Black Widow (altimeter bay redesign)

Black Widow has not flown since November 2016. It’s a good rocket but has some usability and recovery problems. The goal of this project is to refit it with new electronics and solve as many known problems as possible, making this back into a workhorse high-performance rocket. I have five flights’ worth of data and video to review and see where improvements can be made. This page is just a copy of my own project notes.

• Add checklist to the Black Widow wiki page (eventually do this for all the rockets!)
• Entirely new 3D-printed sled
  • New BlueRaven altimeter (shipping soon)
  • 7.4V LiPo battery
    • Keep its charging plug accessible
  • Pull-pin switch instead of magnetic switch
  • Think about how to make charge canister hookups as easy as possible
    • Interior terminal blocks on the sled?
    • On the side with the removable bulkhead, the connecting wire on the sled side should terminate with a terminal block or some other kind of connector that bare wires can be easily and securely connected to - NOT crimp connectors that require matching connectors to be crimped onto the canister leads
    • When a good solution is found, retrofit it to GJaH!
  • Externally visible power LED if possible
  • Wiring should be hidden or managed by the sled as much as possible
• TeleGPS
  • Practical to move it to the center bay?
  • TeleGPS needs its own (3.7V) battery, so probably keep it in the nose
  • If keeping in nose, design and print a new sled
  • Could it use a pull-pin switch also?
• Camera
  • Are there advantages to replacing the old Mobius camera (which has a cracked lens) with the new one?
  • Is it possible to remove the old shroud and replace it with a new one for the new camera?
  • Otherwise, is it possible to add the new camera horizontally in the center bay?
  • Otherwise, is it possible to add the new camera on the lower airframe, pointed up?
• Recovery
  • Possibly replace drogue chute
    • Re-watch old videos and see if there’s a solution to drogue problems (spinning, falling nose-down)
    • Have multiple notes about the Spheracutes drogue pulling the upper and lower airframes together after apogee, and either colliding or nearly colliding
  • Possibly replace main chute
    • Have had multiple occurrences of the primary charge not getting the main out
• Performance
  • Look for any places weight can be reduced
  • Are the Rocketry Warehouse tubes that much heavier than Wildman tubes? Compare with [Home Alone]
• Physical assembly
  • Make sure everything has clear alignment keys (stripes on outside)
  • Check coupler fitting on cold & hot days
  • Check fit & usability of plastic rivets
• Telemetry
  • Determine whether I can run the BlueRaven and Altus Metrum apps together
  • Add a phone holder to the Yagi antenna
  • Add “feet” to the ends of two reflectors on one side of the Yagi so it can be set down on the ground or on a tabletop (with the reflectors vertical and the camera and phone right way up)
• Clean everything inside & out, maybe touch up the paint?
• Repeat bench test
• Repeat ground test
• Sim & test fit DMS L1000 (currently sims about 10k/750mph on L1000, 14k/900mph on L1040)
• Order another L1040? They're back in stock as of 4/6/2023, but $393 (yikes), much more expensive now than AeroTech or CTI.
  • Try again to get stuck liner out of the Loki case
• Update the checklist