Electronics in the wind?

[vahpr]

Has anyone had success with attaching a tracker/gps transmitter to recovery webbing, particularly on high altitude flights?

Working on a 6" OD motor as a booster for which no off the shelf composite tubes are available to use as a coupler and payload bay, so this will be all aluminum. Really don't want to make my own composite tubing.

 

[rfjustin]

If you have 6" diameter to play with, could you simply zip tie and tape a 38mm figerglass avionics bay to the webbing? Perhaps use a rigid antennae out the top of said bay, with the internal components contained in the 38mm bay?

 

[FredA]

We put BigRedBee trackers in 35mm plastic film cans and zip-tie & duct-tape them to recovery harnesses all the time.

 

[SDramstad]

Not likely to lock in to the GPS signals inside of an aluminum rocket. May need an external antenna. Is the nosecone aluminum? Place the tracker in the nosecone if you are using a fiberglass nosecone.

 

[vahpr]

Hey Justin,

Good to hear from you!

That's kinda what I'd had in mind, but hesitated because in the distant past when I tied stuff to webbing (parachuting smoke for example) it sometimes worked, sometimes not.

Fred, have you ever had one disconnect and what was the highest alt this worked for you?

SDramstead, yea that can't be helped, however it'll be a long descent on a tether-like device (so a vertical descent) where it should have plenty of time to lock assuming the almanac data, etc is fresh.

Jerry O

If you have 6" diameter to play with, could you simply zip tie and tape a 38mm figerglass avionics bay to the webbing? Perhaps use a rigid antennae out the top of said bay, with the internal components contained in the 38mm bay?

 

[FredA]

yes, we have one come loose once - fortunately the rocket and tracker we on the same line.
But really not a problem.

We've done this on shorter flight on small rockets -- usually something between 10k and 20k.

Also useful for all CF rockets -- gets the tracker out of the body so you can start tracking once the chute is out.

 

[Tim51]

Came across these a while back - might be relevant to your conversation (?): https://www.labratrocketry.com/product-page/shockcord-protective-sleeves

 

[vahpr]

That's a good idea Tim, I think I'd zip tie it in addition to attaching to the webbing