Devlog #11

What’s new?

• I initially planned on adding an SD Card module but after fighting with it for almost two hours I couldn’t get it to work, it uses SPI but I don’t know why it refused cooperate..
• Then I improved the wireless transmission system by adding sequence numbers and the rocket state to the packets. Everything was working fine until it totally stopped working. I spent another hour trying to debug only to finally plug the external antenas into both ESPs which fixed the issue..
• Finally I’ve moved the rocket state detection to a separate module so the main file remains clean and is easier to debug

What’s next?

• Now that those issues are solved I’m going to create a nice dashboard I will run on my computer to display live data charts and logs, I don’t know how I’m going to design it but hopefully it will look great

On the screenshot you can see on the left logs from the rocket and on the right the live data that is pulled from the ground station by serial connection.

Devlog #10

What’s new ?

• First of all I now have the missing funds to complete the project, that’s pretty insane and I’m really happy and proud about it
• Second, I’v been working again on the external pods as the measurements for the camera were wrong and it didn’t fitted at all. I’m going to print that part to test it out but it should now be fixed.

Devlog #9.2

What’s new ?

• Some tweaks on CAD
• README ! I’v spent quite a lot of time writing the readme file, hope it’s good! I’v added several sections with a lot of details and renders from Fusion.

Devlog #9.1

What’s new ?

• I’v added a mount for the shock cord, I will put a screw and attach the cord to it. the screw will go in those holes. Both mounts will be printed separately and then glued with expoxy
• On the bottom of the engine stage I’v also added 4 holes to attach the cord to

Devlog #9

What’s new ?

• CAD: I’v updated the top cover of the trigger system box because the new fire button I’v chose needed a bigger hole
• Wirings: I’v made two schematics, one for the flight computer on wokwi and another for the trigger station on draw.io.
  Took me a bit of time to understand how to create both diagrams since it’s the first time I use those websites but I think it came pretty good.

What’s nex ?

• First I’m gonna address some issues I’v seen on the design especially in the engine stage
• Then when it’s done I’ll double check my BOM file is correct and I will probably submit for funding

Devlog #8

What’s new ?

This time I’v designed the component’s sled/rack:

• The sled will first slide in the main tube and then be attached using 4 M3 screws as you can see on both sides (I’ll also use 4 other screws to secure the soldering board on the rack itself.) I will then add heat inserts when building.

• On the other side of the sled the lipo battery will be secured using velcro straps. And on the middle I’v added 2 “windows” for cable management.

• As you can see I’v also added 3 holes (the triangle pattern) on the main tube, they’r static port holes and will be used to ensure the pressure inside the rocket is the same as outside (for the pressure sensor to get correct data)
  EDIT: I just realized I forgot to upload the screenshot showing that and now I can’t…

What’s next ?

I think I might now submit the project for funding as I am missing some critical pieces to build the rocket. I’ll also probably tweak some things in the design and log a few hours more. After than I will continue to code the flight computer.

Stay tuned! 🚀

Devlog #7

What’s new ?

I worked a lot on CAD for the past 10h of work, lot’s of headaches because of the pods (and because I forgot to hit record on lapse) but here’s what I made :

• It took me a lot of time to work on the pods because I couldn’t find a good aerodynamic design. So I designed it, re-designed it and re-re-redisigned it. Finally I have something working though it’s not perfect, I should tweak some things to make it even better.
• I also worked on designing the ground trigger system, basically it’s a box that will host the batteries to ignite the rocket, a security lock with a key and the fire button. It wasn’t very hard but it also took me a bit of time to find the correct diameters for the components.

What’s next ?

Well I think I will polish the designs perhaps add new things and fix some others, once thats done I will submit for funding to get the rest of the components I need.

Stay tuned!

Devlog #6

What’s new ?

• The rocket has now a state tracking system, what this does is that it takes the altitude, calculates the velocity and then deduces the rocket’s state (iddle, in flight, descending etc etc..)
  It took me some time to understand how velocity could be used and calculated and I also had to implement smpoothing systems to prevent the noise from the sensors to give me weird values

• I’v also added a “demo mode”, it simulates fake telemetry (altitude) so I can test the status tracking system

What’s next ?

• Well I don’t really know, I’v been strugling with live logs and I don’t really know how I could implement that, I’ll see what’s missing and what I can do to improve the rocket

Below is a screenshot of the terminal’s output, because I’m not going to take another picture of the harware as nothing really changed.. I’ll try to do better next devlog!

Devlog #5

CAD!!

Well so today I opened Fusion360 and entirely remodeled all the parts of the rocket. I had mesh files from OpenRocket but I needed to turn them into solid shapes.
I will probably have to spend more time on Fusion because I’m not sure the shoulder for the main stage is well designed and will fit properly.
Also, I might need to design something to keep the engine inside the tube so it doesn’t move.

Devlog #4

What’s new

• On each run the rocket is now assigned a random flight number for better identification (also added in transmitted packets, you’l see later why)
• Zombie connections are now killed before starting everything to prevent issues with unclosed sockets
• Clock chip frequency has been reduced (the esp is heating a lot I need to find why and fix the performances..)
• I’v added new telemetry packet flags to distinguish between telemetry and messages (I’ll probably forward live logs from the rocket to the ground station using that)

What’s coming

• Well, pretty much everything I said before (performances, live logs, telemetry saving in csv files, charts..)
• Also going to try to start the CAD in Fusion360

Devlog #3

What’s new

• I was looking at the telemetry data and noticed relative pressure mesurement was uncorrect so I fixed it (took me a moment to understand why..) - Also fixed gyro x value calculation that was wrong
• Now the main chip broadcasts it’s telemetry so it can be read by the other chip on the ground
• I’v added new buttons to the dashboard to stop Wifi and start ESPNow transmission
• Anddd last but not least, the rocket has now an internal clock which is for now used as timestamp when packets are sent

What’s on the picture

1. The “ground station” (white cable) which is an ESP32 C3
2. My breadboard with all the components which will be in the rocket (just noticed buzzer cable was disconnected)

Devlog #2

What’s new

• I’v started working on live wireless transmission so I could have live data transmission from the rocket to a ground station (another ESP32). I can now broadcast data from the rocket and it’s read by the ground station.
• I’v added new options on the dashboard, I can now remotely start the calibration process – it will be useful on ground before the launch

And now ?

Now I am going to improve the dashboard by addind new options and probably telemetry
Probably going to cleanup some code and put things in other files for better readability

1st devlog!

• Made basic CAD in OpenRocket software to design the rocket’s body and fins. It helped me understanding how aerodynamics will affect the rocket during the flight
• Started the software part, I use Python paired with a XIAO ESP32 S3 as main flight computer. I also have a BMP280 and an MPU6050 as main flight instruments. I’v added getter functions for telemetry and setters for calibration. Also added the main file with a startup function and wifi manager for wireless ground control.