Quick Update (Patreon)

Just a quick update this week - there will be quite a bit more next week, but for now, here's what's going on!

This week I conducted two static fire tests. One on Sunday, and one on Tuesday. The test Sunday was a failure, with the rocket responding much too intensely to the motion it experienced. Initially, it looked like the D value in the PID algorithm was much too high. Technically speaking, this was not the case, as the tuning values were actually correct, as seen in Tuesday's test. As it turns out, a serious control loop timing bottleneck was at fault. The long explanation will come next week, but consider what happens when the PID controller is expecting (and assuming) error inputs every 10 milliseconds, but only getting them every 23 or 24...

The rest of the week will be focused on prep for a few things, including a NAR public launch event this Saturday. I'm unsure if I'll be launching anything that date, but have approval to do so from the local NAR chapter if it's ready. Stay tuned, more soon!