I had the pleasure of designing a high performance avionics system for UBC Rocket’s Competition rocket, “Sky Pilot”. We competed in the 30,000 ft category at IREC in Las Cruces, New Mexico in June of 2019. The team successfully launched our rocket “Sky Pilot” to ~26,000 ft, placing third.
Key Features:
Sensor suite includes barometer, accelerator, IMU and GPS.
Custom implementation of teensy 3.6
E-match igniter and servo motor control for deployment events
Live telemetry data sent over a 900 MHZ packet radio network
Iridium satellite communications module
Runcam HD camera controlled over serial
High speed data logging (40 Hz)
Lightweight (400g)
Compact
Custom Teensy 3.6
In an effort to design a compact, flight-worthy piece of hardware, we chose to integrate everything on to one PCB instead of doing a “shield” type add-on board. We decided to use the teensy due to its compact size, high performance and large community of users. Thanks to PRJC for publishing the schematics and selling boot-loader chips to support custom implementations. Lots of info about pcb layout on the pjrc forum and here.
Schematic capture and PCB layout was done in Eagle. The green board below is actually several separated “modules” that can be linked together with jumpers. This was my first PCB is deigned as separate modules on a single board that can be linked with jumpers. This allowed me to isolate circuits for debugging and in case of a malfunction or design error. The first board was successful but needed some tweeks. The black board below is an early flight version.
First prototyping PCB (left) and first revision of flight PCB (right). Both are double sided, 4 layer boards.Render done in Copper http://www.copper-app.com/?dm_source=Appfruits&dm_campaign=Products
