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Eggtimer Rocketry Quasar User Manual

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Eggtimer Quasar
User's Guide
Board Rev G3
Software Rev. 1.02a
© 2022 Eggtimer Rocketry
All Rights Reserved
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Summary of Contents for Eggtimer Rocketry Quasar

  • Page 1 Eggtimer Quasar User’s Guide Board Rev G3 Software Rev. 1.02a © 2022 Eggtimer Rocketry All Rights Reserved - 1 -...
  • Page 2 Eggtimer Quasar Features WiFi-Enabled, Three-Output data-logging flight computer with integrated GPS tracker and telemetry Programming, arming, and downloading can all be done with any WiFi/browser-enabled device No apps required on your device, just a browser Fits easily in a 29mm body tube, weighs only 30 grams Altimeter records data up to 60,000’...

  • Page 3: Important Regulatory Information

    902-928 MHz band, and therefore must not be used in residential areas. The Eggtimer Quasar uses RF modules in the 902-928 MHz ISM band manufactured by Hope RF, model HM-TRP-915. These modules have been tested by Hope RF to be compliant with the FCC Part 15 regulations for non-licensed intentional emitters, and as such have been permitted to be imported into the US.

  • Page 4: Important Links

    If your Eggtimer Quasar does not work properly after assembly, take a deep breath, get out the magnifying glass and a good light, and see if you have inadvertently created a solder bridge somewhere.
  • Page 5 Eggtimer Quasar for their particular purpose. If you have a problem with this, please contact us and we will be happy to send you a prepaid return label for your unbuilt kit and we will refund your purchase price.
  • Page 6 It uses special current-limiting drivers to ensure that a deployment glitch will not cause your Quasar to “brownout” due to low voltage. You can also use standard PWM hobby servos with the Quasar, for non-pyro parachute deployments. This makes it ideal for use...
  • Page 7 30,000’ in which pyro charges may not be as effective. In addition to deployment functions, the Quasar can also be used to “airstart” additional motors in flight, either for “strap on” boosters or for starting a second stage motor. It works as a timer that starts at launch, and can be qualified with velocity-at-time and/or altitude at time.
  • Page 8 (in which case the shunt goes on the PGM header). Servo Header Pads – Pads for connecting servos to your Quasar, they are a logic-level output instead of a high-current output. Note that power for your servos is NOT provided; you must provide it separately, and we strongly recommend additional filtering on your external servo power (more on that later).
  • Page 9 The Quasar can be mounted in any direction, there’s no “up” or “down” side. Since it’s longer than it is wider, you’ll probably mount it parallel to the centerline of your rocket. We do recommend, however, that you don’t mount it so that the pressure sensor is directly across from...
  • Page 10 We’ve seen it happen, and the results are not pretty. About Switches… The Quasar is designed so that by default it will not self-arm itself. If you power it up, it will sit there on the Status page forever, changing the validation code every 60 seconds… you have to actually arm it using the validation code in order to start a flight.
  • Page 11 Quasar Battery Options The Quasar is designed for a 2S 7.4V LiPo battery. We recommend using one rated at least 500 mAH, since the Quasar draws about 130 mA on average after you connect to the Status Page, however it can pull over 300 mA under some circumstances, and typically draws about 250 mA during flight when it’s transmitting constantly.
  • Page 12 Unlike deployment controllers that use FET’s on the output, the “smart” drivers in the Quasar provide current-limiting to the output igniters, generally around 10A. Especially with a LiPo, this helps prevent dead-shorts from damaging the battery and/or the output drivers.
  • Page 13 8-digit passkey to connect. The passkey is also derived from the MAC address, so it’s different for each Quasar. The passkey for your Quasar is on a label on the WiFi module’s packaging that you got when you built it. If you accidentally lose it, you can also get it by connecting an Eggtimer USB-TTL data cable to the programming header.

