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Zero-Pilot 3.0 Project

Overview- Daniel Puratich (Unlicensed)

ZeroPilot 3.0 ( ZP3 ) is our custom in house flight controller board! The project’s latest version can be found on our Altium 365, here. For access to WARG’s Altium 365, please message Daniel Puratich (Unlicensed).

The flight controller will have input interfaces from sensors, computer vision’s computer system, and our drone’s ground communication system. Zeropilot 3.0 will be able to output control signals to all flight control surfaces aka motors/servos on the UAS (unmanned aerial system). The board will use a microcontroller which firmware will use to execute our flight logic.

Weekly architecture meeting have been held in late May and early June to make major decisions with the firmware team, see here for notes. Overall the project has been broken down into five sections designed for ownership by one or a small group of electrical members. These sections are defined below along with their owners.

For all custom EE flight hardware, including ZP3: mounting holes should be 3.400mm and with 6.000mm plating, electrically not connected.

Timeline

The timeline for this project is reflected in architecture section on Confluence as well and is as follows:

  • June 23rd - July 12th: Schematic Design

  • July 12th: Schematic Review Date

  • July 12th: Schematic lock

  • July 12th - July 26th: PCB Design

  • July 26th: PCB Review

  • July 31st: Order PCB

  • Early F22 assemble boards with reflow and get them to firmware! Hopefully end of september!

ZP3 Arm/Disarm Controller Board - Michael Botros Daniel Puratich (Unlicensed)

The goal of the remote board is to contain a buzzer, button, LED, and a connector to connect directly to our custom flight controller board. This board will act as an Arm/Disarm controller and provide basic diagnostic information. The goal is to be small and capable of being placed anywhere on the drone for ease of access. Components should only be on one side of the board and through hole components should be avoided if possible to increase ease of mounting anywhere on the drone.

The buzzer of ZP3 needs to be able to produce primitive beep codes. The buzzer should be drivable by a standard TIM microcontroller pin (in essence, a PWM signal). A decision matrix should be developed for deciding upon the optimal buzzer that is easily drivable and meets size requirements.

The button on ZP3 needs to be small and reliable and be capable of sending a signal that can be read by a GPIO on ZP3. A capacitor footprint should be left on the button’s output signal in case we run into issues with debouncing.

The onboard LED should be relatively bright (~15mA) and drivable from a FET or BJT controlled by a microcontroller or the microcontroller of ZP3 itself. The reason for this is we want the light to be visible in daylight and from a distance

Research and an accompanying decision matrix should be developed needs to be done in choosing an optimal locking connector that is small and secure so that it can be used on this controller board and the ZeroPilot 3.0 board. The circuits of the board should be optimized to require the minimum amount of pins on the connector to minimize board space.

Research/consideration should be given to the necessity of ESD (electro-static discharge) protection and fuses on our connections.

ZP3 ADC Page - Darwin Clark

ZeroPilot 3.0 will have an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) integrated circuit (IC).

The ADC will be passing it’s digital output via a communication protocol to the microcontroller. The microcontroller we selected does not have enough precision on it’s ADC to an external ADC is required.

The ADC will receive input from onboard current & voltage sensors as necessity is determined by whoever is working on the PWR Page of ZP3. The ADC will also have some analog inputs broken out to connectors to receive input from some offboard analog sensors. Sensor could be a pitotube, pressure sensor, or temperature sensors. These exact external sensors will be decided on at a later time, but at least three ADC pins should be broken out (brought to the IO page of ZP3) to accommodate them. In summary the ADC needs to support at least 4 ADC pins, a few extra is fine.

Firmware driver for the chosen ADC IC should be fairly simple, potentially confer with firmware to ensure the chosen ADC is easy to work with. ADC should be 16 bit precision, though, if an argument can be made for a less precise alternative I think that will be fine as long as the drift is low. A decision matrix for IC selection should be completed before work on schematic begins.

ZP3 MCU Page - Daniel Puratich (Unlicensed)

The microcontroller page of ZeroPilot 3.0 will handle all of our communication protocols and connections to the microcontroller we selected, STM32L562ZET6Q (datasheet, digikey) . The sheet will contain the reset circuit(with physical SMD button with the assumption that we desolder for flight), high speed external clock (HSE) 8MHz, and decoupling capacitors (0603)(datasheet pg 143), ferrite beads for power input(not called for in datasheet but will be important since our power is coming from a switching regulator).

ZP3 IO Page - Daniel Puratich (Unlicensed)

This page will contain all the connectors used on the board and basic ESD protections as necessary (fuses will be handled in PWR page) (TVS diodes?). Connectors will have a matching footprint for connectors that are easy to work with and connectors that are locking for flight.

ZP3 PWR Page - Ethan Abraham

Needs to be written up in more detail - Daniel Puratich (Unlicensed)

This page will contain our power regulation, buck converters, and fuse holders for managing input, MCU, & output power on ZP3. Regardless of power architecture, which will be decided soon (tm), board will need to 5V to 3V3 buck converter with low ripple since 3V3 will be used to power microcontroller.

