KerryQuinn
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- May 5, 2009
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I have been making some test flights that I thought might be of interest to others on this forum.
I am flying a BigDaddy that I modified to allow me to place an Ardiuno Uno and a 9V battery inside
the nose cone. On some of these flights I have connected a 3-axis accelerometer and/or a barometric
altimeter. Using the data from these flights, I have been able to measure the thrust-vs-time curve
for the motor and the length of the delay charge. Here's a thread to show how I did it - perhaps
others have either been working on these same activities, or perhaps it will prompt others to try.
There are lots of great ready-made altimeters and dataloggers out there available for sale.
My goal was not to try to make a *better* one, just to see if I could make a *working* one myself.
I chose the Arduino because the boards are small and fairly inexpensive (see pricing in attached photo)
and because there is lots of online help available on how to set them up and program them.
An Arduino UNO fits easily inside the nose cone of a BigDaddy rocket.
The Arduino is just a very small computer - albeit one without a screen, keyboard or mouse.
It knows how to measure voltages and take in other types of input, such as lines of text from a GPS module.
There are lots of sensors, including accelerometers and altimeters which send out a voltage that can be read by the Arduino.
The Arduino knows how to save the information to its internal memory so that you can retrieve it later.
It can also be taught how to send the information it reads out via a small radio transmitter.
You have to write the program yourself, using a language very much like "C". The programs
are usually very short - often 10-20 lines of programming is all that is required.
I am flying a BigDaddy that I modified to allow me to place an Ardiuno Uno and a 9V battery inside
the nose cone. On some of these flights I have connected a 3-axis accelerometer and/or a barometric
altimeter. Using the data from these flights, I have been able to measure the thrust-vs-time curve
for the motor and the length of the delay charge. Here's a thread to show how I did it - perhaps
others have either been working on these same activities, or perhaps it will prompt others to try.
There are lots of great ready-made altimeters and dataloggers out there available for sale.
My goal was not to try to make a *better* one, just to see if I could make a *working* one myself.
I chose the Arduino because the boards are small and fairly inexpensive (see pricing in attached photo)
and because there is lots of online help available on how to set them up and program them.
An Arduino UNO fits easily inside the nose cone of a BigDaddy rocket.
The Arduino is just a very small computer - albeit one without a screen, keyboard or mouse.
It knows how to measure voltages and take in other types of input, such as lines of text from a GPS module.
There are lots of sensors, including accelerometers and altimeters which send out a voltage that can be read by the Arduino.
The Arduino knows how to save the information to its internal memory so that you can retrieve it later.
It can also be taught how to send the information it reads out via a small radio transmitter.
You have to write the program yourself, using a language very much like "C". The programs
are usually very short - often 10-20 lines of programming is all that is required.