@Sreeni

So today my 3d printed parts arrived which was awesome, My Body tube had also arrived a while before that so I got to assembling, I first started with the landing mount and assemebled using m3 screws, I used nylon for most of them and heat set inserts but I might switch to steel screws, I used some rubberbands I had lying around and tested wheter it works and it did kinda? there was a weird issue where the whole rocket tilted a little and put all the weight on 3 legs instead of 4, This was probably because of warp in the 3d print probably, I added some blue painter tape to the edges to help with this

Another thing I found was that the landing legs themselves acted as a spring, When you dropped it from a certain height or put enough pressure the leg itself bent. I actually like this accidental design because it helps with softer landings

The TVC mount was where I messed up. I realized that I hadn’t left space for the bottom y axis mount to move the way it should and structurally there were some issues also, to solve this I used a soldering iron to melt at the plastic and created a messy area for it the move and that helped pretty well, I have to redesign this in v2. Besides that I also forgot to tell my printer I needed my avionics bay printed and that I needed 2 tvc rockets not one, so i’ve decided that I’m going to focus more on getting one succesful flight up and parachute or do something like bps space did with echo and drop the rocket from a drone at high altitudue and try to land it (this is probably what im going to do). The rest of my parts are going arrive in the coming week but school also started so progress will be slow.

Today I worked on finalizing the bom, and I tidied up my repo, I added the old firmware I had coded with the flight computer but I’ll have to update it, I also came across this really weird issue with the pcb, last time I placed a fake order just to see the final price it came out to $350, but today somehow its 270? and also my shipping and customs alone are close to $100 which is crazy, I’m going to fix this pcb issue and submit but thats all, I also made a wiring diagram for the launchpad stuff

Edit: So I sent a question in the help channel and I decided that im going to be assembling the pcb my self, this will be much harder but it’s worth it for the cost savings.

Today was working mostly on my landing legs, I first got some inspiration from actual rockets like the falcon 9 and began designing. I first began by modeling the mount that will hold the legs and then worked on actual legs and struts, The main issues was making sure it fit proerly and wouldnt rub against the main ariframe, I made some cutouts in the landing mount to fit the servos, The landing legs will have rubber bands that act as spring and they will be held in the up position with a rubber band, Using a nichrome wire the rubber band will be heated and cut when I need it to deploy. Other than that the final steps will be making the wiring diagram for the launchpad updating github with my code and cad models. I also made a render with gemini that came out suprisingly well.

I did some small work today, I first began by making my own water deluge system, I first made a container that fits under the rocket launch pad and has a small sumersible water pump that pushes water directly under where the motors engine heat will be concentrated, I did this to mainly to lengthen the lifetime of the launchpad because after a certain number of launches this will probably just be too damaged. I also chose the uno r4 edition as my board that will control all my electronics, with this I can control the 2 servos, 2 esp32 cams,5 lights on the launchpad much easier and from a safer distance. I also did some BOM work and figured what parts I would need, I’m hoping this is an x tier project, the flight computer itself is coming out to $230 with shipping so I’ll have to find ways to save costs. The final steps are to make a BOM and finish up the landing legs.

Today was assembly day, I worked on first bringing all the parts together in onshape and I made sure to keep everything organized so its easier in the future for changes, I first began by making the rocket nose and tubing in onshape. I then got a 3d model of my flight controller pcb and made my own avionics bay for it, I made sure to leave space and areas for wiring. After that I began by making the complete assembly, I added the servos to the tvc mount and had to change some dimenions to make sure it fit properly, Then I made a full rocket model, and made sure to add the servos for the control arms on the launchpad. I ran into some dimensions issues but I went back and changed those pretty easily. I then got the lights and cameras in my cad.

I added 2 esp32 camera modules to the launchpad to record everything, I’m not sure if these will be fixed posistions ill probably move them around. I als added some WS2812 Breakout boards around the launchpad, and I also want to recreate the strobing red light effect thats used on the blue origin launchpad before it blew up, I didnt add the rgb strip light to the main strucutre yet and ill have to do that later. But that’s basically it, I’m also planning on adding aluminium protection on the flame trench just 5mm plates, and i’m going to add a small water pump to help out more with cooling. The final steps for this project will be making the BOM, writing the code, and finalizing cad.

