Adrel MaxAlt™ Altimeter

For years, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) has used Adrel altimeters for world championships. These units are examples of incredible engineering, both in hardware and software. Because I have personally planted more of these units in more countries across the world than anyone else, I jumped at the opportunity to become the exclusive worldwide distributor (and cut my losses!).

The Adrel Max altimeter™ is National Association of Rocketry (NAR) and FAI certified for competition flights and record attempts. It is designed and manufactured by Adrel Electronics in Krakow, Poland.

The Adrel MaxAlt (#810A) runs on Windows 10 only. The firmware on the altimeter has been upgraded. You will need a new data port (#812A) to run the Windows 10 version. The older versions are not compatible with the new version. If you have the older version of the ATL-BMP, please contact us for upgrade information.

In addition to measuring the maximum flight altitude to the required precision,  the Adrel MaxAlt altimeter stores altitude measurement results for the entire flight, allowing for a complete review of the flight. The altimeter’s small size (8mm x 19mm x 5mm/0.31” x 0.76” x 0.19”)  and weight (0.6g/ 0.021 oz.) allow for its inclusion in all types of contest rockets. It is currently the smallest, lightest altimeter system on the market.

The altimeter height measurement is based on the change of pressure as a function of altitude. The altimeter pressure sensor, calibrated at the factory, measures absolute pressure.

The Adrel data conversion program reads the pressure data from altimeter pressure sensor and converts it to altitude. The conversion is based on an NAR and FAI approved formula, which takes into account the current pressure, pressure changes, temperature, vertical temperature gradient, change of the density of the atmosphere, depending on altitude. Measurements are stored in nonvolatile memory, so they are saved when device is disconnected from power. Altitudes measurements can be sampled from 20 measurements per second to 1 measurement every 2 seconds (which can be useful for airplane applications where sampling speed is not as critical).

The altimeter height measurement is based on the change of pressure as a function of altitude. The altimeter pressure sensor, calibrated at the factory, measures absolute pressure.

The Adrel data conversion program on your laptop computer reads the pressure data from altimeter pressure sensor and converts it to altitude. The altimeter’s measurements and parameters are downloaded when a cable is connected to the USB connector on a computer.

The data chart shows the entire flight of a rocket. The graph can be expanded to better examine the data. For contests, the altimeter is able to store the competitor’s competition number. In addition, each altimeter has a recorded permanent unique serial number. For archiving the results of competitions, the measurements can be saved to disk and retrieved any time.

The Adrel software (#818) is available as a separate free downloadable product - look for it in the Accessories section.