New high power Rocket launch

[Seoul_lasers]

2 movies from the recent launches.

The failure video -- body tube shreds at ~2000ft, and the top of the tube continues into the cloud layer with the motor... the sensor in the cone was picked up 3km down the road. Sensor and cone climbed uncontrollably to just a hair over 4200ft at ~ 1700Km/hr. This was a skidmark (sparky motor). You can hear a bang/pop as the rocket shoots off the pad. It was traveling extremely fast - we figure about the same speed as a .22LR...
The top part of the tube was shredded into a fan shape. The sensor survived the return to earth and now awaits its next ride. Kids loved seeing the rocket disintegrate....


The second video shows a completed launch at 240fps slowed down...
The rocket was flown on a more powerful engine and achieved an altitude of just over 6783.5ft, flying at ~1378Km/hr av. The rocket was recovered 1.5km away, on the roof of the municipal yard works. The GPS tracker gave us an exact fix.

to keep the scale in perspective.. this is a 4ft tall rocket being launched.

Both videos play best with VLC.

 

[BowtieGuy]

Thanks Seoul, we've been waiting for these videos, and you did not disappoint, they are sweet, really like the slo-mo one! :beer:
Don't forget to keep us up to date on future launches. :yh:
:gj: and :kewlpics: (make that cool video) +rep!

 

[paul1598419]

Great videos, buddy. I enjoy living vicariously through you. :crackup:

 

[cyberdoc]

Great videos, Seoul! I’m glad that the second launch went as planned. The cheers of the crowd mirrored mine. Keep up the great work and please continue sharing your shots. Have fun and Take Care.

-cd

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Thanks Seoul, we've been waiting for these videos, and you did not disappoint, they are sweet, really like the slo-mo one! :beer:
Don't forget to keep us up to date on future launches. :yh:
:gj: and :kewlpics: (make that cool video) +rep!

Too bad the forum doesn't have enough space for HD quality videos... the video at 1080p looks far better and gives a really good idea how quickly the rocket is climbing. The entire flight from the launcher to engine burnout happens in under 1.2 seconds...

:thanks:

Just going to say that we have a much larger 3 x 38mm engine beast that we will be testing sometime before May. The total impulse should be (redacted)
This one will be going places. It is going to have a shortwave antenna and a GPS locator and UHD camera onboard.... It will require clearance. heh--- We'll probably give it some smaller motors first before we send it into orbit.

body tube is fiberglass with carbon fiber fins!

:evil:

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

The few pyros here enjoy your projects.
Thanks and +R
HM

 

[Seoul_lasers]

We had a small issue with the SSR (solid state relay) during the last launch. So we will be ordering a new one. We are kind of out of commission until the new one arrives from element14. I guess we'll also be looking for a load detector as well. It's lasted 25 launches, several clusters as well... not sure why it would just suddenly stop working. The SSR is rated for 50V @ 35A. We're only giving 12.7V @ maybe 5A ..realistically the ignitors fire at only 2.5A

The launch controller which sends the fire signal ( on a countdown timer with audio) was checked out to make sure it also wasn't damaged. It's alive and well.

If anyone knows about further protecting an SSR from burning out like this, feel free to chime in.

 

[Seoul_lasers]

So, I managed to solve the issue with the sold state relay, and this past Saturday we fired 2 new rockets.
We had a group of parents with their kids come to the launch site to watch the launch.

This rocket went nearly 3500ft at around 1100Km/hr.

The launch system is back up and running. We were able to eek more current out of the battery this time by shortening the leads and extending the signal wires to the countdown timer box.
I have an idea for an SPEECH-TXT talking launch controller which I will be putting together when time permits.

 

[CurtisOliver]

Excellent work Seoul. Glad you resolved the problem. :beer:

 

[BowtieGuy]

That's good news, Seoul, do you have any videos of your latest launch?

 

[Seoul_lasers]

That's good news, Seoul, do you have any videos of your latest launch?

I am working on getting some videos from our parents. No video onboard as we didn't have time to get the camera to work. That's out second major issue. The cameras we had crapped out and corrupted their own firmware. I suspect the internal memory on them is flaky.

 

[paul1598419]

That is great news. I like your one photo, but would also like to see a video if possible. Very nice job, Seoul_Lasers. + Rep.