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We have some important news to share about HackSpace: Issue 81 was the last issue of HackSpace as a standalone magazine, and HackSpace has become part of The MagPi, the official Raspberry Pi magazine. Starting with issue 145, We’ll be adding pages to The MagPi to make room for the stories and tutorials you’ve come to expect from HackSpace.

STARLIGHT Model Rocket Flight Computer vs Rockit flight computer

By Marc de Vinck. Posted

The Starlight all-in-one rocket flight control is a great choice for anyone launching 75 mm rockets. The board is packed with sensors and functionality, so you can launch more rockets with higher success rates and gather lots of critical data. And best of all, the board is controlled by our favourite microcontroller, the RP2040.

The Starlight also features a six-axis IMU with gyroscope and accelerometer, a level shifter so you can control 5 V servos, dual temperature sensing, a pressure sensor for altitude determination, and six GPIO pins. The board includes 16MB of flash storage not only for the firmware, but also for capturing flight data. There are indicator LEDs, a micro USB port, and dual voltage regulators. To really understand how this board works, check out the tutorials and the GitHub repo. It explains in detail specifics like the igniter pin, ejection pin, battery, and servos usage.

Verdict

10/10
A greatall-round solution

The Rockit (rocket operation computing kit) is an affordable flight computer designed for small model rockets. You can even use the board with water rockets since it’s so small and lightweight! The board features an RP2040 dual-core microcontroller, altimeter, accelerometer, and data logging via a microSD card. You also have power management for controlling two servo motors. And all that weighs in at a mere 5 grams.

The board measures 44 × 22 × 9 mm. I typically don’t give dimensions of products in these reviews, but when you’re talking rockets, size matters! The board comes fully assembled and tested and includes header pins if you want to solder them on for added functionality, but that’s optional. Just add a microSD card and AAA battery pack with a JST connector and get to coding.

Verdict

10/10 Small, yet powerful

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