EZI-65 (heavily customized) L1 Cert Success

[Aeva]

Follow up to my post-> EZI-65 (heavily customized) on I115; is it too heavy?



So I managed to get two engines, but ended up using the 38mm DMS I175 I got from @jmasterj. I flipped back and forth but ultimately decided not to put my gopro in it for this launch. I got delayed from October because of poor weather, and finally launched today. Funnily enough, some things still went wrong: the motor adapter that I bought from apogee for a 54mm to 38mm engine mount didn't fit the nozzle of the DMS motor... SO I ended up friction fitting to the motor adapter and using the motor adapter to fit it in the 54mm motor mount. It was pretty solid. The second thing that went wrong was something went wrong with my code for my flight computer (I think I may have left some test code on there and that interfered with the flight computer's ability to trigger the ejection charges for the main)--but luckily a third mistake somehow had a positive effect. The last problem was not enough resistance on the nose cone to hold the payload bay closed until the ejection charge fired. @waltr had pointed out that could happen and I should mention that when I do my cert (thank you), so that was a fortunate mishap. All of these are things I'm going to look into fixing before I fly it again, but I'm feeling super confident.

At the end of the day, I still got my L1 cert. Thanks for the advice and support!!!

 

[ThePlmbr]

Congrats on your level 1 flight.

 

[waltr]

Congrats on your L1 Cert.
Was nice meeting in person and getting to see your rocket and all the electronics you built.

 

[tim cubbedge]

Congrats

 

[Fattbank64]

Congratulations!

 

[kjhambrick]

Congratulations @Aeva

-- kjh

 

[waltr]

Have some thoughts about your avBay electronics.

I recommend putting an Eggtimer Quark ($20) in your ebay as a redundant back-up system.
Then code bugs won't destroy your rocket and you have more freedom to experiment.
You do have dual charge cups, for full redundancy each charge should be on a separate system including battery.

 

[Aeva]

Have some thoughts about your avBay electronics.

I recommend putting an Eggtimer Quark ($20) in your ebay as a redundant back-up system.
Then code bugs won't destroy your rocket and you have more freedom to experiment.
You do have dual charge cups, for full redundancy each charge should be on a separate system including battery.

definitely sounds like a good idea. The other thing is I'm gonna set up some checklists: one for preflight (prepping batteries, pre-measuring my EC charges, and some new check for the flight computer software), and another for launch prep at the pad (I have so many more tools to setup the EZI65 than I probably should have, and didn't bring them all to the table right away lol; but also, checking the status indicators of my flight software and making sure all the connectors are plugged in). I've had a really good success rate with my flight computer until now. Hopefully this is a one-off... but yeah, definitely room for a backup computer lol

 

[Aeva]

btw, @waltr you need to add your L2 to your signature lol

 

[kjhambrick]

@Aeva --

Extra points on your L1 Flight while flying your own Electronics Package !

+1 on @waltr's advice to use a backup, at least until you've got a few shakedown flights on the electronics and software and AV-Bay.

I recently learned the hard way that I should even fly a backup deployment gadget when I change my AV-Bay design because coming in on a streamer and landing on an asphalt road is hard on a BT-55 rocket, even when it has a wrap of glass

-- kjh

 

[Aeva]

There were a few deployment failures yesterday too. One landed just behind the cars near where I was prepping with the club member certifying me. I had my back turned and suddenly Dave shouted "HEADS UP!!". It was followed by a "whoosh" and "CRACK"of someone's rocket hitting the gravel. I definitely reacted with a swear or two lol

Sorry you lost that rocket though

 

[kjhambrick]

There were a few deployment failures yesterday too. One landed just behind the cars near where I was prepping with the club member certifying me. I had my back turned and suddenly Dave shouted "HEADS UP!!". It was followed by a "whoosh" and "CRACK"of someone's rocket hitting the gravel. I definitely reacted with a swear or two lol

Sorry you lost that rocket though

No worries.

I learned a thing or two about my electrical connections and if you're going to fly 'em you're going to crash 'em too

-- kjh

 

[-Slick-Ice]

Nice soft field to land in! I'm sure you will get it straightened out for the next launch!
Were you using the motor ejection for the drogue or did apogee deployment work?

 

[Aeva]

Engine deployment for the drogue. It had enough momentum to push out the nose too, so the main came out at apogee accidentally.

 

[Henry Walker]

CONGRATS!!