The vast majority of model rockets go vaguely up and float vaguely downwards without a lot of control. However, [newaysfactory] built a few rockets that were altogether more precise in their flight, thanks to his efforts to master active roll control.
[newaysfactory] started this work a long time ago, well before Arduinos, ESP32s, and other highly capable microcontroller platforms were on the market. In an era when you had to very much roll your own gear from the ground up, he whipped up a rocket control system based around a Microchip PIC18F2553. He paired it with a L3G4200D gyro, an MPXH6115A barometer, and an MMA2202KEG accelerometer, chosen for its ability to provide useful readings under high G acceleration. He then explains how these sensor outputs were knitted together to keep a rocket flying straight and true under active control.
[newaysfactory] didn’t just master roll control for small rockets; he ended up leveraging this work into a real career working on fully-fledged autopilot systems. Sometimes your personal projects can take your career in interesting directions.
And here I thought “the old fashioned way” was going to be a spinning wheel on a gimbal directly geared to the fins, or at most using analog amplification to drive motors on the fins, the way good old Wernher “Not My Department” von Braun would have done.
I was also expecting an old-fashioned gyro!
Old fashioned is using trained pigeons to steer the rocket. Usually they don’t come back at all
Jason Silverman Rolleron Test Vehicle J290 (2012)
Jul 4, 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KACfU16djQ
(Crappy) onboard video of same showing rolleron failures:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcNRAFDHNK8
Amazing! Love to see DIY rocket hardware. I mostly live in the realms of IIoT devices so anything that moves is very impressive to me
I don’t know, an IOT rocket system could do wonders for home security.
This reminds me of a High Power Rocketry event that I attended in Colorado. One of the rockets was testing a new electronic altimeter-based ejection charge for the parachute. The idea was simple…. Frequently watch the pressure transducer, at apogee it will record the lowest pressure, highest altitude, and zero velocity. As soon as the pressure starts to increase, the rocket has now nosed over and is starting to descend, so blow the ejection charge for the drogue (or maybe main?) chute.
There was only one problem… this rocket was designed to exceed mach. So, when it broke the sound barrier, the shock wave passed by the sensing hole in the fuselage, increasing the pressure… and the chute ejected…. at 700 mph!!!!
Most altimeters for high power rockets have a setting called Mach delay for this reason. I have a 20 year old RRC2 from Missileworks (a Colorado company) that has this setting.
Same thing happened a couple decades ago in Texas. Most modern rocket altimeters have a mach-detect system to prevent “re-kitting”.
Isn’t that kind of technology MISRA-restricted like 25 Hz FLIRs or military encoding of GPS signal? It could easily be converted for use with BM-21 or other MRLS, possibly North Korean.
Contrary to popular belief, it is very difficult to restrict knowledge.
If it’s on HAD I’m sure North Korea already knows about it.
That’s a really niiiiice project!