Rocket V2
For this version, I continued with the previous design concept. Again, the nose cone split in half, with one half-shell separating from the other. However, I designed two thinner nose cone half-shells and a lighter electronics bay, and I selected a smaller servo and soldered my wire connections. Overall, these modifications saved roughly 90 grams.
I also replaced the plastic ejection spring with a much stronger one. The spring was made out of a flat sheet of elastic spring steel, which bends easily without wearing out over time. While stowed, the spring remained compressed by a small plastic tab. I hoped that, when released, the stronger spring would eject the smaller half-shell. I expected that the smaller half-shell would pull the parachute out using aerodynamic drag.
Finally, I added a switch so I could arm the system with the rocket completely assembled instead of having to arm the system before assembly.
This design also crashed, but for a different reason. In this iteration, the smaller half-shell separated, yet it did not eject forcefully enough, and the parachute remained stuck inside the larger half-shell. The smaller half-shell was not able to pull the parachute out using aerodynamic drag. This prompted a full redesign of the deployment geometry to avoid this critical design flaw.