Published February 23, 2022 © GPL3+

Oplà Arduino IoT Kit in a Rocket #CloudGames2022

Let's fly this rocket with the Oplà IoT Kit and a Verizon WiFi hotspot on board, while monitoring the sensors from the ground.

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Oplà Arduino IoT Kit in a Rocket #CloudGames2022

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Arduino Oplà IoT Kit

Orbic Verizon Speed Mobile Hotspot

Madcow Super DX3 Rocket

I500T-14A DMS High Power Single Use Motor

Software apps and online services

Arduino IoT Cloud

Arduino Web Editor

Story

I had just finished unboxing my Verizon Orbic WiFi Hotspot when the Arduino Cloud Games email arrived in my inbox. When I read what the Oplà Arduino IoT Kit consisted of, the idea seemed so obvious. Put the Oplà Arduino IoT Kit in a rocket, with it's own WiFi hotspot on board and monitor the Oplà's sensors from the ground. I submitted my project proposal to the Arduino Cloud Games and got selected.

Once the Oplà Arduino IoT Kit arrived, I came to realize the sheer challenge at hand. I had less than two weeks to prepare for the only Southern Arizona Rocketry Association club launch before the 11 March Arduino Cloud Games deadline. This launch was on Sunday February 20, 2022.

I began by unboxing the Oplà Arduino IoT Kit and running an example sketch. This is my approach to any new piece of hardware. Once I see the example sketches succeed, then I can build on that success.

Then, I connected the Oplà Arduino IoT Kit to the Arduino IoT Cloud, wrote a sketch and set up a dashboard to monitor the IMU X, Y, Z acceleration readings, pressure, temperature and humidity on the rocket.

Looking at the size of the Oplà Arduino IoT Kit, I was left with one option from my fleet of rockets, the Madcow Super DX3. This is a 4 inch diameter rocket that flies on high powered rocket motors. The weight of the Oplà Arduino IoT Kit and the WiFi Hotspot presented a challenge. Being a National Association of Rocketry Level 2 certified flier means I am committed to rocket safety. This flight must go on without a flaw. Add the complexity of managing this payload and filming the launch and capturing the sensor data from the ground took two days to prepare and stretched my capabilities to near limits. Mere days before the launch I realized I needed the right motor. Fortunately my friend at RocketryWorks.com had the perfect motor for my mission. The Aerotech I500T-14 DMS motor will take my Super DX3 over 1, 000 meters from what I could estimate.

Sunday the 20th arrived. I was nervous. But I knew I had prepared as much as possible. Looking over all the checklists, simulating the flight of the rocket again and again to match the predicted weather. Calculating the motor's ejection delay to release the parachute at the proper moment. Calculating the parachute size to safely recover a rocket weighing 3, 000 grams from 1, 000 meters. All the batteries are charged, Oplà Arduino IoT Kit and the WiFi Hotspot tested again and again with the Arduino IoT Cloud dashboard. I am ready. Let's see how it worked out.

The conclusion:

In spite of a few technical issues, the project succeeded. The rocket flew and returned safely. The Oplà Arduino IoT Kit and the WiFi Hotspot are intact. We did see data from the rocket on the Arduino IoT dashboard on the ground. You can see sharp drop and slower return of the pressure value. Temperature increased throughout the session. There was even some change recorded in the humidity. Z axis acceleration obviously showed strong changes. X and Y axis readings reflected the motion of the rocket as well.

Technical issues to overcome in future attempts:

There was data lost, about a minute or so out of the 3 minute flight. It appears the cellular service may have been disrupted, either on the rocket, or on the separate WiFi Hotspot I was using for my laptop on the ground. The club launch site is remote. But the AT&T and Verizon services showed 4 bars.

The 18650 battery that powers the Oplà Arduino IoT Kit had popped out of the holder but was still making contact. I forgot to install the cardboard spacer I had when I was packing the Oplà Arduino IoT Kit in the rocket. This could have caused the data loss.

The screen recording software that captured the Arduino IoT Dashboard, would not render the entire video. I had to save the video out in one minute, 30 second and even 15 second portions to get around the corruption of the recording. 45 seconds of video were lost.

I was also going to record the dashboard on one of my smartphones. But the Consumer Cellular service on that phone was not good and made the Arduino IoT Remote app inaccessible.

Thank you for your comments and consideration.

Code

RocketOpla_feb13a.ino

// Arduino_Sensorkit - Version: 1.0.8
#include <Arduino_SensorKit.h>
#include <Arduino_SensorKit_BMP280.h>
#include <Arduino_SensorKit_LIS3DHTR.h>

/* 
  Sketch generated by the Arduino IoT Cloud Thing "Untitled 2"
  https://create.arduino.cc/cloud/things/5f7220e6-ab0e-4276-8351-6cefd5a38d62 

  Arduino IoT Cloud Variables description

  The following variables are automatically generated and updated when changes are made to the Thing

  float a_x;
  float a_y;
  float a_z;
  float humidity;
  float pressure;
  float temperature;

  Variables which are marked as READ/WRITE in the Cloud Thing will also have functions
  which are called when their values are changed from the Dashboard.
  These functions are generated with the Thing and added at the end of this sketch.
*/
#include "thingProperties.h"
#include <Arduino_MKRIoTCarrier.h>
MKRIoTCarrier carrier;

float x;
float y;
float z;


void setup() {
  // Initialize serial and wait for port to open:
  Serial.begin(9600);
  // This delay gives the chance to wait for a Serial Monitor without blocking if none is found
  delay(1500); 

  // Defined in thingProperties.h
  initProperties();

  // Connect to Arduino IoT Cloud
  ArduinoCloud.begin(ArduinoIoTPreferredConnection);
  
  /*
     The following function allows you to obtain more information
     related to the state of network and IoT Cloud connection and errors
     the higher number the more granular information you’ll get.
     The default is 0 (only errors).
     Maximum is 4

  setDebugMessageLevel(2);
  ArduinoCloud.printDebugInfo();
 */
  	
  while (ArduinoCloud.connected() != 1) {
	ArduinoCloud.update();
	delay(500);
  }

  delay(500);
  CARRIER_CASE = true;
  carrier.begin();
  carrier.display.setRotation(0);
}

void loop() {
  ArduinoCloud.update();
  // Your code here 
  temperature = carrier.Env.readTemperature();
	humidity = carrier.Env.readHumidity();
	pressure = carrier.Pressure.readPressure();
    carrier.IMUmodule.readAcceleration(x, y, z);
    a_x = x;
    a_y = y;
    a_z = z;

  }