Ideate to Win

The Spin Control rocket is an invention product I developed at IDEO and was licensed to Estes Rockets.  The idea was sparked by an electronic toy top that could count the number of revolutions it made – and even display this number while spinning.

We figured this would be a fun feature to add to a model rocket – it would count how many revolutions it took while in air.  Estes was intrigued by the idea and wanted a fully working prototype.  That’s where I came in.

This project presented a couple of particular challenges:

• Weight was a huge concern and adding a prototyped LCD screen would be too heavy to fly
• We had to provide a manufacturing ready schematic of the spin-detection circuitry

Estes had used LCD screens in previous rockets so a prototype of the actual screen was not necessary.  So, to solve the first challenge, I decided to make the prototype “announce” the number of spins verbally.  I’d launch the rocket, collect the nose cone and then plug it in to a black box which contained a speaker.  The electronics in the nose cone would continually announce the number of revolutions the rocket completed until it was reset.  Problem solved.

Next, I needed to prototype the spin detection circuitry.  To start, I was able to hook up the circuitry  from one of the spin detection toy tops.  Borrowing from the toy top, I was able to make a fully functioning prototype to prove out the idea.  However, the spin detection was not sensitive enough for the needs of a rocket.  The circuitry in the toy top could detect as few as 3 spins per second, but in a rocket this caused too many missed spins.  I had to modify this circuit to detect a slower spin rate.

While I do have a background in electronics, my experience is mainly in digital electronics – this circuit is analog.  I found schematics for the circuit online and I spent time trying to modify the circuit by adjusting the capacitors and coils.  I wasn’t having any luck, this circuitry required expertise beyond my capabilities.  Luckily, we had a resident electrical engineer from a different department who saved the day  He was able to show me exactly what I needed to do to make the circuit more sensitive and with this knowledge I was able to design a circuit which could detect revolutions of just under 1 spin per second.  This was plenty!

This project earned me the nickname of “Rocket Girl” at IDEO!