Glow stick payload build thread

[mooffle]

After a coworker gave me some glow sticks to play with it's time to finally expand my night specific fleet with a purpose built glow stick based rocket
This build will be based off a rocket I made sometime around 10 years ago, unfortunately I don't have pictures or I would post them but the concept was the same. Due to this being a sort of highly delayed version 2 there isn't much proof of concept to happen here, I know it will work.
I also tried to find posts of similar stuff but couldn't find anything. If I missed someones design please share, I'd love to see it.

Ok, so the build goes something like this
-The main tube is a polycarbonate fluorescent light bulb tube shield (extremely close to a bt60 as noted by various others)
-The smaller inside tube is the functional bt50 airframe
-The bigger tube is a bt60 sized coupler that houses the 18inch nylon chute. This will provide added structure and an anchor point for the polycarbonate sleeve. The sleeve will also not experience any 'clouding' from repeated ejection charges
-The glow sticks I was given are almost 2 feet long which is why the inner tube is coupled. To be honest I'm kind of conflicted on this point because the glow sticks are both too long and too old that I don't know if I will move forward with this design or shorten to the 8 or 12 inch bracelet style. We played around with some and they were only visible in total darkness.
-C5-3's are one of my favorite motors to work with hence the choice here for 18mm. This is also a push to go with a smaller glow stick and parachute. If I stick with 2 foot ones then a 24mm engine might be appropriate.
-Lastly the glow sticks go between the sleeve and inner tube, I'm just too lazy to input the radial position for each one. Ultimately it doesn't affect the sim.

 

[mooffle]

After some more playing around here is the short version.

 

[mooffle]

It's gonna be the short version after all.
I tried a visual test with the big glow stick and it made almost 0 light. My son and I broke the whole pack open after that and only 10 of the ~30ish lasted more than 20 minutes. Of those only 5 could be seen in anything but absolute darkness.

Target had these ones for $14 so my options are a little more expanded with 6 and 8 inch payloads. Not sure yet about the 1.5 inch ones, I might do a purpose build for covering the edges of some fins. Hopefully I get a chance to start building this weekend.

 

[mooffle]

I finished cutting the pieces last night. Here they are cut, rough sanded, and fit together. Normally I would just start gluing but because of so many tubes needing to nest together just right I did a dry fit. Somewhere along the way my measurements became rather 'off' as you can see in the clear tube being a bit too long. the glow stick still fits neatly inside with plenty of clearance so it ends up not mattering much and will just be trimmed down at the end of the whole process.



The part I am holding will be the fin unit. My box of parts had a pair of paper towel tubes that nearly nested perfectly inside one another so I opted for no transition here, instead keeping the OD constant through the build.

This is how the final assembly will look, the fluorescent light sleeve will stay just that, a sleeve. The nose cone shoulder will fit inside the brown tube and hold the clear part down. Don't worry the glow stick won't just float in the final product.


Some detail shots of the engine mount/fin unit parts. The front inside tube had to be thinned down to fit inside the rear one. Than I left a small lip for the rear centering ring to add some strength.

 

[Adam3836]

Interesting
This should be pretty cool

I finished cutting the pieces last night. Here they are cut, rough sanded, and fit together. Normally I would just start gluing but because of so many tubes needing to nest together just right I did a dry fit. Somewhere along the way my measurements became rather 'off' as you can see in the clear tube being a bit too long. the glow stick still fits neatly inside with plenty of clearance so it ends up not mattering much and will just be trimmed down at the end of the whole process.

View attachment 506905

The part I am holding will be the fin unit. My box of parts had a pair of paper towel tubes that nearly nested perfectly inside one another so I opted for no transition here, instead keeping the OD constant through the build.

This is how the final assembly will look, the fluorescent light sleeve will stay just that, a sleeve. The nose cone shoulder will fit inside the brown tube and hold the clear part down. Don't worry the glow stick won't just float in the final product.
View attachment 506906

Some detail shots of the engine mount/fin unit parts. The front inside tube had to be thinned down to fit inside the rear one. Than I left a small lip for the rear centering ring to add some strength.

View attachment 506907View attachment 506908

 

[mooffle]

Starting the glue process, the sleeve is doubling as the alignment tool while the glue sets. Fingers crossed that the glue doesn't stick to the polycarbonate, should be pretty safe


Bonus kit bash of a 220 swift modified for streamers and mini glow stick 'missile bays'

 

[Adam3836]

So the smaller inside white tube is the airframe where the motor ejection will pass through and push the chute and NC out forward and therefore bypass the clear outer tube where the glow sticks will be and that keeps it staying clean
Do I have that right ?

