Friday May 6, 2022

Pre-Comp

• Verified individual components before flight

  • (unit level), did not have any system level integration with everything on the drone.

Friday May 6th, 2022 : Testing flight ?

• Testing flight

• Supposed to be an overall systems check

• Changed battery wiring harness ~ 2 hours before flight test began

• Did not check battery wiring harness with flight batteries.

• On flight field, battery & harness did not match

• ^ causes delays in flight

• Logging not super useful without glonass/gnss/inss data (all we see is the delayed baud rate of attitude and error messages).

• Need better video transmission system - openhd was not at all good enough (too much latency) 

• General lack of preparedness // not meeting timelines to have integration ready

• Also, gps data influenced by the harnessing -> spent time wiring / harnessing

• Had issues with not properly testing motor orientations before testing

  • Drone literally sent itself into the ground.

• ESC Blew up?

  • Not sure what happened: working theory is that exposed wire shorted to ground and blew up low voltage protection

Post-flight

• Team debriefed?

  • Highlighted issues

  • Highlighted solutions

  • Cost-benefit analysis of doing certain things? 

    • Eg could redo wiring harness -> will not since it works (more potential to f* things up)

    • Will rewire controls system and DShot signal cables to provide more clarity when debugging.

      • Will also tape and label motors

• Solutions presented for VTX issue: 

  • Lightbridge (need some electrical involvement to use) + Gopro

    • Fully off the shelf

    • Untested ?

    • To be reviewed

  • OpenHD + PiCam

    • High latency

    • Higher resolution

  • RunCam

    • Graciously donated by the UOFT

    • Unsure about operation at distance

    • Fairly low latency in tests?

    • Has many artifacts // lower resolution

• Solutions presented for harnessing issues:

  • TAPE, electrical tape

  • Proper distancing and insulation? 

  • Proper cable wiring to allow for easier debugging.

• Solutions presented for motor orientation issue

Main things

• Velcro is important

• Coat the frame so it’s not conductive

  • Or just measure frame conductivity and be very deliberate about hardware mounting

• Cases to allow for weatherproofing and protection from shorts

• Be more thorough about deciding/debating what to bring and not to bring to competition

• Check the paperwork….. (pineapples now belong on pizza)\

• Importance of harnessing and appropriate length cables

  • We completely overlooked our scuffed battery connections

  • Wires being everywhere caused problems with vectornav gps signal

• READS THE CONOPS

  • Specifically right after the CONOPS come out it would be nice to hold an all team “Strategy Meeting” to discuss how we want to approach the challenge as well as delegating critical tasks.

• Motor guards for safety and to save props

• AT LEAST 2x spares for everything (but ideally more)

  • It is very nice to be able to loan out equipment to other teams in need, favors go a long way!

• More flight testing!

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