Welcome to my collection of PalmOS rocketry software. The collection currently includes:
If you have any questions regarding the software here, please e-mail me at whortens@shaw.ca. If you include the name of the software you're inquiring about in the subject header, I'd greatly appreciate it!
There's a new release of the Motor Database. Three new motors (F35, F60R and G80R) from Roadrunner Rocketry have been added.
pRASP is a port of RASP (Rocket Altitude Simulation Program) for PDAs running PalmOS. RASP was originally written by G. Harry Stine and was published as an appendix in his classic book Handbook of Model Rocketry.
pRASP adds to RASP the ability to enter values and display output data in a variety of units. pRASP is limited to a maximum of 2 stages due to the small screen real estate available on PalmOS.
pRASP allows you to customize the launch site altitude, and launch rod length. It also allows you to beam the entire motor database, or individual motors, to another Palm PDA.
The download includes:
Install both .prc files to your Palm. If you don't already have a current copy of rasp.pdb installed, you'll also want to download a copy of the motor database and install the rasp.pdb file from there as well.
The version of RASP that was used in this port was v3.20. The original source is available from the Sunsite archives.
Have you ever wondered:
RocketCalc can help! RocketCalc provides eight separate rocketry calculators. Data (and results) that are common across the calculators is retained when you switch, meaning you never have to enter the same figure twice!
The Parachute Calculator can calculate parachute size, descent speed or rocket weight given the other two variables.
The Delay Calculator will tell you how much time will pass between motor burnout and apogee for a given rocket and engine combination, allowing you to figure out in an instant which delay you need. (pRASP will give you the same information, and also allows you to simulate up to two stages; the RocketCalc Delay calculator is a simplified version that only allows one stage, and uses simplified calculations to give you an instant answer.)
The Altitude Calculator uses data from either one or two tracking states to calculate the altitude reached by a rocket. Three different methods of calculation are available: geodesic, vertical midpoint, and single station (elevation only).
The Ejection Calculator can tell you how much black you need to pressure a cylinder, how much pressure a given charge will result in, and just how much force it will exert on the bottom of the nose cone.
The Wind Drift Calculator calculates how far downwind you can expect a rocket to drift as it comes down on its parachute.
The Motor Info Calculator calculates the maximum weight a given motor can lift at any thrust to weight ratio between 2:1 and 7:1. It also allows you to beam the entire motor database, or an individual motor, to another PDA.
The Static Port Calculator calculates the required size of static ports for altimeter pressure sensors (using the 'one ¼" hole for every 100 cubic inches of bay space' rule).
The Standard Atmosphere Calculator calculates the pressure, temperature, density, speed of sound, and equivalent air speed at any altitude up to 86 km, using the US Standard Atmosphere (1976) model.
All eight calculators allow you to use just about any combination of units you like: inches, feet, meters, centimetres, miles, kilometres, pounds, ounces, grams or kilograms.
The download includes:
Install the RocketCalc.prc file to your Palm. If you don't already have a current copy of MathLib.prc installed, install that as well. If you don't already have a current copy of rasp.pdb installed, you'll also want to download a copy of the motor database and install the rasp.pdb file from there as well.
If you've already installed pRASP on your Palm PDA, you've already got a copy of rasp.pdb and MathLib.prc, so you only need to install RocketCalc.prc.
I've separated the motor database used by pRASP and RocketCalc from their respective archives to try and make updating it a little simpler.
The download includes:
Install the rasp.pdb file to your Palm, and it'll automatically be used by both pRASP and RocketCalc. The rest of the files can be extracted to a convenient directory on your PC, but unless you want to create and install your own rasp.pdb database, it's not necessary.
The rasp.eng and vendor.dat files used are an amalgamation of data from the wRASP Data Page., Apogee Components, and the ThrustCurve motor data page, as well as a variety of other sources whose origins I've forgotten.
Both pRASP and RocketCalc allow you to beam the entire database, or an individual motor, to another PDA.
The rasp.eng file in the download is compatible with the engine database compiler in RockSim, as well as the most recent version of wRASP.
The number of thrust data points in the motor database has grown too large for wRASP. The format of the individual entries is still wRASP compatible, but you'll have to pick and choose which motors you want to include. The bottom line is that you'll have to get the total number of thrust data point entries in the entire file down to 8192 or fewer.
CPcalc is a Centre of Pressure calculator for PalmOS. It allows easily modifying the parameters that affect CP to examine various "what-if" scenarios. In addition to calculating CP, CPcalc will also tell you the minimum CG that will result in a stable rocket, using the one-calibre rule.
This first release of CPcalc uses only the classic Barrowman equations. If there's sufficient interest, I plan on extending CPcalc to include configurations beyond that supported by the original Barrowman equations.
The download includes:
Install the CPcalc.prc file to your Palm. MathLib.prc doesn't need to be installed if you already have a copy of it installed.
NP is a PalmOS port of Bob Kaplow's FORTRAN code for calculating the Neutral Point of a boost glider. The Neutral Point is the location on the glider where the lift acts as if it were a force acting on one point. (It's similar to the Centre of Pressure location in an ordinary rocket.)
The download includes:
Install the np.prc file to your Palm. MathLib.prc doesn't need to be installed if you already have a copy of it installed.
