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- Dec 6, 2021
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We are feeling a bit frustrated having now gone 1 for 5 using Altus Easy timer / Easy Mega for some 2 stage projects we have been trying and are looking for pointers / help. Out first attempts were with the Easy Timer. On the first attempt, we did something pretty close to what the manual says to try. It seemed pretty clear that the Easy Timer called motor 1 burnout about .5 seconds early which caused the booter to ram the sustainer and apparently dislodge the igniter in the sustainer (a CTI motor). So, for the second attempt we added a dependency on time since launch to make sure we didn't prematurely detect burnout again. On that flight neither the separation charge nor the sustainer igniter fired. We were using the Wildman ematches that time and suspect the default latch time was not long enough to light those, so we increased that to .25 seconds from the default .05. Third time was a charm with Easy Timer and got both the separation charge and the sustainer igniter to light and had a successful flight. To improve the chances of sustainer ignition, I glued a pyrodex pellet to the sustainer ematch (CTI motor again, so this was presumably overkill).
Because of the lack of data logging, we wanted to switch to using the Easy Mega for the staging function. Maybe mistakenly. from our previous experience with the Easy Timer, we added/ selected a dependency on time since launch on both separation charge and sustainer ignition, as well as an altitude lower limit. On the first attempt Neither charge fired even though the flight was within 5 degrees of vertical well after booster burnout. The flight data graph seems to show it never tried to fire either charge. We thought the issue in this case came to some confusion around having the dependency being after "motor 0". which we selected instead of "motor 1". (Don't ask, Jenni is a C programmer and John is a Fortran programmer, so if the source code is in C or C++, motor 0 is the first motor, right???). Second attempt flew the sustainer with its motor lit from the pad and the staging gear attached to ematches but just along for the ride. Switched to human logical Fortran mode and assumed motor 1 is the correct definition of the first motor. Again keeping the dependency on time since launch and an altitude floor. Neither igniter fired. The flight data graph shows that it never tried.
When looking at the eeprom files the time windows looks suspect. it looks like instead of seconds its in a different scale.
Attaching the the flight data for both easy mega flights.
We are going to try again this coming weekend planning on the following configuration:
channel A:
after motor number: 1
delay after other conditions(s): .5
channel B:
angle from vertical less than 45
after motor number: 1
delay after other conditions(s):
Any thoughts/questions/directions to take would be appreciated.
Jenni and John Etgen
Because of the lack of data logging, we wanted to switch to using the Easy Mega for the staging function. Maybe mistakenly. from our previous experience with the Easy Timer, we added/ selected a dependency on time since launch on both separation charge and sustainer ignition, as well as an altitude lower limit. On the first attempt Neither charge fired even though the flight was within 5 degrees of vertical well after booster burnout. The flight data graph seems to show it never tried to fire either charge. We thought the issue in this case came to some confusion around having the dependency being after "motor 0". which we selected instead of "motor 1". (Don't ask, Jenni is a C programmer and John is a Fortran programmer, so if the source code is in C or C++, motor 0 is the first motor, right???). Second attempt flew the sustainer with its motor lit from the pad and the staging gear attached to ematches but just along for the ride. Switched to human logical Fortran mode and assumed motor 1 is the correct definition of the first motor. Again keeping the dependency on time since launch and an altitude floor. Neither igniter fired. The flight data graph shows that it never tried.
When looking at the eeprom files the time windows looks suspect. it looks like instead of seconds its in a different scale.
Attaching the the flight data for both easy mega flights.
We are going to try again this coming weekend planning on the following configuration:
channel A:
after motor number: 1
delay after other conditions(s): .5
channel B:
angle from vertical less than 45
after motor number: 1
delay after other conditions(s):
Any thoughts/questions/directions to take would be appreciated.
Jenni and John Etgen