Air Command Water Rockets

Launch postponed

2012-01-27T19:18:00.000+11:00

The NSWRA launch has been cancelled for this weekend due to the continued slightly damp conditions. This means we need to postpone the launch of the Shadow again until the next launch window opportunity. NSWRA is having a "show-and-tell" day instead which should be fun since we normally don't get a chance to talk to people at length during a regular launch day.

The extra time should give us an opportunity to do a little more testing before the launch.

Progress update

2012-01-23T10:53:00.001+11:00

It's been mostly quiet on the rocket development side over the last few weeks with the school holidays, and being busy at work. But progress has been continuing on the Shadow. I've mostly been working on the payload bay that carries the batteries, altimeter and camera. That's now mostly complete and just needs to be secured in the rocket. I still need to drill access holes for all the electronics.

Dad and I discussed an issue yesterday about how the uMAD behaves. Due to the magnetic inclination in Sydney being about -64 degrees the uMAD detects apogee differently in different directions as you would expect. While in the "good" directions it detects apogee just as the rocket turns below horizontal, but in the worst case scenario the rocket needs to be near vertical (inverted) to detect apogee. If the rocket were to weather cock in the "bad" direction (and Murphy says it will) and flew in an arc, it may never reach the near vertical flight path in relation to the magnetic field. So we decided to include a timer back up for parachute deployment. Since there really isn't a whole lot of room for a fully redundant system, we decided to do a firmware update for the servo timer, so that it will handle both the external uMAD input as well as it's internal timer.

We are going to use the break wire option again to trigger the timer. The servo timer firmware has now been updated so that which ever event fires first the servo will be activated. The firmware listens to the uMAD even if there is a problem with triggering the timer.

We've also been looking at the Polaron G2 - Phase 2 development. One of the things that is evident in releasing the clustered rocket from a common point is that there will be about 2000N pulling on the neck of the central bottle while on the pad. This would likely damage it, and so we are re-designing how the nozzle will be attached, and likely include struts to distribute the load from the boosters.

We've had several requests now for a tutorial on how we fold our parachutes, so earlier in the month we posted a how-to fold a parachute tutorial to add to the myriad of others already on the net. http://www.aircommandrockets.com/parachutes.htm

I've also spent some time this month re-editing some of the old videos, removing boring bits, improving the colour, and re-uploading them in higher resolution to the new YT channel. This process will take a while though before all the videos are processed.

The Shadow is currently scheduled for its maiden flight on the 28th January if the weather and winds are good. Initial launch pressure will be 330psi (~23 bar) and if the rocket survives we will try again at a higher pressure.

The Shadow - Launcher video

2011-12-26T22:26:00.000+11:00

With Christmas celebrations mostly over, dad and I put together a short video today that describes how the Shadow's launcher works and how the rocket is loaded onto the launcher. I've added the video to the latest Shadow update here:

http://www.aircommandrockets.com/shadow.htm#_171211

Other than that there really hasn't been much happening with all the lead up to the holidays. I've added a few links to Facebook and Google+ from our main website. These will be updated regularly with latest developments as well so if you prefer to receive updates that way or just want to chat about rockets then those should make it easier.

Here is The Shadow with a fresh coat of paint:

Merry Christmas!!!

2011-12-22T14:40:00.000+11:00

We all know we want one of these for Christmas

We wish you and your family all the best for Christmas and also into the new year!

Unfortunately we've run out of time to launch The Shadow this year, but we should get a chance to launch it at the next NSWRA launch in January. The quiet time over Christmas should allow us to also complete a couple of other projects that we've been working on. I'll post more on those when done.

Now where is my helmet? ... I'm pretty sure I saw a rocket sled sized box under the tree.....

The Shadow - coming together

2011-12-13T09:09:00.000+11:00

We've been flat out over the last couple of weeks, but have had time to work a little on the Shadow. We've now finished the launcher, and the fins are now also attached to the rocket. The nosecone and payload bay have been painted which will make them easier to find should they separate from the rocket.

In the next week or so we should have the rest of the payload bay complete with the camera, altimeter and batteries still to be mounted. The rocket at least is now starting to look like a real rocket. :)

I've update the build log with a few pictures from the last couple of weeks.
http://www.aircommandrockets.com/shadow.htm#_061211

Reefing Parachutes

2011-12-06T21:50:00.000+11:00

This weekend we went down to the local park to fly a pair of smaller rockets to test a couple of techniques for reefing a parachute to stop it opening too quickly during high speed deploys. The first technique used the old reefing ring approach and for the second experiment we simply twisted the shroud lines. We managed to fit in a total of 6 flights before the wind picked up.

We’ve written up the results from the experiments here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day114.htm

The update includes a video that shows how the reefing works in flight.

Reefing ring preventing the parachute from opening too quickly.

Simple break-wire trigger

2011-11-29T11:33:00.000+11:00

We've had a number of requests now for how to add an external trigger to the Servo Timer II for the very slow launches that the built-in G-switch may have trouble detecting. I've added a tutorial on how to add a simple break-wire option to trigger the timer on launch. In most instances it should not cost anything.

http://www.aircommandrockets.com/servo_timer_V2_0.htm#_tip5

Shadow pressure test, and deployment mechanism

2011-11-25T00:06:00.000+11:00

We have been making good progress on the Shadow. During the week we tested the deployment mechanism and made a short video of how it works.

Today we pressure tested the launcher and rocket to the full initial launch pressure. This was the first time we had the rocket and launcher up to this pressure, so we were happy when everything worked. We even tried to see how hard it will be to launch the rocket at the full pressure. This was nice and easy and shouldn't be an issue on launch day.

The recent updates from the last week have been posted to our main website with photos here:
http://www.aircommandrockets.com/shadow.htm#_171111

The update also includes the deployment mechanism video.

Alternative Fuels

2011-11-15T22:25:00.000+11:00

This weekend we flew with some “alternative” fuels in our water rockets. OK so technically they weren’t “water” rockets, but hey still it was a bit of fun with the kids. From a scientific point of view it was interesting to see how these fuels behaved.

Fuels Tested:
    - Bread crumbs (dry)
    - 100’s and 1000’s (dry)
    - Sugar (dry) - the other kind of “Candy” motor :)
    - 2 minute noodles (cooked and in broth)

So how did they go? … read on:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day113.htm

Shadow Launcher work

2011-11-11T22:35:00.000+11:00

We’ve had a busy week in the workshop working on the Shadow. We’ve been mostly focusing on getting the launcher complete, so we can pressure test it and the rocket. We want to test the pressure chamber before we attach the payload bay and fins, because if it bursts, it would be wasted effort. However, we can only test the pressure chamber with the launcher.

The latest set of updates with photos is available here:
http://www.aircommandrockets.com/shadow.htm#_061111

Here is a progress photo of the launcher release mechanism. This launcher is being built for 500+ psi pressures.

11/11/11

2011-11-11T11:11:00.000+11:00

This post has no purpose other than being posted at 11:11:11 on 11/11/11 .... Happy Binary Day. :)

From The Web #1

2011-11-08T10:35:00.000+11:00

As you trawl through the interwebs, you often find interesting things that are relevant to water rockets. As I collect these, I'll try to post them here.

Rocket Electronics Info
Although this covers mostly pyro rocket electronics, there are many good bits of information relevant to water rockets, especially the altimeters section.
http://www.rocstock.org/wizards/rocket.electronics101.pdf

Build Your Own Servo Controller
Here is a tiny PICAXE-08M board that's very affordable and should be fairly easy to adapt to make a simple servo controller for parachute deployment.
http://www.hvwtech.com/products_view.asp?ProductID=1056
You could do all your configuration through it's serial port so there would be need for only minimal external components. You could also solder one of those small Assemtech G-switches directly to the board to detect launch.

PL Premium in Oz
Water rocketeer Voytek Szapirko contacted us last month with the news that he was able to find PL Premium for sale at his local hardware store Bowens in Melbourne/Hallam for $6.99 a tube.Thanks for the tip Voytek! :) If you are from Victoria keep a look out at your store. We don't have the chain here in NSW, but hopefully other stores here will catch on with the need for PL.
Retro Water Rockets from 1959
Apparently you need to wear a tie to launch these: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=KdwDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA54&pg=PA94#v=onepage&q&f=false

Looking Up

2011-11-05T21:26:00.000+11:00

I've uploaded the flight report from last weekend to our main website here:
http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day112.htm
On this flight day we flew with the out-rigger boom again but this time looking up at the rocket to watch the parachute deploy mechanism in action. The update also contains photos and a highlights video from the day.

