4. Signal R2 is now in the “powered flight mode”. The vectoring mount is actively working to
correct the orientation of the rocket. Place a finger on the mount to ensure it’s working in
both axes.
5. Now simulate motor burnout by quickly jolting your rocket downward, the exact opposite
of simulating launch.
6. The TVC mount will lock up to center, recognizing burnout and shutting down TVC to
conserve power. The LED will turn white briefly before turning yellow, this indicates
apogee detection. Apogee is detected when no upward trend is found in barometer
readings.
7. After several more seconds, the LED will turn red and Signal will begin beeping again.
Signal has now recognized a sustained altitude of less than 5 meters for a few seconds,
which it classifies as having landed. The red LED and beeping indicates that flight data
is being transferred to the Micro SD card into a .CSV file. It’s very important to not
remove or wiggle the SD card during this period, as it may compromise the transfer of
data.
a. Depending on how long your flight lasted, this process can take several minutes.
8. The LED may turn purple for a bit, this indicates that Signal is clearing the Flash memory
chip, and should only last a few seconds.
9. When the data has been transferred to the Micro SD card, Signal will start beeping while
the LED alternates between blue and green. After this begins, the computer can safely
be shut off, and the SD card can be removed.
10. Try simulating another launch! This time, right at “launch”, pitch the vehicle over about
30-40 degrees, simulating a poor flight. The in-flight abort system should kick in, turning
on the buzzer for just a second(but not firing any pyro channels, all pyros are restricted
below 4 meters above ground level). The detected abort will also show up in the flight
data.
11. Jolt the vehicle down again to simulate burnout, then wait for Signal to log all the flight
data before shutting the computer down.
If Signal R2 moves through all these steps smoothly, congratulations! Your thrust vectoring
system is working just fine. If not, head down to the troubleshooting section to diagnose the
problem.
9c. TVC fine calibration
Now it’s time to really dial things in on the TVC mount. The goal here is to get the center
position of the mount entirely in-line with the rest of the vehicle. The better your TVC alignment
is, the more stable the rocket’s flight will be.
1. Slide a motor, preferably spent or inert, into the TVC mount
2. Grab a long length of motor mount tube and slide it over the motor - it should be sticking
far out of the bottom of the rocket now. Ideally 1-2 feet of tubing should be sticking out.
3. Lay the rocket down sideways, turn Signal R2 on, and open up the Signal app on your
iPhone or Android device
Copyright © 2019 Barnard Propulsion Systems, LLC
Version 1.8, Jan 1, 2019
