Aircraft strobes

[CPUTommy]

Thinking of adding a strobe to my drogue line, kinda hard to see anything over 3,000 feet, I am however able to see aircraft strobes at altitude, sooooo... any suggestions ???

 

[DavidMcCann]

I was playing around with some RC strobes this weekend at the launch. Didn't put them on a rocket, but they're visible enough in the daylight I'm going to try them on a harness line sometime soonish.

 

[K'Tesh]

If you've got enough kite line, and a good lifting kite (say a Dual French Military Kite), you could test them with that... I'm able to buy 1 kilometer (3280.84') of kite line here in China.

 

[Zeus-cat]

Thinking of adding a strobe to my drogue line, kinda hard to see anything over 3,000 feet, I am however able to see aircraft strobes at altitude, sooooo... any suggestions ???

I used to work for a company that made aircraft lighting. Most of the technology they used is inappropriate for rockets; too expensive, too heavy, too complicated. However, we switched to LEDs a few years ago for some lights and they were really bright. During qualification testing they were life testing 9 landing lights and actually started the opposite wall on fire from the intense light. Oops. So really, I think very bright LEDs powered by a 9 volt battery is probably where you want to go.

 

[mccordmw]

Thinking of adding a strobe to my drogue line, kinda hard to see anything over 3,000 feet, I am however able to see aircraft strobes at altitude, sooooo... any suggestions ???

These.

https://www.readymaderc.com/store/i...oduct_info&cPath=505_509_513&products_id=5419

They will practically blind you if you look at them up close. They're small (like dime sized minus the battery), cheap ($8), last a long time (70 mAh blink), and are stupidly bright.

I've never put them on a rocket, but my dancer friends put rows of them on contact juggling s-shaped staves called Buugeng. I can attest to their brightness.

 

[boatgeek]

For self-contained units, you can look at bike lights. The tail lights (red) in particular can have a pretty wide field of view. If you'd rather roll your own, you can buy 100-packs of high-intensity LEDs for pretty cheap. If you buy the spotlight version, you can gently scuff up the glass surface with fine sandpaper to get a flood version.

 

[CPUTommy]

That was my idea, At altitude my eyes would be able to see the strobe.. or at least for a second, I noticed that very few rockets were able to be tracked by my eyes unless they were under chute at 2000 feet, Watching the event or even seeing anything after.. lost cause with my eyes.

I figure a running strobe after first event might help with the visual problems.

 

[blackjack2564]

Why not use a tracker to find it?

What size rockets are we talking about...low-mid-high power?

 

[CPUTommy]

high power, and a tracker will only tell me so much. id like to visually see it.. some how...

 

[mccordmw]

Heh. In my L3 bird, I have an Eggfinder GPS tracker with the RPSMA antenna for extra range

+ PLUS +

An alarm warbler that goes off on drogue deployment.

+ PLUS +

An alarm warbler that goes off when the nose cone and its pilot chute separate from the rocket on main deployment.

+ PLUS +

A strobe on the payload bay and on the nosecone base for visual tracking.

 

[CPUTommy]

Any pics or video of said setup?????

 

[cvanc]

LOL! There are two possibilities here:

1- You were born very very smart, or

2- You have flown at Bong more than once

:lol: :rofl: :handshake:

Heh. In my L3 bird, I have an Eggfinder GPS tracker with the RPSMA antenna for extra range

+ PLUS +

An alarm warbler that goes off on drogue deployment.

+ PLUS +

An alarm warbler that goes off when the nose cone and its pilot chute separate from the rocket on main deployment.

+ PLUS +

A strobe on the payload bay and on the nosecone base for visual tracking.

 

[mccordmw]

Any pics or video of said setup?????

I have pics of the GPS in here, but not of the alarms or strobes.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1i4anunZXsiG7dyIP78nmFN7WJrSK-7uAgVvensHU9ok

I think I have a pic of the alarms in my thread somewhere...can't recall.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?137542-L3-Winter-Build-Thread-3-4-Scale-PAC-3-Patriot

The alarms are here. At $13 for two, they can't be beat:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XYYTPF1/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I bought the strobes and matching polycarbonate domes from the site I linked before. I haven't flown them in a rocket yet, though.

 

[blackjack2564]

high power, and a tracker will only tell me so much. id like to visually see it.. some how...

