September - October 2024
Dev Log 21
Project Update - September 2024
Began working on the hardware for the TVC rocket this month. Got the airframe tubes, and designed and 3D printed the nosecone. Also did some integration tests of the TVC mount. (figs 1,2).
fig 1 - TVC rocket dev version 1 fig 1 - TVC rocket dev version 2
Also got all the launchpad computers fabricated from JLCPCB, threw in a small RFM69 breakout for TFAC and also some more TFAC r3 in purple this time (fig 3)!
Put together the launch remote, and it works great. I was worried about how well I shielded the telemetry radio's antenna, but it looks like it works nominally (fig 4).
Project Update - October 2024
This month I turned the Pad Remote PCB to an actual remote. My idea for this was a 3D printed enclosure with several buttons - key switch for arming the system, flick switch for putting the system in a hold, green push button for resetting the countdown, a big red button for launching the rocket (because obviously), and a 7 segment display to display the countdown sequence (fig 5).
Implementing the design in CAD was rather straightforward, everything translated from paper to CAD quite easily. The only thing I had to change was add a bump at the bottom of the case because the key switch was too long to fit in the case with a LiPo at the bottom (figs 6-9).
fig 6 - CAD of the pad remote fig 7 - pad remote internals fig 8 - pad remote fully built fig 9 - a mess of wires and hot glue on the inside
Finally I wrote some software with all the switches performing their real actions.
