Mech

Electrical

New ELRS Hardware Project

• @Nolan Haines please do some research and put questions here to be addressed during the meeting, this meeting is a great time for integration discussions like this!

  • TABLED

6S ESC motor selection

• @Rayyan Mahmood 2023-2024 Motor Comparison Table

Using table to determine current on the drone. - these motors are too large for houston.

this is something that can be used on houston (3S)

tabled for right now

what is the current: 50 amp.

• keep at 50 amp - @Anthony Luo

we do need to buy more ESCs for houston

started a project - custom 6s ESC PCB

• will table for this meeting, needs more project scope discussion before

EFS

Wind Estimation

• Ardupilot feature to be enabled

logs analyzed in order to find propeller drag

Weathervaning?

• Potential feature to be tested.

  • maybe useful based on cabin shape?

looking at way cabin is mounted: yeah its the cabin size

not super critical

Mech

Houston Sensor Mounts

• This is 1D lidar (rangefinder), op flow?

• We will need to take the 1D lidar off pegasus in order to fly it on houston.

we do not need mount for 1D lidar for houston yet! - does not need to be on houston for this FT. Pegasus will have the 1D lidar.

Electrical

Houston Sensor Harnessing

• ^ see above.

Optical Flow (OFS)

same as pegasus harness

EFS

Houston Sensor Calibration

Specifically for houston

see if the issues with tuning pegasus are replicated on houston

~~ probably a few days before feb 10

• to be assigned out in tomorrows meeting/ talked about/ during work session

Autonomy

Mechanical

Mounting

VTX mount to be reviewed, forwards-facing camera mount ready to be printed.

• printer small difficulty, print in RPC or something

feb 10!

we have a VTX mount

we have a camera mount

Electrical

VTX harnessing

Same situation as opflow harnessing

just 3 wires

2nd from top drawer, yellow container, CADDX ? cameras.

• just one for now, don’t worry about video muxing

EFS

RC Controller Mapping

• 8 and 12 both have mode switching

• pink controller has a new arm switch (SE)

  • not functioning that well

  • will fix

Ardupilot Mux Output Config

mix the video on the drone to get multiple camera angles

• EFS flight test team thing

probably pretty easy (famous last words)

Ardupilot OSD Config

• Confer with pilots on preferences.

if OSD can be configured, we can do it (“bit of a pain to configure”)

EFS flight test team things

Autonomy

LTE Video?

Possible / ready to FT early march?

to be discussed next meeting!

Mech

Case can be done this weekend, but is not required

(Gemini board)

3D files from EE (linked above)
Step file is here: https://github.com/UWARG/hardware/blob/master/Projects/ELRS%20Gemini%20TX/STEP_%5BNo%20Variations%5D%20for%20ELRS%20Gemini%20TX.PcbDoc.step

Electrical

RFD Board

arriving later this week?

ELRS Gemini PCB

• soldering 3 more xt30 connectors

  • can be done tomorrow

  • Will be ready for EFS to test after this

CASE:

Gemini Enclosure Requirements

Fan is optional

Case can be done this weekend, but is not required

EFS

Gemini LinkStats

• Gemini linkstats not being passed through to TX16? (Only relay linkstats)

no progress update so far - looking to assign this out, asana is updated

Improved Streaming

• See Long Range Streaming by qqqlab · Pull Request #2113 · ExpressLRS/ExpressLRS · GitHub

• ELRS Airport is unable to give sufficient datarate for some of our ground station uses in it’s current state.

Not sure if this will be comp ready.

• either this, or buying for xbees for the tracking antenna - @Anthony Luo

Tracking antenna only needs position message? @Nathan Green

Anything special when forwarding it (to 2 different recievers - ZP and tracking ant?) not sure if able to send to both, maybe need different packages?

• usb to laptop to filter packages down to position

• instead of fwd’ing from MP have groundside pretend to be another device and only request position.

• either way need arduino on groundside.

does filtering need to be done on droneside? (@Xierumeng) no, only needs groundside. could probably build this into ELRS (built it into the radio) - @Anthony Luo

to follow up with auto/efs - @Anthony Luo

• cool if someone can work on stripping out all message except position.