Well then use cool smoke grenades.....paintball-skydivers...electric fired units I have 2 friend that have great success with them. One uses pull pin version rigged to pull pin when taped to apogee shock cord and pin is attached to fincan.

Other has apogee charge also fire smoke generator....they are also e-matches. you can get thick 1 minute smoke for 3in and larger I know for sure. Searching may yield ones for smaller. Cost can be from 9-10 buck up. John used ones that smoked for 3 minutes attached to skydivers boot. It was awesome in his corkscrew rocket. orange or red color.

Start here:
https://www.google.com/search?biw=1...0..0.0....0...1..64.psy-ab..0.0.0.-c8uNlwjhqs

https://infidelbodyarmor.com/smoke-grenades-c-33/eg18x-military-smoke-grenade-free-shipping-p-222

https://superiorsignal.com/your-smoke-application/military-le-training-smoke

Good luck these work well when properly installed, and are safe from starting fires on ground

 

[markkoelsch]

LOL! There are two possibilities here:

1- You were born very very smart, or

2- You have flown at Bong more than once

:lol: :rofl: :handshake:

Swamp recovery mode engaged!

 

[ksaves2]

Hmmmmmmm, I was thinking more of a night launch for a strobe light. Here's a cheap one that is a true strobe: https://www.electronickitsbychaneyelectronics.com/prodinfo.asp?number=C5175 Runs on 9V battery and will sit in
a 2.25 inch diameter clear tube. There are a couple of bare spots to drill holes for screw on standoffs. The leads are long enough you can bend the strobe so it is 90 degrees forward of the board. Flashes once a second on a fresh battery.
It fits in the payload tube of a Rising Star Payloader. https://www.apogeerockets.com/Rocket-Kits/Skill-Level-2-Model-Rocket-Kits/Rising-Star.

If you touch the capacitor or the outputs of the transformer with a finger, Holeee Molee does it shock! I turned it off and it still had a stored charge and it whacked me to attention one time. Stupidhead here tried to judge which 9V batteries were "better"
and I got a bit of a retinal burn when I woke up the next day. Eyes stung a bit. Suffice it to say, Duracells like used in some deployment devices work fine. Kurt

 

[ksaves2]

I have pics of the GPS in here, but not of the alarms or strobes.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1i4anunZXsiG7dyIP78nmFN7WJrSK-7uAgVvensHU9ok

I think I have a pic of the alarms in my thread somewhere...can't recall.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?137542-L3-Winter-Build-Thread-3-4-Scale-PAC-3-Patriot

The alarms are here. At $13 for two, they can't be beat:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XYYTPF1/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I bought the strobes and matching polycarbonate domes from the site I linked before. I haven't flown them in a rocket yet, though.

Get a patch receive antenna for the EggFinder LCD if you are really going to punch that rocket in the future. Something that looks like this: https://www.l-com.com/wireless-antenna-900-mhz-8-dbi-flat-patch-antennas.
You can shop around. You will be sweating bricks waiting for those first positions to come back. Seems like forever after the launch button is pushed. Use the smallest M you can get away with.
If that 6900 foot profile is expected you might not even need a tracker but................Good to have one. Yours might stay completely within sight. If no or little wind, you could consider blowing the main up higher as
I find the decoding of positions really improves once the rocket is in a slower descent under the main.
If in the future you start going above 10k and might have totally sight unseen flights liftoff to landing, the patch antenna will be more important and you might want to consider a Yagi for ground recovery:https://www.ebay.com/itm/11dBi-806-...nal-Booster-/321708828939?hash=item4ae757290b
Can't use a 900Mhz Yagi while in flight well due to the narrow beamwidth but once the rocket is down, it will increase the ground footprint of an EggFinder tracker. I've used one on ground recoveries and at times I pick up a new signal
from a downed rocket I still can't see and if I switch out to the little duck (vertical dipole) antenna, the signal disappears. Reattach the Yagi and the signal reappears. Like I said useful to increase the ground footprint.

You just going to 6900 feet the stock equipment should be fine. I'd get the cert in the can before being more aggressive. Would let you borrow my Patch and Yagi but I just found out I can't come to MWP this year. Have to take
a stupida-- recertification test so I'm out this time. Shoot. Kurt