Building an Electronics Bay from scratch, where to buy electronics

Use a section of coupler.

I really never did a photo sequence of the construction of the bay but between these projects you may be able to piece it together.

I simply use a piece of coupler glued to the inside with tee nuts glued to that. This link shows a hatch in my L3 rocket, scroll down to Electronics Bay:

I much prefer the hinge down one side with two screws.

RDH8

I see you ground the tee nuts down in one ebay. I have always just installed them backward, so the long part is sticking in. Gives more threads, but induces a hazard inside the bay. I had one catch on a PCI extender cable cutting several lines causing the video capture card to fail, DOH.

Some pics:

I've used the type of switch shown in Bruce's photos for several years. It might even be the same switch. The switch has taken a beating and keeps going. I purchased several from Newark Electronics. All were keyed the same, providing many spares.

The switch I use is manufactured by Grayhill, part number 03S501, purchased from

Dean

I've found in the end, it's just as cheap to buy a LOC 3" or 4" ebay when it's all said and done. Plus, you can build them in 20mins or a few hours depending on your epoxy.

You can get both the ebays and the altimeters from:

my site for rocket electronics

or my new site for kits and parts

I make my hatches by carefully cutting the body tube into the square you see. I then mount plywood (or balsa) spars on the inside two edges lengthwise with nuts glues into them.

The hatches then has screw holes that match the screws underneath on the plywood spars.

Curving the plywood was not necessary at all. just mount the plywood on the lengthwise edge.

Works great, I mount airstart timers in those hatches by the fin can section.

Art Upton

I'm not sure what you are trying to say ?

details of cutting and making a hatch ?

Pictures are better then my words I bet.

I posted pictures of the hatch on alt.binaries.models.rockets

PS, email me your real email address to

artupton at yahoo removethisword dot com

I want to talk about a small product you are working on.

Art Upton

The hatch door design is OK but I prefer to keep it simple. I like to design bays using 38mm or 54mm motor mount tube. A section of motor mount tube in the air frame preferably at the bulkhead where the drogue deployment occurs. Then use the appropriate sized coupler tube to hold the electronics. Use a couple sections of 4-40 all thread rod to hold the appropriate bulkheads to the coupler tube/electronics bay and presto. A modular design that can be used in multiple rockets.