Quoting John Carmack <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > 3. Flight Unsuccessful (John Carmack) > > Everything was going well, .... > Then the rocket started pitching over, did a complete flip, and crashed > into the ground from a couple hundred feet up. > > I have always been a little worried about the fast-on connectors on the > batteries we use, and this clinches it. If I can't find batteries in the > size we need with ring terminals, we are going to solder the fast-ons > directly to the batteries. We are also going to make a redundant battery > power supply. > > Starting on a new frame tomorrow, and hoping that the inertial unit is > undamaged. Sigh. A few other good lessons learned, more in the update > this weekend. > > John Carmack
There are specific workmanship rules that date back before WW-2, to solve just these problems. Some of these are not intuitive, for example, one of the "No No's" is tinning stranded wire with solder then clamping it in a screw terminal. There are two problems with this: First, if the stiff tinned portion extends outside the screw terminal, that is where metal fatigue causes the wire to break. Second, since the solder is "plastic" it will creep under pressure, and then your pressure connection isn't under pressure any more. The good news is that the proper techniques and practices have been known and documented for many years, many dating back to the 1920's and '30's. A good reference for this is any training or reference manual for aircraft maintenace technicians (formerly called "aircraft mechanics") Many local airport pilot shops sell these along with pilot training materials, navigations charts, etc. Also, look in any issue of EAA's _Sport_Aviation_ magazine or Sporty's Pilot Shop catalog. --- Doug Drummond, Private Pilot, Secretary of International Flying Club, EAA Member since 1974. (No I'm not an aircraft technician, but routinely deal with maintenace of club aircraft, and *have* been an avionics engineer.) ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/ _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