Migrating Videos to New YouTube channel

2011-11-03T19:17:00.000+11:00

As we did a couple of years ago with the website, we’ve finally decided to bite the bullet and start migrating all the videos from the current YouTube channel to a specific Air Command Water Rockets Channel. I’ve been wanting to do this for quite a while since the existing channel was only ever a temporary one. With the normal slow down over the Christmas period, it will be a good opportunity to do so. We have a number of videos spread across Vimeo, MySpace, YouTube and several other hosts so we will consolidate all these into the single channel. It will be easier to make up playlists of related videos and keep them all organised, especially as they relate to each project. I’m also hoping to upgrade the YouTube channel so we can provide extra features.

The biggest drawback is that the comments from people will be lost, links to the videos will be broken, but if I don’t do the migration now, it would just get worse into the future. I am backing up the comments though. Expect videos to start disappearing over the coming weeks/months from our current channel, and they will be re-uploaded to the new channel over time. I will also update the links to the video from our website, or where I can.

Some of the older videos were also uploaded only in lower resolution, so where I can I will re-compress these again at higher resolution before uploading.

If you have been subscribed to our youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/gk123434534 channel and wish to continue receiving subscription updates please subscribe to our new channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/AirCommandRockets

All new videos from now on will also be uploaded to the new channel.

Thanks everyone for your support

Rockets - Dawn 'til dusk

2011-10-30T12:09:00.000+11:00

We had a very busy rocket day yesterday with our regular NSWRA launch at Doonside from early morning until noon, and then in the evening we had our NSWRA display at the Macquarie University Astronomy open night. We had lots and lots of people come up and ask questions about rocketry, and I'm sure there will be a few people that will come to the launches as a result of it. I'd say close to a couple of hundred people came to look at the display and have a chat. We had the G2 on display as well. I didn't get home until after 11:30pm last night.

I'll write up a full flight report and info about the Uni display in the next few days.

NSWRA at Mac Uni Astronomy Open Night

2011-10-25T14:46:00.000+11:00

NSWRA (NSW Rocketry Association) is going to have a stall at the Macquarie University Astronomy Open Night this weekend Saturday October 29th from 6:30pm. If you want to find out more about rocketry and haven't had a chance to come to one of our NSWRA launches at Doonside, then why not stop by and have a chat.

There will be a number of NSWRA members to talk to. We'll be there as well for a part of the night.

Find out more here:
http://www.nswrocketry.org.au/PublicPages/Public_Mac_Uni_Open_Night.html

So how big is The Shadow?

2011-10-18T23:01:00.001+11:00

Now that we have most of the components made, we are in the process of assembling them into the actual rocket. Here is a picture of the pressure chamber with payload bay and nosecone fitted on top. The entire rocket is 2580mm tall (~8.5 feet).

I've added some more progress photos from the last week of construction here:
http://www.aircommandrockets.com/shadow.htm#_151011

There is still lots to do on this rocket, but it's good to see it finally in context so that we can finish designing the launcher and figure out how we fill it with water and launch it. We're hoping to assemble the pressure chamber over the next week and pressure test it. For the pressure test we are going to need to finish the launcher, as it will be the only thing that will seal against the nozzle.

Otherwise progress on other projects is on the back burner for now as my regular daytime work has been extra busy lately.

Shadow progress update

2011-10-03T19:00:00.000+11:00

We've been busy this week making good progress on The Shadow. We now have a new set of fin guides that will be used to align the fins. We made a new coupler mandrel and have made a number of fiberglass couplers for joining tubes. We also started working on the business end of the rocket today and machined the nozzle and the nozzle seat it will sit on. We are having to build a completely new launcher for this rocket to handle the higher pressures.

Updates from the last several days are here:
http://www.aircommandrockets.com/shadow.htm#_270911

(NOTE: You may need to refresh the page as sometimes it gets cached and you won't see the updates.)

Nozzle seat and nozzle

Fin guides to align fins

Casual flights

2011-09-28T09:27:00.000+10:00

While we still work on the bigger rockets, we took the opportunity last weekend to do a few casual flights at the NSWRA launch day. It's always nice to get out and launch a few without having to do a lot of preparation. These rockets were quickly assembled from the set of spare parts we have on hand. We flew the HD camera again on all the flights.

Here is the update: http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day111.htm

Panorama taken from the last flight

The Shadow

2011-09-19T20:32:00.002+10:00

Rocket build progress has been continuing at a good pace. We currently have a number of concurrent builds under way. These include the Acceleron V high pressure sustainer upgrade, the Polaron G2 phase 2 booster development and our newest project called "The Shadow".

We have actually been working on The Shadow for a number of months, but hadn't published details about it yet, though we have been taking pictures and keeping a build log of the rocket development. We have now uploaded the build log to our website so you too can follow along with the development. So far it's been an interesting project to work on and has consumed perhaps 60% of our build time.

The project now has its own build page rather than scattering bits of information about it in the various flight log updates. We'll keep the page updated as we go and post the flight reports in the regular updates.

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/shadow.htm

Side Deployment Parachute Mechanism Tutorial

2011-09-07T22:11:00.001+10:00

It's been a while since the last update, but rocket development has continued. We are currently working on the G2 boosters and have been doing a number of tests. We’ve also been building up our spliced bottle stock pile and spare deployment mechanisms for our rockets. It’s always good to have both components on hand so that we can assemble rockets quickly and have spares when they crash. While making the spare nosecones we took some time to document how we build them.

The new side deployment mechanism tutorial is mostly based on our previous version. This one incorporates a couple of improvements we’ve been using for a while that makes them easier to build and more reliable.

And a big thank you also goes to Doug from Escape Water Rockets for helping us source some components for the Servo Timer II when the local supplier ran out and was going to take a couple of months to get them back in stock.

G2 - Phase 2 Development

2011-08-13T16:13:00.000+10:00

We have been continuing to do further development on the G2 rocket. This week we did a number of static tests with the G2 main stage to see what amount of thrust it will produce and what the thrust duration will be. The rocket was connected to the load cell so we could measure the thrust accurately. We are looking for a nice long burn with this rocket and managed to get about 10.5 - 11 second long burn. :)

The full progress report is here: http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day110.htm

G2 launch report

2011-08-01T23:00:00.000+10:00

I've updated the main website with the launch report from this weekend. The update includes photos and a highlights video from the two G2 flights we did on the day.

The update is here: http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day109.htm

I'll soon be posting build progress updates as we get rolling on phase 2 of the G2 project.

Right, time to get back to the workshop...

More Polaron G2 flights

2011-07-30T19:09:00.000+10:00

After a short break from building water rockets to catch up on a number of other projects, we decided to take the Polaron G2 for an airing again. The launch conditions were great today with blue skies and virtually no wind. The rocket configuration was identical to the previous flight. We launched the rocket twice, once at 230psi and once at 240psi. The rocket performed really well with good deploys just past apogee and both the primary and backup parachutes opening right on cue on both flights.

Turning on electronics prior to pressurising.
Paul at the ready to arm and launch the rocket.

We'll do a full write up with more photos and video on our main website in the next few days.

Pan Cam - A different perspective

2011-07-10T20:33:00.001+10:00

This weekend we trialled our Pan Cam to try to get a different perspective on a water rocket launch. The camera is set up on a tripod and controlled by an RC servo, so that when the rocket launches the camera pans with the rocket to keep it in frame.

We were happy with how the videos turned out. The full details and video have been posted on our main website here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day108.htm

Update: The original concept of the panning camera for a water rocket triggered by launch was first developed by wyldbytes. He presents his idea here: http://www.wyldbytes.co.uk/?p=225 as a part of an automated and servo controlled launch trigger. A video demonstrating the concept is here: http://youtu.be/F284FmfZuMI

This is the Pan Cam camera:

Here is a captured video frame from the camera:

Quick update

2011-07-07T08:47:00.000+10:00

I've done a quick update on the main site from the last test flight launch day:

http://www.aircommandrockets.com/day107.htm

The last couple of weeks have been really busy with the timers so not a whole lot of new rocket development has been happening. We want to thank everyone for their support on the timers. We ran out of stock from the initial run a lot sooner than we thought, but new parts were ordered over the weekend so hopefully they should start arriving shortly, and the timers will be available again soon after that. Some of the components come from the US and some from the UK.

Servo Timer II now available

2011-06-28T21:34:00.001+10:00

Well it has taken a lot of procrastination but the timers are finally finished. :) You can use the timers for parachute deployment, staging, pointing a camera etc. The full details and user manual are available here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/servo_timer_V2_0.htm

They are now available for purchase including FREE world wide delivery. All you need is an RC servo motor and a battery, and a rocket or two of course. These timers weigh around 6 grams and are small enough to fit inside of T8 FTC rockets.

