This repository contains the code and documentation for the Serra Rocketry team's static test stand, used to measure the thrust of rocket motors. The tester is written in C++ for an ESP32 or ESP8266 microcontroller(arduino compatible boards) .
- ESP32 or ESP8266 to read sensor data and send to the server, since it is cheap and will be near the motor combustion.
- Raspberry Pi or similar To be a server to get and display the data in real time
- Load Cell Depending on the motor force, tipicaly, the precision is about 10%-15% of the max load cell capacity.
- V-slots To build a box to hold the load cel, the motor and other sensors.
To use the load cell tester, follow these steps:
- Clone the repository.
- Connect the load cell and other sensor to the ESP.
- Connect the ESP to your computer.
- Open the
code/LoadCellTester/LoadCellTester.inosketch in the Arduino IDE. - Upload the sketch to the Arduino.
- Open the serial monitor to view the output from the tester.
To store the data from the load cell tester, you'll need to set up an InfluxDB server. Ideally, you should use a Raspberry Pi or similar device as your server. Follow the instructions in the Getting Started with Arduino and InfluxDB blog post to set up InfluxDB on your server.
It's important to ensure that the date and time are correct on the InfluxDB server in order for the data to be stored correctly. To do this, you should set up an NTP server on the InfluxDB server to synchronize the clock. This will ensure that the data is stored with the correct timestamp.
Here's how to use the load cell tester:
- Place the rocket motor on the load cell.
- Apply power to the motor.
- The tester will output the thrust of the motor in Newtons to the serial monitor.
- The data will also be stored in your InfluxDB server.
We welcome contributions from the community! To contribute, follow these steps:
- Fork the repository.
- Make your changes.
- Create a pull request.