What altimeter / data logger do you recommend for kids?

[NTP2]

Think back to early MS dos PC days, of word processors that had to use MS-DOS calls vs ones that went direct to the keyboard and screen hardware.*

dude I have never seen MS dos, let alone know about word processor details.

ps who was Peter Norton, wasn't the Norton a bomb scope?

 

[Buckeye]

Folks, I’d love your advice on a good first altimeter / data logger to help my kids graph acceleration and altitude curves for their rocket flights. I'm looking for something that saves many datapoints per second, ideally with wireless data access.

I’ve read good things on the forum about the Jolly Logic AltimeterThree, but it’s not available. Similar with the FlightSketch Mini. The Eggtimer Ion looks promising but I want something ready-to-fly, not a kit.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

-Will


P.S. here’s my full wish list of capabilities, but I realize this is probably asking for too much

• Logs lots of data, like acceleration and altitude captured many times a second
• Easy to get to the data; wireless data download would be great
• Doesn’t require special software (or if it does, it works on Chromebooks)
• Fits 25mm / 0.98” diameter or larger rockets
• Easy to use with a stock rocket (no special payload sections needed, etc)
• Ready to fly (I don’t have the skill or patience to assemble a kit)
• Forgiving (like it doesn’t start logging just because my kid jostled it, doesn’t break easily, etc)

How old are the kids? Just your kids or an entire classroom?

I think the Pnut will suit your needs. Also, Missileworks RRC3+ is a new, baro altimeter. It is more advanced, but more importantly, it is available. A real computer is needed to download the data.

https://www.missileworks.com/rrc3

Both are best securely mounted to an ebay sled, but you can just just wrap them in bubble wrap and stuff in a payload bay. Drill a vent hole.

I think baro altitude is good enough for into to graphs for kids. The altitude vs. time will be smooth and easy to see the ascent, apogee, descent, and change in slope when the parachute deploys. The derived velocity is not great, but good enough.

Measured acceleration data is much more noisy and harder to understand for newbies.

 

[BEC]

Some updates: On the second try I got OpenRocket to work on the Chromebook without the funky font issue that’s discussed in one of the other OR-on-Chromebook threads.

Still no luck getting the Android AltimeterThree app to last more than a couple of seconds before crashing. John Beans contacted me by email and offered a couple of suggestions, but so far no joy there.

Also the Linux version of Firefox performs much much better than the Android.

I still don’t have any better ideas for answers to the OP’s query than I’ve already suggested.

 

[BEC]

The major competitions using the Pnut are finished for this year. Stock should be available for the next 2-3 months.

Actually the smart ones should be getting going now building and test flying…..

 

[Art Upton]

dude I have never seen MS dos, let alone know about word processor details.

ps who was Peter Norton, wasn't the Norton a bomb scope?

Peter Norton created the world famous Norton Utillities. Later Norton Anti-Virus , but he is no longer associated with it now, just his name is still tied to it. He was a very famous, if not the most programmer of PCs and MS-DOS.

Norden is the bomb site that tied the plane controls to the bombardiers scope.

Drop to a Command Prompt and get C:\
Having only that to use will give you an Idea of MS-DOS You would be surprised how much you can use and script in just that "DOS Box" which is what we old timer's call the command prompt window now-a-days.

 

[Art Upton]

Actually the smart ones should be getting going now building and test flying…..

What? not wait until March ?

 

[BEC]

What? not wait until March ?

Believe me, I’ve seen enough of those types, too. I suspect so have you.