STARLIGHT - A Raspberry Pi RP2040 board for rockets

Circuit Wizardry’s STARLIGHT is a rocket control board based on Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller and designed for small 75mm model rockets.

The board features rocket control-specific I/Os such as Igniter and Ejection pins each connected to a MOSFET, two headers for 5V servos, plus some sensors and 3.3V or 5V GPIOs for expansion.

STARLIGHT specifications:

Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU @ 133 MHz with 264KB SRAM
Storage – 16MB flash for firmware and flight data
USB – 1x Micro USB port for programming
Rocket control
- Igniter via 2-pin terminal block and AO3400 MOSFET (pulse current up to 30A) used with ignition systems to automatically light your engine.
- Ejection via 2-pin terminal and AO3400 MOSFET
Servo control
- 2x 3-pin servo outputs for optional thrust loop vector control interface (X Axis and Y axis on board)
- Level shifter to allow the use of 5V servos with the 3.3V RP2040
Sensors
- ICM-42605 6-axis IMU with gyroscope and accelerometer
- BMP388 pressure sensor for altitude determination and flight tracking
- Dual temperature sensing for added redundancy and protection from overheating
Expansion
- 6x 3.3V GPIO pins, plus exposed SPI, I2C, and UART interfaces for even more versatility
- 2x 5V GPIO pins via on-board level shifter also used for servo outputs (different pins)
Misc – Power and Runtime LEDs
Power Supply
- Input voltage: 5-18V via 2-pin terminal block for battery
- Dual voltage regulators for both 3.3V and 5V
Dimensions – 75.4 x 40 mm with M3 mounting holes

The board can be programmed with MicroPython and basic instructions to get started can be found on Circuit Wizardy’s website. There are also two MicroPython samples to read data from the sensors on GitHub. What we are not told is how to build our own rocket so this is something people would have to figure out starting with getting 75mm model rockets such as the ones below.

Example of 75mm model rockets by LOC Precision and Big Daddy

Circuit Wizardry is selling the Raspberry Pi RP2040-powered STARLIGHT control board for rockets Tindie for $49.99.

Via Hackster.io

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.