Club Equipment Update
Charlie,
Kevin just rewired his 'puter table and he has some cable attachment things like these that he didn't use:
I'm not at home at the moment but I'll check to see how many there are in the box. Kevin didn't use most of the cable management stuff that came with his CM kit, so he gave it all to me.
They may be a great solution!
Quote from Ckirlew on April 16, 2023, 3:10 pmThey may be a great solution!
OK. I'll gather what I have for next launch. IIRC, they have an adhesive pad but Suggest a small screw into the middle of the clip for added security.
I like these, and agree with the need for a screw.
Charlie, I just saw your text on my crappy flip phone. I can't open the link you sent, but in general I would worry about the cam cleats digging into the insulation over time. The ones Brian is referring to should work as long as they are the right size to hold the wires we use and they shouldn't chafe the insulation. I'm guessing they will be fine.
Make it a club event, helping ourselves. We can all volunteer to help Brian build, talk, eat n drink while doing the work. Make it the WE and I’ll join
Have equipment, will travel. I have some tools as well. If we can get the pads that Jim has, we can do all three.
I haven't seen much comment on acquiring more motors. We're apparently entering demo season. Should I acquire the above mentioned motors (a couple of boxes of B, C, and one 1/2A)?
Board members, please comment.
Club Equipment:
Who is volunteering to help Charlie to sort out the launch controllers?? We need clean aligator clips, and the push buttons inside the controller themselves may need to be checked/cleaned/fixed. Too many failures this time around although as Eric pointed out post-session, many failures were due to the ignitor being mashed in improperly. I think we need to hold a class on proper ignitor insertion.
Quote from Brian C. on September 4, 2023, 10:22 amClub Equipment:
Who is volunteering to help Charlie to sort out the launch controllers?? We need clean aligator clips, and the push buttons inside the controller themselves may need to be checked/cleaned/fixed. Too many failures this time around although as Eric pointed out post-session, many failures were due to the ignitor being mashed in improperly. I think we need to hold a class on proper ignitor insertion.
I've had those launch controllers apart. IMNSHO, pure junk for the price. Doug Pratt assembles these things in his garage or basement with a minimum of equipment. Many of the wires inside are not (or were not) soldered. Then, there's the bathtub caulk. Also, 110V sockets for a 12V system? The sockets are three-prong, there's no ground. When I replaced the LED on the one controller, I also replaced the 110V sockets with two-prong sockets AND I printed a rear apron for those. The one that were fitted into the back were held in place with silicone snot and bathtub caulk.
As for the igniters, YES, a quick demonstration at the beginning of each launch might be in order; however, there's always a straggler or three that'd miss that. This information could also be placed here on the website; however, considering the member count in the club, few actually frequent this site. There was a new guy there yesterday who had contacted through the FB page. That thing is very problematic and it's worse since Suckerborg converted that to his Meta mess.
Having black powder motors exhaust directly on the clips ruins them. They oxidize and many of them show signs of being melted too. I have the black powder Estes igniters being used on my rail because my clips are subjected to that due to the proximity to the nozzle. I keep pieces of e-match wire from used e-matches to use as pigtails for Estes igniters. That allows the clips to be connected up far from the nozzle exhaust.
Dan complained to me about a number of things yesterday. One was that he thinks we need higher current (AGM) batteries. I saw plenty of rockets launch off of the rods using the current batteries, so I'm not convinced that current capacity is really an issue. It could be for clusters but there weren't any clusters flown yesterday. Dan also complained to me about my radio launcher not igniting his Estes igniter. That system has successfully launched a ClusterDuck at a CENJARS launch some time back. The ClusterDuck has 7 motors! The 14500 LiPos in the receiver cue are charged on my Nitecore charger before every launch! Those batteries have a very high current capability for the brief second that the cue drives the igniter.
Regarding Batteries, I have MANY 12v batteries I can provide. Too many. All "Ham" radios are 12v, so that's a common thing to have. I can even bring a solar panel to keep the batteries charging between launches. Tell ya what. I'll bring a 20-amp/hr Lithium Phosphate Iron battery that'll happily launch everything all day without any current drop, I just have to screw in some copper tabs for those giant clips you guys are using to connect to the launch controller.
I also saw that the re-charger for the bluetooth module was micro-usb, I can pack a cable for that and a battery that'll keep that going as well.
And all that said, I don't think it's the batteries that are our problem for the launch failures. Something odd was definitely going on with rod #6, and we know that #5 *always* shows weak continuity, although it works anyway. Still, a little WD-40 and scotch-bright could do wonders for us.