Missile Works RCC3 - First Flight

[Mick2b]

I flew my new altimeter yesterday and it worked great. The issue I had was that the pyrogen on the apogee match did not ignite (Good thing for motor back up). Two questions for those of you who are much more experienced than I am. The altimeter beeped out 818 feet and the data log showed 818 ft AGL. The actual data here shows a flight just above 700 feet. Is this an adjustment for Sea Level? I also noticed in my settings page with the software the AUX settings do not show up. All in all this is going to be a great altimeter to pair up with my Stratogger

 

[troj]

I also noticed in my settings page with the software the AUX settings do not show up.

This is to make the interface less cluttered for folks who don't need the AUX settings -- most of the time, people are flying dual deploy, so hiding the AUX controls makes life easier.

To see the AUX settings, flip over to the System Settings tab and look down towards the bottom of the options:



You'll see a checkbox to show the AUX settings, as well as the telemetry settings. Check those as needed, then go back to the Settings Manager tab, and you'll see the change.

-Kevin

 

[Mick2b]

Thank you Kevin

 

[MWC]

The altimeter beeped out 818 feet and the data log showed 818 ft AGL. The actual data here shows a flight just above 700 feet.

Mick -

The RRC3 has a 1 second/20-sample pre-launch-detect pressure data buffer. I'm going to guess you flew the altimeter using the default 300' Arming/Launch-Detect altitude setting. Your flight profile looks like the rocket took over 1 second to reach the 300' Arming/Launch-Detect altitude, thus those pressure samples outside of the 1 second window got overwritten. The post-flight 818' AGL derived by the altimeter and Flight Log was calc'd using the running average launch floor, whereas the viewer derives all is data from the uploaded flash memory pressure data samples.

I would suggest to you for a lower and slower flight like this that you drop the Arming/Launch-Detect altitude to a setting that's a bit lower so the 1-second pre-launch-detect buffer can snapshot a bit more data before the launch detect event.

 

[Mick2b]

I had to switch motors that day to stay below the cloud ceiling. I used the default settings before I wanted to tweak anything. I am becoming comfortable with the software and will adjust it down for my slower rocket. Great altimeter non the less. It's going to be fun to fly this for a long time. Any chance of the software being developed for a Mac?

 

[MWC]

Any chance of the software being developed for a Mac?

Yes, I will be publishing all the RRC3 data streams "once the dust settles here", and it's my hope that someone who owns a mac would take the ball and run with it and clone up a complete Mac version or functional subset of features thereof.... are you volunteering?

 

[Mick2b]

I wouldn't know where to start. If I did, I would.

 

[caveduck]

Hi, any chance of getting the data interface spec / samples posted? I have Macs, an RRC3, SW dev skills, though little spare time. But I'd love to see some kind of cross-platform SW package created and I'm sure I could find some way to contribute.

 

[JDcluster]

:y: What, they don't have it on iTunes???


JD

Hi, any chance of getting the data interface spec / samples posted? I have Macs, an RRC3, SW dev skills, though little spare time. But I'd love to see some kind of cross-platform SW package created and I'm sure I could find some way to contribute.

 

[MWC]

Hi, any chance of getting the data interface spec / samples posted? I have Macs, an RRC3, SW dev skills, though little spare time. But I'd love to see some kind of cross-platform SW package created and I'm sure I could find some way to contribute.

Dave -

I will indeed be publishing all the data stream documentation for the RRC3... it's on my list of "TO-DO's", however with the apocalyptic recovery many things (this included) are on the back burner. On a similar subject, I'm running the latest RAD Studio XE5 demo and liking what I see for cross-platform oppurtunity... iOS, Android, Mac, Windoze, all in a single IDE. It's object Pascal, but that's not an issue for me. XE5 C++ is scheduled for December'ish release if you must write in 'C'...

 

[JFlagg]

So, some interesting findings today. I was fiddling around trying to read flight data after this weekends launch. And was successful, the first time I have actually been able to connect to any of my machines (this done on a Win 7 machine using the connection procedure from this thread).

Anyhoo, after saving my flight data I started to fiddle with the flight settings from the mDACS, and had success for a bit. After a few successful changes however, it would read the settings ok, but would report a 'fail/out of range'. Interestingly enough it was reading correctly it seems. I verified this by disconnecting, changing settings using he PB and dip switches, and the reconnect and read. The problem is that after it reports a failed read, the options to write setting or reset to default are grayed out.

My second unit, which has not been flown, behaved in a very similar manner. That is, it read the setting with no errors at first, but after the first setting was changed, it began to report read fails/out of range.

No biggie obviously since everything can be set from the other interfaces, but it would be nice to save and restore settings files reliably.

 

[MWC]

James -

First, I'm glad to learn you were successful and able to connect to your RRC3 to your Win7 system.

Secondly, I suspect your issue is related to a setting that's out of range somehow... this may have occurred during a settings write transfer which failed, thus subsequent reads of the settings data result in the continued "range fail" dialog.

To remediate this issue, simply boot up the RRC3 into "settings default" mode. Hold in the programming pushbutton, apply power, and wait for 5 seconds until the RRC3 beeps out the POST "Settings Init" Code. After that you should be able to read/write settings without issue.

Another suggestion I would offer would be to save these initialized settings to file after after this default operation to a 'default settings' file. Having a loadable settings file will allow you to populate the mDACS Settings Manager controls, connect, then write those saved default settings to the altimeter...

 

[JFlagg]

Yessir, that worked just peachy. I was able to read, write a new config, and read that again.

I had looked through the manual earlier for a way to reset to defaults. I guess I didn't pay enough attention.

Thanks for your quick reply!