via wrapping electronic tape around a popsicle stick and I was doubtful lol. We were pleasantly surprised it tracked through boost. I also caught another flight on ground where the tracker wasn’t reporting shifts in positions. So we reset it before launch which usually fixes that issue. At university we would literally walk around with the gps in rocket and confirm coordinates were indeed changing before launching it. This became standard op procedure. We haven’t lost one in six flights since then by using the walk it test it technique. We’d leave the gps on since it didn’t have charges attached etc. In this way we had some control over testing the GPS and could abort last minute if needed.

If your one of those I arm the gps on the pad kinda guys you might miss a tracking fault easily that’s what scares me and why I don’t arm GPS on pad only. I arm it before then test it prior to flight for lateral coordinate changes. Altimeters can be armed on pad.

I am in no rush to fly the L motors that will happen way later next year. You brought up a point of failure on the farg that I wasn’t expecting. I appreciate your advice that could save myself or others from potential hazards. I may have to design my own now just for L flights and test in phases with K motors. GPS loss track seems like a common failure point on aggressive md flights which is why I adopted for the J motor for cert.

In any case the Telemini V3 serves as backup RDF Incase of GPS failure.

Anyways back to build. Missed a delivery on the Aerocon PCB switches while at work so I may have to pick those up from post office now. Baffling how UPS will leave motors at my door but USPS freaks out over electronic switches. Hope to start building AV bay by Tuesday evening to Wednesday then do more ground tests.

This micro monster of a casing came today.

Red wire is positive on apogee rockets 9v connector. RRC3 will beep on start up. I was testing it in reverse polarity yesterday and it would fail on diagnostics. Now it reads atmospheric pressure.

Andrew_ASC said:

View attachment 400933 View attachment 400932 Red wire is positive on apogee rockets 9v connector. RRC3 will beep on start up. I was testing it in reverse polarity yesterday and it would fail on diagnostics. Now it reads atmospheric pressure.

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Never hurts to confirm with a voltmeter, but red wire being positive is a normal engineering / industry convention.

Soldered up some Aerocon switches. Gonna wrap the exposed wires with electrical tape. The continuity check some altimeters. Then gotta drill holes into avionics bay and epoxy switches.

Yikes. Where’s your heat shrink for that bare wire? Why not just twist & tape? One less failure mode to worry about.

Well I guess I could splice the entire three foot section then heat shrink it.

Andrew_ASC said:

View attachment 401046
Soldered up some Aerocon switches. Gonna wrap the exposed wires with electrical tape. The continuity check some altimeters. Then gotta drill holes into avionics bay and epoxy switches.

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Tim is right. Those bare wires will bite you.

My suggestion is to strip no more than 3/8” of insulation from your wires (get a quality pair of wire strippers), twist the bare conductor onto your switch pin, remove any excess bare wire using diagonal cutters, and solder. Ideally you have put heat shrink tubing on each conductor beforehand, and following the soldering of that pin you run it up onto the solder joint and apply heat (hair dryer works if you don’t have a heat gun) so that it seals the solder connection.

This gets back to risk management. Try to foresee what CAN go wrong and guard against it. Once you think you’ve got your bases covered, put it aside for a few days then get it back out and see if you can think of anything you’ve missed.

timbucktoo said:

Yikes. Where’s your heat shrink for that bare wire? Why not just twist & tape? One less failure mode to worry about.

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Happy now?

Andrew_ASC said:

View attachment 401049

Happy now?

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Is that heat shrink? Are you gonna shrink it?

Much better.
By the way, weren’t you asking the other day about terminal strips & the added risk of failure? Just saying!

Yeah all they had was 3/16” size. It was quite bigger than before feels tight and no bare wires.

Andrew_ASC said:

Yeah all they had was 3/16” size. It was quite bigger than before feels tight and no bare wires.

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A REALLY handy thing to have is something like this. I bought one years ago and am still using it.
https://www.amazon.com/3M-Automotiv...eat+shrink&qid=1576720378&s=industrial&sr=1-4
https://www.amazon.com/3M-Automotiv...eat+shrink&qid=1576720378&s=industrial&sr=1-4

Another word of warning. Solid wire will only bend so many times before it breaks.

Andrew_ASC said:

View attachment 401049

Happy now?

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No. Heat shrink is not what matters. That heat shrink looks like it is hiding something evil, besides being too big. Beautiful solder joints matter. The advice to strip only about 1/8" is good advice. Even less. Flux will help the solder flow where you want it. Be clean with the flux, only where you want the solder, in other words.

That solder work you posted looks like your fillets. Make it beautiful, soldering is an art. A good soldering station, with a properly sized tip is a good place to start, then, practice.

Building rockets is really good for you. Engineers should be able to function in a 'hands on' world, also. Keep it up.

Solder wick will help to clean up your work so you can start fresh.

Silicon jacketed wire, like 'Turnigy' is good wire for model circuitry.


Like this. This is good wire for many HPR tasks. Larger wire might be warranted for higher current runs, so check your needs. For powering altimeters, trackers, deployment use, 22AWG is good for relatively short runs like in an AV bay. I think I rewire some LiPo battery ends with 20AWG, or 18AWG?

