Rocketometer Flight Test 1 and photos

3/16/2013 Flight 1

Site: Alpine Elementary field
Weather: Overcast, calm winds during flight, weather at KCOLONGM64 51.5f 29.97 in 6.7mph 49%RH
Hardware: Rocketometer6050 #2, Estes Star Stryker (modified)

Forgot to pull cap from launch rod before flight. Flew straight, seemed to turn level to ground at apogee, I could see a yellow tinge to the tracking smoke. Parachute ejected but never inflated. Rocket fell free from apogee. Rocketometer was still running after flight. Engine hook unzipped about 1/8 inch to the aft, probably due to ejection. One fin has a cracked glue joint. Minor ding to rocket nose cone due to striking launch rod cap. Rocket could probably be repaired, but not reflown in its current condition.

No video of the flight was captured. I had the camera, forgot to press record.

Rocketometer has one file as expected, RKTO0500.SDS 35,369,984 bytes. Indicates that Rocketometer was running through whole flight.

Switch and card not glued into place. Reset solder bridge in place. Rocketometer ran through flight anyway, indicating that nothing was jarred loose.

Rocketometer on internal power ~11:50am

Nautilus reports weird file sizes for files. fsck.vfat does not report any filesystem errors.

Total packets retrieved: 1,572,103
AD377           STRUCT    = -> <Anonymous> Array[124694]
BMP2            STRUCT    = -> <Anonymous> Array[6234]
DEF             STRUCT    = -> <Anonymous> Array[15]
DUMPDATA        BYTE      = Array[65640]
F               STRING    = 'RKTO0500.SDS'
HMC             STRUCT    = -> <Anonymous> Array[124694]
INF             LONG      =          100
MPU             STRUCT    = -> <Anonymous> Array[1246947]
N_EXTEND        LONG      =       -59604
N_PACKETS       ULONG     = Array[2048]
OUF             LONG      =          100
PKT             STRUCT    = -> <Anonymous> Array[1]
STATUS          INT       =        0
TCC             STRUCT    = -> <Anonymous> Array[68932]
T_PACKETS       ULONG     =      1572103
Greater than 26 minutes of data recorded. Processing took about 14 minutes.
Time stamp difference between first MPU record and last: 1601.1205s (26m41.1205s)
Range zero is 1058s (last top of second before first acceleration)
MPU did saturate during boost

Rocketometer loaded and ready for flight

Flight battery is similar to this, not visible in rocket pictures since it is packed in foam behind the board. Photo from Sparkfun Electronics published under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Rocketometer rendering, showing sensor side

Rocketometer rendering, showing interface side