EEL4924 Senior Design (Su09) Date: August 4, 2009 Rocket Tracking and Recovery Rocket Men Terry Ngin Bryant Lam 1
Project Overview Our project consists of circuitry mounted within a lightning-triggering rocket that will record raw data about the orientation and acceleration of the rocket. In addition, the number of and time interval between luminous precursor pulses will also be recorded. When the rocket has completed its flight, the circuitry will blink LEDs to aid in the rocket's recovery. 2
Technical Objectives • The system needs to sample at 100 samples/sec • These samples will be stored in RAM, for speed, then transferred to non-volatile memory—a microSD card—for long-term storage • To aid in the recovery of the rocket: – A clear payload bay was constructed, within which LEDs will be visible. • The system needs to be able to run for a long time from batteries while waiting for launch conditions and while waiting for recovery 3
Additional Considerations • Faraday cage around the electronics to protect them from lightning • Padding to protect the electronics from forces encountered when launching and landing 4
ADIS16350AMLZ
FRAM Ferroelectric RAM that is used to quickly and temporarily store the sample data before moving it to non-volatile removable memory.
uDRIVE-uSD-G1
Photodiode Circuitry Resistor converts photodiode current to voltage, which is amplified as needed and read into the microcontroller.
LED Recovery System • LEDs set up to draw about 30mA • Controlled by a MOSFET switch
Bill of Materials Component Quantity Price Our cost ADIS16350AMLZ 1 $500.00 $0.00 FRAM 1 $6.20 $0.00 uDrive 1 $37.95 $0.00 Miscellaneous - $5.00 $5.00 Photodiode 1 $40.00 $0.00 ATmega32 1 $4.84 $4.84 LEDs 4 $1.50 $6.00 Batteries 2 $3.00 $6.00 5V step-up 1 $11.00 $11.00 Tube coupler 1 $3.25 $3.25 Payload tube 1 $5.62 $5.62 Total $618.36 $41.71 10
Future Improvements • Different component to obtain inertial data – Current gyroscope very expensive, bulky • Alternate method to trigger recording – Waiting for an acceleration spike eats up too much battery life – Acceleration switch? Remote trigger? • Different rocket locating system – RF or GPS type system that is not reliant on line-of-sight
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