  • Page 14: The Status Page

    The Status Page The first thing you will see is the Status Page. It tells you what your Quasar is doing, and gives you some other important information: ◦...
  • Page 15 Quasar_C12794 1.02a USA/Canada 915 ID: 0 Flight Status: DISARMED Validation Code: 1234 REFRESH Drogue Delay: 0.0 sec Change Drogue Status: ON Main Altitude; 500 Change Main Status: OFF AUX Mode: OFF Change GPS Status: No Fix Yet Battery: 8.27 90% ASL Alt: 696 Temp: 72.3 Mins Since Power-On: 2...
  • Page 16 Arming Your Quasar In order to start a flight, you need to arm the Quasar. For safety reasons, the Quasar will not self-arm; that is, you must go to the Status page and arm it for the flight sequence to begin. This is different than most other flight computers, which will go into an arming sequence a short time after powering up, assuming that the continuity is OK.
  • Page 17 It sounds a bit like Morse code, however it is not. This is an audible confirmation that the Quasar is now in flight sequence mode, and you’re ready for launch.

  • Page 18: Auto-Arming

    60 seconds. This is your “getting ready” notification. After the 60 seconds is up, the Quasar will go into the normal arming sequence, i.e if all enabled outputs pass the continuity check you’ll hear the “I’m ready” beeps every two seconds, if it’s not ready then you’ll get a continuous beep that lets you know in no uncertain terms that you should not fly.
  • Page 19 For most dual-deployment flights, you’ll probably want the drogue to fire as close to apogee as possible, in the Quasar this would be approximately one second after apogee. That’s what we call “nose-over”, since it’s pretty much guaranteed that your rocket is pointing downward.
  • Page 20 (for example, you’re using motor-deploy for the drogue) then set it to OFF. The other settings are designed for delaying the drogue using the Quasar as a backup deployment controller in a dual-controller redundant setup, or for special-purpose uses (i.e. the 5- second setting is designed for ejecting ARLISS CanSats).

