2024-03-23 Comp Sim #1

Owned by Anthony Luo
Last updated: 2024-03-24 by Megan Spee
7 min read

Pegasus Ready. Comp Pilots secured.

Requesting team: Leads/Directors/Comp 24 team

Items TBD:

  • Location (need 1.5km stretch where we can maintain VLOS)

  • Communication protocol for maintaining VLOS

  • Batteries avail

Admin Preparation

Requested By

Anthony Luo

Sub-Team Review

(To be checked once reviewed by sub-team representative)

Mechanical
Electrical
EFS
Autonomy
Operations

Date of Request

Mar 17, 2024

Goal Summary

Full competition program w/competition operator

+ Any auxilliary data to be accumulated on Houston

Status?

Approved

Desired Airframe

Pegasus

Desired Date(s)

March 23/24.

Testplan - to be filled out by requesting team

Task 1 - Endurance

Procedure

Goals / Objectives

Failure criteria

  1. Turn on drone

 

 

  1. Upload mission

 

 

  1. Bring drone to flightline

 

 

  1. Enable logging

 

 

  1. Cycle through MUX screens, check VTX is good, all health on sensors is good

 

 

  1. Arm in auto.

 

 

  1. Drone flies to waypoints down runway

  • Have data for our control link information in low-rf noise environment.

  • Make sure that connection is stable, both video, lte, and control link.

 

  1. Wait for auto RTL!

 

VBatt below 3.3v/cell (39.6V overall) safety threshold: 40V

  • QLAND immediately, disarm when landed.

  • Recover drone & gather state of batteries

Lost link

  • Follow lost link procedures. Maintain vlos if possible.

  • Contact necessary local authorities.

 

 

 

 

Task 2 - Waypoints and Landing - DELAYED

Procedure

Goals / Objectives

Failure criteria

  1. Turn on drone

 

 

  1. Upload mission

 

 

  1. Bring drone to flightline

 

 

  1. Arm in auto

 

 

  1. Run through waypoints in auto mission

  • Ensure that drone is following flight path

  • Ensure that flight line team is communicating with ATC properly.

VBatt below 3.3v/cell (39.6V overall) safety threshold: 40V

  • QLAND immediately, disarm when landed.

  • Recover drone & gather state of batteries

Lost link

  • Follow lost link procedures. Maintain vlos if possible.

  • Contact necessary local authorities.

  1. Wait for drone to auto-land on landing pad!

  • Ensure this occurs within 60 seconds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Test 3

Procedure

Goals / Objectives

Failure criteria

  1. Create Harness of PX1122r as rover

The receiver is able to transmit NMEA messages

 

  1. Use GNSS viewer to connect it to AVRIL NTRIP Clustor

We can see the recevier getting RTCM correction data and GNSS viewer going from DGPS mode to RTK float mode

 

  1. Observer for an RTK Fix mode

GNSS viewer shows the RTK fix if its able to get rfs from 8 satellites split accross 4 quadrants

 

 

Necessary items:

  • Pegasus w/competition kit

    • rpi + full camera suite + cabin + humans

      • cv camera + 3 fpv cameras. One forward (neutral, maybe slightly down), One forward (up), One down.

Flight characteristics needed:

  • Most efficient speed est. 18m/s

  •  

Comms / Support needed:

  • Visual observers + chase vehicle for the drone

Attendees

Name

Phone #

Sub-team

Role

Name

Phone #

Sub-team

Role

@Megan Spee

 

Director

Media, transportation

@Nathan Green

 

Tech Director

PIC

@Yuchen Lin

 

EFS

PIC

@Aidan Bowers (Deactivated)

 

Advisor

Observation/Support

@Ayush Ganguly

 

EFS

Testing RTK GPS

@Andy Meng

 

 

Observer

Flightline Team

Name

Phone #

Role

Reason

Name

Phone #

Role

Reason

@Yuchen Lin

 

PIC

 

@Nathan Green

 

PIC

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-Flight Preparation

Checklists

Software configuration correct

  • Compare against latest baselines and verify no params changed, or changes approved by comp-ft-team

  • Autopilot Orientation checked

  • Motors tested

  • Sensors outputs healthy & within range

  • Controller input mappings correct

  • Controller input choices correct for pilot preferences

  • Wireless trainer tested & working per pilot preferences.