5V-3.3V Buck Converter

  • Input Voltage = 5V

  • Output Voltage = 3.3V

  • Maximum Load Current = 500mA

ZP3 Buck Converter Primary: 12S to 3S battery input voltage to 5V rail output (500mA at 5V max current): https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/analog-devices-inc-maxim-integrated/MAX5033DASA/1513639 ZP3 Buck Converter Secondary: 5V rail input to 3V3 rail output (250mA at 3V3 max current): https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/TPS563201DDCR/5808204

Power Distribution Architecture

Research Topics

Centralized vs. Split Power Distribution Architecture

  • Research advantages and disadvantages of a centralized power distribution architecture versus a split power distribution architecture with multiple duplicated voltage rails (5V, 12V, 24V, etc.)

Buck Converter or Buck Boost Converter. What about Buck-Boost Converters?

  • Research advantages and disadvantages between using a buck converter versus a boost converter to generate a desired voltage rail (Ex. if I need to make a low power consumption rail of 24V, and I have both a 12V and a 50V rail, should I use a buck converter to step down 50V to 24V? Or, should I use a boost converter to step up 12V to 24V?

  • In what applications should we use buck-boost converters?

Buck Converter Sourcing

  • Research a list of manufacturers, suppliers with available in stock buck converter ICs

Optional Current Sense Interface

  • Should the connector interface for optional current sense of the voltage regulator buck converter PCB modules be V_sense+ and V_sense-, or I_sense and GND? That is, should the buck converter PCBs send the raw Kelvin-sensed signals to a connector, or should the PCBs have a dedicated current sense amplifier from which the output and GND is sent to a connector?

Buck Converter Projects

12V-5V @ 3A Buck Converter Board - Nolan Haines Neel Bullywon

  • 12V-5V Synchronous Buck Converter PCB @ 3A Max Load Current Consumption (15W)

  • I/O:

    • Input Voltage Connector

      • +12V

      • GND

    • Output Voltage Connectors (2x)

      • +5V

      • GND

    • Current Sense Connector

      • V_sense+ and V_sense-, or:

      • I_sense and GND

  • Features:

    • 12V-5V Buck Converter @ 3A

    • Reverse Polarity Protection

    • Status LEDs for both +12V and +5V voltage rails

    • Optional current sense interface

  • Dimensions:

    • 15mm x 25mm

    • No vertical design constraints

24V-12V @ 2A Buck Converter Board - Seungmin Hong

  • 24V-12V Synchronous Buck Converter PCB @ 2A Max Load Current Consumption (24W)

  • I/O:

    • Input Voltage Connector

      • +24V

      • GND

    • Output Voltage Connectors (3x)

      • +12V

      • GND

    • Current Sense Connector

      • V_sense+ and V_sense-, or:

      • I_sense and GND

  • Features:

    • 24V-12V Buck Converter @ 2A

    • Reverse Polarity Protection

      • Determine for given PMOS selection if conduction power loss is acceptable. If unacceptable, consult your leads to discuss compromising solutions

    • Status LEDs for both +24V and +12V voltage rails

    • Optional current sense interface

    • Should also be able to provide 5A @ 3A with the change of a few passives

  • Dimensions:

    • 20mm x 30mm

    • No vertical design constraints

50V-24V @2A Buck Converter Board - Ethan Abraham

  • (12S) 50V-24V Synchronous Buck Converter PCB @2A Max Load Current Consumption (48W)

  • I/O:

    • Input Voltage Connector

      • (12S) +36V to +50.4V

      • GND

    • Output Voltage Connector (3x)

      • +24V

      • GND

    • Current Sense Connector

      • V_sense+ and V_sense-, or:

      • I_sense and GND

  • Features:

    • 50V-24V Buck Converter @ 2A

    • Status LEDs for both +50V and +24V voltage rails

    • Optional current sense interface

    • Should also be able to provide 12V @ 2A if needed with the change of a few passives

  • Dimensions:

    • 25mm x 35mm

    • No vertical design constraints

+5V USB - 24V @0.25A Boost Converter PCB - Darwin Clark

  • +5V USB - Max. 24V Synchronous Boost Converter PCB @0.25A Max Load Current Consumption (6W)

  • I/O:

    • Input Voltage USB Connector (we only care about the following pins really):

      • +5V

      • GND

    • Output Voltage Connector

      • Up to +24V

      • GND

    • Features:

      • 5V-Max. 24V Boost Converter @ 0.25A

      • Status LEDs for both +5V and Max. +24V voltage rails

    • Note:

      • Output voltage should be easily adjustable.

RF Communications Emulator Project

RF Communications Emulator PCB - Unassigned

  • Daniel Puratich (Unlicensed) Define requirements for this project in more detail before assigning it.

  • I/O (Still TBD):

    • Programming & Debugging Header

    • +5V & GND somehow? Could be through USB-Serial Converter Interface

    • PPM Outputs

  • Features:

    • STM MCU

    • PPM outputs

    • Programming/Debugging Interface and LEDs

  • Requirements from Firmware’s perspective : Comms Emulator Board - Requirements

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