Today I mainly focused on the TVC mount, There were many avalible models online and using them as refrence I created this, The mount uses sg90 tower servos, and m3 push rods. For the rocket motor I chose the F15 because it has a bunch of documentation on it and has a very predicatable thrust curve. I first began by modeling the motor mount and added a engine block at the top to prevent the motor from flying into the rocket. I then worked on the x and y axis and made sure that everythign was specced to the right dimensions to decrease slack. Other than that I also did some small work on the open rocket sim but didnt record like usual. The final steps will be to design the landing legs which will proably take the longest and finish up the launch pad, and create a full assembly.

Today I did some basic ground work. I first began by looking at my old flight computer I made this during blueprint but I never got to submitting which I don’t know why I didnt, beside that I added some silkscreen on the front and I’m going to add some on the back. After I began work on my rocket, So the main thing I had to think about was how the first and second motor ignition would work, I saw some examples like how joe barnard did with his scout e rocket but I had a diffrent idea. I split my rocket basically into 2 stages

The first stage has the ascent motor and is connected to the actual main rocket via a coupler, There is also a tvc mount for this stage which is connected to the flight computer via jumper wires. After the ascent motor is burned out the rocket reaches apoggee and starts coming back down and after a set time a pyro charge ignites the 2nd motor this will basically hot burn the first ascent stage off the rocket, To protect the first stage I’m going to add a thin aluminium bulkhead with a layer of some sort of heat insulation, and during the seperation The servo wires for the first stage tvc will just pull apart. I’m still thinking about wheter I will just let the first stage just fall or find a way for a parachute to fit safely, If anybody has some way I could bring it safely down I would love to here it, I’m going to start working on the landing legs soon and I need to work on a small emergency parachute for the first stage incase the motor doesnt light or the legs don’t come out as intended.

This is my first journal entry in what will probably be a really long project, My current plan for this project is to make a tvc rocket that can take off and land by itself, and make a custom launchpad with it. Today I just looked through my old flight computer model I had made and added some silkscreen I also think I’ll probably add a pyro charge to it? I also made rough cad modelling for my launch pad taking inspiration from bps space’s launch pads. I’m going to work a bit more today on the launch pad model and actually make itnto something like a real launchpad.

Cad work today, did some small refinments to the electronics bay and double checked that it would fit my motor driver pcb, my orignal version was too small, and thats basically it I did some other small cosmetic changes and I still have yet to change the diameter of the circles but ill do that soon, I’m going to begin working on a seperate project so I’ll try to wrap this up.

Today I worked on my Cad, The main thing that took way too long was the air vents, I made some 0.4in diameter holes and repeated them around the whole outer casing. I also added a place marker for where the aroma pad will be, I chose to put it in the center of the base so that when the fresh filtered air comes in and is pulled up, the scent naturally mixes. I also removed the place for the oled screen because I didnt need it anymore and fixed some small errors. The whole thing will be controlled online through esphome, So I’ll figure that out tommorow, Also these are the main parts
1)Esp32
2)Custom L289N motor Driver
3)DC Power
4)SPST
5)120mm Computer fan(2x)
6)Aroma Pads
7)M4 Heat Set Inserts and Screw

I also have to fix my cad to fit inserts because right now they are set at 4.1mm diameter holes, and I’ll work on my github

So hopefully today is the last day of pcb, I dmed Pero on slack who had very good experience with pcb and electronics and got some feedback on my drc errors. Most of them were small errors and after adding a capacitator I missed I fixed some small silkscreen errors also. Tommorow I’m going to finish my final cad, refine the project an submit for review, I’ve decided to drop the external enviorment monitor part of the project for simplicity but I’m still working on it and I’m going to make a seperate project for it in the coming days.

So I found something, I realized I have been overcomplicating this project. I found a much simpler way, A L289N motor driver, This simplifies much of my project, This allows me to control everything including the fan speed but all I need it this motor driver and an esp32 and an app to control the speed, Today I worked on my custom L289N motor driver and it took a while but eventually I got it and managed to finish in one day. There were a couple drc errors but nothing to worry about.
Also Note to Reviewer, during my lapse for about 10 minutes towards the end I went to watch the end of argentina vs cape verde match and forgot to pause it, so you can deduct if needed.

