1/21/2026 6 PM - Rocket Design

So I worked on creating a rough idea of my rocket in OpenRocket, I reasearched through nose cone shapes and fin shapes to find the best one and finalized them into OpenRocket after around 2 hours, I have to start reasearching on avionics, I've seen a couple tutorials So I just have to see wheter or not I can use arduino to make a live gps which is the most important for finding the rocket.

1/21/2026 8 PM - 3d CAD Nose Cone

I finished the 3d model for my Nose cone, I chose on Ogive shape which is most prominent and has the best aerodynamic efficeny. I als started reasearching on how to design an proper avionic bay for my rocket, and I've also started reasearch on an GPS made of Arduino Nano. But from what I have reasearched the arduino nano for the price range im trying to work with cant send live data like I need it to so I have an idea to use a Lilygo T-beam which can send live data to my computer which is connected to another Lily go to get accurate information on where the rocekt has landed for retrieval.

1/22/2026 - Reasearched Avionics Components

I reasearched on how to build my own avionics and what to put in it,
I decided with using a LILYGO TTGO T-Beam (v1.1) that acts as the central flight computer with a built in GPS and solder a BMP390 Barometric Sensor to track altitude. It tracks altidue by finding changes in atmoshperic pressure and coverts it to proper altidude data, The LILYGO board will also be used to track GPS location to find the rocket after it lands, Im planning to also add a beeper but im not sure yet. I can transmit the live data of GPS and altidue to the second LILYGO at 915mhz attached to my computer while the camera records on a SD camera and can be extracted after the rocket comes down safely. I can also use the BMP390 to get more data on how my rocket will react at certain altitdudes.

Im also going to connect an ESP32-Cam to a shared power rail but I need to add a buck converter which lowers the voltage to 5V which is how the ESP32-Cam needs, If There is more than that it could fry the camera which wouldnt be good, I'm still working on the final schematic for this whole avionics after which I will 3d design a CAD avionics bay.

1/23/2026 - Avionics Schematic

So, today I drew a schematic for my avionics it took a while to fully understand everything but after I did I was able to draw this sketch to how the wires will be soldered when I get them. The black wires are Ground for alitmeter and Camera, the 2 red wires sned power to the altimeter and camera, freen sends altiude data, and the Blue wire is the timing for the data. I'm going to reasearch more into how I can maximize these boards to get more data.

I'm almost done with my avionics bay, I'm going to make a render of how it will all look soon ,I also gotta refresh on soldering because it has been a long time since I last did.

1/24/2026 - 3d CAD Avionics Bay

Today I made some good progress by finishing the Avionics bay, Instead of starting from scratch I found a similar avionics CAD model in thingiverse and i modified it to my needed specs. It took some trial and error, but it was satisfying to see the whoel thing come together nicely.

While doing this I realized that the ESP-32 Camera I was planning to buy runs on 2.8v instead of the 3.3v i taught it ran on. The camera on the baord is a OV3660 which runs on 2.8V not 3.3V, because of this it could cause to board to overheat without proper ventialtion, I initally though to make a built in fan but that would take up space and weight. So I found a workaround by purchasing and 0V2640 camera on Aliexpress I can swap them to make the voltages match.

1/25/2026 - Rocket Rework and Fin Design Reasearch

So just some basic reasearch today, I extended the rocket to 105 cm, I went with the clipped delta shape for my fins but im still deciding between that or I make my own custom shape because I need to cut the corner of the fins so that when the rockets lands it wont land on the fin snapping it. I'm most likely going to design my own but we'll see.

Today was a small day but I going to focus on finalizing everything and making a rendering of the rocket with the livery and finish my BOM so I can get my project reviewed.

1/26/2026 - Full Rocket 3d Cad Model

So I made a full 3d CAD model of my Strato Rocket today, and I realized while making this that after I had updated the dimensions of my rocket in my previous journal I hadn't updated my older files containing my nose cone and Avionics Bay, So I went back and changed all the dimensions to match up correctly to make sure nothing wrogn happens during the printing process. I decided that my livery is going to be blue and white and I have to work on the rendering.

I also updated my BOM for when I submit this design, I'm probably going to do a bit more reasearcha dn refine everything and finish my Github repository by uploading all my files and I should be good to submit for a grant. I totaled the costs and right now and its coming in tier 2 but it probably might go up a little but we will just have to see!

