remote recovery beeper?

[Freelancer]

Hi, all. New to the forum and pretty new to rocketry. My husband and I just lost our first rocket today, so we thought we'd look into recovery beacons and such (since we don't have too many really wide-open spaces around from which to launch)! I looked around this forum and saw that the personal alarm beepers would probably work pretty well if we can't come up with anything else. But we're a little worried about really annoying the local residents if we're unable to recover our rocket if it gets stuck somewhere out of reach! We're wondering if anyone has tried any kind of remote beeper that you can turn on and off, maybe something like what you'd see for finding lost keys and such. Thanks for the help!

 

[sandman]

Welcome to the Forum!

I've used a personal alarm and they are really LOUD!

KenParker suggested a shotgun as the "off" control.

Pratt Hobbies, www.pratthobbies.com has a tiny lightweight beacon, The Microbeacon, for $12 that just beeps, loud enough to be heard but not irritatingly. It also has a flashing LED .

It attaches to the nose cone is about the size of a AA battery but it uses a 12v "N" cell.

Oh yea...I just noticed this on the package...it's guaranteed for life!

Of course you have to find it first.

 

[rocketsonly]

Maybe a GPS system

By the way, welcome to the forum! You're going to love this place!

 

[sandman]

Maybe a GPS system

Hmmm...GPS system...cheap maybe $80...big maybe...remote beeper $12 battery $2.

No brainer to me!

 

[Hospital_Rocket]

Here is one heck of a loud device.

GE Personal Alarm

I bought three of these the other day at the grocery store for $6 each. Nice thing is they are perfect for deployment. I put a "kink" in the shock cord and when it snaps, the pin is pulled out and the screaming commences.

BTW - The URL goes to a place where the price is outrageous. I just wanted to show a picture.

A

 

[teflonrocketry1]

Try this one its not as annoyingly loud as the personal alarm types:

https://www.jbgizmo.com/page6.html

Bruce S. Levison, NAR #69055

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by Freelancer
Hi, all. New to the forum and pretty new to rocketry. My husband and I just lost our first rocket today, so we thought we'd look into recovery beacons and such (since we don't have too many really wide-open spaces around from which to launch)! I looked around this forum and saw that the personal alarm beepers would probably work pretty well if we can't come up with anything else. But we're a little worried about really annoying the local residents if we're unable to recover our rocket if it gets stuck somewhere out of reach! We're wondering if anyone has tried any kind of remote beeper that you can turn on and off, maybe something like what you'd see for finding lost keys and such. Thanks for the help!

Geez. That's some real rocket science thinking there. It never occurred to me that a rocket eating tree might also annoy the neighbors.

Such things exist. I found one at https://www.besafealarms.com/BSA45/Mini-Alarm-with-Remote-Control.htm

Finding one small enough might be a challenge.

Maybe something like
https://www.personalalarms.co.uk/mace.html#ra

 

[Freelancer]

Cool. Good to know they exist. I'll have to keep looking for a smaller one, and maybe for one whose remote works over a little longer distance. Thanks for the help!

 

[Hospital_Rocket]

Here is one you can control remotely. Neat thing is, one controller and multiple tags. Kind of a neat solution for staging...

Sharper Image ~ Now You Can Find It

Me, I want the thing to deafen you....

 

[Freelancer]

Oh, that's pretty nifty!

 

[LampertRocketry]

Originally posted by sandman
[B

Pratt Hobbies, www.pratthobbies.com has a tiny lightweight beacon, The Microbeacon, for $12 that just beeps, loud enough to be heard but not irritatingly. It also has a flashing LED .
[/B]

Go with the Pratt Hobbies microbeacon for your wee rockets - even high power that you don't expect to land in the corn... only tall grass where you can get reasonably close. I saved my L2 flight with one of the Pratt's.

For BIG birds, go with something like Transolve Transbeep.... it turns on when light hits it (no endless beeping on the pad). It is very loud. The batteries last a looooon time. We have two. had three but sold one cuz we never used it. The other two just died after three years of flying them. Cost about $20 to have him overhaul and replace batteries. One had lawndarted but still worked fine despite being scrunched a bit. Built like a tank.

For my really big birds... I am going to install RDF tracking. An RF transmitter and use a handheld general coverage receiver with a yagi beam antenna to RDF locate the lost bird. There are plenty out there and they all make claims about performance. I am hoping to do a comparison article on locators in the spring or sooner if I have the time. No big deal to build a transmitter... but at $50 or $60 it is cheaper to just buy a couple.

Good luck. Welcome.


Murray

 

[solrules]

A very expensive, heavy, bulky option would be to buy two Rhino GPS receivers. You can set the two to send their position every 30 seconds. At $~150/each, it is very expensive, but you would NEVER loose your rockets again.