So I messed up, I realized this after I was done with the lapse but this was my orignal plan, I was going to use a potentiometer to adjust the speed but there were several severe flaws in my work for some reason I completely dropped the mosfet plan(I dont’t know why I did any of this my brain is on a weird autopilot that isnt smart).
microcontrollers can’t even drive this fan because they only have 3.3v and 5v as options and the 120mm computer fan runs at 12v, which if I continued with my orignal idea would most definitely blow up everything, and the microcontroller can’t even read rpm,

Now I’m going to try this again except this time try and use a little bit of my brain. My new plan is much simpler I’m going to use an esp32, L289N motorr driver which can take the 12v dc power supply,

So I was hoping I could finish the pcb today but by the looks of it definitely not, after finishing up my schematic I went over to the pcb to began routing, I’ve never attempted a pcb like this most my other pcb’s were simple and tutorial based so this was a learning curve, after spending time organizing all the components to the way I wanted them to be on the board and kicad crashing about 80 times I began routing, and eventually finished, I went to check the drc and saw 135 errors which made me really happy, now after solving some errors it went down to 131, I then reloaded kicad and checked drc again and somehow went down to 54? But thats good

Other than that I made some changes to this project, my main goal was to make sure that this was cheap, so instead this monitor sensor will be like an addon to this project, the main air purifier will hold a pcb with a xiao esp32, the 2 fans wires in parallel, and a 10K Potentiometer, which can be used to manually control the fan speed.

Now the other enviorment monitor will be placed on the wall and this will also give it better readings because im pretty sure if I put it inside the air purifier it wouldnt give accurate readings.

The 2 pcbs which both have bluetooth will connect to an app together and based off that it can automatically change the speed.
The main hierarchy would be:

1. Potentiometer (physical override — always wins)
2. Device-to-Device BLE (auto mode when monitor board is on)
3. App (remote monitoring + override when connected)

Thats my new plan, other than that I figured that I could add a sponge to the bottom of the air purifier which I can add essence drops, to give a better smell.

So small work today I actually did about 37 minutes of work, but by tradition I only realized I was recording my work after I was about halfway through, today basically I worked a small bit on the usb c, by tommorow I think i’ll finish the whole board and work on the mosfet parts.

So today I worked on the schematic for my pcb, I found an open source project that used an esp32 and many of the sensors I needed for this project, I used that as a refrence to design this part, Tommorow I’m going to finish this part then began work on the fan speed control part which will take much longer.

Today was the final cad modeling for this project, I began by working on the top diffuser which the fresh air will be routed out of, it took me way too long to figure out how to model the fins the way I wanted it but after I got it, I moved on to the screen placement, my plan is to use a 1.28in lcd display which can be used to control fan speed, i’m also going to have like on override button on the pcb incase the screen tweaks out.

Now for the pcb part this is my plan
1)ESP32-S3-Vroom
1)AGS10 (Air Quality)
2)BMP388 (Air Pressure)
3)TMP102 (Temperature)
4)Screen (1.28inch Round LCD Display)
5)Mosfet (Controlling Fan Speed)

the main 1-4 parts will what connect to the app and determine which fan speed is most efficent(im still working on this part) the worse the air qualoty faster speed basically. For the fans i’m going to use a 12v dc power supply and wire the 2 fans in parallel and a mosfet which will control speed. I have no clue about mosfets but i’ll figure it out somehow hopefully, other than that tommorow is pcb day.

So I worked on the final parts of my cad today, this devlog is short because for some reason my lapse stopped at 45 minutes and wouldnt start so im going to continue with a new lapse

So I got some good Cad work done today, I first began buy modeling all my components like the hepa filter and the computer fan and took some time to try and model the blades on the fan which took a while but I got it eventually, After that I began working on the case, My first issue came for how I would replace the filter, I though about making a little door to open and take the filter out and replace but that would go against the whole minimalism thing, So I decided to actually go with attaching the fan directly to the main casing and adding magnets to the base and edge of the top case to make it easily accesible. now for the fans I chose Artic P12 120mm fans which are known to be quiet and they are pressure optimized which is good for this type, and the last thing I need is buying a cheap fan and just hearing a constant noise from it. I know hackclub probably wont sponsor this part so ill pay for the fans myself. Tommorow I’m going to begin working on the electronics part, which will include an air quality monitor and many other things to make it really cool. I also will try to finish the top of the purifier and add a place for a touch screen there maybe. I also chose a name Clarus which is the latin root for “clear”.

So today I worked on an air purifier, now my idea is pretty simply an air purifier that is compact yet powerful and most importantly silent because I dont want to listen to a fan all the time, I first looked through some avalible air filter and some cool open source ones and I took inspiration for the deisign from Dieter Ram who is famous for making all kinds of really cool minimalistic stuff

The main parts:
3d printed case
True H13 Hepa Filters
small filter paper

I also plan to include an custom pcb which includes a pcb with a Temperature, Humdity, and VOC , I want to use an esp32 for its bluetooth and maybe make an app to control it remotely?(idk about this part)

I also want to have a small screen but I haven’t looked through this idea yet, becuase I want this to be really minimalistic and easy to use