LaunchPad AlTImeter Technical Support Forum

Discussion about deployment systems including altimeters, timers, air speed flaps, servo systems, and chemical reactions.
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U.S. Water Rockets
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Re: No sound

Post by U.S. Water Rockets »

motorcyclepilot wrote:Just finished building, per the very clear instructions. A fun project! Bench test went great! Lights blinked, button pushes did as expected, and the servo motor servo'ed. The only exception is no sound form the speaker. All parts were "OEM" except the battery, a Turnigy 1s 360. Re-checked all solder joints and they look good to me. Put a meter to the speaker and tested from the meter to the pins on the mc socket and continuity was good. Re-flowed those joints, just in case. Not sure if I can apply a test voltage across the speaker pins safely.

Guidance please?
The most obvious problem would be that the speaker is somehow defective. This is assuming that the chip is good and the speaker was installed with the correct polarity. There should be a + mark on it that has to be installed in the right position, but the mark may be on the underside where you cannot see it. The LaunchPad usually comes with a spare chip, so you can swap that out easily because it plugs in a socket to find out if the chip is bad. If the speaker is bad then you're going to have to get another.

Hopefully this gives you some things to test.

Good luck!
motorcyclepilot
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Re: No sound

Post by motorcyclepilot »

U.S. Water Rockets wrote:
motorcyclepilot wrote:Just finished building, per the very clear instructions. A fun project! Bench test went great! Lights blinked, button pushes did as expected, and the servo motor servo'ed. The only exception is no sound form the speaker. All parts were "OEM" except the battery, a Turnigy 1s 360. Re-checked all solder joints and they look good to me. Put a meter to the speaker and tested from the meter to the pins on the mc socket and continuity was good. Re-flowed those joints, just in case. Not sure if I can apply a test voltage across the speaker pins safely.

Guidance please?
The most obvious problem would be that the speaker is somehow defective. This is assuming that the chip is good and the speaker was installed with the correct polarity. There should be a + mark on it that has to be installed in the right position, but the mark may be on the underside where you cannot see it. The LaunchPad usually comes with a spare chip, so you can swap that out easily because it plugs in a socket to find out if the chip is bad. If the speaker is bad then you're going to have to get another.

Hopefully this gives you some things to test.

Good luck!
It turned out to be a broken trace on the board. No continuity between pin 8 on the mc and the xout solder pad. It may have come loose when i was removing the headers. I started by removing the speaker and using a headphone test plug I made to test it with my shop radio. It worked fine. Then used test leads to find out where the signal dropped out. Worked perfectly when connected to the ic pins but not to the pads. Gnd is okay, just xout not working. Now...on to bench testing!

Thanks for the help.
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U.S. Water Rockets
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Re: No sound

Post by U.S. Water Rockets »

motorcyclepilot wrote: It turned out to be a broken trace on the board. No continuity between pin 8 on the mc and the xout solder pad. It may have come loose when i was removing the headers. I started by removing the speaker and using a headphone test plug I made to test it with my shop radio. It worked fine. Then used test leads to find out where the signal dropped out. Worked perfectly when connected to the ic pins but not to the pads. Gnd is okay, just xout not working. Now...on to bench testing!
That's great to hear!

Good luck with the launching!
Lost on a tree
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Re: LaunchPad AlTImeter Technical Support Forum

Post by Lost on a tree »

Hi everyone!

I'm building my own LauchPad Altimeter, but I have a problem about buying connector for Turingy Lipo batteries: buying them from HobbyKing costs 102 dollars because of shipping fee (I live in Italy) and I think it's a bit expensive :yikes:
I'm searching on e-Bay and Amazon these days with the product key avaliable on HobbyKing (I don't know their name or any other code) website but until now I found nothing... So:

Does anyone know any other website (not Hobby King) selling connectors for Turingy Lipo batteries? Does anyone know their name or their product code?


Thank you to people wich will reply and to everyone developed the altimeter! TH:
(and sorry for my terrible grammar)

Tom
T.Valerio & Soci - Santo Stefano Water Rockets Team

Take a look at our:
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And sorry for our terrible grammar, please forgive us :D
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bugwubber
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Re: LaunchPad AlTImeter Technical Support Forum

Post by bugwubber »

Do you have a way to.build your own battery pack from locally available sources? No reason you HAVE to use hobbyking...
Bugwubber

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Lost on a tree
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Re: LaunchPad AlTImeter Technical Support Forum

Post by Lost on a tree »

I'll try. Phone batteries seem to be too much heavy for small rockets, so I think I'll destroy a very old r/c helicopter to get its battery...
T.Valerio & Soci - Santo Stefano Water Rockets Team

Take a look at our:
Facebook page facebook.com/razzi.s.stefano/
YouTube channel youtube.com/channel/UCn85UPNv8vw84-irTR4Db7gg

And sorry for our terrible grammar, please forgive us :D
uberpixel
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Re: LaunchPad AlTImeter Technical Support Forum

Post by uberpixel »

Lost on a tree wrote:I'll try. Phone batteries seem to be too much heavy for small rockets, so I think I'll destroy a very old r/c helicopter to get its battery...
Any small 3.7V battery will work. I actually used one from a toy micro helicopter since I already had the charger to go with it and could buy replacement batteries cheap on ebay. The real challenge was finding the mating connector for this particular battery since it was non-standard. I ended up finding the mating connector for my particular battery pack on ebay but it took a bit of digging.

