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TCG

@TCG

Joined August 27th, 2026

  • 10Devlogs
  • 1Projects
  • 1Ships
  • 0Votes
Ship Pending review

@TCG on Wisp

Hi, im TCG! i spend the last months building a small actively controlled model rocket! i call it Wisp and am really proud of how it turned out.

the rocket is Aerodynamically unstable, that means the wind wants to tip it over in flight, to keep it pointing up, a custom flight computer measures the speed at which its tipping over and, using a gimbal, points the rocket motor in the opposite direction. this is called Thrust Vector Control (short TVC) and is the same technique real rockets and advanced fighter jets use to steer.

at apogee (highest point in flight) the flight computer sends a signal to make the nosecone fold apart witch holds a parachute.

to make this work i designed and simulated the rocket, i build the custom flight computer and a desktop app to monitor it, i also developed a usb device with a radio transceiver to establish a long range radio link between them, i had a lot of fun desining my own overengeenerd protocol to get the communication working here.

im really excited that this system i only imagined a few months ago is now actually kinda working, i sadly was not able to fly it yet because the parachute did not arrive in time and i had some problems with the motor gimbal but i was able to do a hold down test you can see in the video.
im excited to finally fly it soon, im just waiting for the parachute and may tune the PD controller a bit.

  • 10 devlogs
  • 97h build
Video of Project → See source code →
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@TCG on Wisp

13h 0m 45s logged

before flying my rocket i wanted to validate that the firmware is working, for that i created simulated versions of sensor and actuator classes and injected them into the dependency chain and everything is working! i cant wait to fly this thing, here is a video of a simulation

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@TCG on Wisp

13h 30m 39s logged

im almost ready to fly! the only things missing are the log system on the rocket and tuning the pid, i will probably do a static fire this week!!

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@TCG on Wisp

15h 47m 28s logged

devlog #5, almost ready to static fire my tcv modle rocket! i have been working on the rocket monitor app and validated all systems, the only thing missing at this point is implementing the final radio commands for a launch, optionaly a pretty ui and transfering the log file over radio after the landing.

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@TCG on Wisp

3h 5m 16s logged

i just went on a 3h UI sidequest adding completely unnecessary spotlights and a colorful polar coordinate system to the completely unnecessary 3D scene in my TVC model rocket control app, cuz i dont want to keep working on the rockets firmware

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@TCG on Wisp

12h 30m 7s logged

i made a lot of progress on the firmwear for the tvc rocket and the desktop controll center app, it now displays live imu and barometer data, the gimbal is now also working.

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@TCG on Wisp

11h 33m 6s logged

devlog #4: i am working on the desktop app that will act as an controll center for the flights and testing, so far i have a few components down, i developed the protocol for the comunication over radio and to the radio device over usb, that was a lot of work because i never did anything with netwoking before but its all working now, this is a screenshot of the app so far and a graphic of the protocol i came up with (graphic made with claude)

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@TCG on Wisp

25m 53s logged

OMG i just realised i routed Serial TX to TX and RX to RX on my pcb.
I already orderd it so its to late now, i swear i checked this desing 5 times how did i miss this???
luckly there wont be too mutch data going though this so i can use SoftwearSerail for this but still i guess u never get rx and tx right the first time…

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@TCG on Wisp

3h 39m 1s logged

I’m somewhat done with the hardware. The flight computer arrived, and the selfdesigned PCB worked on the first try! I haven’t tested everything yet, but the buck-boost converter, battery protection, LDO, MCU, radio, and buzzer all work.
I also almost finished 3D printing the rocket, only the body tube is still missing. I’m shooting for a dry mass of 170 g, and I’m well within that budget, so everything is going well so far.
Next, I will be working on the communication protocol between the rocket and the ground station, and then write the firmware for the rocket.

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@TCG on Wisp

18h 34m 1s logged

Hi, im building a model rocket that can actively control its accent by changing the direction its rocket motor points (thrust vector control or TVC). this is my first devlog i have been working on this for a month now but only recently heard about stardance so i already have made a lot of progress. Im done with modeling the rocket in onshape i also already desingd its flight conputer (alacer-1) and a usb to radio apter i call rocket-link in kicad. the flight computer is in production and the rocket link already arrived, so at the moment im writing the firmwear for it, developing a desktop app to act as a command center.

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