Your Project Name
Created by
[Ventengo]
• Started on May 21, 2025
A custom built model rocket with servo controlled fins to bring it back safely. (Similar to space shuttle)
May 21st: Brainstorming and Finding Parts
- Brainstormed different ideas on what I could make
- Decieded on something model rocket related but searched the web for help
- Eventually came up with my own idea:
- Model rocket with a build in payload, altimeter, and 2 servo controlled fins so I could guide it back similar to a plane
The idea for this came from the Space Shuttle
Then worked on finding parts
Eventually settled on the ESP32 board which has wifi control
Allows me to control it from a different device
Then decided on 2 Adafruit Servos to use for the fins
Next Steps:
Starting to create the body of the rocket
Total time spent: 1.5h
May 22nd: Brainstorming and Finding Parts
- Created the nose cone, fuselage with a launch lug, and my nose cone coupler
- Body of the rocket will be 8.5in
- Then I will attach nose cone to the coupler
- Then attach Nose cone to body of rocket
- Made sure that the body of the rocket has a big enough diameter so that the ESP32 board could fit
- After this spent about 30min researching different engines to use
- After I sliced the 3 things I made, they alone ended up using about 60g of filament so the total weight of the rocket is going to be ~ 100g
- Decided to use engine with 5-6oz maximum lift weight
- Settled on the Estes C11-3 rocket engine
- Has 22.10 Newtons (4.9lbs) of thrsut
- 3 second time delay for ejection charge
- Max Lift Weight = 6oz (170g)
- Issue is though the engine diameter is 24mm
- So will make the engine mount 24mm to fit the engine perfectly
Total time spent: 1.5h
May 23rd: Working on Fin section of rocket and finalizing servos
- Worked on figuring out how servo would fit
- Realized that I would need the servo the be at a veritcal orientation
- And for it to be smaller
- Oringally was using this servo:https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808061785803.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.11.51c08752aypQdM&algo_pvid=51e031bd-3c3f-4e6a-a8a3-cedbc3230a41&algo_exp_id=51e031bd-3c3f-4e6a-a8a3-cedbc3230a41-10&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%221380%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%2C%22orig_sl_item_id%22%3A%221005008248100555%22%2C%22orig_item_id%22%3A%221005007442852333%22%7D&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21USD%214.35%211.97%21%21%2131.14%2114.14%21%402103277f17480478097133871edb30%2112000044371515279%21sea%21US%210%21ABX&curPageLogUid=WFO2d8nIymAD&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A
- But now could use this one:https://www.adafruit.com/product/169
- Newer one is smaller and lighter which will help the rocket greatly
- Either way, added areas on my current design for the bottom part of the rocket
Total time spent: 1h
May 24th: Finishing 3D Model for Fin section of rocket
- Finished up work on the fin section
- Decided to add 2 fins as 4 would result in too many servos
- One issue is that the servos get in the way of most of the launch ejection charge
- Going to find a way around this by adding a tube
- Also made my engine mount work for a 24mm rocket engine
- Added 2 fins which aren't connected yet because they will be attached to the servo
Total time spent: 2h
May 24th: Writing Code
- Wrote code to control the servos
- Allows me to control them wirelessly from a seperate device like my phone
- Spent around 30 min looking on web for inspiration
- After wrote the code and looked at how other created something similar
- Don't have the ESP32 board to test
- Everything is set up in Arduino though
- Later today or tommorow will work on finding batteries and mapping out how I will put everything inside the rocket without letting in get burnt\
Total time spent: 1.5h
May 25th: Find Boards and Batteries
- Was just finishing up plans and then realized it is super difficult to connect 2 servos to ESP32
- Spent about 1 hour looking for solutions and then finally settled on using another board and using I2C
- Then spent another 1 hour finding the perfect board and finally decided on PCA9685
- Has 16 servo channels
- Has I2C
- And will work has my SG90 servo
- Then I worked on finding both a 5v battery to work with the servo board
- And then a 3-4v battery to work with ESP32
- Issue is that I originally looked for a 5v battery
- But 5v battery is SO Large
- and they dont have 5v LiPo batteries
- Biggest issue I'm facing right now is the weight of the batteries and the size of them
- Changed the ESP32 board to this: https://www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-ESP-WROOM-32-Development-Microcontroller-Integrated/dp/B0718T232Z
- Added A Servo Driver Board : https://www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-PCA9685-Channel-12-Bit-Arduino/dp/B01D1D0CX2/ref=pd_lpo_d_sccl_1/130-0566564-6355817?pd_rd_w=N0b7z&content-id=amzn1.sym.4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_p=4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_r=C68A94E6A65529XK7T6W&pd_rd_wg=2kaNS&pd_rd_r=edb42ae9-2e47-42e0-aa57-b1dbcc266658&pd_rd_i=B01D1D0CX2&psc=1
- Going to use the 3.7v batteries I have at home and buy 3v to 5v converters from Aliexpress
- :https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832713406135.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.1.75d951HR51HR3l&algo_pvid=09677a68-37a7-471c-80d3-7dd8453e537c&algo_exp_id=09677a68-37a7-471c-80d3-7dd8453e537c-0&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%22631%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%7D&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21USD%212.49%210.99%21%21%212.49%210.99%21%402101efeb17482077025604089e4d3d%2165881276347%21sea%21US%216376028355%21ABX&curPageLogUid=FGIut17SjQxe&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A
Total time spent: 5h
# May 26th: Writing New Code and Finding Parts - Took old code which controlled servos and rewrote it - Now servos are connected to a PCA9685 servo driver board which is connected to ESP32 - Complicated code a bit but still worked through it - Now also added code for the BMP280 sensor which will measure altiude and maybe temperature - It will be connected directly to the ESP32 - Added to code so it displays current altitude and the max altitude reached
- After this worked on just confirming the wiring
- Ran into a issue with the ports as I need 2 wires to connect to the 3V3 port
- Kept troubleshooting for nearly 1 hour and searching the web
- Finally decided to use a terminal block
Total time spent: 2.5h
May 29th: Writing New Code and Finding Parts
- Wasn't able to work the past couple days because I had a bunch of test
- Today worked on finalizing the repo and the BOM
- Put all the AliExpress stuff together in a cart and realized it was going to be more expensive the orignally planned
- From $12 - $20
- After that worked and searched web to find a cheaper Servo Driver Board and figure out that part
- Then I finalized up my plans and I am planning to submit either today or tomorrow
- Most likey tomorrow as I still have a few things to do
- Trying to keep my project to the $50 and under range but right now around ~$60
Total time spent: 1.5h
May 32th: Finalizing BOM and doing README
- Just was double checking my AliExpress cart and saw that one of the items was out of stock
- It was the 2 3.7v batteries I use to power the ESP32 and the PCA9685
- Increased my costs by $2
- One small concern is that now it has 3000mAH which is a lot more than my previous which had 350mAh
- But it now is a bit bigger which will make it heavier
- Then, went on and worked on my README
- Put a few pics and project descriptions
- Not making it too long but as long as it overviews the porject it is all good
- Then I just made sure I had everything all together and all the files/BOM was uploded
- Now I am submitting the project and hopefully it gets approved
Total time spent: 1.5h