The Blue Raven has an on-board flight simulation capability that will be accessible through the phone app. The flight simulation lets you try out different settings for your deployment channels and then test them by making the Blue Raven "think" that it's really flying. It will turn on its deployment outputs according to the deployment settings you gave it, and record all the usual flight data so that you can make sure that everything worked the way you expected. You can connect real ematches (without black powder, please) and the Blue Raven will fire them when the simulated flight conditions match your deployment settings. This is a good way to check a new battery or switch setup to make sure that everything is wired correctly.
Since the Blue Raven was designed with staging in mind, I included some extra flexibility in the simulation inputs so that you can realistically simulate what the Blue Raven would observe and do if it's installed on a booster, a second stage or even a third stage. Within the simulation setup, you can virtually connect each of the Blue Raven's four output channels to trigger any of the following simulated events:
Here are some more details about the capabilities:
Since the Blue Raven was designed with staging in mind, I included some extra flexibility in the simulation inputs so that you can realistically simulate what the Blue Raven would observe and do if it's installed on a booster, a second stage or even a third stage. Within the simulation setup, you can virtually connect each of the Blue Raven's four output channels to trigger any of the following simulated events:
- Do nothing (no charge connected)
- Virtual apogee charge: Puts the rocket into a medium drag configuration as if it has a small drogue
- Virtual main charge: Puts the rocket into a high-drag configuration that results in a terminal descent rate of around 25 feet/second
- Ignite a virtual 2nd stage motor.
- Ignite a 3rd stage motor.
Here are some more details about the capabilities:
- The first stage, optional 2nd stage and optional 3 stage motors each have their own user-specified burn duration (in 0.1 sec steps) and acceleration (in 0.1 G steps). This is an easy way to represent any motor from 1/2A to N or beyond, on any size rocket.
- Rocket drag is simulated, including effect of altitude on air density all the way up to 150,000 feet.
- Gravity is also a function of altitude.
- Launch tower initial tilt is user-specified in 0.1 degree increments. The rocket attitude is simulated to follow the flight path, including the gravity turn showing up in one of the gyro axes
- The sim works by adding simulated delta measurements to the real measurements your accel and gyro sensors are making during the flight. The effect of real sensor noise is captured, and If you move the Blue Raven during the simulated flight, you'll see the effect in the recorded data. The barometric sensor sim starts with your actual measured altitude as the pad altitude.