Starting the glue process, the sleeve is doubling as the alignment tool while the glue sets. Fingers crossed that the glue doesn't stick to the polycarbonate, should be pretty safe
View attachment 506936

Bonus kit bash of a 220 swift modified for streamers and mini glow stick 'missile bays'
View attachment 506937

 

[Adam3836]

I like the modified 220 swift
Your going to be putting on a nice little light show here .





Bonus kit bash of a 220 swift modified for streamers and mini glow stick 'missile bays'
View attachment 506937
[/QUOTE]

 

[mooffle]

@Adam3836 Yeah you have the build correct. The clear sleeve is a redundant airframe except for the fact that it gives the rocket a smooth profile for airflow and that it gives a 'wraparound' payload bay. In my previous version I used a 24mm tube with out a separate parachute bay.
Night prepping a chute to fit into such a small space is annoying and I found that the sleeve would slip and slowly get charred.

I like the modified 220 swift
Your going to be putting on a nice little light show here .

Thanks, I really want to have a small fleet of night only. I work late and it sucks getting out of work only to find rocketry conditions are perfect.

 

[mooffle]

Shoulder carved and sanded. Looking forward to getting the shape finished later today

 

[mooffle]

An overdue update, nose cone and fins shaped and gluing started. I haven't picked a color scheme yet, leaning towards something neutral since the glow sticks will provide most of the visual.

 

[K'Tesh]

Why not go big?

For the interior tube, I would suggest wrapping it in retro- reflective ribbon or film... For the airframe, I would suggest neon colors... Retro-reflective if possible.





Nice thing about reflective products is that if you shine a light (such as a camera flash) it really pops out at night... And if the rocket goes down and is hard to find, the reflective materials can make it easier to spot with a flashlight.

 

[mooffle]

@K'Tesh is that the sort of thing home depot would carry? I have to go there soon to pick up paint anyway. Or any specific brands I should look for? Not against buying bike related stuff if I have to, I do like to bike a lot and a large roll would see some good uses.

For the glow stick retainers I went with 3/16 lugs. Because of the way the glow sticks get inserted there is a bit of sideways force applied to the retainers, these allow for just enough 'grab' without having to push on the air frame. The included couplers were too tight. Since the payload bay isn't much longer than the sticks they need to be quite short too, I cut to about 5mm.
They will be glued to the center tube as well as the centering rings to keep from any deforming. I am a little surprised how little integrity regular lugs have when cut short but I suppose ring fins act similarly.

 

[K'Tesh]

@K'Tesh is that the sort of thing home depot would carry? I have to go there soon to pick up paint anyway. Or any specific brands I should look for? Not against buying bike related stuff if I have to, I do like to bike a lot and a large roll would see some good uses.

For the glow stick retainers I went with 3/16 lugs. Because of the way the glow sticks get inserted there is a bit of sideways force applied to the retainers, these allow for just enough 'grab' without having to push on the air frame. The included couplers were too tight. Since the payload bay isn't much longer than the sticks they need to be quite short too, I cut to about 5mm.
They will be glued to the center tube as well as the centering rings to keep from any deforming. I am a little surprised how little integrity regular lugs have when cut short but I suppose ring fins act similarly.

For the reflective materials that I showed in my post, I'd do some searches online... Amazon, Alibaba, would likely have some options for the bike related products. For reflective films, that could be applied in lieu of paint, I use Orical reflective products that I pick up from Multi-Craft Plastics. It's about $15 (last time I looked) for 1 yard of 24" wide vinyl (minimum purchase amount). That would be enough to do several rockets OR a rocket, and lots of bicycles (you can probably guess what I use it for covering).

Here are three photos of same bike (and one including me)... The different color on the front of the top tube is a 3M product I had leftover from my first bike wrap project.




Local sign shops might have off-cuts that they would be willing to let go for a few bucks (or if you're not against dumpster diving... free). You'll want to test to make sure it's reflective when you're doing that... The flash of your phone's camera, or the flashlight function of your phone can do it.

 

[mooffle]

That middle picture is RAD! I've been thinking about making a tron bike with some EL wire for a little while now too. Semi related to this rocket project, I would make a rocket with that stuff but I don't have a battery pack light enough yet for small rockets. They take 8-12v and the mass is a little close for comfort yet. Works on my bike basket though.

Relevant to this, if that stuff is fairly thin and smooth do you think I could skin the paper tube where the sleeve covers it? I figured paint would scrub off over time and color there would be great compared to the cardboard look. Otherwise I thought maybe some markers just to dye it.

Can you tell I hadn't given cosmetics much thought here?

 

[mooffle]

Oh, updated .ork with the correct real life measured parts and new transparent parts. (kudos to OR 22!) Prototype in white until I decide on some colors.