If it's more readily available to you on ebay, I'd recommend finding any small 100-200mah 1S (3.7V) lipo battery with leads so that you can use whatever mating connector set you have available. Ideally try using a connector set that is a more common connector like JST or something. That with a cheap charger with JST leads and you're ready to go!

-uberpixel
Lost on a tree
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Re: LaunchPad AlTImeter Technical Support Forum

Post by Lost on a tree »

Thank you to everyone answered.
Yesterday I found a solution to my problem: I put two pieces of tiny copper electrical cable inside the two holes in the battery, then I fixed them with hot glue. It seems to be enough reliable. You can warm the glue and "put away" the cables when you want. May be this will be useful to somebody.
T.Valerio & Soci - Santo Stefano Water Rockets Team

Take a look at our:
Facebook page facebook.com/razzi.s.stefano/
YouTube channel youtube.com/channel/UCn85UPNv8vw84-irTR4Db7gg

And sorry for our terrible grammar, please forgive us :D
Ridley
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Re: LaunchPad AlTImeter Technical Support Forum

Post by Ridley »

Can you control 2 servos with the AlTImeter?
rokketz
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Re: LaunchPad AlTImeter Technical Support Forum

Post by rokketz »

hi, i have the MSP430 launchpad and am getting the buzzing sound from the audio device, i have not attached the altimeter break out board yet, but have installed the servo wiring. I am getting all LEDS and buzzing when i apply power (using single cell 3.7 lipo ).

i have tried the alternative chip and reprogrammed and even tried redoing the buzzer connection, still getting same buzzing and LEDS.

When i hold the Mode button down on Power up it will go to green LED only but then nothing else will work , servo settings will not adjust etc, until i push the rest button then back to buzzing sound and all LEDS.

any ideas? suggestions? there is really nothing else to check on connections (power is supplied in appropriate polarity in appropriate holes in the board. and like i said i have not installed the altimeter break out board yet, waiting to try and get the launch pad functional first.

thanks
rokketz
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Re: LaunchPad AlTImeter Technical Support Forum

Post by rokketz »

ok so i went ahead and added the breakout board and all is good,, im not sure who but someone said it didnt matter if you had the breakout board on the launch pad or not that it would still work, well at least in my case that wasnt the situation, maybe for programming but not for actual use....anyway. looks like this thread isnt even being monitored anymore so it prob would have been two years before i would have gotten any insight

thanks
Spoolio
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Re: LaunchPad AlTImeter Technical Support Forum

Post by Spoolio »

I bought my batteries off of sparkfun, as I had trouble with this as well. (PRT13853 and 13853 for testing). Buying the battery and servo connectors is a royal pain--I ended up with JST 1.25 mm connector kits to line up with what I thought the batteries were, but they were 2.0 mm. I'd just get all the battery wires/connectors from the same place (sparkfun) and really look at the JST connector specs. I used these to attach the servo to the board with a disconnect/replace option.
Once i got it up and running, it's been great with my basic rockets I've been working with the kids (one stage, ring fins and radial deploy).
Any change USWR will make the 3d printed fins project files available? FIns are my nemesis on these things...

Spoolio
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Team Molokai
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Re: LaunchPad AlTImeter Technical Support Forum

Post by Team Molokai »

Just finished our build of the Launchpad AlTImeter. We opted for the servo deploy version. Firmware uploaded, servo deploy state set, servo delay set, ground test passed.

We really appreciate the information the folks at US Water Rockets put together. Everything was well put together and easy to understand. We hope to do a test flight soon.

We would like to install a small switch for the battery that would make it easier to activate. Are there any recommendations as far as kinds, brands, places to buy, etc...?


Thanks,
Team Molokai
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SeanC
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Re: LaunchPad AlTImeter Technical Support Forum

Post by SeanC »

I have the MSP430 LaunchPad and the ALTImeter. I am having trouble configuring the altimeter with the servo. I tried to follow the steps but i couldn't even get passed #1. I powered the board, then held MODE while pressing and releasing RESET, and both LED's came on but flashed instead of staying on.
Ridley
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Re: LaunchPad AlTImeter Technical Support Forum

Post by Ridley »

Is there a good way of ground testing the Altimeter with Servo?

I have just built one but apart from a twitch when connecting I cannot get the Servo to work at all.