Really moving this along now, but had to pause a bit tonight. I was rushing this build and (besides putting the rear fins on backwards!) ran into a number of issues when trying to get the Ebay wired and ready.
First part went well. I put aluminum brackets on either side of the switch bracket to hold it in place and tapped in holes for the standoffs for the Proton and the RRC2. Once that was done, I marked out and drilled the holes in switch band for the switches and vents. All good.
Things went sideways when I started working on the Proton. I had previously assembled and tested the Proton, so that wasn't an issue, but I built it a while ago and had soldered a bridge between the DP+ and B+ pads because I figured I would probably use it in single battery mode. No big deal, get out the solder wick and remove the bridge. Then I soldered JST connectors to the proper pads for both the deployment and logic batteries. Then I installed the board back on the sled and went to attach the leads from the terminal blocks. Here I ran into the next issue - when I assembled the board, I chose to use the green terminal blocks that come with the kit. Frankly, I must have really messed up that soldering job. Of the 12 ports, 9 of the screws would not screw down. I must have melted them or something, who knows. So I took the board off and started trying to de-solder each connection. In doing so, I managed to break one of the terminal blocks off. It didn't damage anything, but it was a lot harder to de-solder. After about an hour of wrestling with the damned things, I finally got one off and all the solder off the board. I cleaned up the pads and soldered 4 wires to two of the channels. I reinstalled the board on the sled and then realized I had put male JST connectors on the battery pads and they needed to be female. And to add insult to injury, I had installed the board with the "UP" arrow pointing toward the aft end of the Ebay and the battery wires would be the wrong length if I turned the board around.
At this point, I was tired and frustrated and realized I needed to walk away for a while. I went and had some dinner, watched some TV, etc, then came back with fresh eyes. I de-soldered the JST connectors, soldered the proper ones on and did a thorough check to make sure I didn't miss anything. I installed the board back on the sled in the proper orientation and proceeded to wire everything up. I finished up wiring the RRC2 and the batteries and the final pictures are below.
Some highlights:
- Eggtimer Proton with a LiPo for the logic and a 9V lithium for the deployment
- RRC2L backup with a 9V lithium
- Nose end bulkhead fixed in place, all wires from those terminal blocks directly wired to the boards
- Aft end bulkhead removeable, leads have 3M quick connects in the middle
- All batteries on opposite side of sled from electronics to help protect them if one gets loose
- LiPo zip tied to sled
- 9V batteries in modified battery boxes. I remove the switches and hard wire leads to the terminal connectors. Battery box covers are held in place with a screw during flight so the 9V batteries are completely enclosed
- Pictures show 400 mAh LiPo for testing, actual flights will use an 800 mAh LiPo
Once completed, I did continuity tests and a test ematch fire on all channels.
I hope to get the nosecone bay done later tonight and ground test this tomorrow.
View attachment 486573
View attachment 486574
View attachment 486575
View attachment 486576
View attachment 486577
View attachment 486578
View attachment 486579
View attachment 486580
View attachment 486581