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First Flight Computers

Early Flight Computer (June 2022)

To measure my rocket's drag coefficient, I built a custom flight computer using an Arduino Pro Mini, MPU 9255 accelerometer, and SD card reader mounted on a breadboard. I discovered through trial and error that stranded wires repeatedly failed during soldering, so I switched to solid core wire and built a chassis-mounted assembly. After learning to use thinner-diameter solder for small components, the flight computer successfully recorded accelerometer data through launch and recovery.

Arduino flight computer components Flight computer assembly

The first launch crashed and damaged the SD card, but the second flight recovered clean data showing an apogee of 73 meters. By analyzing the accelerometer readings to isolate drag forces from gravitational acceleration and comparing the actual apogee to the theoretical apogee without air resistance, I calculated a drag coefficient of 0.13 for the 320-gram rocket with onboard computer and motor.

Flight computer installed in rocket Complete rocket assembly
Acceleration data graph Velocity analysis graph

Arduino Nano Flight Computer (September 2023)

In August 2023, my friend Nikolai and I built another flight computer using an Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense and an SD card. This version successfully recorded data showing the rocket reached an apogee of 181 meters.

Arduino Nano flight computer breadboard prototype

After initial testing, I upgraded to a Teensy microcontroller because the Nano boards lacked support for multiple hardware serial connections, which I needed for GPS integration. Once GPS functionality was working, I added radio telemetry for real-time data transmission during flight.

Flight computer with GPS and radio Flight computer with battery and power management

The final iteration included battery-powered operation with improved power management features including a barrel connector and power switch. With help from Nathan Liu, this breadboard prototype evolved into a professional PCB design that became the avionics system for MARS, my student aerospace team.