Wii nunchuck ($10) + Arduino nano ($50) + Sparkfun GPS ($60ish)…

easy to use, arduino has a small amount of flash and eeprom memory you can access, lightweight, and cheap(er).

I’ve been thinking about doing something similar, except I’d use just an AVR instead of a full arduino. Power it off some supercaps for quick charging between flights, and saving weight. Goldmine elec has some cheap.

this kinda makes me wish i were born 20 years later. it’s one of the few memories i have created with my dad, model rocketry.

I think this is OK, but I believe that reporting data during flight (as with an xbee) actually violates some sort of FAA rule or something. like tracking systems count as guided missiles and require a permit. I only barely remember it from my rocketry days.

It is actually perfectly legal to log data on the flight, even transmit it down to ground, although transmitting guidance info back up is starting to get into a gray zone.

In any case, this project looks like a great start on the way to a decent logging GPS tracker, although I would really recommend moving away from the many flying leads and tons of connectors his system has, I have found the number 1 cause of failures in my trackers if glitches caused by connectors coming loose during the motor burn and more often the ejection charge. I am currently working on a 4th revision of my tracker, which has all of the components (including the gps receiver, battery, 500mw 900mhz downlink, and all of the sensors) soldered down to the board to eliminate this problem.

see my sig or http://krazerlasers.com/gps for my system

Lots of good first hand info about gps tracking (with weather baloon instead of rocket) to altitudes of more than 30 km.

http://www.natrium42.com/halo/flight2/

I would suggest not letting off model rockets wearing a turban as wearing one seems to mean you are a terrorist these days. The last thing you want is being called a terrorist when you are out launching rockets with your kids for fun.

Someone needs to introduce my man to Arduino: the BASIC stamp killer. Cut that price in half. Not to mention faster/more efficient and who really likes writing BASIC anyway?

in response to cyrozap, i kinda had some idea on this a while back, sort of a low cost lojack system using an arduino, gps logger and xbee. have the gps logger use the xbee to report to any open access points and basically use a twitter account to track the GPS location of say a stolen motorcycle in my case… maybe i’m crazy, but i want to do it…

I notice it too, he spend a way more than can for something what have a 50% chance of being lost or burned

Also, to prevent missiles from using GPS; the system wont help you if youre over say, 400 ft/s (not sure about that value anymore)

After a casual search, the velocity cutoff for GPS data sentences is 1000 knots or 1150 MPH or 1688 fps. Anything that travels below this threshold can recieve GPS signals sucessfully. USA made GPS receivers must be limited to the above threshold if exported to another country.–So theoretically, My USA made receiver can perform above the threshold because it never left the country. ??

Unfortunately, my time and pocketbook dictate I stick to toiletpaper tube airframes. I wonder how well a BT-60 would hold up at 1150+ MPH?

The threshold also explains the need for epoxying the circuit.–At 1150+ MPH it would be needed.

The threshold is designed to eliminate civilian GPS receiver use in improvised ICBMs.

I am at the end of my TL-96 rocket build which will carry my GPSDL into the Troposhere at well under 1150 MPH.

If I have to I could always facet my own crystals overcoming the government export restriction! I think I read an article about it on makezine.com