We've done around 20 flights with these now and are quite happy with the results.

Test flights

2011-06-26T09:50:00.000+10:00

We had a great day yesterday for launching rockets. The skies were blue and there was virtually no wind. We wanted to do some further testing on the servo timers to make sure they work well in real life after the latest round of firmware changes. I was particularly interested in the slow takeoffs and how well the false trigger filter worked with the G-switches. We managed to get 5 flights in on the day and the timers worked well on all the flights.

I'll put together a short update on our main site in the next couple of days.

Servo Timer II update

2011-06-20T21:50:00.000+10:00

Progress has been continuing on the Servo Timer II. I've received all the parts now and have started production of the timers. I've been doing some final tweaks on the firmware to try to cover the greatest range of servo timings, as well as adjusting the G-switch false trigger filter.

I'm going to do some final flight testing if the weather is good this weekend, and then finish the documentation. I'm mounting these inside a few new nosecones and will fit them to a number of rockets. These things have definitely taken a lot longer than I would have liked. Hopefully not long now before they are available.

N2000 Drag Race

2011-06-15T08:27:00.000+10:00

I've put together a highlights video of the N2000W drag race from the Williams "Wildfire" Westernationals this year in Perth. The theme for the whole launch weekend was the "70's" with quite a few of the guys growing mo's in the lead up to the event. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9spkgBYapos

The drag race was between the guys from QRS and CGN. It was definitely a fun event to watch.

More great photos like this of the event are here:
http://ausrocketry.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=3045&start=15

How much water?

2011-06-12T19:19:00.000+10:00

One of the more common questions that's often asked is how much water should I put in my water rocket? The standard answer usually is 1/3 of the rocket capacity, but because the ideal amount of water is dependent on a number of factors this amount is rarely exactly 1/3 .

This week we look at how some of these different factors affect the optimum water amount:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/water.htm

The article compares how the optimum changes with pressure, nozzle size, weight and liquid density.

Williams "Wildfire" Westernationals 2011

2011-06-07T10:01:00.001+10:00

We just returned from an awesome weekend in Perth attending the Williams Wildfire Westernationals. This year the whole family came along so it was good for the boys to experience Australia's biggest launch event of the year. There were so many great flights, and quite a few highlights, from the "Mach Madness" entries to the N2000W drag race. A big thank you goes to Dave and Mel for organizing this fantastic event.

Here is a photo of Samantha's L3 rocket "Lucky Seven".
(A standard sized kid used for scale reference)

I will be posting photos and videos in the coming days as there is a lot of footage to go through. Can't wait to get back to the workshop and start building again. :)

Measuring Bottle Stretch Thrust

2011-05-26T13:08:00.000+10:00

Last weekend we did a little experiment to measure the thrust produced as a bottle contracts while depressurising. From earlier experiments we learned that bottles can stretch significantly and we wanted to know how much of this energy is returned during the boost phase. The main idea behind this experiment was to help refine future models of water rocket thrust behaviour. The full experiment writeup is here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day106.htm

We also compared the thrust produced by stretching alone to the thrust a regular rocket produces.

10 Water Rocket Challenges

2011-05-16T23:57:00.000+10:00

Over the last few weeks we’ve been putting together a series of challenges that people can attempt with their water rockets. These challenges are designed much the same way one would collect scout badges when they have achieved certain activities. Each challenge is also designed to address a different aspect of the sport.

For each challenge you achieve you are awarded a patch that you can place on your website, blog or video. There are no judges or approval processes, and patches are purely self-awarded on an honor system when you believe you have achieved the challenge in the spirit it was intended.

You should also be able to attempt all the challenges at your local park, but be warned these challenges are difficult!

Are you up for a challenge? …. Read More....

Polaron G2 flight day report

2011-05-10T22:26:00.000+10:00

I've uploaded the update from this weekend's NSWRA launch on our main website here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day105.htm

The update includes photos and video of the Polaron G2 launch. The flight was encouraging for us in order to keep pushing further with the G2 development. Although the 210psi launch pressure was 20% lower than what the rocket was designed for, we decided to at least get a couple of good flights in before increasing the pressure again. Also encouraging is that the simulator results from two different simulators predicted the altitude quite accurately for this flight. This means we can continue to use the simulators to predict the behaviour of this class of rocket.

The G2 in this configuration still has room for improvement on two fronts. Each 10psi increase in pressure beyond the 210psi adds around 50 feet to the altitude. These pressure chambers have been hydro tested to 270psi. The rocket is designed to be extended by a further spliced-quad like we used in the first attempt. This extra spliced quad should add a further 100 feet or so. How the rocket stands up to higher speeds and stresses is unknown at this stage, so more fights will follow.

We also flew a second high pressure rocket on the day - Axion G2 - that is based on the Axion series of rockets. The rocket flew well, but failed to deploy the parachute and crashed. I can see the G2 name is going to get confusing here. The 'G' in the name simply stands for "Glass"-reinforced and the 2 is just the second in the series.

Polaron G2 - flight

2011-05-08T23:09:00.000+10:00

Perfect launch conditions today for the G2 launch. Virtually no wind and mostly blue skies. The G2 had a great flight and the higher power was quite evident from the sound it made. We're putting together the launch day report along with the highlights video, which should be on our website in the next few days.

Servo Timer II - boards

2011-05-06T09:52:00.000+10:00

We received the PCBs for the Servo Timer II from the manufacturer yesterday. We decided to use PCBCart this time around as they were well recommended and our experience with them so far has also been very positive.

I soldered up a couple of the timers yesterday to check that I didn't stuff up on the board, but luckily the circuit powered up first go. We are going to continue more flight testing with these in the coming weeks. I'm just in the process of ordering the components for them in bulk quantities, but it will still be some time before they will be available.

Quick Launcher and on-board HD video

2011-04-23T21:41:00.000+10:00

We tested the new launcher this weekend with a couple of small rockets at the local park. It is very easy to setup and pack up again. Transportation is a lot easier as well. I've posted an update on our main site with details on how it works, as well as a video showing how it's set up and used.

The update is available here: http://www.aircommandrockets.com/day104.htm

The Quick Launcher in it's packed up configuration.

We also test flew our first HD camera on a rocket. For the $40 we paid for it, it produces pretty nice quality video and it's lightweight. The above update includes a couple of videos from the camera, though it's lower quality because YouTube re-compresses it.

Panorama constructed from 3 images from the HD camera.

Repairs

2011-04-18T09:15:00.000+10:00

This week we've been repairing the damage to the G2 rocket. Last night I finished the G2 backup parachute system. The fairing is new as is the coreflute framework. I straightened all the bent pins on the electronics and resoldered all the severed wires and fitted new connectors. I also replaced the 3 Lipo batteries. All the electronics are the same from the original rocket including the servo motor. Despite being scattered in a wide area in the explosion, it's surprising that all the important bits survived. That's around $200 worth of electronics. I'm still waiting for the camera and micro SD cards to be delivered hopefully this week.

Repaired Backup parachute system with altimeter.

The main deployment mechanism is also pretty much repaired and only needing a new coat of paint. There was only minor fiberglass damage to the body.

Damaging the medium launcher in the explosion is giving us the opportunity to redesign the launcher. The new launcher is going to be a single rail design and the rocket will use buttons to attach to the rail. The main driving principle for this launcher is quick setup and portability. The medium launcher although very versatile was taking around 10 minutes to set up and 10 minutes to take down. The new launcher should be about 2 minutes.

Polaron G2 CATO

2011-04-12T21:45:00.000+10:00

We had an interesting weekend this week. We finished the new Polaron G2 rocket, and took it out for a launch. Unfortunately things did not quite go according to the script.

The full flight day report gives details how we created a nice sculpture for the rocket range.

http://www.aircommandrockets.com/day103.htm

The report includes a highlights video including the CATO in slow-mo.The rocket and launcher are already being rebuilt and we will have another go again soon. The website update also has more detailed photos of the new side deploy mechanism and payload bay with a backup parachute.

Servo Timer II test flights

2011-03-31T12:02:00.000+11:00

This weekend we went down to the local park to start the Servo Timer II trial flights. We flew a total of 7 flights with the timer and thankfully all worked well. Two of the flights included the uMAD for triggering the timer at apogee.

The full launch report along with a highlights video is here:

http://www.aircommandrockets.com/day102.htm

We are now preparing larger rockets to continue the tests. We would like to do an additional 10-15 more flights before starting a production run of the timers. Yesterday I was going to do some tests with one of the timers, and noticed that I had left the power switch ON, and completely drained the battery over the last few days. So this morning I updated the firmware to flash the LED briefly every 5 seconds to remind me to turn the power off.

