What did you do rocket wise today?

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NateB said:
E-matches can light with impact and friction - which I have seen and recreated first hand. I have heard reports of them lighting from static from someone I trust while setting up a firework display, but I have not been able to recreate it myself. I know it isn't always possible, but I cringe a little when people slide the shrouds back and when they transport things with prepped e-matches in place. Most of my experience with e-matches comes from professional firework displays and e-matches are one of the most common causes of injury from devices accidently igniting.
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I certainly will not argue with a pro! Honest! I just keep them shorted and always have a switch to turn on my electronics when the rocket is vertical. I don't use these for starters. Only line cutters or apogee charges. That said, I always prep my charges the night before. Actually I prep the line cutters with everything BUT the BP and keep them stored shorted. So all I have to do is pour in the BP and hook them up to the terminals. As I said, I never turn on the switch until at the pad., vertical, and frankly my head turned away (or wear a face shield).
 
gdjsky01 said:
I just keep them shorted...
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Shorted isn't the safest condition. Shorting makes them immune to induced voltages, but vulnerable to induced currents. It's better to connect the leads through something like a 10 kΩ resistor. And if you can, earth the whole thing. Car tires have a little conductivity due to the lamp black used to color them, so tying the circuit to your car's system ground should do.
 
Finished re-assembling my twice-extended Black Fly. Installed the fireball. Wish I could have gotten the black sprayed on the fins and the tailcone, but it doesn't look like that will happen before this weekend's launch. The silver is also a little brighter than I hoped for and not a very good paint job, but it'll do at 100'. Time to build the I405 it's going to fly on.

PXL_20220809_023851383.MP.jpg
 
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NateB said:
E-matches can light with impact and friction - which I have seen and recreated first hand. I have heard reports of them lighting from static from someone I trust while setting up a firework display, but I have not been able to recreate it myself. I know it isn't always possible, but I cringe a little when people slide the shrouds back and when they transport things with prepped e-matches in place. Most of my experience with e-matches comes from professional firework displays and e-matches are one of the most common causes of injury from devices accidently igniting.
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This discussion has completely changed my plan for prepping for my Labor Day launch. Much appreciated! Now I just need to figure out how I should prep charges so that they're easy to put the e-match in once I get to the field.
 
My Vertical Trajectory System has a couple of high-power transmitters (video and data) that need to be fed with power whilst on the pad and during flight. To keep the flight batteries relatively small I am making an umbilical that links some GSE (battery and LiPo charger) to the airframe on the pad via a magnetic connector. That will keep the juices flowing when sitting and fall away when the rocket moves up the rail.

I made up some cables to get the whole thing to hang together.
magconnector.jpg

closeup.jpg

The inside connector goes via a short harness to the base of the VTS where it connects to the rear bulkhead.
entirestring.jpg

Airframe was slotted to accept the socket. Will glue it in tomorrow.
airframe.jpg


Always more to do. I still need to put the charger in a box and also make a lead to go from the charger to a small SLA battery in a box on the ground.

In other work I am collecting hardware to make the Automatic Antenna Tracker control box. Microcontroller, GNSS receiver/magnetometer, SBEC. Figuring out how to mount everything on the carbon fiber boom.
 
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Sooner Boomer said:
Went to Argonia on Sunday. There were a lot more people than I expected. It was hot (~100) with the winds increasing out of the south. Lots of stuff was launched, from small mod rocks to University teams launching rockets with O motors. We had set up next to a gentleman going for his L2. He was flying a Yank Partiot kit. He had a beautiful flight for cert.
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Well shoot, I think I helped you set up your popup (I was the hunchbacked guy in the red shirt). It hadn't occurred to me to check if I should bring those E2Xes up to Argonia for you. Will get them to you at Airfest!

That was a fun launch. I'd recently crashed most of what I had to fly and am still rebuilding, so I was just hanging out and watching rockets. Some beautiful flights, and I don't know I saw a single failure.
boatgeek said:
This discussion has completely changed my plan for prepping for my Labor Day launch. Much appreciated! Now I just need to figure out how I should prep charges so that they're easy to put the e-match in once I get to the field.
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Same here. The comments here and in the "Improving igniters" thread in the Propulsion subforum have been very enlightening. I foresee doing a lot more field prep and a lot less house/hotel prep in the future.
 
jqavins said:
Last week I sent AeroPack a message via their contact form. I haven't received a reply. Today I found an email bounce notification in my spam folder.

