Linux-Powered Amateur Rocket Goes USB

This very simple code could be extended to make all sorts of USB devices. The isochronous IN endpoint could send sensor data like temperature, pressure or GPS readings. It also could send video, still frames or audio data. It even could be hooked up to a motion detector. The possibilities are endless with the Olimex's breakout board.

If you want to follow the Portland State Aerospace Society's development of LPC2148 USB avionics sensor nodes, join the psas-avionics list (see Resources).

PSAS hopes to do an airframe-only launch in Bend, Oregon, this summer. Our goal is to have working USB avionics nodes and a working Linux flight computer by October 2009. On October 2–4, the Arizona High Power Rocketry Association hosts the BALLS amateur rocketry event. If you're at the BALLS event in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, or if you're still hanging around after Burning Man, stop by and say hello.

Figure 9. PSAS 2009 Group Photo (Photo Credit: Sarah Sharp). Front row, left to right: Ken Zeigler, Jason Peterson, Andrew Greenberg, Daniel Heinlein, Nathan Bergey, Sarah Sharp. Middle row, left to right: Fletcher Hazlehurst and Frank Mathew. Back row, left to right: Ai Ling Chen, Jeremy Booth, Tim Brandon, Dave Camarillo, Kay Wilson, Mike Engstrom, Jamey Sharp, Josh Triplett, Theo Hill, Ian Osgood. Active PSAS members not pictured: Dan Kirkpatrick and Maria Webster.