Website Issues

2011-03-28T12:25:00.000+11:00

We host our website with GoDaddy, but it looks like they have been having some issues over the last couple of days. It was up briefly yesterday, but it looks like they are having issues again today. Lots of people are reporting the same problems as well. Hopefully the website will be up again soon.

Wet but productive weekend

2011-03-21T12:49:00.000+11:00

Unfortunately we didn't get to test fly the servo timers this weekend as it pretty much rained both days. We had over 100mm at our place. So it was a good time to spend in the workshop. We are trying to build up our inventory of spare parts so we can focus on flying rather than fixing. I'm also trying to get components ready for rockets to fly at Williams later this year.

We are making a big run of spliced quads at the moment that will be fiberglassed, both 90mm and 110mm. This weekend we cleaned, cut, shrank and curled some 70 bottles.

Here they have been shrunk and are ready to be curled.

After curling they have been paired up ready for sanding and gluing. This should give us about 10 x 110mm quads and about 11 x 90mm quads.

We also fiberglassed two more 110mm spliced quads yesterday. These will be used as spares on the flight day of G2. We have 6 of these now, with 4 of them still needing to be pressure tested to 270psi. Some of the fiberglassed 90mm spliced quads are going to be used in Acceleron V's sustainer. I'm looking forward to this flight as it will be our first dual pressure launch.

We also made a new 90mm nosecone with the Servo Timer II which uses the small LiPo batteries. This new nosecone including the fairing it sits on weighs in at 86 grams. Our regular nosecones weigh around 154 grams. The nosecone also uses a new ejection plate mechanism that has more force to get the parachute out. I'll post details and photos with the next web page update. We are using the same technique for ejecting the G2's backup parachute.

We are currently planning to launch the G2 with just 3 spliced quads (~15L) on the first flight, just in case the rocket again decides to drill a fence post hole. If the first flight goes OK, then we will screw in the fourth bottle and launch again.

ServoTimer II video

2011-03-07T23:20:00.000+11:00

I've posted a video on YouTube of the Servo Timer II prototype in operation. The video shows the normal operation, configuration, as well as how to interface it to external sensors like the magnetic apogee detector (MAD) from Whooshtronics. It also shows how you can chain the timers together for driving multiple servo motors for things like staging and parachute deployment, or drogue/main parachute functionality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYx-oPSQK8c

Panorama tutorial

2011-03-06T09:15:00.000+11:00

I've uploaded a tutorial on how to make panoramic images from on-board rocket videos taken with small cameras such as the 808 keychain or MD80 clone.

http://www.aircommandrockets.com/panorama.htm

It requires you to have Photoshop, and VirtualDub (which is free).

ServoTimer II prototype

2011-03-03T23:54:00.002+11:00

In the last couple of days I've soldered up the first prototype of the ServoTimer II.

Top and bottom view of the timer

Here it is next to V1.6 of the flight computer

I finally, got it running and bench tested tonight. I'll make up a couple more in the upcoming days and then fit them in deployment mechanisms and test fly them quite a few times. If all goes well, then I'll get actual boards made by a PCB manufacturer.

All up it weighs ~6 grams with the battery clip adding another 2 grams.

Foam flights

2011-03-01T08:54:00.000+11:00

This weekend we went to the NSWRA launch event again, but because we didn't have the Polaron G2 rocket quite ready yet, we just flew smaller rockets. These were basically assembled the night before launch out of spare components. The update is here along with a highlights video:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day101.htm

Bottle Splicing Tutorial

2011-02-25T03:20:00.000+11:00

Over the last couple of years we’ve had a number of requests for a tutorial on splicing same sized bottles. We found that the technique we used to use ( http://www.aircommandrockets.com/construction_2.htm#SplicingBottles ) would work on 1.25L bottles but did not translate well to 2 Liter bottles. No matter how carefully we would do the symmetrical splices on the larger bottles we would often end up with a small leak and the whole splice had to be thrown away. Sleeves larger than 2L bottles which could be shrunk to size were also increasingly difficult to get.

So we developed a modified splicing technique, that we now use for 2L bottles. We posted the technique in outline form here http://ausrocketry.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=26084#p26084 last year, but finally got around to actually finishing the tutorial this week. Talk about dragging our heels.

It’s by no means the only way to splice 2L bottles, but it’s a technique we’ve found reliable and haven’t had a single leak since we started using it. The splices hold up well to repeated launches and non-destructive pressure test cycles to 140psi. We are currently using it on our Acceleron V and Polaron VII rockets.

Here is the full tutorial that also includes a how-to video:

http://www.aircommandrockets.com/construction_6.htm

If people do end up using this technique, we would love to get feedback about what worked for you and what didn’t and perhaps ways to improve or even simplify it.

Polaron G2 - Flight report

2011-02-02T21:10:00.000+11:00

I’ve finished uploading the flight report from last weekend. The report has information about what we think went wrong and includes photos and a highlights video from the day.

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day100.htm

We are in the process of rebuilding the rocket, so hopefully it won’t be too long before it’s up in the air again. It’s always easier to build the rocket a second time, because we know how to build it and what materials we need. The first build always takes a while as we try different prototypes.

Polaron G2 - First flight

2011-01-29T16:16:00.000+11:00

We launched the G2 rocket for the first time today, but the flight didn't quite go according to plan. As a result the rocket could now almost fit in your car's glove compartment. There were a couple of small issues that will need fixing, but overall not too bad. On the way home from the launch site we figured out what we need to do, and will start on the repairs today. We are hoping to have it ready again for the next NSWRA launch.

I will post the usual flight day report in the coming days. Though the rocket was ....well let's not beat about the bush.... destroyed, we did learn a lot from the attempt, and though disappointing, as always this is just another step in the development process.We have altimeter & acceleration data as well as on-board video so that will gives us more information about what to expect on the next flight.

... right time to head back to the workshop.....

G2 nosecone test flights

2011-01-23T16:11:00.000+11:00

This weekend we went down to the local park to test fly the G2 nosecone on a small rocket. Both flights went well and so we can now mount the nosecone on the G2 rocket.
I've put together an update on our main website with more pictures and a video that shows how the mechanism works as well as footage from the test flights.

The update is available here:
http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day99.htm

3 Projects

2011-01-21T18:43:00.000+11:00

Although I haven’t done new updates to the main website for a while, I have been busy with 3 rocket related projects, mostly the reason I haven’t done an update. The main project has been to get the Polaron G2 flight ready. As a part of that I have the deployment mechanism ready for flight testing on a small rocket this Sunday at the local park. If everything goes well, I’ll mount the mechanism on the G2 rocket ready for next week’s launch. Craig lent me one of his latest flight computers to fly along and gather data. It will also serve as a backup altimeter for the flight. I still need to mount it in the payload bay.

The second project has been writing an application to go with Craig’s flight computer that can visualize the recorded data and configure the flight computer. I’ll post more data on this later with the first official release of this application. This has been taking up at least half of my rocket time.

The third project is the next iteration of the flight computer we use in our rockets. I’ve got the prototype working now on a breadboard, and all the new firmware has been written. I’m currently choosing the final SMD components and then I’ll finish off the PCB layout. This version is simpler to use and less than half the size and weight of V1.6. It should also be cheaper. It will still be a while before these are available as I need to write the documentation and do flight testing first. At the moment it’s looking like 3 months or so due to all the other projects.

Christmas vacation

2011-01-09T16:07:00.001+11:00

It’s been a while since the last update. We’ve just returned from 3 weeks in Colorado enjoying the solid rocket fuel … err I mean snow with the family over Christmas and New Year, but it’s good to be back in the warm weather again.

We have a much better appreciation for what it would be like launching water rockets in the cold weather. While there we visited one store in a small town called the “Nearly everything store” http://nearlyeverythingstore.com/. The store itself is quite small but they do have a huge selection of stuff. Amongst the toys, guns, pharmaceuticals, fishing gear, office supplies, crafts and snow gear they had a good selection of pyro rocket kits as well as motors at a great price, and what impressed me the most was that I even found tornado couplings there! So I bought a couple. :)

We got to visit the air and space museum in Denver as well. Here I am explaining the finer details of how a cruise missile attaches to the B1 just above our heads, while leaning on the thermo nuclear device just behind us. This museum is definitely well worth a visit.