1/27/2026 - Finished up BOM and Livery

So I finished up my BOM today and added up the costs and it is coming close to 300 but I know some areas where I can reduce costs. I also worked on my github finished my README.md and Journal.md and I just have to add images and my 3d models, For some reason github didnt let me upload my avionics bay 3d model even though the nose cone stl file upload just fine which was kinda weird but I solved the issue. I also finished my livery today the whole rocket primarily is Blue and White, I took inspiration fro BPS.space and his avalanche rocket, I'm going to add my own final touches when I build it later.

1/28/2026 - Final BOM

So I'm going to submit for a deisgn review tommrow, I finished my BOM and github added some images and files and My final calculated cost after taxes comes to $265.93. I had to remove some tools and also found a cheaper version of the Barometric Sensor to reduce cost. So I'm going to submit and see what happens Fingers crossed!

2/4/2026 - Redesign of Rocket

So I had to redesign my rocket and reduce more costs on my BOM. I managed to remove my rail guide after emailing some clubs who would allow me to launch using their equipment which is nice of them. Also I redesigned my rocket and brought the stability to around 2 because previously it was at 3.47 which is over-stable. While over stable sounds good the rocket could sometimes turn aggresively towards the wind on launch day reduicing altidude or the rocket breaking apart due to high g's. I could have done several things to bring it to 2.0 cal but I first reduced the heigh to 105cm and I brought the trailing edges of the fin upwarda and more close to the body this helped make the rocket come to around 2.05 cal where I wanted it to be for a safe stable flight. Because of this my calculated altidude has gone up to 559m. Im

I also made a proper avionics schematic, My previous one was on paper and hand-drawn and turns out had some flaws so I used EASYEDA and made an online schematic, This one is more proffesional and easier to vizualize. It took some time to figure out the whole website because it was my first time but I learned pretty quickly! Im going to submit for a re-design review so we will see what happens!

2/5/2026 - Final Review

So I had to make some changes today, I first updated my 3d CAD model with the parachute mass component and the avionics built in because last time I put all of them in seperate files. I also decided to buy the body tubes myself to reduce the cost on my BOM bringing the project to a Tier 2. I then uploaded the correct files into my Repo and updated my journal.md and added my BOM link to the bottom of my Readme. I made sure to look over the submission guide lines because I had missed some of the files last time which caused my project to get rejected. I updated OpenRocket Model, im planning to use just one main parachute instead of a drogue. My PCBway quote came back for the 1010 rail buttons and it was around $12 which is way more expensive then I was expecting Apogee sells the 1010 rail buttons with screws and washers with screw for $5.6 so I decided on buying from Apogee. Overall I refined my project to make sure that everythign matches to the way it should and will get approved hopefully!

2/13/2026 - Updating Cad

So I got my design review back today and I just had to fix a couple issues in my cad, I first looked through my Eye bolt positioing and I added and extra eye bolt on the engine mount to equalize the pressure rather than have one eye bolt take all the force of the ejection charge.

I then added the elctronics to my cad and found some models online which made this much easier, I also added some brackets that will hold my T-Beam board, for the other electronics such as the ESP32 Cam and BMP280 I decided I will straight into the avionics with a small screws and reinforce it with many many zipties and hot glue.

The one thing I'm worried about is the antenna in the CAD it fits just right but its rubbing the top of the bay a little. So if that is the case when I order the electronics and Avionics I will probably drill a hole at the top for the antenna but I dont think that will be an issue.

I also fixed some previous issues with the Sim files and put the correct dimensions and correct kevlar cord for accuracy.

2/14/2026 - Final Revision

So I got some more feedback about my CAD file, I made my own Avionics sled with brackets specifically for my components rather than the previous one I open-sourced. I made it pretty simple and I think it might add some weight so I accounted for that in my sim

After the last update with the dimensions of my rocket I realized that my stability had gone down to around 1.6 so after some tweaking and increasing fin size adding weight to the flight somputer for the newly deisnged sled I brought the stability coefficent to around 2(1.9 to be exact). I also made my centering rings 0.6cm thick because they were a little to thin last time and could snap during the ejection charge.

3/21/2026 - Fins

So my LOC order showed up today the main body tube, engine mounting tube, and kevlar cord were the first ones aliexpress, and lillygo are going to take long so I though why not start workign on the main body, First up, I drew the fins out on the balsa wood I ordered earlier, I already ordered a xacto knife and thats showing up in a couple days so until then i made some drawings and I updated my code because turns out there were some mistakes I needed to fix and that took way too long because I have 3 seperate codes one for the receiver, transmitter, and the ESP32.

