Good morning everyone.
My name is Florent Mosnier and I am a french enginneering student (ENSTA School, near Paris).
For a project in our model rocket club, we decided to measure the flight data using drone components to have an easy to build and use system, instead of going throught the hurdles of setting up an arduino (with all the libraries and examples that aren’t that helpful).
We would like to reccord :
- the rocket’s attitude, speed, acceleration and position
- the rocket’s actual GPS position
- the actual airspeed with a pitot tube sensor (to deduce the rocket’s drag coefficient afterwards).
And this project comes with several needs :
- to stay on the cheap side of components (<70$ for the FC, same for every component)
- to use compact components to fit inside our 63mm (2.5’) wide and 200mm (8’) long nosecone
- to use components relatively common and easy to source at local drone parts suppliers (in France I mean) to keep the option to buy a replacement in a rush as there is only one launching week every year (French rocketry is organized by CNES)
- to avoid to solder wires directly onto pcb pads as I don’t want to take any chances of a wire disconnecting during repeated assemblies and disassemblies or during take-off (it will need to bear a 15G acceleration)
- to run autonomously as a standalone recorder, not using any radio link would be a real advantage due to telemetry regulations in rocketry here in France.
- have a little HMI to at least arm with a button and be sure that everything is working properly with a green LED
On the mechanical side of the project, 3D printing will be used to keep everything in place, no issues.
In terms of sourcing, one of my friends and I were discussing about these options
for the FC :
- SpeedyBee F405 wing mini/ F405 wing
- Matek F405 wing V2
- Holybro kakute F4 v2.4
for the GPS :
- matek m10q
- foxeer m10q (120, 180 or 250)
for the airspeed sensor :
- Holybro MS4525DO (with a custom-made CETIAT probe to fit half in the tip of the nosecone)
- matek apsd4525
- a self-made analog one with the custom-made probe (already done) and a differential pressure analog sensor that I never used for a previous pitot tube project.
My questions are the followings :
- Is there some better hardware that fits my initial needs that I missed ?
- Is it possible to run arduplane without any radio connection ? If I could avoid using telemetry for simpler use and not bring my Futaba transmitter (I don’t have an other radio)
- Do you have any suggestions for programming ? I already expect a manual calibration of the airspeed sensor
And for those who might ask : No the flight computer won’t do anything on the rocket, not actuate anything, just reccord flight data.