I also purchased a number tubes of PL premium while in the US. From the last trip I knew to leave them near the top of the checked-in luggage for easy inspection by the airport TSA authorities. Sure enough, out of the four bags we had, the two that were inspected were the ones with the glue in them. I knew they were inspected because the TSA officials left a slips of paper inside the inspected bags. But all is good, and so we have more glue now for splicing. We didn’t have any issues going through customs in Oz. We still had a couple of tubes from the last trip but they are approaching their expiry date.

With the trip over we can now again start concentrating on building and launching more rockets, and more frequent updates as well.

Sneak Preview ...

2010-12-12T12:11:00.002+11:00

Here is a sneak preview of the Polaron G2 rocket in the Phase 1 configuration. We decided to extend the rocket by another spliced quad for just over 21L of goodness.:) It's just on 3m long (~10 feet). When launched at 250psi, it will be the pyro equivalent of an H500.

Probably another two or three more days work is required before it's first test flight. Simulations for this rocket are looking quite good, and even more interesting for the boosted version. Though real life never quite agrees with the sims so we'll just have to fly it to see the actual performance.

Polaron G2 - Recovery System

2010-11-30T18:51:00.000+11:00

I've posted more details of the G2 recovery system on our main website here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day98.htm

We didn't get it quite finished for testing at last weekend's NSWRA launch, but hopefully it should be ready for testing on the next launch. So far it is working well on the table. It will need to get painted next. The update also includes a highlights video from this weekend's launch showing both pyro and water rockets.

Simple multi-stage Parachute Release mechanism

2010-11-13T22:25:00.000+11:00

We have been using a simple parachute deployment technique on our multi-stage rockets for the past couple of years, and although we have posted pictures of it previously we have never documented it properly. So I've added a tutorial to the main website that explains how to make it. It takes only about 15 minutes to make and doesn't really cost anything.

The tutorial can be found here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/construction_5.htm

Time to Backup

2010-11-10T19:27:00.000+11:00

I thought I'd give you a friendly reminder to GO BACKUP YOUR DATA today. This week our main computer had frozen a couple of times in unusual spots. A reboot fixed it and the computer ran fine again. It had been a couple of months since I did a full backup of everything on the main drive, all of our apps, family photos and movies as well as all the rocket related data are on it. I normally tend to forget to do backups on a regular basis, so I decided to do a full drive image backup. Normally I run it overnight because it takes about 5 hours, but I had decided to do it during the day since I wasn't going to need the computer. The back up finished just fine. The very next day, the computer would not boot at all, and it turns out the hard drive had died!

Talk about dodging a bullet!! ...

I bought a new drive the next day and restored the backup to it. A couple of minor configuration tweaks and the new drive booted with everything installed on it. I sure wasn't looking forward to having to re-install all the applications, drivers, and none of the lost data.

So go do your backups now!

Day 97 - Flight day report

2010-11-02T23:40:00.001+11:00

We've updated the main website with a full launch report from this weekend. The update is available here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day97.htm

The update includes more photos, as well as highlights video of both flights. Both sustainer and booster videos are included in the highlights video.

"Dang ... that's the shopping list, not the launch check list"

Acceleron V to 864' (263m)

2010-10-30T17:40:00.001+11:00

We had a good launch day today at the NSWRA launch. We flew the Acceleron V 2-stage rocket a couple of times again. Both flights went great with the first reaching our new personal best of 864'. On the second flight we angled it a little away from the trees because of the wind direction. The rocket went up to 829 feet. Both flights were flown at 120psi again.

Just after the air pulse phase.

View from just after apogee. Tiny cars!

I'm in the process of putting together an update for the main website with more photos and a highlights video. That should be finished towards the latter part of the week.

The update will also include more details on the Polaron G2 rocket.

Progress update

2010-10-25T08:59:00.000+11:00

This week we continued with the nosecone plug and it's now ready to start forming nosecones. I need to get some mould release agent this week so we can start. The fiberglass is all cut up as well. The guys on Australian rocketry's forum as well as the Yahoo water rocket forum have given me some really good tips on on preparing the mold and the upcoming moulding process.

We also pressure tested 3 more of the spliced quads to 270psi. We have 5 of these now ready for flight, with two more to be fiberglassed this week. So far we are quite happy with the quads, but until we test them on real rockets with the kind of forces they will experience in flight and landing we won't know for sure.

To get an idea on what we are up against, we assembled the spliced quads into the Phase 3 main stage, and put a representative sustainer on top. The boosters and fins are not shown.Once on the pad it will sit at least another foot off the ground. We will definitely need a full size ladder for launch day. :)

Last night I also prepared the 3 fins to be used on Phase 1 of the rocket. All three of them weigh 83 grams, but will need to be attached to the removable fin can which will likely double that weight.

Nosecone, Testing and more fiberglassing

2010-10-18T14:40:00.001+11:00

This weekend we pressure tested two of the spliced quads to 270psi. They both held well, and should be good to go for the 250psi launch pressure. I was a little concerned that they may stretch too much because of their length and leak, but there seems to be enough flex in the glue to cope with it.

We also made another couple of spliced quads which are now curing. This now gives us 5 of the spliced-quads which (if they all pass the pressure tests) will be used for the Phase 1 of the Polaron G2 rocket. 3 of the segments will be coupled together with tornado tubes and a couple as spares.

We have also started making a plug for the fiberglass nosecone. The plug is made from 10 layers of 19mm MDF. Each layer was individually machined to shape and then glued together. We have opted for the efficient ellipltical nosecone, as our rockets travel well below the speed of sound.The nosecone is 110mm wide.

Here is the nosecone plug before final sanding

Fins and Fiberglassing

2010-10-10T21:18:00.000+11:00

As a part of the work we are doing with Polaron G2, we are looking at different fin materials.

This week we are comparing 3 different ones. The first one is a regular 4mm 3-ply plywood fin. This fin is very tough, but the main drawback is its weight. At 74 grams it is the heaviest. Thickness is 4.2mm.

The second one we tried making out of two 1.5mm sheets of balsa wood glued together at 90 degrees to each other with PVA glue. We then put one layer of 200gsm fiberglass on either side. Epoxy resin was used for this. The fin is quite tough and weighed in at 43 grams. The thickness is 3.9mm but the main drawback is the amount of work involved to do this and the higher cost.

The 3 fins tested. Left to right: corriflute, balsa/glass sandwich, plywood.

The last fin is made from corriflute, the material we have been using until now. It weighed in at 25 grams, but has a thickness of 5mm. It is quite tough, and has a good finish, but the main drawback is that it is made from polypropylene and hence harder to glue and paint. The leading and trailing edges are also harder to create nice and smooth.

So far the balsa sandwich is probably a good compromise, unless we can find some nice lightweight plywood.

We have also spent some time this week getting Acceleron V rebuilt and serviced so it can be launched again. We also did a 50psi leak check. We'll try to launch it again soon just for fun.

We were supposed to go out to the NSWRA launch today, but after driving half way there in pouring rain, we decided to turn back. As we got back, the weather cleared up but the wind had picked up. So we went back to the workshop and fiberglassed 3 of the spliced-quads. We are going to give them at least 5 days to fully cure before pressure testing. We are going to try to push them to 270psi for the 250psi launch pressure. We'll see how much they'll actually hold.

3 x 5.3L spliced quads wrapped in fiberglass.

Polaron G2 - Development continues

2010-09-29T00:11:00.000+10:00

I've updated our main site with some of the progress that has been made on getting G2 assembled. It's good to be able to see it in actual size rather than just on paper. It made me realize that we are going to need to rethink some of our logistics in terms of getting the rocket setup on the pad and configured. We are going to need to bring a full size ladder. The update is here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day96.htm

I had to take photos of the rocket lying down, as the ceilings are too low in the house to stand it up. We are going to need an extra long guide rail for this rocket too. Most likely 2.5 - 3m long.

The update also includes a highlights video from the last weekend's NSWRA launch where we tested the Mk3 stager with a more powerful booster. The flights went really well, and the stager performed as expected.

Here is a size comparison diagram for the Polaron G2 rocket.

Here it is starting to take shape lying next to Polaron G1.

Joe Genius - Rocket Science

2010-09-17T15:03:00.000+10:00

A bit of fun this week. One of our video clips made it onto this week's episode of Joe Genius:

http://revision3.com/joegenius/rocketscience

The clip (shown about half way through the episode) is around 3 years old now - here is the original that it came from: http://www.aircommandrockets.com/day24.htm

What else would you do on a hot day? :)

Splicing production line

2010-09-11T18:37:00.000+10:00

We have spent the last few days cleaning, cutting, shrinking, curling, sanding and splicing quite a few 2 liter bottles. These will form the pressure chamber for the Polaron G2 rocket as well as the boosters. We are making a number of “spliced-quads” that are just a couple of spliced-pairs of bottles, spliced together. This gives us a longer section of rocket body that is more efficient since we get more volume per length of rocket while still retaining the modular aspect of the design.

