What do you think is the future of model rocketry electronics/technologies?

[arjunk]

I know, very broad question here, but I want to know what your thoughts/ideas are.


Any exciting new technologies on the rise in amateur rocketry electronics or any ideas that you hope to see or wish to share?

How do you think model rocketry electronics will change between now and 5-10 years from now?

What is there to improve?


Why am I asking this? Good question...

1) I'm fairly young and just got into the field of high powered rocketry relatively recently. It's very exciting to me how many different things you can build and tinker with yourself (especially related to electronics), and I'm just curious!

2) I want to know what you all think is 'the next big thing', if you will, based on your different experiences/perspectives. I also think this is a fun thought experiment.


Surely we haven't made all there is to make!

 

[SolarYellow]

Smaller, lighter, cheaper.

 

[jderimig]

AI. Will be testing at Balls32.

 

[sr205347d]

Pioneers like Joe Barnard and Jim Jarvis are working on making rockets fly perfectly straight up without rolling.

Others are working on wind drift predictions.

And I think you can’t really do the latter without doing the former.

 

[Alan15578]

I'm still holding out for Altimeter 4.
Then again, I think a practical 100% automated ground based optical tracking system is just around the corner.
I'd still like a light weight electronic DT with auto launch detect.

 

[Art Upton]

I'm still holding out for Altimeter 4.
Then again, I think a practical 100% automated ground based optical tracking system is just around the corner.
I'd still like a light weight electronic DT with auto launch detect.

AMA competition free flight flyers have not come up with one yet?

 

[MClark]

Beeps louder and lower pitch.
I hope this is our future of electronics.

 

[OzHybrid]

I'm still holding out for Altimeter 4.
Then again, I think a practical 100% automated ground based optical tracking system is just around the corner.
I'd still like a light weight electronic DT with auto launch detect.

There are CCTV cameras that can categorise you and identify your age. There is, I think, open source code to allow you to create your own object identification. The rest is the lens and networking probably 3+ together. A bit of time and cash and it's doable in about a week-ish.

 

[Hobie1dog]

I'm still holding out for Altimeter 4.
Then again, I think a practical 100% automated ground based optical tracking system is just around the corner.
I'd still like a light weight electronic DT with auto launch detect.

+1 foolproof tracking system that's affordable

 

[fyrwrxz]

For those of us blessed to have done this since the '60's, the evolutions really didn't take off until the '70's and Tommy Billings took on the rocket world from his kitchen table and literally coined the phrase "dual deploy". Many expensive long distance conversation ensued between here and Kentucky. Fast forward ( and I am NOT slighting anybody) I got to witness first hand in person and live on the playa this crazy genius who asked very simply "So, what do you guys need or want"? Next launch Cris literally comes out with a cigar box full of doodads and just blows us away! Eggtimer Rocketry was born right there! So, the future is exponential as cost factors reduce and AI becomes more integrated into software programming. The abilities of miniature sensors to feedback to controlling command lines for active guidance will only be limited by the possibilities of weaponization, much the same way GPS was down graded for consumers from the MIL-SPEC standards. 3D printing has come so far so fast it's almost unbelievable. I had examples on my desk of complex valving for the Atlas that costs thousands of dollars, but saved much more than the cost of prototyping in machined metal. Maybe we can get to 3d printed integrated chips on demand for customized applications by the user for pennies in the future. It's a great time to still be alive. I like to tell the kids I was born before Gatorade. Straight smoke and good chutes! Peace.

 

[Buckeye]

AI. Will be testing at Balls32.

What is the AI going to do?

 

[jsdemar]

Neuralink between you and a general purpose quantum computer onboard the rocket. Just imagine what you want your rocket to do and it self-programs. Be careful to think about only positive thoughts. (Insert reference here to the "Staypuff Marshmallow Man" in Ghostbuster... )

 

[jderimig]

What is the AI going to do?

It proprietary. I don't even know what its going to do. We will find out BALLs weekend.

 

[OzHybrid]

It proprietary. I don't even know what its going to do. We will find out BALLs weekend.

It's the start of the AI takeover. First control the airspace........

 

[Art Upton]

Beeps louder and lower pitch.
I hope this is our future of electronics.

