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STARLIGHT: A model rocket development board!
The Starlight Rocket Control Unit is ideal for model rocketry. Designed for use in 75mm diameter rocket tubes although you can get it in smaller ones too, it ensures accuracy and stability for your next launch. Its high-quality design will take your model rocketry to the next level.
What's more this board is only 75.4mm long and 40mm wide.
This version does not have headers and terminals pre-soldered on. We also stock a version with headers if required.
For beginners & pros alike!
With sensors such as pressure, temperature, gyroscope, and accelerometer all packaged onto the board, this board allows you to monitor every part of your model rocket during liftoff and recovery!
Furthermore, the board has I/O ports for two micro-servos, allowing you to fix a thrust vector control system to your rocket without any messy wiring! Simply plug your two servos in and you're good to go.
Simple and adaptable!
Want to connect more sensors or peripherals to your STARLIGHT board? No sweat! This board also comes equipped with eight GPIO outputs, including a SPI bus, an I2C bus, and a UART bus! Two of the eight GPIO are 5 volt GPIO, so you can also interface this 3.3V device with 5V logic!
There is plenty of online documentation for launching your rocket with STARLIGHT will be a breeze! If you're looking to turn your rocket into an electronic masterpiece, look no further than Starlight.
Features:
- RP2040 for blazing-fast code execution and easy programming. You can write your firmware in Python!
- ICM-42605 6-axis IMU: Gyroscope and accelerometer
- Level shifter to allow use of 5V servos with the 3.3V RP2040
- Dual temperature sensing for added redundancy and protection from overheating
- BMP388 pressure sensor for altitude determination and flight tracking
- 6x 3.3V GPIO pins, plus exposed SPI, I2C, and UART interfaces for even more versatility
- 2x 5V GPIO pins, made possibly by the on-board level shifter
- 16MB of flash storage, for storing flight data and firmware
- Indicator LEDs for power and runtime
- Micro-USB for easy programming
- Input voltage 5-18V
- Dual voltage regulators for both 3.3V and 5V directly on the board
- Two servo outputs to allow for optional thrust loop vector control interface
- M3 mounting holes, mounting hardware NOT included
- Digital guide included
Specifications:
- Input voltage: 5-18V
- Interface type: Micro-USB, cable not included
- On-board sensors: Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Dual Temperature Sensors, Pressure (ICM-42605, BMP388)
- Microcontroller: Raspberry Pi RP2040
- Board voltage: 3.3V for GPIO, 5V for servos and 5V GPIO
- GPIO Voltage: There are 8 total GPIO (NOT including servos). 6 of the GPIO are 3.3V, and 2 are 5V.
- Servo GPIO: There are 2 ports to plug 3-pin servos into. These ports are 5V.
- Dimensions: 40mm * 75.4mm
Pinout
STARLIGHT has many pins for use in your rocketry projects.
- Igniter: This is a high-power rail intended for use with ignition systems to automatically light your engine. It is connected to an AO3400 MOSFET (max. pulse current 30A) controlled by pin GP6 on the RP2040. The AO3400 MOSFET is connected directly to the power supply, so depending on the battery voltage you use this terminal’s voltage will vary.
- Ejection: This terminal is wired just like the Igniter rail is, with another AO3400 MOSFET connected to pin GP7 on the RP2040.
- Battery: This is where you should plug in your battery. Note the polarity on the board! Plugging in the battery backwards could lead to frying your STARLIGHT board. STARLIGHT accepts a wide range of input voltages, from 5-18V.
- PWR_CS: This is a jumper that allows you to connect and disconnect the battery easily from STARLIGHT. In order to protect the board and your computer, never have the battery connected to the board while the board is plugged into USB!! PWR_CS allows you to disconnect the battery from the board without having to unscrew the leads from your terminals. Simply remove the jumper on these two pins to disconnect the battery. Put the jumper back, and the battery will be reconnected. There is no on-board charging circuit.
- GP0: This is directly connected to the RP2040’s GP0 pin. This also doubles as a UART TX pin.
- GP1: This is directly connected to the RP2040’s GP1 pin. This is the UART RX pin.
- GP16: This is directly connected to GP16 on the RP2040. It is also SPI RX/I2C SDA (per the RP2040 pinout).
- GP17: Directly wired to GP17, SPI CS/I2C SCL
- GP18: Directly wired to GP18, SPI SCK
- GP19: Directly wired to GP19, SPI TX
- GP22 (5V): This is a pin connected through the level shifter to the RP2040’s GP22 pin. This is a 5 VOLT LOGIC PIN!!!
- GP23 (5V): This is a pin connected through the level shifter to the RP2040’s GP23 pin. This is a 5 VOLT LOGIC PIN!!!
- X AXIS: This is a 3-pin connector for use with servos. The SIGNAL pin is connected to GP11 on the RP2040. This is a 5 VOLT CONNECTOR!!!
- Y AXIS: This is a 3-pin connector for use with servos. The SIGNAL pin is connected to GP12 on the RP2040. This is a 5 VOLT CONNECTOR!!!
- Note: There are also two debug pins exposed, just in case they are required. In most cases, you can ignore these pins.
On-board connections
Some of the RP2040 pins are connected to other chips on the board.
- On-board I2C: This board uses the I2C bus to communicate with the on-board sensors. For the on-board I2C, SDA is connected to GP2 and SCL is connected to GP3.
- On-board LED: The on-board LED is connected to GP24.
- Level shifter enable (IMPORTANT!!!): GP14 on the RP2040 is connected to the ENABLE pin on the on-board level shifter. Set GP14 to HIGH to enable the level shifter, subsequently enabling the servos and the 5V GPIO.
Getting Started
Now, you may be asking – How do I actually write code for this board? There are loads of tutorials for other boards on the market, but STARLIGHT is somewhat unique in a sense. The act of programming it will be the same, but the features that come pre-packaged with the board trump many other current boards on the market.
- Download the STARLIGHT UF2 for this board. This board uses a custom UF2 file, you can download it from our listing here under the attachments tab below.
- Install Thonny IDE. This is how you’re going to write and upload code to the board. You can find a link to download it here.
- Plug in your board: Drag the .uf2 file into the USB mass storage device that the board boots into by default, give it some time to copy over. If this operation succeeds, the board will reboot and you will no longer see it as a mass storage device.
- Select the MicroPython interpreter. This can be done in the bottom right of Thonny IDE.
Reading Sensors & Controlling Servos
Now that you’ve been able to write your first bits of code for the STARLIGHT control board, you’re probably wondering – Where do I go from here? Printing “Hello World” is a far cry from launching a model rocket with this board. Luckily, we have everything you need to succeed with STARLIGHT neatly packaged in a GitHub repository.
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