rockets-in-brighton wrote:Just a suggestion. You say the servo needs to pull a pin against resistance. Have you thought about swapping around the way it works so that force is not required? Tether the door closed by attaching a band from the door to the servo horn. When the servo rotates, the tether slips off the horn and releases the door. No resistance.Bibbleycheese wrote:Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to try those out. I got so keen on the Release The Door mechanism, that I forgot the Push The Parachute Out bit.That'll teach me! Still, every launch is part of the learning process.
I like the idea of the door itself pulling out the parachute into the air stream. When playing around with ideas before I found that with spring tension behind the parachute pushing against the door flap, sometimes the pin got stuck and the servo didn't have enough force to pull it out. I haven't tried packing foam either. That squashes down quite well doesn't it? I'll give them a try in the rebuild.
How about putting the rubber band around the door so that it needs to be stretched out to close the door? The spring force opens the door in this case. Then you just need a small piece of fishing line or string with a loop on one end and the other connected to the door, or laying across it and holding it shut. The loop goes around the arm on the end of the servo and when it rotates the loop slips off and the door flies open!