New Estes Altimeter for 2013?

rocket sok
madcow rocketry
Wildman Rocketry
The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
cerving said:
Saw one fly at a SCRA meet last weekend. It's about the same size as the Altimeter One, but it doesn't have the rechargeable battery (or, obviously, the USB connector to charge it from). It retains the last 10 flights. It seemed to work OK, I was too busy to have much conversation with the gentleman that had it.
Click to expand...

How did he have it when you can't find the thing anywhere online?
 
Wonder how it would handle Lucerne Valley or Plaster City in August... not much heat there in March.

fyrwrxz said:
The final beta testing was done for heat soak questions for us southern guys. Mike anticpates release very soon.
Click to expand...
 
well, I was just at a hobby lobby at lunch today and they don't have them yet.

they haven't been released yet and I haven't seen anything saying hobby lobby would carry them. it would be nice, though.
 
Been there, done that... nothing ever goes quite the way you want it when you're testing!

I would be very surprised if there was a temperature issue, however; most of the commercial-rated parts are generally good to 85C, with the exception of the LCD. I HAVE tested at Lucerne in August, no problems, even after sitting on the pad for way too long.

fyrwrxz said:
Yep- the weekend Mike wanted the testing done we went from high 90's straight down to mid 70's-low 80's-that sucked.
Click to expand...
 
I received email from Estes in the middle of march and they were looking at 6 weeks out for release
 
I am very happy with my Jolly Logic products and will remain a loyal customer. That said I'm sure that Estes will sell a ton of these at that price point to hobbiests. It will be interesting to see if the Estes altimeters become NAR approved for competition.

Jeff
 
The Estes Altimeter have finally shown up on Great Planes back order list with an ETA of 7/24/2013
 
The Estes altimeter, along with the PSII E2X line, are on the Hobbylinc website.
$26.69 for the altimeter. Due in late July.
 
I love my AltimeterTwo, it gives sophisticated data for something so small, easy to use, and is a great value. If I lost mine, I'd order another one the same day (unless the Alt3 is out).

In general I prefer to support the smaller hobbyist-run vendors, but I don't mind buying from Estes: they have done more than any other company to keep the hobby alive and growing, and their service is top-notch.

This "EstesAltOne," especially if it can be found at HL for a discount, would be perfect for things like a mile-high attempt with an Apogee Aspire, where recovery is dicey. When I tried that, I decided not to put the Alt2 in it because I feared losing it. Sure enough, what went up never came down (well, it probably did someplace, but I prefer to think that it's in a stable orbit).

I'll be excited to see the Alt3 (and anything else from Jolly Logic), and I might also buy a few of the Estes cheapos for another mile-high attempt and also to give to my son's friends, to encourage more science/math thinking in their rocketry.
 
The Estes Altimeter is out....I'll be doing some comparison flights today (fly one with another altimeter in the same payload section at the same time).

Sully's comment about kids and science/math is - I expect - exactly what the late Mike Dorffler (who started the Estes Altimeter design) and Mike Fritz (who finished it) were thinking.
 
I received my Estes Altimeter today. I had to have one because ... well, it's from Estes :)

Question:

How can I permanently have it set to "M" because when I turn it off and then on again it reverts to "FT".
 
What were the results of your test flights, and what other altimeters did you compare it with?

BEC said:
The Estes Altimeter is out....I'll be doing some comparison flights today (fly one with another altimeter in the same payload section at the same time).

Sully's comment about kids and science/math is - I expect - exactly what the late Mike Dorffler (who started the Estes Altimeter design) and Mike Fritz (who finished it) were thinking.
Click to expand...
 
cerving said:
What were the results of your test flights, and what other altimeters did you compare it with?
Click to expand...

I've not gotten to do as much comparison flying as I would like. What I did was alongside one of my PerfectFlite Pnuts and in general the reported altitudes were within a foot or two with the production version of the Estes unit.

I also have learned that if you are using it in a payload section you have to be careful to close up and later open the compartment slowly (and without covering up your static port(s)) or it can be fooled into a false launch detection or change the reported peak altitude. It does not appear to lock the peak value in after landing as most altimeters do.

That said, it gives repeatable results that correlate well with other proven devices at least within my fairly small set of tests so far.
 
The Estes altimeter fits perfectly inside the insulating foam tubing for 1/2" copper pipe. The vent port on the unit is not identified in its documentation, but there seem to be multiple potential venting points in the case related to its assembly and the anchoring of the circuit board. There is also a tiny hole just forward of the battery compartment screw. Unfortunately, all of them would be blocked if the unit is inserted into the protective insulation tubing.

Anyone know the location of any vent specifically intended for the barometric sensor, assuming there is one?
 
While testing the altimeter in a DIY vacuum chamber, I noticed that the vent port is on the clip end face of the altimeter. I don't know how I missed it before since it's rather large. So, a section of the insulating foam tubing for 1/2" copper pipe would make a great protective wrap since the vent port is not along the side of the altimeter to be blocked by the foam. BTW, while the Estes documentation states the altimeter will work only to 9999 ft, I took it beyond that and the display changed to XX.XX at 10,000 ft and beyond. I don't know how the accuracy of measurement might be affected beyond 9999 ft.
 
Sigh...
When in doubt, assume that the Estes altimeter works like AltimeterOne (vent under tether point, display uses decimal over 9999, etc.).
The sincerest form of flattery?
 
John Beans said:
Sigh...
When in doubt, assume that the Estes altimeter works like AltimeterOne (vent under tether point, display uses decimal over 9999, etc.).
The sincerest form of flattery?
Click to expand...
What's strange about their documentation is that it states that its altitude limit is "3000+" meters even though when the LCD display is displaying meters, it doesn't hit the LCD's 9999 digit limit as would at the specified maximum altitude limit in feet. Specified accuracy is "1 ft (0.3m) below 3300 ft, 3.3 ft (1m) above 6500 ft" which leaves me guessing about what exactly is the accuracy between 3300 ft and 6500 ft, although I'm not actually concerned. The answer, I'm sure, would be "somewhere between 1 ft and 3.3 ft."
 
Well it seems as though it works similar to the others and with similar accuracy then?

I bought the APRA awhile back but will keep an eye out for the Estes altimeter. If Hobby Lobby gets them then tha would be swell.
 

Similar threads

downhill_D
Help! How do I move rocksim files from window to Mac
Replies
1
Views
320
n3tjm
n3tjm
D
Sold Estes #2013 Recruiter kit from early 90's
Replies
1
Views
304
DWolman
D
S
Introduction to the forum: I look forward to helping and learning!
Replies
5
Views
138
cwbullet
cwbullet
Fuddrucker
This just seems wrong especially from a hobby retailer.
Replies
5
Views
497
ThirstyBarbarian
ThirstyBarbarian
NOLA_BAR
Wanted Estes 1972 Rocketry Catalog
Replies
3
Views
267
MarsLander
MarsLander

Latest posts

Back
Top