When all the splicing is finished, we will reinforce all of the bottles with fiberglass. Each spliced quad has a 5.3 L capacity. Phase 1 of the G2 will combine 3 of the spliced quads giving a total capacity of 15.9 L. Our current thinking for phase 2 is that we are likely to add a spliced pair to the bottom as the foam mixing chamber. This will increase the capacity of the main stage to 19 L.

Some 2L spliced-pairs, 1.25L spliced-pairs as well as a spliced-quad.

We are making a few spare spliced quads with the idea that some of them will likely fail pressure tests, others will be used for burst tests and some will get damaged on landing. We want to have at least two complete G2 rockets ready for a launch day in case something goes wrong or the other can be used for spare parts.

Polaron G2

2010-09-07T00:04:00.000+10:00

Okay time to get a little more serious with these water rockets. We haven't really been optimizing a lot of our rockets as we carried out various experiments. But it's time to start pushing the envelope a little more with the next set of rockets. These will focus on optimizing the rocket as a whole for better performance using the lessons we have learned.

Polaron G2 is a new rocket now in the planning stages, and we are starting to gather materials for it.

Here are a few 2L bottles ready for processing into rocket components. We will also be trying out some new construction techniques. Polaron G2 will follow the Polaron series of rockets in overall design, and will be developed in 3 phases. The first phase will be a full size single stage rocket, with drop away boosters in phase two, and with phase 3 a small sustainer will be added to the main stage.

Time allowing I will try to keep this blog updated with more regular progress, with major milestones covered on our main website. We are revisiting each aspect of the rocket and seeing how things can be improved. The rocket will also need an upgraded launcher with a longer guide rail.

Currently the target launch pressure is at 250psi, but things may change depending on how various tests go with the design.

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MAD Deployment

2010-09-04T16:45:00.000+10:00

I've updated our main website with the road trip report to Parraweena. We test flew PK's Magnetic Apogee Detector on a couple of the flights and it worked very well. We also did a couple of 2-stage flights testing a sustainer support brace for the Mk 3. stager.

The update is here: http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day95.htm and includes photos, as well as a highlights video.

PK's Magnetic Apogee Detector.

2 Stage rocket testing the Mk 3 stager sustainer support brace.

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Road trip to Parraweena

2010-08-31T13:38:00.000+10:00

We had a great weekend this week attending the launch at Parraweena. The weather couldn't be more perfect with sunny conditions and almost no wind. There were a couple of minor dramas getting there, but definitely well worthwhile. We saw some great rockets go up and had a chance to test fly some of our rockets as well. I am in the process of writing up a trip report and will post it with pictures and video in the next few days.

Here is a photo of a larger 2-stage rocket testing the Mk3. Stager.

Photo: Darren from Suburban Rocketry.

I also flew my larger pyro rocket on a G64 which was a very nice flight. I mounted a camera inside to get a view of the area from the predicted 3000 or so feet. The flight was very good and managed to get reasonable video from it.
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Mk3. Staging Mechanism Details

2010-08-06T22:11:00.000+10:00

We’ve uploaded the full details of how the Mk3. staging mechanism works to here:

http://www.aircommandrockets.com/howitworks_4.htm

And a full tutorial on how to build it is here:

http://www.aircommandrockets.com/mark_3_stager.htm

The tutorial has step-by-step instructions with photos as well as a 2 part video that shows the procedure.

We’ve also uploaded a launch report of all the test flights we have had with the stager over the last 2.5 months. The launch report contains a highlights video from these launches:

http://www.aircommandrockets.com/day94.htm

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More Mk3. Stager test flights

2010-08-01T22:12:00.000+10:00

This morning we had good weather and so we took the Mk3 stager test rockets to the local park. It was a little bit breezy but we decided to launch anyway. The stager had 3 out of 3 successful flights again which was good. We did get one of the sustainers stuck in a tree, and had to come back later in the day to retrieve it.

I am currently putting together 3 videos about the stager. One is a highlights video of the test flights from the last two months, and the other two are a 2-part tutorial on how to build it. We're also writing up a construction tutorial for the website with photos. It's a lot of writing/editing to do, so I expect it will take at least a week to get it all put together. We also need to use some spare time to prepare more rockets for next week's Doonside launch.

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Slow progress and weather

2010-07-31T11:47:00.000+10:00

It's been a while since the last update. In the last month we've had family visiting from overseas and spent about a week up in Cairns snorkeling at the barrier reef with the kids. It was nice to have a break from cold Sydney. We have also temporarily swapped houses with my parents so that the visiting family could all stay in the same house with us. Our house just couldn't handle 7 people comfortably for a month. As a result I haven't had easy access to my workshop.

But excuses aside, some rocket development has been continuing. In the last couple of weeks we built a couple of bigger test rockets to test the Mk3. Stager. We were supposed to do the final trial flights today, however, the Doonside launch has been canceled due to rain and muddy conditions making the launch site inaccessible.

We are hoping that the weather will improve tomorrow morning, so we could try the rockets at the local park at a lower pressure.

Here are the two rockets fitted with the Mk3. stagers ready for test flights. We built two just in case there is a problem with one or if it crashes and gets damaged.

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Mk3. Staging Mechanism test flights

2010-07-04T11:50:00.000+10:00

This morning dad and I went down to the local park to continue with the staging mechanism test flights. This was the third separate set of test flights, with minor failures on the first two sets. We finally got the stager working properly today on 5 out of 5 launches so we were happy. We only flew the stager on a small booster (2.1L spliced pair) and a 1.25L second stage. The flights were done at 110psi and 120psi.

Next we'll need to test it on a larger rocket a few times, but will need to take it to Doonside for testing as the local park would be too small for it.

Here you can see the small sustainer shortly after staging. The parachute is already being deployed on the booster.

If the next set of tests proves successful, then we'll post a full tutorial on how to make it.
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Doonside Launch - certification

2010-06-27T20:43:00.001+10:00

It was a good flight weekend this week. As we are mid way through preparing the next water rocket for flight, and the launch weather looked iffy for Doonside, I decided to only bring the new pyro rocket "Waterless" (a LOC/Precision Weasel) with me as well as Paul's "Pod 2" rocket.

I had been wanting to fly the new rocket for a couple of months but didn't have a motor for it. I finally flew it on an E15-4W and it was a good flight. The delay seemed on the long side and the parachute opened a little late, but it was a good recovery and the rocket landed without damage. The flight was my mid-power certification flight so I was happy. I can buy up to G motors now. :)

We have had a couple of small water rocket launches at our local park since the last main website update as we are testing a staging mechanism, but have had a couple of failures, so after a couple of modifications we are ready to try it again. If the design proves successful, I'll post full construction details.
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Williams Westernationals 2010 Highights video

2010-06-19T22:16:00.003+10:00

I've finally finished editing the video of the trip to Perth from a couple of weeks ago. I've also used a number of clips shot by Shane Miles as he had some great detailed shots of the high power launches.

Here are the highlights from the two HPR launch days:

(It's best to view the video at 480p or HD in YouTube)

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Parachute Cam and Polaron G1

2010-06-15T22:55:00.000+10:00

This weekend we a had a really good launch day. The weather was perfect and the rockets behaved themselves. During some unrelated test flights we took the opportunity to mount one of the tiny MD-80 cameras in the center of the parachute looking down.

Although quite a bit shaky, the video did give us a different perspective on the rocket in flight. The full launch report including photos and a highlights video is available here:

http://www.aircommandrockets.com/day93.htm

The update also includes the test flights of the fiberglass Polaron G1 rocket. On the second flight we flew it at 230psi to 751' (229m) which was our highest (by 5 meters) single stage flight.

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Williams "Wildfire" Westernationals 2010

2010-06-08T13:54:00.000+10:00

This weekend I took a break from water rocket development and headed over to Perth to attend the Williams "Wildfire" Westernationals 2010.

What an awesome experience it was to see a lot of high power rockets go up. It was great to finally meet a lot of the people in person from the Australian Rocketry forum as well. They are great bunch of guys too. A big thank you goes to Scoop and Mel and all those who helped organise and cater the event.

Congratulations to all those who did their L1, L2 and L3 certifications.

Here are some pictures from the event:

http://ausrocketry.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=2189

Very strong the dark side is ......

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Water Rocket Labs

2010-05-27T20:48:00.000+10:00

Well finally after many delays and procrastinations, I've uploaded the website extension. Originally it was going to be a separate entity, but I have decided to just make it a sub-section of the new site. This also makes it logistically easier to administer.

