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Launchbox #1 - Parts Arrived!

e14 Contributor

My name is Mathew Halm, and I am the Director of Avionics for Student Space Systems, an organization of undergraduates at the University of Illinois with the goal of designing and manufacturing rockets capable of reaching space. We have been given the wonderful opportunity to receive parts form Element 14 to build a new Launchbox, an electronic device that will be used to ignite several of our rocket motors from a distance. This device is an integral component to preserving the safety of our launches, and as such we decided to make reliability a high priority for it's design. It has also been designed in compliance with the safety requirements of the National Association of Rocketry, a governing body for amateur high-power rocketry in the United States.

 

The design for the Launchbox contains two main units. One unit, placed near the launch pad, will deliver the huge amount of current necessary to ignite the motor. This unit will be activated by a handheld controller connected by wire that will be stationed far away with our launch personnel. For safety, the controller requires two keys to activate and will sound a siren to alert those nearby. Circuit diagrams for these components are attached as PDFs.


This week, we received enough parts to begin construction, so over the coming weeks, we'll be posting updates and photographs as we work.

 

Thank you to Element14 for the help!

Attachments:
imageLaunchbox2.0.pdf
imageController2.0.pdf

  • Love model rockets.  Built many of them in my childhood.  Most of them consisted of multiple stages.  I built and launched the 3 stage D powered Estes Comanche rocket at our junior high school for a power class.  Out of all of the kids in the class, we only managed to get the first two booster stages back.  The rest of the almost 4 foot tall rocket was never to be found again.  It was bright orange with a big bright orange streamer.

     

    Another funny story about multi-stage rockets involved a 2 stage rocket.  My buddy, Chris, argued with me that I had reversed the engines on the two stages.  I disagreed.  Booster stages when they flame out, immediately light the next stage so the rocket can continue its straight upward course.  The 2nd or final stage has a coast to slow it before the cone is ejected to reduce the shock when the parachute is released.  So, ignoring my buddy's protests, I launched the rocket anyhow.  It streaks into the sky, then nothing for a few seconds as the rocket starts to arch back towards the ground.  We give each other one of those, Oh #$%@ looks, then the next rocket (which should have been the booster engine) ignites and the rocket shrieks back towards the ground, narrowly missing Chris and I and pancakes itself into a log on a wood pile burying the cone into the log.  Not one of my brighter moments, I'll admit.  After Chris was done yelling at me, rubbing in the fact that he was correct, we both laughed at what physics did to my 2 stage rocket.

     

    There are so many things that kids have access to that we did not 20 years ago.  I bet that you can design some pretty fantastic launch systems now.  Keep us posted with images of the product and other notes.

     

    Thanks!

  • Nice post.

     

    It takes me back to my Jr. High days when we were launching rockets at School.

     

    I still remember the tears in the eyes of hour teacher after his camera rocket exploded into a hundred pieces after it hit a tree.

     

    I had never seen a teach cry before.

     

    It did make a nice explosion though.

     

    DAB