  • Page 21: Main Settings

    full clockwise (CW) would go 90 degrees to the right. The reality is that many servos do not have 180 degrees of travel, so we label them by percent of travel which is ALWAYS related directly to the standard pulse-width of the servos. This label is the “Set”...
  • Page 22 500’ is the default setting when you first power up your Quasar, it’s adequate for probably 80% of all flights. If you field is smaller, you’re going to want to take that down a bit, so your rocket doesn’t drift as far when the Main is deployed.
  • Page 23 The FailSafe Options Almost everyone who’s had enough electronic-deployment flights has had a flight end badly because of a drogue deployment failure. Some common failures are: • Motor eject charge fires late, or doesn’t fire at all • Drogue gets stuck in the body tube •...
  • Page 24 AUX Mode: OFF, Drogue, Main, Airstart (default OFF) OFF does just that… it turns the AUX channel off so it doesn’t do anything. If you’re not using it, you should turn it off… otherwise, you won’t be able to arm your Quasar because it won’t have continuity.
  • Page 25 Eggtimer Quantum Airstart Guide, which can be found on the Eggtimer Rocketry web site under the Eggtimer Quantum Support page. The airstart settings for the Quasar are nearly identical to the Quantum, so this guide applies to both. - 25 -...
  • Page 26 Airstart Timer: 0.3-3.0 secs by 0.1, 3.2-9.8 sec by 0.2 sec, 10-30 sec by 1 sec (default 0.3 sec) This is the delay from launch detect to when the airstart channel is triggered. AUX Min Alt: OFF, 300-3000 by 100’, 3200-9800’ by 200’ (default OFF) This is the minimum altitude that must have been attained by the rocket when the airstart trigger’s timer ends.
  • Page 27 Range: 50’-500’ by 50’ (default 200’) This setting allows you to select at what altitude the Quasar decides that a valid flight has started. The 200’ default is good for most flights. However, there may be some cases in which you may want to turn it up, and some very special cases in which you may want to turn it down.
  • Page 28 This setting allows you to select the number of samples per second that are taken from the time that you arm the Quasar until it detects nose-over. The default setting (20 samples per second) is adequate for most flights. However, there may be reasons why you want to turn it up or down.
  • Page 29 This is an 8-character field that is sent out along with the telemetry data. This would typically be used with the 70 cm Ham version of the Quasar, you should put your Ham call sign here, satisfying the FCC’s requirement that your call sign must be transmitted “periodically”.
  • Page 30 At the Pad Put the rocket up on the rail/rod, then go to the Quasar’s status page. If you’re using a power switch, turn it on. Make sure that you have continuity on whatever channels you’re using… if you do not, it’s going to be easy to tell because the status will be highlighted in RED.
  • Page 31 After a few seconds, you’ll hear a few beeps, then after about 10 seconds of silence (as it takes baseline measurements) you’ll hear the “I’m ready” beeping. This will sound like Morse code… several beeps, followed by about one second of silence. Once you hear it, you’re not going to mistake it for anything else, including another altimeter that you may have in your AV bay.
  • Page 32 GPS and Altimeter Telemetry While your Quasar is in flight, it’s constantly sending out GPS location data and altimeter data at a rate of approximately one location per second. Your Eggfinder LCD receiver will decode this data, and give you the current GPS coordinates, as well as the AGL altitude and deployment channel status.
  • Page 33 On the Ground The Quasar detects that your rocket is on the ground when it stops moving for over 5 seconds. You can configure the buzzer in the Hardware Menu to be OFF at landing, to provide a continuous “siren” tone for locating your rocket, or to have it beep out the maximum altitude. If you configured...
  • Page 34 Summary page for the flight that you just completed. Note that it may take 10-15 seconds to bring up the Flight Summary page after you connect to the Quasar, because it sends out the page after it’s done beeping out the altitude or the siren tone, so you have to wait until it goes quiet for a few seconds.
  • Page 35 The Quasar saves your last 15 flights, both summary and detailed time/altitude data. Clicking on the ‘Flights’ link in the Quasar’s Status page takes you to an index page that allows you to select the flight that you want to review. Note that each flight has an index number from 1-15, this is the memory location that it’s in, and each flight has a Flight number that is sequential from 1 to however...
  • Page 36 The Flight Summary Page The Flight Summary page gives you a lot of information about what happened during your flight… flight “milestone” information including elapsed time for each event, settings, and static data (such as launch temperature). Quasar_a1b2c3 1.02a Flight Summary Flight No.: 1 Flight Status: Landed Apogee….2201...
  • Page 37 (About Launch Detect: Because this is a barometric pressure altimeter, there’s no definitive way to say “yeah, we just hit 5 G’s so we must have launched”. To detect launch, the Quasar uses the last reading below 3’ AGL, after the LDA has been reached. While it’s technically possible that this figure may be a little off, our experience has shown that it’s only off by one or two samples at...
  • Page 38 Temp – The temperature in Farhenheit at the time of launch. This will be very accurate if the Quasar has been powered on for 10-15 minutes, but will tend to be on the low side if you fly shortly after powering up.
  • Page 39 We’ve had good luck with WPS Office for Android and iOS, it’s free and works very well with the simple .csv data that the Quasar sends out, and it’s very easy to get a flight/event graph. For a Windows laptop, we use Excel, but any data analysis program that can take a .csv file will work.

  • Page 40: Appendix A - Deployment Channel Testing

    (such as the Quasar resetting in flight, or the igniter not firing because the battery can’t source enough current).
  • Page 41 (#36 or #40, for example). We’ve designed the Quasar very conservatively, and drivers automatically provide current limiting to help protect the circuitry and your battery. Nevertheless, it is still possible to blow something up if you try hard enough.