"Water Rocket Labs" was developed to help water rocketeers make better decisions about building their rockets. The site provides data and analysis about various aspects of water rocketry including materials and their performance.

The focus is not only on the data itself but also on the procedures and test equipment used to obtain the data. This allows others to follow the same procedures and compare their results against the data presented at the labs. The data is cross linked to the experiments, test procedures and test equipment used to obtain them.

Some of the experiments included in the site have been published before on our main site, however, there is a range of experiments we had not published before. With the previously published results I have trimmed them down only to the relevant information.

We will continue to update our regular site with launch reports, articles, construction details etc, but all new science or engineering results will go into the Labs section.

There are around 80 pages of information in the extension. Some sections are still sparsely populated, but we now have the framework to add more data as we obtain it.

Here it is: http://www.aircommandrockets.com/labs/index.htm

We invite people to submit their data to the Labs that will hopefully help others make better decisions about building water rockets.

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Water Rocket Launcher Article

2010-05-23T22:42:00.000+10:00

Over the last month I've slowly been putting together an article to help explain the range of different launcher design options rocketeers have when building their own.

The article is available here:

http://www.aircommandrockets.com/rocket_launcher.htm

Along similar lines as the recovery guide I've tried to include lots of links to examples showing how the different components have been implemented by the water rocket community.
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Moving Main Website

2010-05-17T08:21:00.000+10:00

I've been putting it off for long enough, so this weekend I have started relocating our main website. Up until now we have been hosting it on a free 50Mb partition we get with our ISP. The problem was that we were running out of room, well for quite a while now actually, so a lot of the actual images had to be hosted elsewhere.

To expand the 50Mb partition just wasn't possible with this ISP without signing up for actual 'hosting' where they wanted another $50 setup fee and then an extra $110/year for 100Mb of space. That was just ridiculous. So we have gone with an alternative hosting company where we only pay $70/year for 10Gb of space.

The usual domain: http://home.people.net.au/~aircommand/ will be replaced with http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/ . We've had the AirCommandRockets.com domain registered for quite a while but it was getting forwarded to the people telecom site.

I will be replacing the people telecom pages soon with forwarding pages to the new site, and eventually remove them completely. If you have links with http://home.people.net.au/~aircommand they can simply be replaced with http://www.AirCommandRockets.com as all the underlying website structure remains the same.

The AirCommandRockets.com site is now live but there may be a number of disruptions over the next week or so.

The extra space will allow us to upload the website extension we have been working on and have had to put on hold until we had more space. We'll also now be able to add extra features to the site, that weren't possible before.

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Testing beyond 300psi and old videos

2010-05-06T23:39:00.002+10:00

This week dad set up new test equipment for us to use so that we can test beyond 300psi. Which is what our high pressure test panel went up to. We now have test capability up to around 800psi, though we would need to replace the air hose with a high pressure one for the upper range. We mostly wanted to see at what pressure the fiberglass bottles will fail so that we know what the safe launch pressure is.

We now have a nice giant pressure gauge which makes it easy to see.... even by those at the back of the classroom. :)

As we look to upgrade Acceleron V to higher pressures we have to check the individual components to see if they will be up to the job. Here dad was testing the thin plastic tubing we are using for the sustainer air supply line. It goes between the baseplate release mechanism and the staging mechanism with a non-return valve along the way. It says on the side it is rated to 50psi operational pressure. We have been pressurising it to 130psi (having previously tested it to 180psi) With our rocket pressures now nearing 250psi, this was always likely to be a weak point ......

Here it is still holding around 630psi! ....If you notice in the background, the whole experiment is now covered with a pile of concrete pavers.

Old Videos

About a week ago we noticed that some of the older videos on our website weren't playing. I'm not sure how long it's been like that. These mostly covered flight days 1 to 55. It turns out MySpace changed how videos are embedded and that broke all the existing embeded URLs. *sheesh*

So tonight I've gone back and fixed up all the embedding code to reflect how MySpace wants to do it .... until next time. We've stopped using MySpace around day 55 for our videos and now almost exclusively upload to YouTube.

I must go back and check over other broken links on the website as some things have disappeared. I try to fix them as I come across them, but there are always new ones. If people come across broken links please let me know and I'll try to fix them if possible.
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Fiberglass rocket launch report

2010-04-28T00:32:00.000+10:00

I've updated our main website with the latest launch report on the flights of one of the fiberglass rockets. The update is available here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day92.htm

It includes photos and a highlights video from the day. The small rocket that was launched at 245psi managed to get up to 744' (226m). We thought that was pretty reasonable considering it was slightly bent, used a small 9mm nozzle, and no launch tube. .... right... can't sit around here typing .... must get back to the workshop :) ....

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Great Photos from Acceleron V flights

2010-04-27T14:04:00.001+10:00

Andrew Eltobaji from NSWRA took some great photos of our 2 stage rocket from a month ago. He definitely has great skill in catching fast moving rockets in action.

See some of his other pyro rocket photos here: http://s278.photobucket.com/albums/kk99/elta100/ and click on the NSWRA folders on the left side.

Here are some of his photos from the day. I have included them here in their almost full resolution. (Blogger will not let me upload the full resolution.) Be sure to click on the photos so you can zoom in and get a good look at the detail. I wish I could take good photos like that!

Flight #2

I'm actually not that close to the rocket ... telephoto lenses are great!

It looks like the red booster is a little late in starting its air pulse.

Blue food colouring in the water is a great way to contrast against the white clouds

Secondary (backup) parachute is being deployed.

Coming in for a gentle landing

Flight #1

Good laminar flow from all of the nozzles during the booster's water phase.

Without the blue colouring, things are less messy on the ground.

Rocket is suspended sideways to cause extra drag and land more gently.

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Fiberglass rocket flights

2010-04-24T23:11:00.000+10:00

This week has been a very busy week in trying to get a couple of fiberglass rockets ready for today's Doonside launch. We ended up flying the smaller one four times, with some failures as well as some very good and promising results. There was a very strong wind at the launch site and so we decided not to launch the bigger rocket. We ended up launching the last rocket at 245psi - our highest launch pressure to date.

I'm in the process of putting together a launch day report again, which should hopefully be available in the next couple of days.
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Fiberglass pressure test results

2010-04-16T08:59:00.000+10:00

We have now tested a number of glass reinforced spliced-pairs of bottles. The results so far look quite promising in improving the performance of our rockets. The extra weight of the reinforcing requires an extra 30psi to compensate, but the much higher launch pressure should raise the altitude considerably.

Next we need to assemble these into a proper rocket and pressure test it for leaks.

The full update including performance simulations is available here:
http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day91.htm

The update also includes a progress build on our first MPR pyro rocket.
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Fiberglassing pressure vessels

2010-04-03T20:01:00.005+11:00

Yesterday we had our first go at fiber-glassing some bottles in order to be able to safely increase the launch pressure. We wrapped one spliced pair with a single layer of glass and the other with a double wrap.

The bottle on the left has a single layer and the one on the right is double layer. The bottles are only spliced with Sikaflex 11FC glue for an air tight seal. We are going to give the splices a week to fully cure before hydro testing them to destruction. I'll post the results of these tests when they are available.

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Acceleron V flights Update and Video

2010-03-30T22:51:00.001+11:00

I have finished doing the launch report for this weekend's 2 stage flights. The update is available here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day90.htm

The update includes photos, altimeter plots, flight event time lines as well as a highlights video.

Here is a view of the Doonside launch field.

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New personal records

2010-03-27T22:12:00.002+11:00

We had a great launch day today at Doonside. We finally got the Acceleron V rocket with Axion IVb sustainer flying properly. ...ie. upwards and also not into pieces. We launched the pair twice on the day at 120 psi.

Acceleron V taking off on its second flight.

The sustainer reached 787' (239m) on the first flight and 810' (246m) on the second flight. Our previous highest altitude was 637' (194m). We also set our longest water rocket flight time at 1:00 min.We were hoping to break the 200m mark with this flight, and got the 800' mark as well. We are going to have a good look at the data from these flights and see where we can make further improvements.

I will be putting together a main website update over the next few days with more details, video and photos from day.

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Comparing real world data to simulator data

2010-03-21T18:57:00.000+11:00

We've uploaded the flight day 89 launch report to our main website here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day89.htm

The update includes pictures and video from the launch day as well as a comparison of acceleration data from a couple of flights and 3 water rocket simulators.

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Doonside launch

2010-03-18T10:08:00.000+11:00

Over the past couple of weeks we have been continuing to build rockets, although a little slower due to other non-rocket related commitments.

