Page Comparison

Ground station

All

• Mission Planner

• IMACS 2.0

• Pathing

Electrical development

Electrical

Altium

Mechanical development

Mechanical

Solidworks

Groundside compute

Autonomy

• Airside system

Operating System

• OS can be installed separately from the manufacturer (in fact, recommended to do so to avoid bloatware)

Windows

Mission Planner is Windows only.

CPU

i7 gen >= 10

GPU

ideally a discrete GPU, not mandatory

RAM

>=16GBGood enough to run ground station software, more performance is better if possible.

Additional flexibility for usage beyond ground station.

GPU

None.

Not mandatory.

RAM

• Additional memory can be installed separately if it is non soldered

>=16GB, more is better if possible.

8GB is not enough, we can always buy RAM sticks to upgrade though

Storage

>=256 GB

We can back up stuff to external drives

IO

TODO: USB-A, USB-C, HDMI, Ethernet, SD card, microSD card???

USB-C and USB-A is mandatoryadditional flexibility for usage beyond ground station.

Storage

• Additional storage can be installed separately

>=256GB, more is better.

Additional flexibility for usage beyond ground station.

IO

Multiple USB-A at minimum, more is better.

You remembered to bring the dongle, right? No? Crap.

We have WARG has SD card and HDMI adapters to USB-A, not sure about HDMI to USB or USB-A to USB-C.

Screen brightness

ideally 400 nits>=350 nits, more is better.

Ground station is outside, potentially in the sun.(for reference

• Reference:

  • Stood outside with a 350 nit laptop, somewhat visible when not in direct sunlight

  • M2 Air is 500 nits and it’s really bright

Screen size

>=13 inches, larger is better.

Surface area to see information.

Touch Screen

noNone.

Not mandatory.

Battery life

• Please note that a manufacturer’s advertized battery life is a lie, so divide their number by 3 when comparing to this requirement

• Most of the other requirements trade off with battery life (e.g. more powerful GPU will drain it faster, brighter screen will drain it faster)

>= 3 hours, longer is better.

• This requirement can be dropped if a large external battery is purchased

Ground station may not have access to power during flight tests.

flight Flight tests rarely go longer than 2 iirc hours and comp competition flight windows (even stretched) is max 1 hour.

• Competition also has power on ground.

Weight

Not too important

light is better but low prioNone, lighter is better if possible.

Not being carried for long distances.

Durability

Survive regular transportation to non city indoor environments.

Ground station is outside.

Expected lifespan

>=3 years, longer is better.

3-5 years is standard for a laptop (we’ll probably end up using it for longer).