  • Page 42: Appendix B - Telemetry And The Eggfinder Lcd Receiver

    Appendix B – Telemetry and the Eggfinder LCD Receiver The Eggtimer Quasar sends out a variety of telemetry data during flight, it is easy to decode the data using an Eggfinder LCD receiver. Data sent by the Quasar includes: GPS Data – NMEA formatted data, which includes GMT time, position, and ASL altitude.

  • Page 43: Appendix C - Using Servos With The Quasar

    POWER and GND leads of the servo. This helps filter out the motor noise so it won’t get to the Quasar’s logic. Be sure to get the polarity correct; the “-“ side of most electrolytics is marked, so make sure that lead goes to the GND lead.
  • Page 44 At this point, bring up your Quasar, go to Settings and set the channel you’re using for servo deployment, then go back into the Settings page and select the direction and skew. You should now be able to go into the Deployment Test page and move the servo. If not, check your wiring.

  • Page 45: Appendix D - Browser Notes

    Also, newer versions of IOS assume that if you have a WiFi connection that it must be to get onto the Internet. This is not true of the Quasar, of course. If you get a message that notifies you that you do not have an Internet connection and asks if you want to connect to your cellular data connection, you need to tell it to “Keep using WiFi”.

  • Page 46: Appendix E - Recovering The Passkey

    GREEN wire (TXD) – not used Using an ASCII terminal program such as TeraTerm or HyperTerminal, connect to the serial port at 9600 baud, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit. Now connect the battery on your Quasar. You should see the following information: (a few lines of garbage…...

  • Page 47: Appendix F - The Hardware Setup Menu

    “Tone” controls the frequency of the buzzer, it is Low, Medium, and High. This allows you to pick out your Quasar from other devices that may be in your AV bay which make similar tones; also, some people find that the lower-pitch tones are easier to hear.
  • Page 48 When you submit the page, changes are applied immediately, EXCEPT for the SSID, which does not take effect until you power-cycle your Quasar. Note that changing the SSID does NOT change the passkey; the passkey is fixed and is not changeable.
  • Page 49 To change the Frequency/ID, select the values that you want from the pulldowns, then click on the Submit button. The new values are applied immediately; you will see both the red and green lights on the RF module blink for a moment as the change is applied. - 49 -...

  • Page 50: Appendix G: Updating The Eggtimer Quasar Firmware

    Appendix G: Updating the Eggtimer Quasar Firmware From time to time we may make updates to the Eggtimer Quasar firmware to fix bugs and/or to add new features. The Quasar is designed so that you can update the software easily from any Windows computer, using only the standard Eggtimer USB-Serial cable.
  • Page 51 12) Connect the battery… you should hear the normal startup beeps, and the red light on the RF module should start blinking. You can confirm that you’ve uploaded the right version by simply connecting to your Quasar with your WiFi device, the software version will be in the upper-right corner of every page. As usual, if you have any questions, feel free to drop us a line at support@eggtimerrocketry.com.
  • Page 52 Eggtimer Quasar Quick Start Guide Power: 7.4v/2S LiPo, 500 mAH or higher recommended. Bigger mAH’s is Better… Outputs: Drogue: Connect to DROG terminals Main: Connect to MAIN terminals AUX: For airstarts, etc… See Appendix C for use with servos WiFi Connection Select the “Quasar_xxxxx”...
  • Page 53 When the “Armed” page displays, CLOSE YOUR BROWSER It wouldn’t hurt to turn off your device’s WiFi, either. Auto-Arm: Quasar will arm itself 60 seconds after power-on, if channels pass continuity check Disarming (for aborted flight) Connect to the Status page (192.168.4.1) (this may take several seconds) Enter the 4-digit validation code, then click DISARM Wait for the normal Status Page…...
  • Page 54 Select the channel to fire… it uses the settings from the Global Settings page Enter the 4-digit validation code then click TEST To abort a test, close the page before it counts down to zero Using the QUASAR with the Eggfinder LCD receiver Coordinate Display Latitude <Time since Fix>...

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