Altimeter Wiring Update

New altimeter wiring will involve short lengths of wire soldered directly into the altimeter at one end and into a crimp connection at the other.

Reasoning for Update

One of the recovery subteam’s slowest steps at launch is connecting wires to the altimeters. The spaces that the wires must be fit into are very small, making it difficult to maneuver and secure them. This can lead to delays because connecting the wires is time-consuming and insecure connections can lead to ground test failure. It also cannot be fully-completed ahead of time as the altimeters must be re-wired between ground test and launch.

Previous solutions have involved positioning the altimeters on the sled such that the connections are easier to access and using crimps to speed up the connection process. However, even with good altimeter placement, it can be difficult to position the wires. Recovery also had issues in creating secure connections to the crimps and did not consider them reliable enough for launch.

New solution

Recovery plans to solder short lengths of wire directly into the altimeters at one end and into a crimp at the other. The end with the crimp could then be easily connected to a longer wire for ground test or flight, saving time at launch. Soldering into the crimp should increase the security of the connection, preventing the previous problems associated with crimps.

This solution allows recovery to change the wiring of the altimeters, despite soldering a wire permanently into the altimeter because the long wire going to the other connection point is replaceable. Solutions involving solder were previously not considered because of the requirement of reconfiguring wires at launch.

Schematic

Schematic of wire connections to altimeters