3/24/2026 - Fin Can and Body Tube

So I cut my fins out today and my centering rings and it went a little to well until I realized I had forgotten to account for the base for the fin which attaches to the enigne mounting tube, best of all I realized this after cutting out all 4 fins which meant I had to redo all of them, leason learned. I sanded them down to get an aero profile and tested to make sure they would fit correctly and used some epoxy and hot glue I had to assemble the entire Engine can. Also my Lillygo showed up in the mail today it's a little bigger than I though it would be but i'm sure it'll fit, My aliexpress order is still yet to arrive I can fully finish the project when that shows up but until then this is the progress.

3/25/2026 - Avionics

So today was really productive and long day my aliexpress odered showed up, I soldered all my avionics, and tommorow my 3d print parts from Print Legion are going to show up after that It's really just spray painting and getting ready for launch, The weather isnt looking the best on Monday It's supposed to be cloudy but I hope, it goes well, Also I attached my M2 pins to my Engine mount can, I also reinforced everything in it with hot glue to make it more sturdy, I also tried up I'm going to take a break and finish the project by saturday. I also bought some sandpaper to smooth my nose cone and 3d printed parts when it shows up tommrow. The launch day is set for monday but the weather isnt looking amazing, so just fingers crossed that weather clears up i not then I have to wait a month for the next launch date.

3/26/2026 - Avionics Final

So I kinda lied about taking a break because my 3d prints showed up and I decided to just work on it because I have no test tommorow! I assembled the avionics bay and mounted all the electronics, I had to resolder some pins because the wire was too short but overall it looked really cool and fit perfectly in my body tube, Tommrow Im gonna finish the coupler glue everything together and maybe do the first layer of paint? we'll have to see, sadly the weather for monday hasn't gotten any better its supposed to be a thunderstorm now which is worse so we just have to wait and see

3/28/2026 - Body Tube Spray Painting and Avionics

So my batteries from aliexpress arrived today and the avionics worked! it took a while for the gps to connect but I got it working, I also added a cool UI the code took a while around 500 lines because I had to download a bunch of libraries but eventually I got a cool startup screeen with the name of my rocket and everything, I also got the esp32 Cam working the quality isnt the best but it works, I also connected the 2nd Lora and so now I can access all of the telemetry while the rocket will be up the in the air. after that I prepped my body tube for painting amd spray painted the main body tube, the one thing I still am doing is sanding the inside of the top nosecone part of the rocket trying to get the avionics bay to fit better into it. Although the one bad things is the weather has only gotten worse, so just hoping for a miracle, until then here are some photos

3/29/2026 - Final Build Part

So My paint dried and I could add the second layer and I also cut out the name of rocket and I used masking tape to create the name I spray painted the top nose cone part white, but I'm thinking about painting just the 3d printed nose cone blue but Im not sure yet, The spray paint would've been perfect but there was this one area where some orange peeling happended, Its when the paint it applied too thick or too fast, im not sure how it happended i did pretty slow passes and took my time but its fine, I just have to let it dry for a day then use some sandpaper sand it down then repaint. I also refined my code which took a while, previously the altiude used to show up weird being + or - 0.3m from the actual alitdude so I made the code take averages to get better alitdude readings which for some reason didnt want to upload to the computer and it took 2 hours for me to realize that when I soldered my TX and RX wires they touched so slightly that it caused the entire board to just not download anything, which was weird because it worked the day before. So I resoldered the wires and solved the issue and I'm going to submit for my build review today and thats pretty much the project done, It was very cool to work on this and a big thank you to Hack Club for giving such an amazing opportunity!

3/31/2026 - Rocket Display

So I let my rocket dry for a whie in a box with baking soda because I heard it helps remove that weird spray paint smell, also becuase I want to display it in my room(Sadly the launch was cancelled today because of bad weather lots of wind), So I built a display for my rocket at first I wanted to make an mount that could allow me the velcro the rocket to the wall but i decided on another version where its like an L bracket with one side attached to the wall and a curved plywood that would hold the rocket. At first I messed up because I eyeballed it and forgot about how the fins protrude out more than I thgough and so I had to redo it and in th eend I lengthed the base and this is how it came out, Pretty cool I think.I also fixed the orangle peeling issue on the paint I sanded the paint down after it dried and I repainted it with a new coat and it look smuch better now I really like how it turned out!