High School Project Rocket Electronics

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Matthew Haley

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Hello all,


I am part of a high school program where we get to take a problem of our choosing (with a group of 3 people total) and try to solve it, or if a solution already exists, make it cheaper. The problem we chose to tackle is that electronics used in amateur rockets, particularly cameras, are either unreliable, expensive, or both. Even if they do operate properly, their performance is often not ideal. A little more specifically, the wiring and mounting of said electronics in rockets. Currently we are just wondering how many people have this problem in general. If anyone has a solution they came up with that would also be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
 
Just my opinion using electronics and camera from the beginning to today in rockets.

Cameras and Electronics are very stable and have huge advanced features when you purchase the ones purpose built, and are light years from what they were in the late 60s and early 70s :D

To help you, please describe the cameras and electronics you have used that are unreliable and performance lacking.
If your talking "Key-chain" cameras, those are not rocketry products. They simply got used as they are cheap. *

Edit* And because of that, where you purchase Key-Chain Cameras from can make them unreliable and performance suffering. Many sold on eBay are rejects from the production lines.
 
. A little more specifically, the wiring and mounting of said electronics in rockets. Currently we are just wondering how many people have this problem in general. If anyone has a solution they came up with that would also be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

This is a good point to work on that has promise. Please describe what problems you have had in wiring so folks an get an idea of how to make it better for you.
 
Thank you for your point on cameras, if you do, do you have any suggestions for rocket cameras. Additionally, in our rocketry club and class in years past, we have had a large amount of project failures due to wires not being soldered well or due to other small inaccuracies such as that. So we want to find a solution that could possibly eliminate or minimize that risk. Like on certain eggtimer components the amount of soldering with little error makes it difficult to work around, and then mounting the electronic components, even though there are many ways to do so, many seem to rely on zipties or double sided tape (which are good solutions just jank) so maybe figuring out a way to "unify" it so that those problems could be less of a worry is what we are after.
Thank you again!
 
Thank you for your point on cameras, if you do, do you have any suggestions for rocket cameras. Additionally, in our rocketry club and class in years past, we have had a large amount of project failures due to wires not being soldered well or due to other small inaccuracies such as that. So we want to find a solution that could possibly eliminate or minimize that risk. Like on certain eggtimer components the amount of soldering with little error makes it difficult to work around, and then mounting the electronic components, even though there are many ways to do so, many seem to rely on zipties or double sided tape (which are good solutions just jank) so maybe figuring out a way to "unify" it so that those problems could be less of a worry is what we are after.
Thank you again!

Type of camera to use on a Rocket depends on the size of the rocket. What size(s) are you looking at?

On the point I have bolded above, are these issues of wires not soldered well on an off the shelf product's wires failing, or wires that you have had to solder on? The cure for the later is to use better wire and solder better using good solder *** see next post . Egg Timer does send you good solder.

I've used zip ties "along" with double sided tape. On hi performance rockets I used zip ties left and right with wood "book ends" glued to the electronics sled for Up and Down to hold my 2 altimeters in the rocket in my Avatar. That rocket went >1000 mph. Book Ends, think of glue a wood upright on the ends of the area on the sled that the altimeter board sits in, with professional quality zip ties around it. Same with the batteries.

Harbor Freight and other discount places have really, really bad zip ties I found out the hard way in use other then rocketry. Like Zip Ties used to hold Coax to my home antenna masts, they snaped off after some months in the sun.

Today folks 3D print their altimeter and other electronics "sleds" that hold everything nice and neat. No need to fool with wood like I have to as I don't have a 3D printer. But I would think you still need a zip tie around the area, running thru slots made in the sled.?
 
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*** Perhaps your issues with wires coming off can be helped with a "Strain Relief" ?

A strain Relief is a wrap or device that keeps "pulling" actions from reaching where the wire is soldered to.

Consumer electronics would have a gromet wrapped around the wire where it went inside the case to keep any Tugs on the wire from reaching inside to pull the wire off the circuit board.

Tiny zip ties also also used to hold wires down to circuit boards thru slots to keep any pulling on a wire from reaching the solder joint.
 
In the following video, Josh's L1 rocket used a JLCR which works great. If the ejection is too energetic, the chute can pull out but the device works most of the time (as long as you remember to arm it before walking back to the flight line).

Micah's L1 rocket (at 17:01 in the video) used a home made chute release which was amazing. I believe he stuffed the Arduino board into the nose cone.



For cams, there's so many available that it's hardly worth reinventing the wheel over. I use the 808 #32S because it's light weight, easy to use (compared to the Astrocam), only $40, and makes awesome 1080p60 videos if you update the settings. Honestly, for reliability, I lose the cam before they wear out. They have stopped working for me but that's usually from dropping them from 1200ft or something ridiculous like that. The Mobius cams are more reliable and cost a little more. The Runcam2 is awesome but very heavy and pricier. There are shrouds available. I prefer making my own out of masking tape.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threa...m-micro-camera-1080p-sports-camcorder.176183/
 
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*** Perhaps your issues with wires coming off can be helped with a "Strain Relief" ?

A strain Relief is a wrap or device that keeps "pulling" actions from reaching where the wire is soldered to.

Consumer electronics would have a gromet wrapped around the wire where it went inside the case to keep any Tugs on the wire from reaching inside to pull the wire off the circuit board.

Tiny zip ties also also used to hold wires down to circuit boards thru slots to keep any pulling on a wire from reaching the solder joint.
Those sound like good ideas! Do you think a device that could accomplish those tasks in a more reliable manner (developed over the course of the school year) would be a beneficial product on the market?
 
Those sound like good ideas! Do you think a device that could accomplish those tasks in a more reliable manner (developed over the course of the school year) would be a beneficial product on the market?

Folks in electronics have been using strain reliefs since about the 1920s. Amateurs make their own. Gromets and Zip ties in various sizes fitting into holes or slots. You probably have not seen 'radios' that had them on the cords in the rear.

A "How To" however could be made to help folks that do not have that idea of an old concept on their AV bay sleds maybe?
 
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