/
2024-09-21 Pegasus 2 Maiden Flight

2024-09-21 Pegasus 2 Maiden Flight

Owned by Nathan Green
Last updated: 2024-09-21 by Daniel Puratich
6 min read

 

Requesting team: Directors

Items TBD:

  • Test Procedures/Test Cards

Sections for flightline team to fill out:

  • Incident Procedures, communication preferences.

  • Test Cards

Admin Preparation

Flight test approved

Requested By

@Nathan Green

Sub-Team Review

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

Mechanical
Electrical
EFS
Autonomy
Operations

Date of Request

Sep 7, 2024

Goal Summary

Successfully fly Pegasus 2 without major incidents

Validate that all sensors and peripherals are working correctly

Evaluate tune and potentially retune

Status?

status:In PROGRESS

Desired Airframe

Pegasus 2

Desired Date(s)

September 21st 2024

Testplan - to be filled out by requesting team

  • Notes

    • motor direction and order check → good to do because maiden voyage

    • stab hover

    • tuning? → maybe not neccessary, will need to retune in the future anyways so …

    • loiter, check all sensors worky, full throttle n pitch

    • proof of flight cannot be done yet because needs to be comp configuration

    • mavlink elrs range test?

    • up the loiter max speed (so we dont have to do that first time at comp agqin)

    • we should fly till we run outta batts, be nice to get flight time, we only have two sets, good to build flight hours on the frame

 

Create ONE table per test-item. Eg: “Landing pad images over asphalt”, “landing pad images over grass”, “landing pad images over grass, high” should all be unique tables.

Use each expand to capture one series of tests, eg “Landing pad detection” or “Auto-tuning”.

 

Test 1 - Systems check on ground

Procedure

Goals / Objectives

Knockoff criteria

  1. Visually inspect connections, measure main power input with multimeter to ensure no shorts

  • Verify drone is safe to plug in

  • Shorts found anywhere

  • Airframe defects that will affect flight performance

  1. Power up Pegasus 2 and TX16S. Power up video receiver station and monitor(s).

 

 

  1. Verify connections (RC and Telem, same RX/TX)

  • RC and telemetry are working

 

  1. Check compasses, motor directions, optical flow, lidar values, voltage and current readout, signal strength

  • Ensure all sensors and peripherals are working

 

  1. Check cameras

  • Verify FPV working

 

  1. Calibrate compass, accelerometer

 

 

Test 1 - Pilot control check/in-air systems check

Procedure

Goals / Objectives

knock-off criteria

  1. Set mode to Stabilize

 

 

  1. Arm drone

 

 

  1. Gradually increase throttle and watch for any oscillations

  • Ensure tune is good enough to fly

  • Severe oscillations

  • Very poor flight performance

  1. Hover in stabilize

 

 

  1. Try all axes (pitch, roll, yaw) and ensure Pegasus 2 is relatively stable during these motions

  • Smooth movement in all axes

  • No clipping, EKF stays below yellow threshold

  • No compass errors

  • Severe oscillations

  • Yellow/red EKF

  • Compass errors (not including on takeoff)

  • Any failsafes

  • Gyro/accel drift

  • Gyro/accel clipping

  1. Full stick deflection test in each axis

  • Smooth movement

  • Responsive control

  • Oscillations

  • EKF issues

  • Compass issues

  • Any failsafes

  • Gyro/accel drift

  • Gyro/accel clipping

  1. Fly for at least 3 minutes to generate sufficient data to run MAGFit

  • Fly around for 3+ minutes

  • Oscillations

  • EKF issues

  • Compass issues

  • Any failsafes

  • Gyro/accel drift

  • Gyro/accel clipping

  1. Land, run MAGFit, apply parameters

 

 

Test 2 - Loiter test

Procedure

Goals / Objectives

knock-off criteria

  1. Set mode to Loiter

 

 

  1. Arm drone

 

 

  1. Gradually increase throttle and watch for any oscillations

 

  • Severe oscillations

  • Very poor flight performance

  1. Let the drone hover at ~5m altitude with no stick inputs

  • Position is stable

  • No oscillations

  • Severe oscillations

  • Yellow/red EKF

  • Compass errors (not including on takeoff)

  • Any failsafes

  • Gyro/accel drift

  • Gyro/accel clipping

  1. Verify that all sensors are working

  • All installed sensors give reasonable outputs

  • A sensor isn’t working

  1. Test each axis

  • Smooth movement

  • Responsive control

  • Oscillations

  • EKF issues

  • Compass issues

  • Any failsafes

  • Gyro/accel drift

  • Gyro/accel clipping

  1. Full stick deflection

  • No oscillations

  • No tune issues when braking

  • Oscillations

  • EKF issues

  • Compass issues

  • Any failsafes

  • Gyro/accel drift

  • Gyro/accel clipping

  1. Land

 

 

Test 3 - Autotune

Procedure

Goals / Objectives

knock-off criteria

  1. Ensure autotune is configured on controller

 

 

  1. Set mode to Loiter

 

 

  1. Arm and take off

 

 

  1. Hover

 

 

Explain what capacity you need, what needs to be mounted, etc.

