10/20/14 Update
10/20/14
This past week I spent a lot of my time working on the MATLAB code for the trajectory. I modeled the trajectory in 2D-space and for a while I was pretty sure I had it modeled correctly. Although, I was not sure and kept trying to tweak the code until now it does not work. But it should be easy to revert back to the working version.
I found also that for the Advance class you must use a battery to control the servos of at least 100 mAh and that there is also a section stating that gyroscopic assist is allowed. Could this be used to make sure the plane is level while approaching the target? That will be something to look into.
There are no clear rules on runway time, or how long we can sit still on the runway to get a GPS fix. It looks like as long as the GPS doesn’t take 5 minutes or so that we’ll be ok. But it looks like we can take some time on the runway prior to launch.
This week I also configured the air speed sensor for third party use. This should enable me to use the sensor with the microcontroller and I began writing code in the IDE to read the sensor. The GPS sensor I had less luck with and was unable to figure out how to enable it for third party use.
This weekend Ervin and I also wrote procedures for testing the motor/propeller combinations and charging the batteries. Hopefully we made these instructions clearer than they were made last year for us.
Ervin and I plan to test different combinations this week and find maximum thrust combinations. We have not been able to push the power limiter over 1000 watts by using the motor and battery. Maybe now we will try and use a power supply and a large load in place of the battery and motor.
By this time next week I plan to have the microcontroller interfacing with the air speed sensor and resolve my SRG situation. We should also have triggered the power limiter to gain a better understanding of the limitations.
10/13/14 Update
10/13/14
This past week Ervin and I began setting up the motor and running it with the ESC and RC controller. We connected the battery to the ESC and the ESC to the motor. The receiver for the RC controller also connected to the ESC. We could not get the motor to spin for days and believed this to be a problem with the receiver. Ervin managed to figure out why the receiver was not working while I was away.
I met with Professor Bruno and we talked extensively about the physics behind drag forces and what to expect when calculating the humanitarian drop. He gave me a list of 1950s fluid dynamics videos to watch and I started watching those already. Also in terms of how ground speed was measured during World War II the best I could come up with was measuring the distance between known objects on the ground. I also found that radio was used to find ground speed. Done by measuring propagation delays and measured in nautical miles.
I began to test the chipKit Max32 board this past week. I had it blink an LED on and off to make sure that it was working. I have been trying to connect the Eagle Tree altimeter to the microcontroller, however, I have to set the altimeter up for third party use first. To do this I am using the Eagle Tree eLogger to enable third party use.
Although once I started exploring the Eagle Tree sensors and data logger I discovered that they already had a lot of the work figured out for me. I used the data logger and the GPS sensor to try and get a GPS fix on my location. But even when I was outside I could not get the GPS to get a fix on my location in live mode.
My goals for this next week are to see what sensors I can use from the Eagle Tree kit and if I can use my microcontroller with those sensors. Or if I want to just use the sensor kit and get rid of the microcontroller idea altogether. By this time next week I would like to at least have altitude and air speed readings.
10/6/14 Update
10/6/14
Came up with a list of components including the camera, altimeter, and GPS sensor (links below). Not sure yet how to transmit and receive sensor data at ground station. Probably through the transmitter/receiver linked at the bottom.
The camera is the Airy 3g Mini Camera. This paired with the Boscam Transmitter/Receiver will transmit at 5.8 GHz, far above the 2.4 GHz range for the radio controllers. The camera is not a high definition camera, however, I don’t think that is necessary. These Airy cameras are designed for FPV (First Person View) flight and are used by drone enthusiasts and the resolution is near the 720 pixel range of HD cameras. It has a resolution of 752×582 interlaced video.
The Adafruit GPS sensor is the current GPS sensor that I am looking into. It seems streamlined toward prototyping and microcontroller systems. It can even be placed on a breadboard for testing. This GPS sensor tracks location, speed (knots), angle, and altitude and may eliminate the need for a separate altimeter. This sensor also provides a library of codes for users to use so that they can analyze the NMEA sentences being outputted by the sensor. Making it less confusing and more about the actual data.
I have started to think about the ground station portion of the project, and how it will all come together for the co-pilot. The video and the sensor data will probably be sent separately to the ground station. On the ground the video will be taken from the receiver and displayed on a monitor for the co-pilot. I have thought about taking the information from the sensors and displaying that on the screen as well. However, I am not sure yet how to accomplish this.
Plans for next week are to research more about transmitting and receiving sensor data, as well as finding a way to overlay that data on the video. I also already have the microcontroller and can start testing the EagleTree air speed sensor we found in the team room.
Airy 3g Mini Camera http://www.helipal.com/airy-3g-mini-camera.html
Boscam Tx/Rx http://www.helipal.com/boscam-5-8ghz-fpv-system-500mw.html
Air Speed https://store.3drobotics.com/products/airspeed-kit-with-mpxv7002dp
GPS http://www.adafruit.com/products/746
Microcontroller Tx/Rx http://www.instructables.com/id/RF-315433-MHz-Transmitter-receiver-Module-and-Ardu/
Microcontroller http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?Prod=CHIPKIT-MAX32
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