I'm a Rocket!
My ham radio interests revolve mostly around packet modes - specifically APRS (where I go by N3VEM-11) and 70cm LoRa.
In addition to radio, I really like telemetry, ammonium perchlorate, wide open spaces, anything written by Newton, and getting high.
(*disclaimer* I'm not REALLY a rocket - just a person pretending to be one)
If things work out during our next launch, our auto-toots will actually be based on data sent from the rocket to the ground station via LoRa, then from the Ground Station back to our 'home' station via AREDN Mesh, before making the trip through the internet to update everyone here. Overly complicated? Probably. So Why? Because we think we can!
It doesn’t look like much yet, but hopefully this weekend we’ll get a chance to wrap it in its speaker-box carpet, and drop the screen and buttons in. Some miscellaneous wiring after that, and it should look like a decent launch controller/ground station.
The ‘box’ that my new all-in-one ground station will drop into started getting built today - it will just be a variation on the standard plywood box wrapped in speaker carpet. I like that method for things like this because it’s quick, but still looks tidy.
Quick update on the new ground station for the @RadioRocket - I now have a stack of boards that is the hardware for everything minus the APRS receiving (that will just be an SDR dongle that is waiting to get plugged in.) The launch control bit is working and fires ignitors nicely, and the LoRa radios are sending and receiving the data. Next up is re-doing the node red dashboard for the data, so it displays nicely on this screen, vs the laptop I used prior.
We were going to leave the old ground station intact as we build the new one, so we could repurpose the old, but this weekend the flight crew was at the park and saw other kids launching their rockets, and we got jealous, so today we started stripping parts from the old ground station so we could get the new one up and running faster😀
The touchscreen for my new ground station arrived today, and the SBC (a @librecomputer Solitude) should arrive tomorrow.
The idea is that this new ground station will be fully self-contained complete with the display, so that we can just plop the box on the table, boot it up, and be ready to go, instead of messing with separate mini-server, router, laptop, launcher, etc.
My booster section is getting refinished while my new ground station gets designed/built. We had a bit of a zipper (okay okay - it was an 11” zipper 😱) during our last flight, which is now fixed, but I needed some fresh paint and rocket bondo (carpenters wood filler) to hide the repair. 🚀
Starting to work on the next version of our ground station (to consolidate all the parts into a single unit.). Listed out all the functions it needs to do, and now I’m trying to decide if I start with the “box” and try to make everything fit, or if I piece together all the innards, and then find something to hold it all.
Oh hey - just noticed something - @Stormgren or @jevidl - how do you like that soft rack case you used on your POTA outing? I was looking at those as an option to build my new ground station into.
Is it mostly a hard shell with a soft bag around it, or is it something different?