Necessary items:

  • Pegasus 2

  • Controller

  • Video receiver monitor

  • Video ground station

  • Batteries

 

Flight characteristics needed:

Comms / Support needed:

Attendees

This is a section for all attendees from your subteam which will be present for this flight test. (because they are testing their products, or otherwise)

Name

Phone #

Sub-team

Role

Name

Phone #

Sub-team

Role

@Nathan Green

 

 

  • Pilot

@Daniel Puratich

 

 

  • vibes

@Sam Zhang

 

 

  • FTC

@Alison Thompson

 

Mechanical

Mech lead

@Georgia Westerlund

 

 

Exec Director

@Evan Janakievski

 

Mechanical

Attendee

@Andrew Chai

 

Electrical

Attendee

@Meghan Dang

 

EE

  • vibes

 

 

 

 

@Megan Spee

 

 

  • CAR

  • media and vibes

This section and remaining to be filled out by FTC and Flightline Team

Flightline Team

Name

Phone #

Role

Reason

Name

Phone #

Role

Reason

Nathan Green

 

Pilot

Fly the drone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-Flight Preparation

Checklists

  • Software configuration correct

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

  • LTE tested

  • Autopilot Orientation checked

  • Motors tested

  • Prop direction check

  • 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)

    • Specific requirement from @Daniel Puratich

      • no exposed pad without solder on ESC caps

        • i did this on peggy 2

        • someone will need to do with peggy 1

      • ESCs all have a touch of hot glue to secure cap to board

    • 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

  • Batteries in safety bag

  • Equipment

    • Zip tie

    • duck tape

    • label maker

    • Type c cable

    • ELRS Gemini

    • Saleae Logic Analyzer

    • charged WARG laptop

    • spare bag for small electronics

    • controller box

      • two controller

      • battery tester

    • VTX box

  • execute

 

Total 5 main system checked:

  • Power system(battery and connection)

  • Propulsion system(motor and propeller)

  • Controller system(Control links and ground station system)

  • Sensory system(sensors)

  • Video system (VTX)

 

  • Debrief

  • clean / store equipment if necessary

Incident Procedures

Flight Test Timeline

Date/Time

Action

Notes

 

Date/Time

Action

Notes

 

8:30

Batt Charging Started

 

 

10:00

Meet in bay

 

 

10:45

Left for wrestrc

 

 

11:00

Started setup and calibration

 

 

12:16

Flights start

 

 

1:30

Flight test complete

 

 

 

 

 

 

2pm

debrief starts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flight test debrief report

 

Card 1 Test 1: Ground Setup

Flight planning

  •  

Flight test card requirements/objectives Performance

  •  

Control performance & payload situation

  • pixhawk is correct

  • motor order

  • motor direction

Identified issue

  • Compasses disappeared after calibration

    • suspected this was due to copying all parameters directly from Pegasus 1

    • Had to reset all parameters to fix it

    • spent a while trying to make this all work

  • AHRS orientation was wrong initially

  • Motor layout ABCD was wrong

    • arms need to be unlabelled

  • Compass orientations did not set correctly

Issue need to be RCA

  •  

 

Card 2 Test 1: Takeoff in stabilize

Flight planning

  •  

Flight test card requirements/objectives Performance

  • Stable flight

  • No failsafes or errors

Control performance & payload situation

  • Flew smoothly, no visible oscillations

    • always some oscillations on the ground

Identified issue

  • Compass orientation was still incorrect, re-calibrated compasses to fix issue

Issue need to be RCA

  •  

 

Card 2 Test 2: Loiter for magfit

Flight planning

  •  

Flight test card requirements/objectives Performance

  •  

Control performance & payload situation

  • went fine

Identified issue

  •  

Issue need to be RCA

  •  

 

Card 2 Test 3: Autotune

Flight planning

  •  

Flight test card requirements/objectives Performance

  •  

Control performance & payload situation

  • went smoothly, completed no errors on all axes

  • default aggressiveness

  • didn’t have to change batts for the whole test

Identified issue

  •  

Issue need to be RCA

  •  

 

Related content