Southern California Rocketry Enthusiests

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5 Comments

Comment by ThirdCritical on October 20, 2008 at 5:04pm

Hey o351,
There really is no correct choice in terms of what electronics to buy. It really depends on what you plan to do and where you see yourself going with rocketry.

My first altimeter was a BlackSky AltAcc2A, back in 1999. It cost $160 and did dual deploy with pressure altitude and acceleration at 32Hz or so. I have flown it on something like 25 flights and it has worked great every time. The justification for me buying it was that I intended to use it in a science project... and I did.

I don't think the AltAcc is offered anymore. Scott Bartel (Blacksky) is doing other things now.

Should you see yourself hooking up some of your own electronics and want to do some more "high-end" avionics work, the AED RDAS is a good system. However, it has a fairly steep initial price tag... something like ~$250 for the base model, which samples 8 channels at 200Hz. There are also expansion boards available...telemetry, video data overlay, GPS, thermocouple, etc. I've been working with the RDAS for two years now.... It is a very nice system. My school owns 10+ of them with almost all the expansion boards and our own custom boards... 6-axis IMU, strain sensors, etc... This would be the way to go if you see rocketry as more than a hobby.

One of my buds just bought a Parrot altimeter. It seems to be quite a nice system. It was $150 or so.

Missleworks makes some nice altimeters too... one of which is only $80

There are so many options out there. Find one that fits your rocket and your pocketbook!

Hope that helps a bit,
Graham

Comment by ThirdCritical on October 20, 2008 at 3:56am

I'm in! Where exactly are you guys located?

Comment by o351 on August 27, 2008 at 8:45pm

on rocketry planet forums I started a thread about the ideal electronics for the new guy. do you have any suggestions?

Comment by Kevin Davidson on August 25, 2008 at 12:55am

Hello
There sure is a lot of sites for SCRE's .

Kevin

Comment by o351 on August 24, 2008 at 12:39pm

Anybody from So. Cal that loves rocketry and wants to help the new guy?