Rocketry Planet

We've all been there: the sun is blazing down, and we're standing in line to launch our rocket, only to discover we're assigned to fly from rack twelve, and they're currently on rack number three. Let's see... it's taking twenty minutes or so for each rack, and it's mid-afternoon already... To heck with this, I'll be back tomorrow!

It's time to bring range operations into the computer age. By adding a computer and network to the range, all sorts of formerly difficult procedures become easy, and a whole range (you'll excuse the pun) of opportunities present themselves.

In order to insure widespread acceptance, any proposed network should be open-standards based, encouraging participation by hobbyists and manufacturers alike. The RODCOM (Range Operations Data Communications) Network meets these criteria.

RODCOM is an RS-485 based, packet style network specification, in which units are plugged together, daisy chain style, by standard (not crossover!) telephone cables. Repeaters, break-out boxes, recorders, and etc. that are designed to work with RS-485 signals are compatible with the RODCOM network.

To interface a PC to a device using RODCOM, a simple RS-232/RS-485 converter is attached to the PC's serial port.These units are available from a number of electronics supply houses as off-the-shelf items. Each unit on the RODCOM network has a unique four byte address, similar to the IP addresses used on the Internet.

This makes it possible to uniquely identify any unit on the network, and allows the allocation of address blocks to various manufacturers for specific applications, as needed. In its initial release, RODCOM is used to support VFROS (Veri-Fire Range Operation Software) and Veri-Fire Digital Launch pad units.

So, what happens when we add computers and a network to range operations? A number of good things. First, range operations can be streamlined, allowing the RSO or pad manager to check flyers in by typing the information from their flight card into a laptop computer.

The software can use that information to automatically queue the flyer for a pad with the appropriate rod size, and assign him to a particular rack number. The LCO would never see a flight card. On his display, he sees the pads spread out, graphically similar to the physical layout before him. By looking at the screen he can tell if the igniter is properly connected, shorted out, or open.

He reads the relevant information regarding a flight from his screen, then with click of the mouse he sends the rocket on it's way. Another click registers the disposition of the flight: good, prang, etc. And then he's on to the next pad. With split range operations, where one set of pads loads while the other set flys, a rocket can easily be launched every minute.

Another feature of a digital launch control network is easy scalability. Many clubs build a four-pad controller, then they grow, throw it out, build an eight pad unit, grow, throw it out, etc. With a modular system, you can add pads indefinitely, with no waste.

It gets better. With an open network on the range, we can add a weather monitoring station, and suddenly we're logging wind speed, direction and temperature, for EACH FLIGHT! Got a hybrid to sequence? No need for long lengths of special cabling and a unique controller, just build a hybrid controller that connects to the RODCOM network, and it just looks like another pad to the LCO.

The network can support active pad signs, or even a reader board of flyers and their pad assignments which changes through as many racks as it takes to display everyone. The flyer can get a printed report, picked up at another table, with his flight card data, date and time of the flight, the weather, and the LCO's dispsition of the flight. . . What a way to fill in a log book!

In short, the addition of a digital communications network to range operations is long overdue, and opens up whole new realms of possibility for streamlining range operations and improving the quality of the experience for everyone involved.