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Rocket Horizon and standard camera mounts for Estes Astrocam Universal
A 40-degree horizon-view mount and a standard "looks down" mount that attach to a rocket with a single screw.
Gadget
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Description
I created these mounts to provide a single solid semipermanent attachment to an airframe for an Estes Astrocam Universal. I didn't like the sort of taped affair that came with the camera.
With the 40 degree mount and a front-surface mirror (17mm x 14mm, approximately), you can view the rocket's flight looking toward the horizon.
You can see a sample video here:
There's a hole in the cap, so you can drill the plastic cover for the USB camera and see the camera's blue status LED without taking everything apart.
Materials and methods
I printed at 20% infill, using PETG. Print the base with black material, so it doesn't reflect bright colors into the lens, throwing your color balance or exposure off.
To attach the front-surface mirror, I used Weldwood contact cement, available from big-box home improvement retailers here in the US.
You'll need a couple plastic push rivets to put the cap on. The ones pictured are series "4080" - that is, 4mm hole, 8mm length. I got a bag of them from Amazon (lots of useful things a rocketeer can do with these). They're a bit stiff, but they fit and work.
You should be able to attach the mount to a tube with a single 6-32 or 8-32 flat-head screw, anchored into an airframe-mounted T-nut.
Included in the design files is a part-round support for the T-nut, designed to spread the torque from flight over a wider part of the cardboard tube. You may not need this if you are mounting to fiberglass or something else robust. The support is radiused for a 2in-diameter tube. You can affix the support with just the T-nut, or hold it to the tube wall permanently with adhesive.
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jddj published this design ago