Does anyone know a better way to reach them? Do they have a presence here?
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Could you contact Madcow, since they own Aeropack now? Their response times aren't quick either, but it might be worth a shot.
 
Thanks. I didn't know AeroPack had been bought. I'll try Madcow. Long response time is one thing; never a response because the message bounces is another.
 
boatgeek said:
This discussion has completely changed my plan for prepping for my Labor Day launch. Much appreciated! Now I just need to figure out how I should prep charges so that they're easy to put the e-match in once I get to the field.
Click to expand...
I tend to do as much prep as I can at home before leaving for a launch. On my dual deploy rockets, I will go as far as installing the e-match, but that is all. It only takes a minute or two at the field to load the BP into the charge well before taking the rocket to the pad. I also store and transport all of my e-matches in a ammo can. My can of BP also travels in its own ammo can, and always on the opposite side of the car from my e-matches... A little overkill, but it works.
 
OverTheTop said:
My Vertical Trajectory System has a couple of high-power transmitters (video and data) that need to be fed with power whilst on the pad and during flight. To keep the flight batteries relatively small I am making an umbilical that link some GSE (battery and LiPo charger) to the airframe on the pad via a magnetic connector. That will keep the juices flowing when sitting and fall away when the rocket moves up the rail.

I made up some cables to get the whole thing to hang together.
View attachment 531606

View attachment 531604

The inside connector goes via a short harness to the base of the VTS where it connects to the rear bulkhead.
View attachment 531605

Airframe was slotted to accept the socket. Will glue it in tomorrow.
View attachment 531607


Always more to do. I still need to put the charger in a box and also make a lead to go from the charger to a small SLA battery in a box on the ground.

In other work I am collecting hardware to make the Automatic Antenna Tracker control box. Microcontroller, GNSS receiver/magnetometer, SBEC. Figuring out how to mount everything on the carbon fiber boom.
Click to expand...
Are you going to mount the magnetic connector "upside down", cable toward nosecone so that as the rocket goes up the rail the cable pulls backwards, down and away instead of trying to fly with the rocket?
 
Placed an order with LOC. I'm building a 38mm-powered 54mm body rocket. Call it Design #2.2. It's part one of a project I'll be working on over the next year. It is intended to fly using Aerotech 38/360 loads. Sure hope I can get a few Warp9 loads for it. If not, we'll see how well the I357 loads work.
 
I went to Lowes to get some gardening sheers to prune back my raspberry and blackberry bushes. While there I stumbled upon a can of "matte spanish moss" by Krylon which is the closest to matte Army green I've ever seen. I have a 2.6" Madcow Honest John that has been waiting for paint for almost a year. It'll work great on an Estes SA-2061 Sasha too. Now I just have to wait 3 months for the humidity to drop below 80%
 
Well, this was over the span of a few days and is amazingly non-interesting, but here goes:

Went to buy threaded 8-32 nut inserts like you use in wood for my current project and was infuriated when I saw the price. 400-500% 'inflation' just aggravated me ($4.75 for 2 inserts).

Decided to buy on Amazon or similar, as its probably coming from all the same places and it was pretty pricey there too.

Guy mode kicked in (happens to both sexes, but when tools are involved, guy mode is my version) and I instead spent $70 on a RivNut tool with 150 pieces etc., and it arrived at my door on Monday.

It is typical Harbor Freight-like quality, instructions not functional and had to watch a video to figure out how to adjust it, but once I did all the right things, it does seem like a functional tool.

Installed 2 RivNuts for motor retention in the rear centering ring of my current build - literally the first thing accomplished since dry fit 2 weeks ago. DOH!

I won't say for fact that this is the best way, right method or even worth pursuing, but it seems semi-functional if you want to do it. Not at all a recommendation for buying the tool etc., but I do a few non-rocket projects that might find a use in the future, so I justified the spend in my own mind. Not sure it was worth it. We'll see.

Pics at least!!!

Sandy.
 

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