One thing I saw at the High power Model rocket society here in michigan was that the telemetry computers were Parallax Basic stampII computers, 1 for data collection and transmission and 1 for rocket control (I.E. self destruct, motor kill, course correction) The motors they used were liquid based (Kerosene and Liq O2 whic happens to be what powered the saturn 5) A wearable in this field has little use , as VR seems to be best suited. (Portability of mission control is not a concern) I saw only test fires of the motor and no actual flights they flew only solid boosters. The only application I saw for a wearable was during pre-flight and vehicle repair, and due to the small size of these rockets a laptop works fine... (The space shuttle on the other hand, they use wearables for tile inspection) BTW, I saw a demo of what Liq O2 and charcoal briquets does.. Not something to be messed with....) On Wed, 1 Jul 1998, Michael Sharp wrote: > Jim Stiles wrote: > > > > I am working on some fairly advanced rockets with a friend - we are > > <snip> > > Jim, > I am perhaps the only other person on this list that was once certified > (ATF licensed as well) to fly high-powered rockets. I used an I-Max on > and H sized motor. I could have gone to J-sized but after my initial > certification, I got out of rocketry totally. Reason: Certification > costs, annual recertification with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and > Fire Arms, and the costs of motors, not to mention, that because of > recent laws, its illegal to own high powered motors unless you just > happen to have a bunker in your back yard. BTW, for the rest of reading > this post, yeah.. I know its not a "wearable issue", so I'll be short > and to the point. And if you're wondering why the ATF is involved, its a > whole can of worms.. basically, they're worried about safety issues > concerning high-powered motors. > > > The parameters for the space available is that it is as long as it needs to > > be, 6 inches in diameter, and the whole system will be subject to lots of > > G's (like in the low hundreds range, depending on motors, etc). > > In this case the *best* way to make a computer is to go totally i.c. You > can buy small computer made just for data logging, but if you're a > programmer, and dont mind working with 8-bit, you can use the Microchip > 16c74. It has an 8-channel A/D converter on board, and 4k of program > space.. contact me if you need more specs... People that I know have had > equipment *destroyed* during launch, because good constructions tactics > where not used. I've seen boards blown to shreds, not to mention good > working camcorders (used in flight) totally trashed during acceleration. > You *must* build a good, sturdy board, possible reenforced if possible, > if you're going to make this work. Battery power need only be powerful > enough for the launch and recovery. You can keep your logger "hot" with > ground support equipment until launch. > > > significant issue - I ran a TI micro system almost 20 years ago that had > > enough cycles to do this stuff (although the OS was BASIC, so presumably > > something real will require a little more horsepower). > > If you're interested in a BASIC chip, there is a BASIC version of the > 8052 out (8052AH-BASIC). It has an 8k BASIC interperter on board, and > can access 64k of ram. I built a mobile robot around one of these i.c.s. > BTW, JameCo has these 8052's and a company named Prologic has the board. > Again, contact me if you need further assistance. > > > > > If anyone has suggestions (OS, processor, A/D interfaces, etc), I would > > love to hear them. > > Yeah.. I put 3 years of research into making an accelerometer. I have an > ultra-simple design that costs just a few dollars, and can out put an > analog (0-5v) signal proportionate to acceleration.. I'll give you the > basic design if you want it... > > OK.. "Cyborgs" I've said enough. If anybody else has anymore rocket > questions they would like to ask me, please email directly. Thank you. > -Mike :)+< >
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