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The receiver failsafe is set so that if communication is lost, the servo returns to its close position. Similarly, the purge failsafe position can be set to open. In addition to unintended loss of communication bringing everything back to the safe positions, it means you can also simply turn off...

Dunno why I never posted it here before, but here's a guide on making a cheap and reliable servo-actuated ball valve: https://www.halfcatrocketry.com/sabv Pair it with an RC controller for a really simple off-the-shelf control system: https://www.halfcatrocketry.com/rcfs

After a timeline of only four months and a tiny budget, I have built and successfully tested the first liquid rocket engine from UCF. This is the culmination of my rocketry experience in university, after starting with G-class commercial motors as a freshman and working my way through...

Thanks. Given that hybrids used to be way more common and are still decently popular (thanks to Contrail holding out), I'm surprised that there isn't some sort of GSE guide out there. I guess there just aren't that many people building the full setup.

I figured this is probably the best thread to ask- what does the Contrail GSE include? I was under the impression that it came with everything needed to fire one of their motors, but is it just the wires and launch controller? It seems to defeat the point of a plug and play commercial system if...

Low chamber pressure and using paraffin appear to be the issues here. Paraffin's okay for amateur hybrids, but waxes suffer from low grain integrity and low melting points. You can actually see all the unburned paraffin droplets being ejected and combusted in the exhaust. First though, I would...

I've sent a rocket up at 99 G's, and that was 100% fine being made out of standard LOC parts (and that was on an obscenely high thrust experimental, not the kind of thing you're likely to encounter with commercial motors). As others have said, it's the velocity that will kill the rocket. Tubes...

Yes, it's the motor we talked about in our email chain and in person last Saturday. Tom and Gary set up a sanctioned event for us on Sunday, as well as for SEDS UCF on Friday. It was a bit of a logistical juggling act to hold the 1000 foot perimeter, but we pulled it off and got our thrust...

First off, I hope this isn't against the rules for the non-research section, because my intention is just to share a cool video. I will not be answering any questions about the design or construction of the motor. This is the test fire of our EX motor for the FAR 1030-5R competition on June...

OpenRocket (2 ways): 1. Edit>Preferences>Add (user-defined thrust curve). Navigate to where you saved the motor file, click it, and click Add. Close the Preferences dialog box and restart OpenRocket. If you should ever move the location of the motor file, you'll need to re-add it with the new...

I'll do ya one better: Waffle batter cups. My university's cafeteria has stacks of giant ketchup cups that are perfect for composite layup when I need large amounts of resin. And regular cups too, but I just can't get enough of those waffle cups.

Cut these out on Saturday for my L3 cert after laying up the carbon fiber on the second side. Today I'm to go do a second coat of epoxy on that side for extra strength and shininess (the bottom two show the side with a second coat, you can see how much nicer they look than the top two). It's 12k...

Over the past couple days I've built booster cores for my L2 cert rocket. All three have 38mm mounts so I can fly my experimental motors. They don't separate because that's complicated and I just want a sturdy tank of rocket, which was my philosophy going into the certification. All three are...

2.6" BT80. We switched over to JollyLogic's chute release because it's so much simpler to explain and use, plus it saves weight.

We used to use this rocket as a cutaway to show what the inside looks like, but we've changed the configuration and made a new cutaway. The stratologger stand-in is actually just a 3D printed model to go in the e-bay.

Definitely not going to do it on the cert, I'm very hesitant to stray from a normal, robust rocket. My L2 was extremely overbuilt since I had experienced a couple failures before. This L3 is more or less just an upscale of that, except that I added the winglets for looks. I've done canards...

I'm not sure of the best place to ask this but it came up while I was working on the OpenRocket for my planned L3. I'm going to make it look like the BFR, delta winglets included, and currently I have them set in the sane configuration of 180° away from each other so they don't throw off the CP...

I had to put Chicken Heavy aside for a while to do my L2 cert, but with that out of the way I'm back building this creature again. I've added extra attachment points for the nose cones, reinforced the forward booster hooks, and added the spring electronic connections. I'm hoping to get it...

The G64 only has a 2.1s burn time, which is far shorter than I want for the center. The F44's in the sides are already at only 1s burn. In the case that only the center motor lights, it's got a takeoff TWR of 3, but the more likely scenario is that one of the sides doesn't ignite, which would...