 

[K'Tesh]

That middle picture is RAD! I've been thinking about making a tron bike with some EL wire for a little while now too. Semi related to this rocket project, I would make a rocket with that stuff but I don't have a battery pack light enough yet for small rockets. They take 8-12v and the mass is a little close for comfort yet. Works on my bike basket though.

Relevant to this, if that stuff is fairly thin and smooth do you think I could skin the paper tube where the sleeve covers it? I figured paint would scrub off over time and color there would be great compared to the cardboard look. Otherwise I thought maybe some markers just to dye it.

Can you tell I hadn't given cosmetics much thought here?

If you're using a fluorescent tube guard, the Retro-Reflective films are thin, and could be used to help shim it. It's a little thicker than the vinyl used for car wraps, but not much. As for the smoothness, when buying it, you can ask about texture. There are some with hexagonal or other patterns embossed in some of them (typically the stuff you see on the corners of things like semi-truck trailers etc) and you wouldn't want those, unless that is the look you're going for. Otherwise, it looks like paint when applied (as you could see in the daylight photo of my bike).

I'm not sold on EL wire products. I believe that it's similar technology to cold cathode technology and my bike light that used (CCT) faded rapidly over time (in less than a year with regular use), dimming from one end until it was half on/half off even with a full charge.

 

[icyclops]

Big glowsticks weigh a lot. You will need enough push to get that in the air…a small chain of connected LEDs inserted into a translucent drinking straw connected to a AAA or button battery works even better and with a micro switch is more convenient.

 

[mooffle]

Big glowsticks weigh a lot.

I'll disagree here, though our definitions of 'a lot' may be different. Each glowstick is about .5 grams per inch so for my design with four x 8 inch sticks its about 16g for a payload. Ive run much heavier on C5-3's so I'm not worried about lift off.

 

[icyclops]

Ok good luck

 

[mooffle]

Sorry @icyclops I hope that didn't sound too dismissive, I will probably make a second similar rocket with that method in the future as a 'renewable' payload would be nice. And I need more practice building simple circuits.

I decided to do a test with different thicknesses on the spare piece of tube. Left to right there is aluminum foil tape, masking tape and electrical tape. I am not going to cover this rocket with those last two, but I needed a sense of how much material can go on here.
The electrical tape is too thick, the sleeve actually caught on it and ripped the corner. This could probably work with more finishing to the tube so it's a toss up.
The masking tape slipped easily so no concern there.
The foil tape fit snug but moved without applying a lot of force. With minimal sanding this might be what I go with, it's smooth and mass is minimal. However you can probably see the wrinkling in the picture and I'll have to practice spiral winding it to keep things consistent texture and layer-wise. This may end up as the final layer if I can't find a reflective tape I like.

Bonus: Final stages of glue drying happening in the background. Exciting!

 

[mooffle]

Big update;
I decided to go with the aluminum tape. I looked at home depot but they didn't have any reflective stuff I liked and I have about 200 feet of the aluminum stuff. Might as well use it.
The reflective tape will have to wait for the next bike project.
To try and get as smooth an application as possible I grabbed a piece much longer than needed, taped it to the table for a '3rd hand' and spiral wound it. The table very much helped to keep the tension.


Success? I'll take it. When I got toward the end of the tape it was very hard to smooth it effectively and keep the correct spiraling, which is what caused the wrinkles toward the nose It is also a hair or two more snug than I'd like and I think a steeper spiral would have worked better but it is what it is.

Tail end was just a straight wraparound with 1/8 inch overlap on one side


Fully completed rocket! The fin can/nose will definitely get painted and assuming I can mask off the inside of the glow lugs effectively the inside will be sprayed white. No decision yet on the other parts, though I did buy a host of bright paints so @K'Tesh might win me over on that one .



Total weight with 4 glow sticks and no paint is 102g It's at the bottom of the safe zone for liftoff speed but I think it's fine at 15.5 m/s. I'll double check my sims before the maiden flight.

 

[Adam3836]

Looking very cool I must say !!!

 

[mooffle]

After 2 coats of white paint brought it to 10g over my sim mass I decided to stop there. I'm torn because I like how it looks but it's still slightly too bare.

Anyway, launch night happened about a week ago. These pics are from the second launch. A.k.a it worked and can be reflown.
It did need a field repair after the first launch as one of the fins cracked on ground impact. I was not careful enough with my chute packing and landed too hard. Second flight was clean though after taking the time to set everything up.

As for visibility it could be seen in medium (4-8 inch tall, moderate thickness) grass from 100 feet away.

With and without flash:

 

[cls]

It's funny... Sometimes easier to find night launched glow stick rockets, than the same rocket in day light.