John Ross
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2020
- Messages
- 27
- Reaction score
- 10
The continued lockdowns and cancellation of events locally and nationwide have resulted in me having more free time on my hands to do research. After getting such helpful, immediate, and useful advice on OpenRocket software from the people in this group, I thought I'd pose another question.
Before I do, let me explain that I have a learning disability when it comes to anything with wires. Replacing a common light switch is about the upper limit of my abilities where electricity is concerned.
I read with interest the pinned topic on altimeters and GPS units suitable for rocketry. However, the last post in that thread was from 2018, and I thought that some things might have happened since then.
How many of these units are useful in situations where you know in advance that you are not going to be able to retrieve the unit after the flight?
The annual PGI convention that was scheduled for next month, and for which I have been preparing entries for the "best rocket motor" competition, has been canceled. I've got another year to up my game.
Judging criteria for "best" rocket motor is comprised of a variety of factors, of which altitude is only one. However, even if it's not in the rulebook, there's a lot of friendly ribbing among amateur pyrotechnicians about who can build the highest flying motor, or the one that goes the highest on a given amount of fuel.
I assume there are now units that will send information to a smartphone or pad device in real time, and not depend on physically retrieving the unit after the flight and plugging it into a computer with a USB cable in order to download the data.
Are any such units cheap enough for one-time use? There are a lot of us who spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours preparing for and attending the annual convention, just as I'm sure it is with you guys in HPR events. Another couple hundred bucks for a fistful of altimeter/GPS units is something I believe a lot of people, especially competitors, would add to their budgets for the PGI convention.
If some kind of "find me" function were included, we might even get them back when working cleanup crew the next morning at the fallout zone...
JR
Before I do, let me explain that I have a learning disability when it comes to anything with wires. Replacing a common light switch is about the upper limit of my abilities where electricity is concerned.
I read with interest the pinned topic on altimeters and GPS units suitable for rocketry. However, the last post in that thread was from 2018, and I thought that some things might have happened since then.
How many of these units are useful in situations where you know in advance that you are not going to be able to retrieve the unit after the flight?
The annual PGI convention that was scheduled for next month, and for which I have been preparing entries for the "best rocket motor" competition, has been canceled. I've got another year to up my game.
Judging criteria for "best" rocket motor is comprised of a variety of factors, of which altitude is only one. However, even if it's not in the rulebook, there's a lot of friendly ribbing among amateur pyrotechnicians about who can build the highest flying motor, or the one that goes the highest on a given amount of fuel.
I assume there are now units that will send information to a smartphone or pad device in real time, and not depend on physically retrieving the unit after the flight and plugging it into a computer with a USB cable in order to download the data.
Are any such units cheap enough for one-time use? There are a lot of us who spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours preparing for and attending the annual convention, just as I'm sure it is with you guys in HPR events. Another couple hundred bucks for a fistful of altimeter/GPS units is something I believe a lot of people, especially competitors, would add to their budgets for the PGI convention.
If some kind of "find me" function were included, we might even get them back when working cleanup crew the next morning at the fallout zone...
JR