June 1, 2023 completed

Honeyeater Rocket Avionics Payload

Custom avionics payload for electronic and dual deployment, built with the UTS Rocketry team

Software Lead Role

Dual deploy Deployment

UTS Rocketry Team

C/C++AltimeterBarometric SensorsPCBDual Deployment

The Problem

High-power rocketry requires reliable electronic deployment — if the payload doesn’t detect apogee accurately, the parachute fires at the wrong time and the rocket is lost. Off-the-shelf flight computers exist, but building our own meant we could customise the logic and learn the avionics stack end to end.

Honeyeater avionics payload board — The Honeyeater payload

What I Built

Developed and tested the flight software for the Honeyeater payload — a custom avionics board designed by the UTS Rocketry team for both electronic and dual deployment. My focus was on accurate sensor data acquisition and reliable apogee detection to trigger deployment charges at the right moment.

Testing the payload in the lab — Bench testing before launch

Field day with the rocketry team — Field day prep

Launch

Flight data graph showing altitude over time with apogee detection — Flight telemetry — apogee detected

What I Learned

The hardest part wasn’t writing the apogee detection algorithm — it was making it robust to noisy barometric data during a turbulent ascent. Filtering strategies that work perfectly on bench tests behave differently when the rocket is spinning at Mach 0.5. We iterated through multiple filtering approaches before landing on one that was reliable across flight conditions.