First Flight Version 1.0
Date Printed: 1/26/2008
Introducing the G-Wiz HCX
Congratulations on purchasing your new G-Wiz HCX Flight Computer! The G-Wiz HCX is a
very robust, safe and reliable unit that will support a wide variety of rocketry needs. If this is your
first altimeter-based flight computer, you can rest assured that the G-Wiz HCX will grow with you.
The G-Wiz HCX is more than just an altimeter. If you’re familiar with altimeters and have
experience flying rockets with electronics, you’ll be excited at the flexibility that the HCX offers,
no matter what type of rocket you’re flying.
You can configure HCX for many different types of flight plans. Using FlightView, our flight
computer communication and data analysis software, you can fly many different setups on your
HCX. For example you can:
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Fly a single stage rocket and deploy a chute at apogee.
•
Fly a single stage rocket where you deploy a drogue at apogee, and then deploy your main at
a preset altitude of your choosing.
•
Initiate air start of clustered motors within one second after the rocket has cleared the launch
pad.
•
Fly multi stage rockets where you choose how long after the booster motor burns out before
you ignite the sustainer motor.
•
Fly extreme altitude flights, where the HCX can measure barometric altitude as high as
100,000 feet above sea level (ASL).
•
Fly very-high-G short-burn-time motors, when you configure the G-Wiz HCX Flight
Computer to use a break wire for launch detection.
•
Record user-provided sensor data during flight when you use the BreakWire/Analog input
port to feed sensor data into your flight computer.
•
Fly the HCX as a redundant backup flight computer in any flight. Since all of the output
events can be configured to fire at a delay of your choosing, you can use a second G-Wiz
flight computer as a redundant backup. Because HCX fires all the events independently, it
can be useful on those mission critical flights, such as a High Power certification flight.
You can also combine these setups to fly an extremely intricate flight plan.
What makes the G-Wiz HCX Flight computer so much more than just an altimeter? The HCX has
dual sensors – an accelerometer as well as a barometer – which continually feed data to the RISC
processor at the heart of this third-generation flight computer. Using this data and the onboard
programming, the flight computer determines the key events in a rocket’s trajectory, including:
•
Launch.
•
Booster burn-out.
•
Sustainer ignition.
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Sustainer burn-out.
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Inertial apogee.
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Barometric apogee.
•
Deployment
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