Patreon Update! (Patreon)

Hello folks! We have a few things to cover today. First let's talk about how often I post updates: not enough.

I tried several times to get into the habit of maintaining weekly updates on here, but it turns out to not be my strong suit. I also found that the level of interaction on this platform was super low - likely because nobody goes to hang out on Patreon (no offence, Patreon). I think there's a solution here, so let me introduce, the BPS Discord server! 

If you're unfamiliar with Discord, think of it like a big, organized chatroom. Within the server, there are several channels dedicated to specific topics, labeled mechanical, electrical, software, etc. In those threads, you can post any related questions or thoughts, and anyone can step in to help. This works best if many people are involved so I've set the access tier at $10. I'll be in there all the time, so feel free to ask away about a project you're involved in, or about anything going on with BPS. 

From now on, I'll be focusing less on the "weekly" updates, and much more on the Discord. But to catch everyone up to speed here's some recent progress! In the last month or so, I conducted several launches of Scout and Echo vehicles. Each launch has shed some light onto small bugs with the Signal Avionics system. Some were user based, like swapping leads to TVC servos. Others were hardware based, with two flights ripping the parachutes clean out of the rockets. Both of these have been fixed.

One error lead to what will likely be a 1.5 month delay in the release of Signal Avionics. This relates to the inertial measurement unit I was using, which fused data from several sensors together to get accurate orientation measurements onboard the vehicle. Fusion was done on the sensor itself, in somewhat of a "black box". In each flight, the fusion data would break down and become slightly unreliable, leading to a 1-8 degree arc over toward the end of powered flight. The error has since been corrected; I wrote my own software to convert raw sensor values to orientation data, and progress is back on track! Test flights will resume in a week or two, after which we can set a date for Signal's release.

If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to leave them here, or on the Discord server! Happy to explain things in depth over there :)