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.

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

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!

More in-person collab (Set time where people from all subteams are in the bay)
- We’ve found talking more in person makes it waaay easier to get things done
Transparency regarding SDC rules and regulations
Better visibility as to the funding situation of the team
- I think this ties more into leads transparency, maybe making leads meetings open to anyone who’s interested?
- The funding situation and budgeting guidelines helps everyone make purchasing decisions and push our teams!
Starting a new “Integration subteam”
- Someone to coordinate how our system is integrated so subteams keep up with each other and feel less disjointed.
Stricter timeline that coordinates sub team and whole team goals so everyone is aware of progress/what’s being blocked
Build 2 drones so one can always be ready for flight test and other is developmental?