Yep, I've noticed in testing my old MAWD perfect flites I can't hear them unless I put them up to my Ear.
Tinnitus, I used to be able to hear them 8 feet away inside the ebay

 

[Azamiryou]

Smaller and lighter electronics and batteries
Thrust vector control
Guided descent to return to launch pad (legal issues will need to be ironed out)
Automatic tracking from launch site, external to rocket

 

[ReynoldsSlumber]

Automatic fly-back steered parachute. Apogee has R/C gliding parachutes for sale, and a European inventor made an automated parafoil system. Though I do wonder whether it would be so wise to make an automated system commercially available, due to the danger that someone could weaponize it.

 

[cerving]

Higher performance an more features for the same price. iPhones haven't really gotten cheaper in the past 10 years... they've just gotten more "capable".

A Starlink-enabled tracker/altimeter with always-on Internet connectivity would be pretty cool. It needs to come down in price and size by an order of magnitude to be practical.

 

[kjhambrick]

It's the start of the AI takeover. First control the airspace........

SkyNET ...

-- kjh

 

[Spacedog49Krell]

Smaller, lighter, less expensive, higher resolution sensors, all being collected at microsecond speeds. Internet connected live data and video streams from the rocket. LPRs flying with high speed flight computers with vertical flight control systems. This is my vision in the next 5 years.

 

[ReynoldsSlumber]

Seeing people predicting rocket ascent and recovery trajectories using simulations of specific rockets and forecasts of wind conditions, it would be pretty sweet if someone hooked that up to a SODAR vertical wind profiler in the field to do on-the-spot, up-to-the-minute simulations and tell you exactly how to angle the launch rod.

 

[Alan15578]

AMA competition free flight flyers have not come up with one yet?

They do have a nifty R/C DT.

 

[Alan15578]

+1 foolproof tracking system that's affordable

Foolproof is too much to ask for. I'm guessing around $100, but certainly less than the aggregate cost of altimeters.

 

[OzHybrid]

Foolproof is too much to ask for. I'm guessing around $100, but certainly less than the aggregate cost of altimeters.

A prototype optical tracker would cost approx US$5K just in materials. You want to pay US$100. Probably not economic for anyone to do. The numbers don't add up.
This is why Kate @VernK is so expensive, and yet cheap at the same time. I'd doubt Vern actually makes a return on the development costs.

 

[lr64]

Smaller and lighter electronics and batteries
Thrust vector control
Guided descent to return to launch pad (legal issues will need to be ironed out)
Automatic tracking from launch site, external to rocket

It would be handy to have a rocket that dived back down to a spot a couple of hundred feet above the launch point and deployed a chute. A diving rocket could cope with a lot more crosswind than a gliding parachute. Legal issues, of course.

I suspect it would be fairly easy to use some already existing RC stuff to get a rocket to maintain the direction it had when it was on the rail almost all the way to apogee. Probably someone has done it already.

 

[OzHybrid]

It would be handy to have a rocket that dived back down to a spot a couple of hundred feet above the launch point and deployed a chute. A diving rocket could cope with a lot more crosswind than a gliding parachute. Legal issues, of course.

I suspect it would be fairly easy to use some already existing RC stuff to get a rocket to maintain the direction it had when it was on the rail almost all the way to apogee. Probably someone has done it already.

Already done and for sale in France? He posted something on here 2 years ago ish.
Edit:-
github link
https://github.com/YohanHadji/R2Home
cannot see the webpage where he WAS selling them.

 

[kjhambrick]

To start:

How about making .mp4 movies of my flight from recorded quaternion data ?

I believe Kate already does this ?

I want to visualize my Blue Raven quaternions !

See the .mp4 attached here for the general idea: Quaternion calculation help

Maybe someday:

Realtime movies from onboard transmitted data ...

-- kjh

 

[Art Upton]

Smaller, lighter, less expensive, higher resolution sensors, all being collected at microsecond speeds. Internet connected live data and video streams from the rocket. LPRs flying with high speed flight computers with vertical flight control systems. This is my vision in the next 5 years.

I and we were doing that back in the 2000s , Live Analog Fast Scan TV over SHF band

 

[KenECoyote]

What do you think is the future of model rocketry electronics/technologies?

Stratologger CFs will actually become available on a regular basis...

or model electric plasma rocket motors, whichever comes first.

 

[tfischer]

A few duplicates here, but I'd personally be interested in these :
- Vertical trajectory systems
- Wireless connectivity from ground station/phone to a (possibly standardized?) high speed rocket-wide network linking all components (for control/config/telemetry), usable throughout flight and recovery
- Higher sensor sample rates and deeper flight data buffers
- Rocket health/performance monitoring sensors (flutter? motor pressure? stability? stress sensors?)