Rocketeer Kofi Asare Walks Through the Design History of the Flight Computer One
Originally built for a thrust vectoring project, the Flight Computer One is three revisions deep — with a fourth on the way.
Model rocketeer Kofi Asare is working on a custom flight computer, dubbed Flight Computer One, currently in its third major revision — with each step representing a furthering of his understanding in embedded design and the particular requirements of electronics designed to track rockets in flight.
"This board features inertial measurement, pressure sensing, power monitoring, outputs for active controls, and more," Asare explains of the device. "Engineered to be modular and adaptable, it can cater to various applications requiring active control and high-bandwidth data logging. Although room for improvement certainly exists, it represents a significant step forward in my embedded systems knowledge."
The original Flight Computer One was built alongside a rocket that could be steered using thrust vectoring — allowing it, when all goes well, to land vertically back down from whence it launched. Like many projects, it began on a breadboard, then the proof-of-concept was translated to a circuit design in EasyEDA.
Flight testing of the board's first revision revealed room for improvement, which Asare investigated with a second revision. "[This was] primarily aimed to enhance modularity and reduce [the] form factor [footprint]," the maker explains. "Additionally, it includes on-board power monitoring, data acquisition, and logging," the latter to address unreliable transmission during flight tracking experienced with the original Flight Computer One. The more complex design also resulted in a shift away from EasyEDA to Altium for the board design.
An overheating regulator and a decision to ditch a second STMicroelectronics STM32 microcontroller in favor of more efficient firmware on the board's primary STM32 led to the creation of Flight Computer One v2.5 — bringing with it additional sensors including a second pressure sensor, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), and a high-G accelerometer.
Asare isn't done yet, though: the maker is currently working on Flight Computer One v3. "My primary goals [are] to optimize sensor connectivity, power handling, form factor, and vibration resistance," Asare explains. "I also intend to alleviate all the issues found in version 2.5, and add a few new unique features."
Asare's full video walkthrough of the project is above and on YouTube; a follow-up video is planned, diving into the flight computer's firmware development.