New 3 event altimeter marketed as "open source" device

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2007 Archived News by Planet News

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

DALLAS, Texas USA — Matthew Udomphol and Jonathan Gary announced this week the release of a new altimeter product from their company, AAA Rocket Electronics. The AAA-ALT-3 altimeter is coined an "open source" product in that AAA provides the source code so that you can modify anything you want to alter the device's performance.

The altimeter provides up to three fully programmable events based on altitude, time or a combination of both. The device can be programmed based on altitude going up as well as down. And it includes two 9V battery holders to provide plenty of current to the charge events.

ALT30A

AAA-ALT-3-OA altimeter specifications:

On-board removable battery placement (less wires and no need to mess with too many terminals)
Two batteries to insure enough current is sent to pyro-charges
Up to 3, fully programmable pyro-charges (altitude, time, or altitude/time)
Deployment at a specific altitude during ascent, descent
Slim Design (1.5" x 9.25")
Removable chips for easy diagnostic and repair in case of accidental electric shock (can be the difference between a $99 replacement or $8 replacement)
Barometric measurements up to 15,000 feet
Up to 204 seconds storage of in-flight data, at a rate of 20 samples/second
Switches to cut off batteries from altimeter or pyro-charges, as extra safety precautions
True 12-bit precision (4x more precise than 10-bit) with additional hardware filtering
Capabilities for telemetry, extra pyro-charges, and accelerometer readings (under development)
Options for open-source programming and code customization (for all you 'do-it-yourself-ers')
Price: $97.50 until January 31st.

The AAA-ALT-3-OA Altimeter package consists of:

AAA-ALT-3-OA Altimeter w/downloading cable
CD featuring BASIC Stamp Software (with the necessary programs) and Instruction manual
Anti-Static storage medium

Website: http://www.aaarocketelectronics.com/

Reader comments:

#1 Nice idea!

This product demonstrates some nice ideas, especially the availability of the source code. Having two battery holders is nice also.

The only down side I see is the size. It is nearly twice as large as a MissileWorks and probably three or four times as big as a PerfectFlite.

For large rockets that might not be a problem though and with three events it could be used very flexibly. I shudder a little at the thought of interpreted BASIC, but I have doubt it should operate fast enough. That is just a long-standing bias of mine. If it were not interpreted BASIC the user would have to have a compiler in order to use this.

I look forward to hearing how well this works. If you use one, please post a comment here.

Steve_Shannon on 02-03-2007 02:39 PM

#2 AAA Altimeter

I shudder to think about anyone actually using this device connected to ematches and BP charges.

When I read the user manual to this device, it indicated that the ematches would automatically fire if the unit was powered on in the incorrect sequence. I tried to verify this information, but could not download the user manual before writing my response. I would urge any user of this device to carefully consider their proceedures when using this devices.

IMO John

Safety should always come first in this sport

jrcoxx on 03-10-2007 02:20 AM

Quote:

I have not seen the manual. It is not unusual for an altimeter to fire if the battery is connected with a reverse polarity. Is this what they are talking about or is there some actual sequence of steps that must be followed in order to power up the device?

Steve_Shannon on 03-10-2007 12:09 PM

#4 AAA Altimeter

If I remember correctly the altimeter has two switches, one powers on the unit, the other arms the device. If you flip the switches in reverse order, it will fire the pyro channels.

I view any device that has a know failure method like that as dangerous.

John

jrcoxx on 03-10-2007 12:20 PM

If that is the case I would agree. Requiring two switches to be actuated in a particular order is a design flaw. Thanks for pointing it out. To be fair to the makers, I would urge that anybody interested in buying this should perform their own research rather than relying on something they read in a forum, but this points out something that they should check.

I just went to their web site and downloaded the manual. Here is what it says:

Quote:

� There are two power switches on the altimeter: one for the altimeter, one for the pyro outputs.
WARNING: Pyro switch MUST be in the OFF position before turning on the altimeter. If not, the pyros will IGNITE.

which makes it sound like all three of the pyro outputs will go hot if the power switch is turned on with the pyro switch in the on position. I would agree that this is potentially dangerous.

Steve_Shannon on 03-10-2007 01:51 PM

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