  • from transmission side.

  • output over USB of JUST position. @Nathan Green

Autonomy

LTE

• LTE has been switched from Zerotier to a Mavlink forwarding server hosted on oracle cloud with a public IP.

• GCS failsafe works now when any part of the link disconnects

• LTE disconnects when flying at high speed.

  • This could be due to the antenna angle changing as the drone tilts, interference in the cell signal or USB cable caused by higher electrical noise when at higher throttle, or something else entirely.

  • It reconnects when the drone slows back down.

• I (@Nathan Green ) added an extension cable to one of the antennas and mounted it on a landing leg to see if that improves the signal. It keeps the antenna away from sources of noise on the top of the drone and the plates won’t block it when angled.

  • Will test this next flight test.

• Autonomy needs to make a script that logs LTE signal strength https://www.waveshare.net/w/upload/6/68/SIM7500_SIM7600_Series_AT_Command_Manual_V2.00.pdf (AT+CSQ) and operator (AT+COPS?) to a file for next flight test. This will help determine if it is an interferance issue, roaming issue, or something else. The modem could be trying to roam on another network and failing, and it would have to be forced to stay on one.

  • talked to @Maxwell Lou

  • would be nice to have “..to a file for next flight test. “ feb 10

script would run locally on Pi, log the commands from the modem to a text file.

Reach out to autonomy leads / in autonomy meeting about this. @Megan Spee

python script → output in serial →

Mech

Pegasus

Cabin is constructed and mounted on the drone, flew and tuned with it on Saturday.

Houston

Houston landing gear request via @Anthony Luo from jan 29

• couple times houston tips over when it lands

• requesting landing capability while in ‘slight translational motion’

re-made old landing gear to function for flight test!

new landing gear:

has not happened yet

• what flight weight does houston need to stay under?

  • @Megan Spee @Anthony Luo to find an answer (or do this properly)

  • either test this IRL or just pick a nice number

Electrical

LED Board

• @Parker Lawrence-Valeriani EFS handoff procedure?

  • this has been ordered (placed today)

• Anything I can do to make the handoff easier?

EFS just needs to test, no special requests (see below)

EFS

LED Board Firmware

• @Owen Grimm first the first prototype code for LED board

• Waiting for leads to do the PR

• Waiting for the chips to arrive to do bench test

Autonomy

Mech

Tracking Antenna Mechanical

Parts have been ordered. Sheet metal has been cut and bent. Plan is to build one first and then build the other. On track.

Electrical

Nucleo Shield

• @Nolan Haines @Michael Botros Please update this document with status and your questions (they can be answered async, ik u guys have work lol)

• Current status

  • Schematic done, board layout is close to being done.

  • There will be some changes to the overall board to make it smaller and more compact.

  • Currently rewriting all the documentation for the board for readability.

• Questions:

Check mechanical’s documentation on tracking antenna before proceeding!

If questions are not answered please Check arch doc/ offline submit to mechanical

• I basically wanna make sure tracking antenna PCB can support all of our ground station towers, is there a link or place with a list or block diagram of our different towers?

• Will tracking antenna have enough and all the proper connectors to support different peripherals on the tower?

• Currently for VTX tower, tracking antenna only supplies 12V power, is this all thats needed from tracking antenna or is more connectivity needed?

check again asynch - @Anthony Luo will look, wait until tomorrow 10 am approx

EFS

Arduino Tracking Antenna

• @Ayoung Eun @Aryan Kashem did the ground test on Sunday I think

• “The tracking antenna follows the altitude, failed to follow longitude and latitude

• Action task : fix the starting angle so it isn’t getting predetermined and test latitude and longitude“

getting breakout boards to make GPS testing(?) easier

reason for lat/long not following:

• code was getting GPS position immediately on boot and not continuously.

• meant the data is kinda meaningless?

• EFS to ‘wait for a certain # of satellites on the GPS before getting location’ / set amount of time

• and antenna tracker needs to be powered from something other than USB - lack of current causing servo twitch

Autonomy

FIND PILOT (especially if on-stream in the summer )

• will sponsor advanced rpas test (once) + ground school

thx for listen

tune into leads to talk about more pilot things