LogicPenguins
Member
My school team is launching our rocket this weekend and due to our negligence, we failed to pay attention to electronic configurations until today. Our original plan was to use the RRC2+ as our primary flight computer, EasyMini as backup flight computer, and Eggfinder TX mini as the GPS transmitter. Today must have been an unlucky day because it seems nothing works as it should.
The EasyMini doesn't seem to be turning on even though it had turned on previously and we're not exactly sure why. We've all been fairly busy with school as the school year wraps up so not too much time to investigate that further. This rocket is only going about 2000 ft and is red/black so it shouldn't be too hard to track with no GPS. Still a bit of a bummer though.
RRC2+ is strange. The computer turns on. We have it powered by a 300mAh 1S Battery 3.8V 75C FPV Lipo Battery through a PH2.0 Plug Connector attached to a screw switch. However, when we have our two electrical matches directly connected to the altimeter (one for drogue, one for main) after the altitude beeps for the computer, all we get is a very long and loud beep every few seconds. Originally we thought this was the drogue-only connected beep as the manual suggests, but after listening to the beeps of RRC2+s from other individuals, our beep seems longer than the typical single-beep for "drogue-only", so its more likely that the computer isn't detecting any matches at all (which is also a long beep according to the manual). The manual says if all the matches were detected, the altimeter should beep 3 times normally and repeat, but that's not what we're seeing. We tried switching batteries to see if there was a power issue and we tried switching out the e-matches for new ones. We confirmed the screws for the terminals were pushed down all the way onto the metal parts of the e-match wires and that nothing was loose. We also tried to connect the match through a terminal block connection rather than directly to the computer. No luck, and we are seriously stumped. The only possible thing that might be causing this issue is if our computer was damaged. Last month we had a CATO at MDRA when our rocket "Little Jin" blew up with an Eggfinder & RRC2+ inside. The egg finder was soldered and upon recovering the av-bay and opening it, the insides were full of crumbled-up pieces of hardware from the GPS. However, it was strange to us that the RRC2+ looked to be fully intact. Now that I look back at it, perhaps there was damage to the rrc2+ that is causing this inability to detect the e-matches. Honestly, I wouldn't be able to say but I can provide images of both ends of the board tomorrow once back in school if anyone may find that useful to help us in diagnosing this problem.
The EasyMini is also a little strange. Rather than getting normal beeps during the idle phase, we get very rapid *chirp* types of noises. The chirps are so fast that it probably wouldn't be human-understandable unless you record the chirps and play it back slowly to count how many there were, so it's likely something is wrong. Again upon returning to school tomorrow, we plan on opening up the Altus Metrum software and seeing if these chirps could possibly be pointing towards a "warble" which according to the manual may indicate that the on-board data logging storage is full. Not sure how this would be possible since this EasyMini is brand new.
Images below were our original setup before modifications which will likely need to be made before the launch. Does anyone know what may be causing the issues with the EasyMini & RRC2+? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as it would suck to have to scrap this launch because of these electronics not working.
P.S. Picture does not show the connected electronics, but the electronics were indeed powered on!
The EasyMini doesn't seem to be turning on even though it had turned on previously and we're not exactly sure why. We've all been fairly busy with school as the school year wraps up so not too much time to investigate that further. This rocket is only going about 2000 ft and is red/black so it shouldn't be too hard to track with no GPS. Still a bit of a bummer though.
RRC2+ is strange. The computer turns on. We have it powered by a 300mAh 1S Battery 3.8V 75C FPV Lipo Battery through a PH2.0 Plug Connector attached to a screw switch. However, when we have our two electrical matches directly connected to the altimeter (one for drogue, one for main) after the altitude beeps for the computer, all we get is a very long and loud beep every few seconds. Originally we thought this was the drogue-only connected beep as the manual suggests, but after listening to the beeps of RRC2+s from other individuals, our beep seems longer than the typical single-beep for "drogue-only", so its more likely that the computer isn't detecting any matches at all (which is also a long beep according to the manual). The manual says if all the matches were detected, the altimeter should beep 3 times normally and repeat, but that's not what we're seeing. We tried switching batteries to see if there was a power issue and we tried switching out the e-matches for new ones. We confirmed the screws for the terminals were pushed down all the way onto the metal parts of the e-match wires and that nothing was loose. We also tried to connect the match through a terminal block connection rather than directly to the computer. No luck, and we are seriously stumped. The only possible thing that might be causing this issue is if our computer was damaged. Last month we had a CATO at MDRA when our rocket "Little Jin" blew up with an Eggfinder & RRC2+ inside. The egg finder was soldered and upon recovering the av-bay and opening it, the insides were full of crumbled-up pieces of hardware from the GPS. However, it was strange to us that the RRC2+ looked to be fully intact. Now that I look back at it, perhaps there was damage to the rrc2+ that is causing this inability to detect the e-matches. Honestly, I wouldn't be able to say but I can provide images of both ends of the board tomorrow once back in school if anyone may find that useful to help us in diagnosing this problem.
The EasyMini is also a little strange. Rather than getting normal beeps during the idle phase, we get very rapid *chirp* types of noises. The chirps are so fast that it probably wouldn't be human-understandable unless you record the chirps and play it back slowly to count how many there were, so it's likely something is wrong. Again upon returning to school tomorrow, we plan on opening up the Altus Metrum software and seeing if these chirps could possibly be pointing towards a "warble" which according to the manual may indicate that the on-board data logging storage is full. Not sure how this would be possible since this EasyMini is brand new.
Images below were our original setup before modifications which will likely need to be made before the launch. Does anyone know what may be causing the issues with the EasyMini & RRC2+? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as it would suck to have to scrap this launch because of these electronics not working.
P.S. Picture does not show the connected electronics, but the electronics were indeed powered on!
