We’re slowly getting all of the vehicles drawn in Google Sketch. Both future vehicle and past one are going in. So far MicroTandem, Away 33, Tandem HL and Mach Glider Block 4 are done. I’m working on standard Tandem now.
What’s Happening at JPA
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Google Sketch Drawings
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Tandem Progress
We’re adding more filters and other protections circuits to the Tandems electronics. We fixed “noise in the lines” problem we found last week, however we want to prevent that entire class of problems. It may be a bit of overkill. It add over 80 electronic parts to solder, but it will make the system very resistant to radio interference problems.
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More Balloon Launched Rockets
I’ve have these three ancient CDs of pictures in the back of my desk literally from about a decade ago. They’ve been sitting because they’re photo CDs in a weird old Kodak format that nothing can read anymore. Today I tracked down the right driver on the web and extracted the pics. Some I had copies of, but most hadn’t been seen in a long time.
I’ve pulled together a few of the “Rockoon”, (balloon launch rocket) flights. These are our early experiment. Most of these pictures show the various launch boxes, the container that holds and launched the rocket. Next year we’ll be lofting our fourteenth generation rocket designed for balloon launch.
The first rocket was only 14 inches long.
This was a five foot rocket. It started out well, but had a problem at ignition.
Rockoon three’s launch box. Three Running.
Rockoon five’s launch box. Five heading for the stars.
Rockoon 6 launch box and under balloons.
Number seven be carried out to the balloons.
For more pics and info see our Rockoon Page.
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Results
We got nearly the whole list done on Saturday. The drogue parachute box didn’t get started and the some soldering still needs to be done on the controller daughter board. It was a good day.
We also started reviewing the missions for next year.
Ed and Paul mount the parachute cannon on the Tandem. Bob and Ross pulling a prop off the starboard motor.
Bob running tests at mission control. Kevin either debugging or looking up specs.
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Tasks for Today
-Mount parachute cannon on Tandem (needs to be removable).
-Cut covers for PongSat participant’s DVDs.
-Put protection circuits on all Tandem main controller daughter board stamp IO pins.
-Sew pyro container insulation wraps.
-Put switch mount plate on camera controller.
-Drill pin pinhole in propeller thorough prop hub and shaft.
-Glue magnets on propeller shafts.
-Mount sensor daughter board boxes.
-Trim bolts on pyro containers.
-Make drogue parachute deployment box. -
Balloon Test Video
Here’s the video from the park test of the new 4000g balloon and launch bag. I sped up the time to show the whole day in just over two minutes.
[wp_youtube]9xjAwF6Fl6A[/wp_youtube]