This weekend we flew a couple of different experiments at Doonside. We wanted to flight qualify the Acceleron V sustainer testing the jet foaming tornado coupling insert in the process.

We also flew three test flights with Craig's pyro rocket flight computer. It didn't control deployment but was along for the ride to gather flight data. The data from these flights and simulation results for comparison will be published in the next main site update.

I'm still in the process of writing up the full launch report which will take at least a couple more days.

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Dual Deployment

2010-03-03T23:01:00.000+11:00

On Saturday we had a good launch day at Doonside. We tested a dual deploy mechanism on a couple of smaller rockets, and even managed to explode one on the pad. We also test flew the MD-80 clone camera on 3 of the flights.

The full update is available here:
http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day88.htm

The update includes, videos of both water and pyro action from the day. There are also a couple of updates on some of the other things we have been working on.

Photo: Andrew E.

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Acceleron V rebuild

2010-02-21T23:03:00.001+11:00

We've made good progress this week in getting Acceleron V back on the launch pad. Early in the week we tested the new narrow nozzle seals to make sure they will hold up to the pressure. This was also a pressure test of the booster side of the launcher. During assembly we noticed that one of the nozzle seals was distorting too much when the bottle was tightened. So dad machined up a new nozzle seal cutter that was a little wider and we made 3 new nozzle seals out of harder rubber. These worked well during assembly and in the pressure test.

Pressure testing the new nozzle seals. You can see the fog in the upper bottles as we let the pressure out.

On Friday we pressure tested the sustainer release mechanism and air supply. During the test we noticed that there was a very minor leak (1 or 2 drops per second) in the release head. On closer inspection it looked like there were a couple of small vertical grooves in the o-ring seat. So we spent today replacing the Gardena release mechanism with a new one. We are letting the epoxy fully cure before doing another test.

We spent the rest of today re-assembling Acceleron back to its normal configuration,.

Attaching the fins with the use of a fin alignment jig.

There are still lots of little jobs to do on the rocket, but it's good to see it back together again. We will do an integration pressure check to around 60psi to make sure there are no leaks in the Tornado couplings without putting too much stress on the entire rocket.

Next major milestones include a re-assembly of the sustainer. Depending on our progress schedule we may fly it at this weeks NSWRA launch day to flight qualify it before it gets used with the Acceleron booster.
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Pressure tests

2010-02-12T14:01:00.001+11:00

After a week of curing, yesterday dad hydro tested 5 of the new splices to go into Acceleron V. These ones had a slightly narrower sleeve than the previous 4 for ease of manufacture. The results were all good with the test having the splices hold 140psi for 30 seconds. There were no leaks and no visible stress marks.

I'm happy with the yield rate so far for these splices. We haven't had any leaks in the 10 we have made to date. I'm sure there will be the occasional one that will leak or fail, but so far it's a good start.

We now have enough of the splices to put Acceleron V back together again. We will do a nozzle seal check next by placing the lowest bottles with nozzles on the launcher held down via the baseplate and checking to make sure the new nozzle seals are good. We won't need to remove the nozzles after the test.

Because the new pressure switch is only a SPST type, we can't wire it directly to an LED like last time to tell us that enough pressure is in the booster. When this LED was ON (@~20psi) we knew the switch was activated and the flight computer was safe to arm. I'm going to update the software in the primary computer to give us a pressure switch status indication on the LED display so that we can tell when it's safe to arm it. Although we could get it to arm automatically when the pressure switch activates, I still prefer to keep the human-in-the-loop for these kinds of things in case we need to abort the launch.
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Flight day and progress

2010-02-05T14:36:00.000+11:00

Last week we went to the NSWRA launch day as we wanted to see the egg lofting competition. We weren't going to fly rockets on the day as Acceleron V has been taking up all spare time, but we did put a couple of small ones in the back of the car just in case. We ended up flying a couple of them during the day. I'm putting together a couple of videos at the moment. One is just a short one from the day showing the flights, but the cloud cover made it difficult to get a good shot against the white clouds. The other video is a discussion about some of the components going into Acceleron V booster.

I'll do a short write-up over the next couple of days. Otherwise it's been a continuation with splicing all the bottles.

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1st splice phase complete

2010-01-27T13:41:00.000+11:00

Last night we finished gluing the 12 x 2L and 10 x 1.25L spliced pairs with the Sikaflex glue. The splices went together quite quickly, but preparation took a bit of time because it included heat shrinking the bottles, curling the edges, cleaning with alcohol, sanding and applying the masking tape before gluing could begin.

Next we need to glue on the outer sleeves with PL and then re-enforce them with the other bottles and glass strapping tape. This should happen over the next few days.

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Splicing, splicing and more splicing

2010-01-23T17:39:00.000+11:00

With the recent flights out of the way, we are now solely concentrating on getting Acceleron V back in the air. The first thing we need to do is make up more of the new spliced pairs we have been testing. Over the last 3 months we have been slowly collecting bottles from friends and family, so now we have some 70 odd bottles ready to splice.

We will be making up a stock pile of spliced pairs, not just for Acceleron V but for other rockets. We are also going to have a go with the 1.25 bottles at making spliced-quads. 4 bottles spliced together with a neck at either end. This will give us ~4L in a 90mm diameter body. We'll still be able to join them using Tornado couplings, but they should give us a little more performance. If they go well in tests we may use them on Acceleron V's sustainer.

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In-line deployment mechanism

2010-01-21T08:18:00.000+11:00

We've updated our main website with the rest of the flight day report from 10th January 2010.

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day86.htm

The update shows more details of the lightweight deployment mechanism we have been recently testing. The Tomy timer version weighs 35grams.

The update also includes a highlights video from the day.

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Mercury Switch Experiment Results

2010-01-14T02:36:00.000+11:00

We've completed the write-up for the experiment. The full results are available here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day85.htm

I was surprised by some of the results while others were as expected. Included are pictures, altimeter graphs and a video of the entire experiment.

I was going to include the full flight day report from Sunday in this update, but because it was kind of long anyway, I decided to separate it. The rest of the flight report will be done over the next few days including a description of the lightweight deployment mechanism and a video of how it works.

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Flight MicroLab - Mercury Switch Experiment

2010-01-07T10:55:00.000+11:00

One of the things we want to fly this weekend at Doonside is a small science experiment. The main intention is to demonstrate how mercury switches behave during flight. It is a very common question we get asked all the time. "Why not use a mercury switch to detect when the rocket tips over at apogee?" ... it's a reasonable question since the system works well on the ground.

I thought video taping what they actually do in flight should give people a better understanding why they don't work the way they think they should.

Experiment setup:

There is a small digital video camera looking through a lens at a set of three mercury switches. Two are mounted the way people would typically mount them and the other is mounted upside down. They are wired to an LED each so you can see when in flight they actually activate. There is also a light source (white LED) above them so the mercury can be clearly seen. There is also a barometric recording altimeter mounted on the side to correlate the activation timing of the switches vs altitude/speed.

The parachute will be set to deploy later than normal so we can see what happens through apogee and somewhat beyond. After we have flown it I'll post the results to our regular website again.

Here is the MicroLab before being installed in the rocket. The rocket will be a Polaron style rocket of around 9.5L. capacity. The rocket is made up of the old Acceleron V bottles so we will be launching it at only about 110psi.

Front view

Back view with power turned on

View from inside the experiment

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Preparation for launch day

2010-01-02T22:05:00.000+11:00

Happy new year! Having had a nice break over the Christmas and new year we are back in full swing with rocket development.

The next launch opportunity is on Jan 10, so we are working to have a number of rockets ready for the day. One of the rockets we'll be testing is the new smaller and lighter deployment mechanism. It weighs less than half of the one we have been using.We'll test it on a small rocket first and then if things go well, we'll extend the rocket and try it at higher speeds and altitude.

We are also preparing a Polaron style rocket that will do a number of in-flight experiments.

Dad has finished upgrading one of our air control panels which will now be able to deliver two different pressures each up to 300psi. This will be useful for the upcoming re-enforced rockets to be launched at higher pressures.

Some goals for 2010 include:
- Getting Acceleron V back in the air on a number of flights, and pushing it to its limits.
- Finishing off V1.7 of the flight computer.
- Getting the website extension completed.
- Higher pressure launches.
- More instructional videos and construction instructions.

We hope everyone has many successful flights with their rockets this year.
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Pressure switch testing

2009-12-26T08:07:00.003+11:00

I've posted the results of the pressure switch tests here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day84.htm

The switch seems to be working well so now it's onto finishing the rest of the spliced pairs and getting Acceleron V re-assembled.

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