2025-03-27 Electrical Meeting
Agenda
Attendance
In person | Online |
---|---|
@Kenny Na @Ryan Scomazzon @Santosh Erathasari @Jeremy Poulin @Ernest James Ramas @Kaleb Lacroix @Daniel Rolinsky @Megan Lee | @Meghan Dang @Andrew Chai @Arsalan Nasrifar @Timothy Trinh @Ian Van Den Steen @Tim Gu @Ian Van Den Steen @Himansh Garg @Ahmed Osman @Thuvaragan Prathifkumar @Aly Ahmed |
General Updates
@Kenny Na running this EE meeting! :poggers:
When is our last meeting?
When do y’all have exams
MME has exams starting the 9th making next week the last one but we can still run it if everyone else is later.
SYDE 2A & EE 2A finals start on the 10th
Next meeting is the last one
Workseshes
Thanks for coming to last session! Insane turnout.
Finishing assembling 3x RPi Interface Rev. C
Context behind this: https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Meetings/pages/3082223618
We’re missing the ICs for kill switch functionality, needs to be ordered ASAP
Can someone do this?
@Kenny Na
Needs 3x1 2.54mm header pins to be soldered, QFN checks
Harnessing progress on Eclipse
Assembling 2x LED Board Rev. 4
Do we need to order assembled ones still?
Yes
Whats next?
Testing Pi Rev C
Making more LED boards and testing the existing ones
Work session playlist
Should we react to worksesh announcements for attendance?
EE Social Planning?
Reminded mech to talk about this today
Exams are coming up soooooo
https://discord.com/channels/776618956638388305/1339820708523409511
New board order came
If anyone wants to assemble https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/EL/pages/2496233926 let us know
XT90 soldering tech
plug the reciprocal connector in while soldering
can prevent connector from deforming in shape
New EWaste bin
Box in the bay by the ee shelf
SDC has an e waste bin that shows up sometimes
Epic tip: Opening bags
DigiKey bags have convenient tear lines. - They are convenient now, but make your life easier later when you put it in a box and components fall out
To open bags, its often better to just poke a hole in the middle of it to take the parts out so that once you put them back in, there is no open edge for pieces to fall out of
my finger hurt tho
Flight Tests
Last flight test
Mar 21st
2025-3-21 Pegasus 2 Task 1 Sim w/ KML messages over MAVLink, Peggy Tuning, Task 2 Practice
https://discordapp.com/channels/776618956638388305/1350642379853660263
Peggy 2 Tuning & IR camera test
Foam Plane Pilot Training
Foam plane flew!… the first time…
Miscommunication on the second flight test caused a crash RIP
Houston tuning
RIP Houston
Motor fell off during flight, causing it to crash with significant damages
The motor was not bolted at enough points to the chassis
Most components are recoverable
Pre-flight checks should be improved to prevent this in the future
Cali drone flight test
It flies! Videos here!
Next flight test
Mar 28st → tomorrow! (weather permitting)
2025-3-28 Pegasus 2 Task 1 Sim w/ KML messages over MAVLink, Peggy Tuning, Task 2 Practice
https://discordapp.com/channels/776618956638388305/1353908496936206397
Goals
Tuning Pegasus 2 with empty payload
Simulating Task 1 on Pegasus 2:
Setting up IR beacons and using Pi cameras to make sure beacons can be identified via VTX
This is for edge cases where the pilot must intervene on the script
Testing Task 2 payload on Pegasus 2
Setting water tanks and retrieving/delivering water
Houston flying concentric circles around planned search area
Ideally totally autonomous operation
Reminders
Put boards from your board order on the GitHub
GitHub - UWARG/hardware: PCB designs for the Waterloo Aerial Robotics Group
Ask a lead for access if you need
See other boards for examples of the files you need
Put batteries away (Problematic LiHv)
Use LCSC components on new boards (Ideally from the JLC library) for PnP
Make sure to clean up after yourself
TURN OFF DMMs WHEN DONE please!
Don’t forget to fill out the team roster: https://forms.office.com/r/ka0MJHJQ9D
Get the electronsite role if on site - reach out to @Ryan Scomazzon if you have issues
More meetings! AEAC is soon.
Competition Syncs: Mondays at 9pm
Eclipse Syncs: Tuesdays at 8pm
Reach out if you need help on a project or bootcamp
Recruit your friends!
If you like the team, then we can do even more with more people!
BEWARE OF SCAMS ⚠️
Ask for reviews on boards
If it has a microcontroller, ask EFS to review too
Pegasus/Competition Updates
2025-03-24 Competition Architecture Sync
Task 1: Drone Swarm (IR Beacon/Fire Detection)
Houston and California drone flying (potentially Peggy if better images)
X500 airframe is OK to use for AEAC given we aren’t ripping COTS avionics!
