PenCam Rocket maiden flight and pictures

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stevem

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The weather was so nice here in NW Iowa on New Year's Eve and New Year's day (50 degrees F and low winds!) that my son and I decided to fly rockets.
Out of 18 rockets we had 9 that had never flown.
One of them was the Pencam rocket I built a couple months ago.

Here are some pictures from the Pencam rocket launch along with a few pictures from the rocket

the page might take a little while to load if you are on a dial-up.

I was very happy with the flight and the results. I am going to try to get a launch near my acreage and see if I can get aerial pictures of it by having the wind drift it over the property. In the pencam rocket launch photo you can see our acreage in the background.
 
OUTSTANDING !!! Superlative job.

I got to get me one of those !!!
 
Great results! I have a pencam but am somewhat daunted by the controller aspects, so I haven't done anything yet. What controller did you use?
 
Very nice Steve. I thought that white stuff was snow on the ground until you said it was the wadding.
Larry
 
Very nice. they are a fun toy.
Please post more details on the camera and rocket. What size Bt and what motor(s)? I assume the pencam is "looking" out the side of the rocket.
I have flown my pencam several times, and I never seem to get a decent picture of the launch crew, you got one on the first try!!:)
 
That little pen-cam takes some impressively good shots for a little cheapo camera! (Don't tell my wife, I'm trying to convince her that I need a Nikon) And those photos of Iowa farm fields remind me of growing up in Davenport. Nice work, stevem!
 
thanks guys - I was very surprised by how well it worked too. I was not expecting such results on the first try. Beginner's luck?

rbeckey - attached is a picture of the parts of the rocket
(please note the fins have the wood grain running parallel tot he leading edge instead of the root. I removed those fins and replaced them with new ones that had the grain running the proper direction)

The rocket uses Bt-70 and I turned the cone and payload bulkhead. The camera is an AIPTEK that I got on eBay for about $10.00. The camera controller is from Rob Nee

I am very happy controllers ease of assembly and use. It made the project pretty easy to be honest. Rob was very helpful when I had questions.

The controller has a power switch and and an arming switch that need to be turned on just prior to launch. I did this by mounting two 1/8" phono jacks in the sides of the payload tube. I use 1/8" plugs that are inserted into the jacks to open the circuits - when the plugs are removed just prior to launch the jacks act like a switch and turn on the power and arm the controller. As soon as the controller is armed it 'wakes' up the pencam. At launch, a gravity switch on the controller detects lift off and begins the picture taking sequence.

The payload section is rigged so upon chute deployment the payload section orients itself so the camera is looking down.
 
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