Hello everyone, I just wanted to share that I have finished developing a flight computer for my L1 rocket, which I have designed from scratch with the intent of running NuttX (right down to the LED status indicators). This is distinct from the InSpace flight computer designed this year that I have mostly been emailing about, which is more capable and designed for higher power (L3, 30,000ft) rockets.
I have posted all of the design files here (https://altusmetrum.org/TeleMetrum/), and started on creating the out-of-tree board support for it: https://github.com/linguini1/pygmy-nx Many friends that I have made through the rocketry hobby are very interested in having electronics on board their rockets as they do certification flights and hobby flights. This allows them to come up with some flight characteristics about their rocket. Unfortunately, most telemetry capable flight computers are quite expensive. This board is meant to be an open-source alternative to existing, pricey flight computers like the Altus Telemetrum (https://altusmetrum.org/TeleMetrum/) and similar, which cost around $430CAD where I live. The Pygmy and its ground station receiver totals about half of that, and that is as a prototyping cost with a small batch order. Since discovering NuttX and how capable it is, I knew that it would be a great candidate for use on this board. It's open source and well maintained, with a nice ability to customize its features. Unlike a lot of commercial alternatives, I have designed this flight computer to be "hackable" so that hobbyists can modify the NuttX image on it, write their own applications or even put MicroPython on it. NuttX is really conducive to the goal of being hackable and powerful. I have successfully been able to bring up the board just recently, communicate with all my sensors, use the existing UORB driver for the MS5607 and test the GPS with the wonderful `gps` example in the apps collection. I have a few sensors to write drivers for and I have yet to test the SPI micro SD card, but it's looking like NuttX was a great choice for getting this going. I'm very excited to get some software written for it, and I will be launching it in the spring for my Tripoli L1 certification flight if all goes to plan. I want to say thank you to the community here again for being so welcoming and for dedicating so much time to creating an incredibly powerful and easy to use RTOS. I would not have believed it was possible for me to create my own flight computer from scratch and bring it up so quickly based on my experience with other RTOSes. Hopefully this is of some interest to you all! I don't know how many boards have been built with the intent to run NuttX specifically, but here is another that will hopefully gain some popularity in the rocketry community. -- Matteo Golin
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