 

[Freelancer]

Yeah, I don't think we're quite willing to put that much money into recovery. But it'd be very cool if we could!

 

[LampertRocketry]

You must be talking about the $150 each for GPS recovery..... the $12 for the Pratt microbeacon is a bargooooon. You will save it on the first otherwise non-recoverable rocket. I went into the DOLLAR STORE here today and noticed 12V mini batteries on the wall for $1 each (that's about 75 cents USF). Picked up a dozen. That is, for me, a three to four year supply. G-d.... I love those Pratt beepers!

The Transolve has AA's in it, soldered and taped. Easy enough to replace oneself... but for a few bucks they will clean the whole shebang up, put it in a brand new case, make sure it is one hundred percent and ship both of them back to you. Price varies... but it is still a bargoon when that big rocket lands in the corn! Best $29 I ever spent (x 2).

I have a few of the Radio Shack personal alarms ready to dissect and make into beepers, but have never got around to it. I will sometime. Meantime the Pratt and the Transolve do the job for me.

Next investment is RDF tracking for the high altitude flights. I am building all fibreglass/carbon rockets now. They are very rugged but easy to lose. As long as I can find them... they will fly again.

Murray

 

[laseradam]

I wonder if we could use the guts from a "musical greeting card" to make a very light weight beeper. We might be able to have it only turn on when the nosecone is seperated. I looked in my junk box last night because I use to have a few of them but I couldn't find any.

 

[Elapid]

is to buy/build more rockets...
a person can't have too many rockets; it's just not possible!

 

[Adam Selene]

put your name and phone number on the rocket, then when the anoyed neighbor finds it he can call you to complain and you can get your rocket back.

seriously, the batteries just don't last very long driving one of those loud beepers, so it shouldn't really be a problem. as opposed to one of those trans beeb types that last for a day or more hanging 50 feet up in a tree directly over my campsite at this years TRF launch. THAT was anoying.

 

[Adam Selene]

ps losing a rocket really is just a good excuse to build a new one. it's the expensive motor hardware and beeper that hurt!

 

[gregtro]

I'm just curious, how do you set the rhino to transmit every 30 seconds ?

 

[GL-P]

I had a Radio Shack beeper where the pin to shut it off was lost. There I am carrying the screaming thing to camp to get a screw driver to dissect the thing.
People were staring at me. I swear my ears were ringing a little.First had to find the right screwdriver, then had to slowly back off the little phillips screws which always seemed to slip. It was an eperience!!!

 

[Adam Selene]

i had that happen too! rocket it one hand, trying to smother the beeper with the other hand.

 

[GL-P]

i had that happen too! rocket it one hand, trying to smother the beeper with the other hand.

Good, I don't feel so bad!!!

I ended shoving it into my pocket!

 

[lovs3fly]

I have done the Radio Shack personal alarm and it works great. Put the guts into a 38 mm tube and then capped with a NC phone jack. On ejection the pin gets pulled and the alarm sounds Works pretty good.

I now am trying to build one with the guts from a computer motion alarm. Very lound and has a LED. I will be fiting this into the same type of set up as above.

 

[mike_bar]

Originally posted by Freelancer
Hi, all. New to the forum and pretty new to rocketry. My husband and I just lost our first rocket today, so we thought we'd look into recovery beacons and such (since we don't have too many really wide-open spaces around from which to launch)!

Freelancer,
Where do you fly rockets in Ballston Lake? Is there a local club nearby? I grew up in Ballston Lake and flew rockets as a teenager about 30 years ago! I would love to return for a local club launch. Thanks for any information.
Regards,
Michael

 

[Mad Rocketeer]

Originally posted by Freelancer
Hi, all. New to the forum and pretty new to rocketry. My husband and I just lost our first rocket today, so we thought we'd look into recovery beacons and such (since we don't have too many really wide-open spaces around from which to launch)!

Sorry to hear about the rocket, but it's something of a rite of passage to lose that first one, build more, and go on

You've arrived!

 

[William]

ya dont mean to but in, but isent there some sort of beeper that onced you get with in so many say feet/yards that you whisel or clap and it will beep back??

 

[aksarben10]

Originally posted by gregtro
I'm just curious, how do you set the rhino to transmit every 30 seconds ?

I do not have the details for this but a member of my club has figured this out. He builds a board that plugs into the headset plug that keys the mike every few seconds. Whenever the mike is keyed the units transmit GPS data to each other.

Scott

 

[BlueNinja]

Originally posted by william
ya dont mean to but in, but isent there some sort of beeper that onced you get with in so many say feet/yards that you whisel or clap and it will beep back??

If you were close enough to get enough sound to it for it to beep, you would probably see it. It would most likely be going off already from teh launch noise.