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Attendance
Not Attending
key people who aren’t here
Mechanical
Weight Concerns
Evan
Just under 4 kg (~3.8 kg including batteries off the top of my head) without the empennage, rear landing gear, and all electronics (servos etc)
It is possible to shave some weight off the airframe by shrinking the size of the plates down as the bottom one is not only being used for batteries
Just need some extra space to move batteries to properly align center of gravity at 1/3 of the airfoil
If weight becomes major issues, can remove one battery until other weight saving efforts could be made
make POR be one battery
can redesign fuselage around this
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Wing Manufacturing Concerns
Evan
Depending on challenge of manufacturing the wings,
crashes could be very detrimental in having to do repairs
time consuming process
Will learn more about MonoKote as we use it more, which will give us a greater understanding of the positives and negatives of this method
WatArrow already did a lot of the trial and error and shifted to foam and carbon fiber tube
(from meeting Nathaniel Li had with them)
foam is heavier
If we aren’t able to successfully manufacture the wings using current method, do we want a backup option that could be done?
Nathaniel’s thoughts:
Having a backup in mind is good, lots to choose from like fabric and foam board so we’d continue using the same ribs
Oratex is a fabric with adhesive (apply similarly to MonoKote) but doesn’t shrink as much so manufacturing might be easier
Nathaniel
Emailed wat arrow to borrow their iron, i believe it is in the bay now but haven’t gotten a chance to go and take a look
Keep this in the back shelf against wall right shelf bottom right corner next to / behind the power supplies
Trial (after midterms?) using 3 ribs → Do in bay
Wing design
Nathaniel
Ailerons
2 designs I will be reviewing
LE and TE covers
3d prints will most likely melt when applying MonoKote, looking into a balsa piece instead
Tasks for spar weight saving, GPS mounting and pitot tube mounting at mech meeting
Empennage
Horizontal stabilizer done. Vertical stabilizer and elevator in progress.
Designing a ‘junction’ to which the HT and VT will attach to. 2 dowel rods for each HT and VT.
May need to revisit thoughts on a steerable rear wheel
Joshua (watarrow lead) said steerable rear wheel is kind of troll because when a tail dragger reaches high speeds on the ground, the tail lifts up a little due to lift generated in the wings
I believe he said they are going to try to make the front landing gear steerable
this means rear wheel will not be in contact w/ the ground, rendering a controllable rear wheel useless. If this is the case then it’s probably not worth the effort to make a steerable landing gear
daniel
steerable gear is only for low speed when the rudder isn’t effective
Keep it steerable for now.
Final mech designed review to be conducted on November 2, 2024 before manufacturing starts
Either the 2nd or 9th but planning for the 2nd.
Look into compass on the V.T.
same for servo module mounting in the tail
think about the wire runs
Avionics
Required Boards
6S Servo Module Status
making new rev for midterm board order
Rev 1 does not work due to buck design issues
unable to validate PWR and firmware
EFS reviewed pinout, will implement changes on Rev 2
November 1st trying to order
check with firmware to check everything
will give us an assembled board maybe on December sixth
Single Servo Driver Status
both sides assembled
one side needs rework for neopixelsNeopixels
will validate power sometime this week, else after midterms.
can to pwm
shooting for something functional before finals?
AP_PERIPH seems like path forward for
https://warg.365.altium.com/designs/DFA92F42-21FC-4CDF-83E5-0DB94E84ABC7#design
Optional Boards Status
6S Power Module
not yet assembled
Not priority, new revs on midterm order for tracking antenna first.
Likely making as we wait for midterm board order to come
Redundant Pixhawk Power Supply
Almost done routing, getting eyes on it from Kevin, full review soon
On track for midterm board order (Tentative Nov 1)
Will have to wait for midterm boards to come and then assemble, since not first priority on that order will likely not made soon.
Firmware Status
Have we successfully flashed things with AP_PERIPH?
not yet but seems like path forward
Will the eclipse boards be faced with the PB0 challenges as well?
Firmware needs to request changes now if they’re needed.
EFS leads should follow up on this
Timeline
Are we doing a copper bird as a way to pre-emptively start on wiring and Pixhawk Configuration?
to test the new sensors and new CAN hardware will be nice
all the other power stuff we already know
early into next term seems ready
Are we too busy with competition stuff to continue the current eclipse timelines?
Review what I have in Asana.
Stick with current timelines
Manufacturing and ground testing timeline thoguhts?Review what I have in Asana. thoughts?
On track
need to see how much manufacturing we’ll get done in November
Piloting
Need to select a pilot and start training regiment
Simulator time initially
foam planes with no autopilot that work well should be built
practice line of sight flying mostly
Daniel Puratich has de-assigned pilot for maiden role because POR seems to be maiden flight during W25 when I will be offsite.
Manasva Katyal put forward by Hardy
was an FTC
actual fixed wing pilot
Daniel Puratich to approach about trainning and availability
Jerry Tian interested
will be here next t
what do we want to do with the fixed wing before comp 2025?
Maybe a bit early to be asking the question, but I guess if we're pushing to get maiden done is the reason just to ensure we can all focus on peggy 2 leading up to comp or is it because we wanna try to make more changes and improvements on it before vtol stuff?
I am really hoping with the fixed wing we can discover most of the problems/challenges with it just being on the ground.
Airfoil will be the big one we cant test on the ground i guess eh?
Maiden flight should prolly include an autotune imo. Integrating autonomy system seems excessive.
All electronics are for sure ground testable (hence me pushing for a copper bird type setup now).
The strapdown test will be nice here to prove out the power train
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