WRECtangle
WRECtangle
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The WRECtangle is an onboard flight computer designed during my time as the propulsion manager at the Wildcat Rocket Engineering Club (WREC).Â
This is a full flight computer, providing data acquisition, roll control, and remote telemetry capabilities. It will be the brains for WREC's more advanced rocket, named "Jebediah" (Jeb). This board was designed to operate servo-actuated and solenoid valves to control the propulsion system of this rocket, among other things. I have several documents detailing the functionality, requirements, chips themselves, and everything else about this board. I may add it in a future version of this website, so if you're curious, let me know!
The project began in summer 2025 but had a stop-work order in spring 2026 due to ITAR concerns from the University EAR department. This is still underway and and will be completed soon. In the meantime, the core components and software used for this computer have been implemented and tested in WREC's GSE-sequel, or GSEquel as I like to call it.
Design
Design
Design work began during the summer vacation, outlining desired functionality, constraints, and system integration plans. I designed the board in KiCAD, with some tips from friends along the way. Believe it or not, I taught myself KiCAD through this.
Build
Build
The actual work of building the WRECtangle is a currently ongoing process. Currently, we have PCBs manufactured by JLCpcb, with components from DigiKey. The SMT soldering is our current challenge.
Test
Test
Testing and validation are the final phase of the WRECtangle development. There are plans to integrate the WRECtangle onto a small test tank, to spin it up and see if the WRECtangle and RCS are indeed capable of roll control. The RCS block is shown above, as manufactured on a CNC mill.
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