Ye Olde Rocket Forum

Go Back   Ye Olde Rocket Forum > Work Bench > Building Techniques
User Name
Password
Auctions Register FAQ Members List Calendar Today's Posts Search Mark Forums Read


Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #21  
Old 11-20-2008, 07:25 AM
tbzep's Avatar
tbzep tbzep is offline
Dazed and Confused
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: TN
Posts: 11,610
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Walther
Arrggghhhhh! I sat down to start piecing this booster together and checking sizing and such and realized that despite doing four or five parts orders in the last month, I don't have any CR-2060!!!! Arrrrgggghhhh.

Actually, they're in the Totally Tubular order, which is one of the last ones I placed, and I bet delivery is really slow because they're probably coming parcel post and the box is at least 34" long because of the tubes and larger boxes seem to take about two weeks by parcel post. At least I hope that's the reason, beause it's been about ten days since Jim emailed me that he was packing up the order.

Still, I only ordered 12 of them and didn't order any from BRS, BMS, Semroc, nor Uncle Mike. What was I thinking? I must have ordered at least 20 of every other centering ring in existence.

Must. Get. New. Brain.



IIRC, it usually takes a month or two to get orders from TT. From what I understand, he is very busy and can only work with the TT side of things every now and then. Oh, and in the winter his barn gets frozen in and he can't get to his stash of rocket stuff.
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 11-20-2008, 08:05 AM
Eagle3 Eagle3 is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,265
Default

Jeff, the reason I worked on this problem was so I could gap-stage small Standard Missile LR and Terrier scale models. (and also to have a R&D project for NARAM that year ) Back then staging electronics wasn't what it is now. I did manage to stage a peanut scale Terrier using a mercury switch stager at NARAM 34. It was a royal PITA to setup so I didn't continue to use that system on smaller models.

My first gap-staged SM-2 LR was BT-55 to BT-50 based. Gap-staging worked great, but the booster was stable. Despite the misgivings of others it works and the slip pod recovery system works. It is also very quick and easy to prep vs an electronic system.

I do recommend building a boiler plate first before putting a ton of sweat into the final product. You might also want to consider the Perfectflite mini-timer. It sounds like it would easily fit in your project, but if you're doing this because you think gap-staging is cool then by all means have fun with it. Gap-staging is a lot of fun
__________________
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old 11-20-2008, 08:13 AM
wilsotr's Avatar
wilsotr wilsotr is offline
BAR
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Virginia
Posts: 332
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Walther
Officially, I'm a product/test engineer. However, because I'm custodian of the hardware diagnostic tests and producer of new ones, I seem to also be the Inbetween-Team. ......


Great story Jeff, thanks for posting!
Reply With Quote
  #24  
Old 11-20-2008, 02:12 PM
Doug Sams's Avatar
Doug Sams Doug Sams is offline
Old Far...er...Rocketeer
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Plano, TX resident since 1998.
Posts: 3,965
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Walther
Arrggghhhhh! I sat down to start piecing this booster together and checking sizing and such and realized that despite doing four or five parts orders in the last month, I don't have any CR-2060!!!! Arrrrgggghhhh.
Jeff,

Post your snail mail addy and I'll send you some. How many you need? 2? 4? I have several left over from Berthas and other rockets (where they were just begging fo' mo' power ) Given your proximity, they could get there as soon as Saturday.

Doug

.
__________________
YORF member #11
Reply With Quote
  #25  
Old 11-20-2008, 02:17 PM
Doug Sams's Avatar
Doug Sams Doug Sams is offline
Old Far...er...Rocketeer
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Plano, TX resident since 1998.
Posts: 3,965
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Walther
The software team is really nice. But they've got a different way of looking at the universe and a desire for the tough problems to be in hardware rather than in their code.
This reminds of one of the things I saw early in my career. In many cases, during integration, the softare guys would call a hardware guy down to the lab under the pretext they'd found a bug in his hardware. Well, any self-respectin' hardware guy is there in a heartbeat to defend his honor. Several hours later, the code bug would be found and his honor restored. And the software guy was smiling wide 'cause he just got Tom Sawyer's fence painted...for free