Convo: 2025-03-26 AEAC Townhall #2
This means we will need the additional RPi Interface HATs for sure
Finish assembling Rev. C (Competition 2025) ASAP
Cali and X500 drones need a name
Task 2 (Water Delivery):
Mech tasks were assigned to mount 6x new pumps for new drones
Water Controller PCBs will have to be mounted and wired afterwards
Will be mounted first week of april. Hopefully we can wire before exams? Coop gamer ball?
Logistics:
Battery transporting has been figured out
To be shipped straight to AEAC (Medicine Hat, AB)
Orders (to be?) placed for them ASAP
Eclipse Updates
2025-03-18 Eclipse Arch Sync - Meetings - WARG
@Jerry Tian @Manasva Katyal
SSD was fixed, wing harness assembly almost finished
Any more work to be done here?
Thanks for everyone who helped with this so far
Come to Eclipse Maiden Flight!
Super exciting
We’ve been working really hard on this
Aiming for April 4th, 2025 Flight Test
Will be one of the most exciting flight tests of the term!
Might be delayed due to mech not having enough wrap for the wings and bad weather this weekend.
Project Updates
Pick & Place Machine @Santosh Erathasari
been researching and reading documentation
Started setting up the machine and testing PCB alignment
Will continue to research and figure out
Most feeders were working except 30
PDB @Andrew Chai @Kenny Na @Megan Lee @Santosh Erathasari
Power Distribution Board (PDB) - Unarchived - Electrical - WARG
12S → 5V, 12S → 12V schematics are a WIP
@Kenny Na Finished selecting a Hall IC for current sensing. Added 2x temperature and 1x bus voltage sensors, only thing that may cause an issue is if we use too many of the STM’s pins. These sensors need 4x analog INs (or extra MOSFETs for switching between may be needed).
@Andrew Chai Adding an EFUSE circuit for OCP
SMPS design for 5V pretty much done it seems, 12V 95% done, 3V3 in progress
Just some final checks for 5V
Layout very soon
Meet on weekend?? → aim to have schem done by then?
New meeting
This weekend?
This sat works better for @Megan Lee
Can shift around GPIOs a bit
BMS @Sam Zhang @Chenxuan Yuan @Arsalan Nasrifar @Andrew Chai
Working on schematics
Chenxuan and I (Arsalan) had a call on Sunday:
Chenxuan is working on the IC schematic
I (Arsalan) am working on the battery pack schematic (won’t take long) and then I will join Chenxuan in doing the IC schematic
Lipo 6200mAh
12S 2P
400g lighter than what is in the drone
Gives access to every cell
3S ESC @Kenny Na
Reviews appreciated!
Routing progress being made
@Derek Tang to look at STM design from an EFS side
Updates?
Tracking Antenna Controller + ELRS Gemini Tx @Ahmed Osman@Nolan Haines
no progress yet waiting for @Derek Tang to test the board or someone from efs who knows how to test the board
https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/EL/pages/2771484676 @Ishman Mann
Board is ready for 1st schematic review, please take a look
It is only able to TX, not RX. Bidirectionally would cost more components/complexity
12V Input to 65W USB-PD Source - Electrical - WARG @Ian Van Den Steen
Rough layout finished
Simulation done
Needs reviews
12V to 24V Boost Groundside Converter - Electrical - WARG @Tim Gu@Daniel Rolinsky @Himansh Garg @Thuvaragan Prathifkumar
Will go over after this meeting
Plan is to pick IC and to calcs
Minutes from our earlier meeting: 12 to 24V Boost Convertor Board - Electrical - WARG
LED Board Rev. 4 Assembly
EFS leads each assembled one side of an LED board :poggers:
Can try and finish assembling these at the next two work sessions or so (blocked by Pi Interface)
https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/EL/pages/2506883090 @Kenny Na @Derek Tang
Pending architecture meeting in the summer
Discussed architecture briefly with in Discord: https://discordapp.com/channels/776618956638388305/779158507034771456/1352551664632070145
Pixhawks have essentially 2 sections: bottom-side with connectors for harnessing, power electronics, and then modular top module that contains the microcontroller/processor
Could we do the same design, except a Pi CM5 or NVIDIA Orin with an STM32H7 on the side?
Allows for compute-intensive tasks (e.g. CNN, ViT, GPT) while retaining separate RTOS on STM32
VI-SLAM/3D reconstruction needed onboard specifically? Is this something worth building?
Only a point in designing this if it can be unique vs. COTS boards (high level of integration)
Sensor Cluster - Electrical - WARG @Michael Botros
Stalled until someone is able to drive it (@Megan Lee interested after getting more experience)
https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/EL/pages/2782593034@Robert Tang @Kevin Li
Higher priority things to work on
Open Tasks
Power bank research and order for Pinecil
Action Items
SOCIALLLLLLL