Hardware (wiring)

  • Wires are not too tight or too loose (comfortable, not strained, not flapping around)

    • No cut/exposed wires

    • Shrouding is neat + presentable

    • Solder joints look good

      • no cracks

      • no corrossion

      • no exposed contacts (unless expected)

    • Connectors fully plugged in

    • Connectors in good health

Hardware (airframe)

  • Bolts secure (nothing loose)

    • Carbon fiber not cracked

    • 3D prints not failing / crushed / cracked

    • No loose items

Hardware (groundstation)

  • ELRS Gemini tested & Working

    • Logging correct

    • Data looks correct

    • Control tower tested & working

  • Tracking antenna x2 (control + video) (mechanical)

    • Servos secure

    • Hardware (antennas) secure

    • No cracks/bends/chips in polycarb/aluminum

    • Gears / shafts look healthy

    • Grease if necessary

  • Tracking antenna x2 (control + video) (electrical)

    • Electrical components secure

    • Power delivery / signal wires secure, no cracks/corrosion/damage

  • Video System

    • goggles(?)

    • Monitors(?)

    • Video tower tested & working

  • Laptop w/mission planner configured correctly.

    • LTE Link tested working

Flightline Kit

  • Spare motors

  • Spare props

  • Spare tools

    • Metric allen keys

    • Socket set

    • Pliers (flatnose + needle nose)

  • USB-C cable (short & long)

  • Soldering iron + heat shrink + spare cables

  • Power supplies for ground station computer

  • Ground station computer

  • Spare bolts

  • Radio Controllers

  • Mission plan clear

  • flightline roles assigned

  • Communication hierarchy established

  • Incident procedures & roles in-place & briefed to all flightline team members

  • Timeline for day-of clear

  • Battery charging plan, equipment management plan clear.

  • Transportation clear

Incident Procedures

Flight Test Timeline

Date/Time

Action

Notes

Date/Time

Action

Notes

9:15

Briefing @ WARG Bay

 

9:45

Arrival at Flight Test Location

about 5 cm of snow on entire skid pad

10:15

Flight Test Card #1 - Efficiency/Endurance, 3 Waypoints

 

Flight 0 - couple hundred meters. Used blue controller. Took off, LTE dropped out after 5 seconds. Ended up returning to home - first flew up to 100 meters ~ 200 meters away to hit the first waypoint, then the 45 second no-telemetry count down kicked in.

waypointnavspeed set to 18m/s. Actually flew at ~ 30m/s.

Switched to RFDs.

Flight 1 - 1.2 km total flight. all fully autonomous through mission planner. Took turns a little hard. When returning, flew over the firefighter zone. Fixed this for the next flyover.

10:25

 

Flight 2 - 1.2 km total flight. same as previous. Did not fly over firefighters.

10:45

 

Flight 3 - 1.2 km total flight.

Had to check battery health immediately following this. Battery failsafed about 10 meters off the ground, tried to land, Nathan took over on the blue TX manually. Had to hit full throttle immediately after taking control just to stop the drone from falling. Batteries visibly sagged very hard and drone had a slightly rough landing (not a free fall, just a slow drop) from about 2 meters.

Can be seen in IMG_1496 March 23 - OneDrive (sharepoint.com)

10:50

Flight test card 3 - RTK GPS checks

 

Took ~ 5-10 minutes. Got a hold.

11:30

Debrief

Below

 

 

 

 

 

 

DEBRIEF

 

 

Card #1 Debrief

Flew 4 flights total.

Flight #1

Took off in typical configuration, experienced GS Lost Link after ~ 5 seconds. Continued mission until first waypoint, and then failsafed into RTL.

LTE was swapped for RFD900’s.

Flight #2

1.2km total flight

 

<<< to be updated >>>>

 

Action items

  • Reset the LTE module because current settings made it worse

  • made a board that switches RFD to LTE

    • takes PWM input

    • Do we have GPIO? -@aidan

      • if so we can just use this to switch transmission

    • Can we just measure RSSI?

      • LTE doesn’t report a RSSI.

      • need a LUA script to say ‘if disconnected' check after 20 sec and if still disconnected, switch over.

      • This should be ok for comp because control is still connected. ELRS.

 

  • check ground speed when ardu is set to 10 m/s (this time, it was set to 18 - at another flight test, if we have time)

 

  • wire lengths helped with video but didn’t help OSD cutting out

    • either shield it more or use a capacitor.

    • Use coax? @Aidan Bowers (Deactivated)

OSD overlay disappears when the drone is armed? @Ayush Ganguly @Nathan Green

  • do the ESCs have something to do with this

  • check that OSD isn’t being disabled (channel 5 lmao) at the same time as the arm switch

    • this is probably the case

 

For next flight test:

  • set behavior of battery failsafe to land (second failsafe) @Nathan Green

  • @Nathan Green Replace the RPI with an old phone.

    • Actually decreases by 80 grams.

  • Change OSD switch from channel 5 to something else.

  • Figure out how to capture DVR from the cameras.

 

Mission planner graphs

image-20240323-154839.png
Batteries cooked