Other
Static fire test stand
To safely static fire the rocket and test the strength of the TVC mount, a test stand was made. This test stand is very basic. It has two 3D printed rings to clamp the rocket onto a saw horse. An electrical box that wirelessly communicates with the controller is screwed to the side, to ignite the rocket from a safe distance.
This wireless box was used on the first launch attempt, when the launch pad electronics were faulty.
pid tuning test stand
To simulate thrust and test the stabilisation software, a RC plane propeller is put in the TVC mount. A two axis gimbal then holds the rockets centre of mass, allowing the rocket to pivot on its X and Y axis.
MATLAB simulation
A MATLAB simulation was designed to test the rockets PID control gains before flight. The simulator has been tested, although not used for a flight at this stage. Flight 3 will be simulated before launch day.
The simulation uses the aerospace blockset and a variety of mathematics blocks to calculate how the rocket reacts to a misalignment in the TVC mount.
Flight software
I would love to make a video of the flight software, line by line, however this poses legal issues as software like this is restricted by ITAR. If you want to learn how to write this software, visit the resources page for help.
Software is a weak point for me, so the software has been kept as basic as possible. That being said, the current version is V5 and spans many hundreds of lines.
The flight software is yet to be tested in flight, as both launch attempts failed before the software could control the rocket.