How many altimeters does one man need?

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Fom my experience having enough altimeters to have everything prepped and ready to fly without having to move anything is really the best way to go. It is so much easier to prep things at home in the workshop or garage rather than out at the field. And a big weekend of flights can go sideways if your first flight crashes and you were planning on using that altimeter in a later flight.

While I have a wide variety of altimeters I've standardized on Raven's and Stratalogger CF altimeters. I like the small size and the low power requirements of both. I have several of Adrian's Powerperch's and mini-A/V bays as well as magnetic switches. Allows for use in small airframes without any sacrifices. I really like accelerometer based altimeters as well.

For many redundant flights I'll pair the Raven with a Stratalogger. They have been very reliable and I like the fact that they are completely different than the Ravens - if one set of circumstances fools one my hope is the other will still read the inputs correctly. I run the Ravens with 1S lipos and the CFs with 2S lipos.

That said I still have my RDAS from 'the turn of the century' as well as a variety of others, including an ARTS 2. They still are flown in older rockets that are set up for them. The RDAS has many dozens of flights and still works great.

As had been pointed out with the inexpensive options available it's almost a waste of flying opportunity to have to move and altimeter between flights. But each according to his means.


Tony
 
Fom my experience having enough altimeters to have everything prepped and ready to fly without having to move anything is really the best way to go. It is so much easier to prep things at home in the workshop or garage rather than out at the field.

+1. Makes for a much more social launch day, especially with HPR. Don't have to have your head down in a rocket's gizzards in the middle of a field getting stressed.
 
I have to go with TopRamen on this. No altimeters, DD or timers yet. That might change in the near future, or I might build one using an Arduino(I have an Arduino Mini).
 
The first rule of boat building is that you don't have enough clamps. The second rule is that if you think you have enough clamps, you don't have enough clamps. I suspect altimeters for HPR is the same, although I only have half of one right now--a Quantum kit on my workbench.
 
One for every rocket that is set up for dual deploy and 4" or smaller in diameter. I have a sled with dual altimeters that travels between my 5.5" and 6" rockets as well as one dual altimeter sled for my 2 high performance 4" birds. I run the gamut - Perfectflite, Missileworks, Ozark, MARSA. Depends on what catches my fancy when I am buying.
 
I appreciate everyone's replies to my curiosity. Being new to rocketry, it's good to see the process of others
Based on some of the comments here, I decided to buy an Eggtimer Quantum altimeter. I haven't flown it yet, but found the assembly fast and pretty easy. If it flys well, I think it's cheap enough to make it my default altimeter for any project that doesn't have special requirements.
 
I appreciate everyone's replies to my curiosity. Being new to rocketry, it's good to see the process of others
Based on some of the comments here, I decided to buy an Eggtimer Quantum altimeter. I haven't flown it yet, but found the assembly fast and pretty easy. If it flys well, I think it's cheap enough to make it my default altimeter for any project that doesn't have special requirements.

That's great you had the skills to do the build and you have a fine device there. Practice with it on the bench to make sure when you go into the field you won't have any surprises. My first altimeter was a P6K but my first successful DD flight was
a $79.95 MAWD. Prices have dropped dramatically on entry level altimeters. That's great for the hobby. Kurt
 
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