Learn to twist it. Twist the individual wires clockwise,while wrapping them counter-clockwise. They will not un-twist if you do it right.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Striveday-...090402&hash=item1cdb955862:g:6CQAAOSwTpldqFJL

This is very good flux. It is cheap, so no reason why not to buy the good stuff. Cardas solder is awesome, also.

https://www.moon-audio.com/cardas-r...V7r3qrai0wZkW7-tGJNP3sgINVFjDsRkaAhjOEALw_wcB

Will def stock up on that flux. I had to scrounge for hours today at Lowe’s,Harbor Freight, and Home Depot for flux. They had some plumbers flux. Not the best quality. I got beads to form sloppily but they passed the tug test and hold current. You should’ve seen my first solder attempt years ago. I burned a electric motor up inside out trying to solder it for a ChemE team. Yeah I had to buy them a new motor.

I don’t even like my own soldering but I will admit I suck at it greatly. Looooool. I guess it’ll be like the fillets where I’ll get better over time.

One little can of flux is plenty for a lot of joints. Enough maybe even to make Cheech a little nervous. That is good flux, though. That silicon wire is also good. I use lots of silicon wire for wiring harnesses, and use that exact box I posted, for rocketry.

It's cool to be okay with sucking at something, as long as we keep trying.

The really good soldering stations are temperature controlled at the tip. That makes a huge difference.


Looks like a fun rocket you are building. That L1040 motor looks an awesome choice.

I would be worried about soldering that thin solid core wire.

Pending heat used it could make the wire brittle and snap during flight. I have a RadioShack iron with adjustable temp and like using 575° for most of what I solder.

Do a solder joint then wiggle it, bend it until it snaps, try this will stranded wire (18-22ga).

Good luck with the l2 attempt on the J250, looking forward to the L1000 and Loki L1040r.

I have a MC Tomack 2.2" that I had planned to put a Loki L1040 in some day. Are you going to try the tail cone for the Loki 54mm motor?

~John

Used the RRC3 manual and sized for multi port at 0.1105” dia each for three holes. Ended up using a 1/8” drill bit. I think it’ll work. Better to be slightly big than slightly too small.

Next up is test switches more. Drill switch holes. Drill holes in av-bay sled thinking about zip ties to be honest on electronics and batteries. Drill holes in bulk head for pyro wires. I don’t have poster tac but I got silly putty that may work.

Not using Tailcone on L1040 on this project as fastback retainer does not like tailcone idea. It has a snap ring system with spacers that would interfere. That tailcone looks nifty for staging stuff though.

Just tested another switch I soldered up. You guys were right about one thing the wire only bends so many times before it breaks. Metal fatigue or whatnot. One of my solder joints at wire failed in ten full 180 degree left to right rotations just yanking hard on it. The wire snapped clean shear at a solder joint. My plan is to only bend it two times. One for test. One for this flight. Then replace.

I have moderate confidence that I can get a cert flight outta it. After that flight I’ll replace with thicker wire and use an glue I can melt off and replace switches. Like hot glue the switches in.

If you guys are seriously safety concerned with that data point let me know. It’s not all grass is green happy do dah right now. It’s got limits. I know my soldering skill and wire thickness is my weak link here. At least I have a freaking data point now on this kinda wire failure before flight.

And I’ll go check my mailbox for binder design switches they come soldered already. At worst I can go see if anyone’s got thicker wires locally but I’m doubtful. And at really worse I can scrub this launch. Trying to not rush and just get it done though methodically with what I got or can get.

Maybe I can use one switch on primary alt and twist and tape other? Just thinking out loud here. Thanks guys.

I have two more Aerocon switches I can solder up tonight also. Finding thicker wire local that’s not like way too thick might be a chore. I may have some R/C battery packs I could ruin lol or an Aerotech motor starter if the wire is thicker.

Andrew_ASC said:

Finding thicker wire local that’s not like way too thick might be a chore.

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You may be able to get whatever you need locally at Bluff City Electronics https://bluffcityelectronics.com/

Yeah I can try bluff I just found NEA hobbies exist. I may check out NEA first. Um the binder design switches are a no show at the moment.

I would have to say your issues aren't directly from wire thickness. While you need to use the correct gauge wire for your power and current requirements the real problem is the solid wire, as you've found once it is soldered into position it's prone to breaking. I'd highly recommend picking up some proper size stranded wire to use in place of the solid wire. I usually order it online however you can find it in most electronics stores, auto parts stores, and Walmart. I usually try to leave the last two as a last resort because their "stranded" wire isn't the best quality however it will still be better than a single solid wire.

Andrew, go talk to one of the electrical guys at work. They can help n show you what you need to know.

You can get proper electrical solder with flux inbi look for rosin core solder..

Get proper heat shrink. You should have a radio shacknor some other electronics type store in your town. Visit them before relying on home depot..

You can usually purchase a bag of assorted heatshrink on ebay for reasonable prices.