Doug

.
__________________
YORF member #11
Reply With Quote
  #26  
Old 11-20-2008, 05:11 PM
Jeff Walther Jeff Walther is offline
Master Modeler
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 661
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eagle3
I do recommend building a boiler plate first before putting a ton of sweat into the final product. You might also want to consider the Perfectflite mini-timer. It sounds like it would easily fit in your project, but if you're doing this because you think gap-staging is cool then by all means have fun with it. Gap-staging is a lot of fun


Thank you, Buzz for all the information, including the old research paper. I appreciate your efforts.

Where does one get those mini-timers?

Although, in this case, it really is for the fun of Gap-staging. Also I'm trying to stay as close as possible to a kit bashed Baby Bertha--Two of them really, and pretend that they come with balsa nose cones which you can drill to make a tail cone. :-)
Reply With Quote
  #27  
Old 11-20-2008, 05:32 PM
tbzep's Avatar
tbzep tbzep is offline
Dazed and Confused
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: TN
Posts: 11,610
Default

Chad Ring has a really nice looking Aerobee 350 on page 24 of Sport Rocketry. If that's a BP motor back there, he might have gap staged that model. That Nike booster is most likely nice and stable on its on, so I bet he's got some sort of recovery setup with it. If anybody knows him, maybe you can shoot him an email for a quick bit of info on his rocket to see what method he used and how successful it is.
Reply With Quote
  #28  
Old 11-20-2008, 05:33 PM
Jeff Walther Jeff Walther is offline
Master Modeler
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 661
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
IIRC, it usually takes a month or two to get orders from TT. From what I understand, he is very busy and can only work with the TT side of things every now and then. Oh, and in the winter his barn gets frozen in and he can't get to his stash of rocket stuff.


Well, after I placed the order he emailed me stating something along the lines of "I'll pack that up this Saturday." That Saturday would have been the 8th. So he may have shipped on the 10th and a large parcel could take two weeks for delivery. I shipped a 17" LCD display to a guy with a ton of packing around it which took two weeks to arrive.

I had read some cautions about slow turn-arounds, but he had some tube sizes I didn't see elsewhere so I figured I'd place an order, and of course, stock up on other tubes and rings at the same time. However, in most cases there was some redundancy in my ring and tube orders between the five order I placed. The CR2060s were only in the TT order for some reason.
Reply With Quote
  #29  
Old 11-20-2008, 05:37 PM
Jeff Walther Jeff Walther is offline
Master Modeler
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 661
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Sams
Jeff,

Post your snail mail addy and I'll send you some. How many you need? 2? 4? I have several left over from Berthas and other rockets (where they were just begging fo' mo' power ) Given your proximity, they could get there as soon as Saturday..


Hi Doug,

Thank you! Reading your posting I realized I can steal the rings from some of the Baby Bertha kits I have on hand and replace them after I get my ring order, so I should be taken care of. However, that was a very kind and generous offer.

On 40% off weeks, I stop by Hobby Lobby any time I'm driving near one (not worth a special trip) and usually pick up a BabyB. So I have a few on hand. I just didn't think of cannibalizing them.
Reply With Quote
  #30  
Old 11-20-2008, 05:41 PM
Jeff Walther Jeff Walther is offline
Master Modeler
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 661
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Sams
Well, any self-respectin' hardware guy is there in a heartbeat to defend his honor. Several hours later, the code bug would be found and his honor restored. And the software guy was smiling wide 'cause he just got Tom Sawyer's fence painted...for free


Hee, hee. My standard practice is to have them *tell* me what they think their code is doing. Their code is written in 'C'. Then I go reproduce it in assembly and see if there is a problem or not. Or in some cases develop a way of doing what they want to do. If they want to incorporate my assembly in-line that's okay with me. But if they want to fix their 'C' they need to debug it into actually doing what they told me it does.

So I may be painting their fence, but I'm painting it with a can of assembly colored paint.
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:18 AM.


Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.0.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe © 1998-2024