2023-07-24 AEAC2024<unnamed> Aircraft Sync Minutes

Attendance

In person:

• @Megan Spee

• @Alison Thompson

• @Conall Kingshott

• @Anthony Luo

• @Nathan Green

Online:

• @Aidan Bowers (Deactivated)

• @Farris Matar

• @Mena Azab

• @Neel Patel

The Weekly Recap

Flight Tests:

• Autotune works. well.

• Vanny is pretty sus atm - however timeline for frame is looking ok for comp 2024 frame.

  • aluminum and 3D printed joints are flexing a lot

  • may break on landing or just in flight due to flex

• Link quality not great recently…

  • antennas damaged? still bad when swapped out. 70% quality when above us ~40 m

  • transmitter on the car instead of tripod

  • interference from carbon fiber plates and aluminum?

  • the new big antenna tracking thing isn’t working

  • get LTE working soon or get a redundant telemetry link

  • RFD has same issue as at comp.. not the one that went in the water. Get a spectrum analyzer?

New arrivals

 Open action items

@Conall Kingshott Composites stuff never properly setup, not a problem that we had not given to him, Graeme figuring everything out and then letting us know. Composite manufacturing in the next two weeks.

#electrical: Crimps, connectors, housings, spectrum analyzers, etc.

 Meeting minutes

Frame Updates

Mechanical

• Composites - Carbon fiber panel mfg this morning

  • Panels are done

  • Can be done on the router! No queue for the router, so should be fast

• 3D printing is coming along

• The middle aluminum block is done

• Jigs on the way

• Priority for 1 drone, 2nd drone will be done either in parallel if convenient or soon after 1st one

  • Plan is not to wait and see how the 1st drone works, we just move forward with the design

  • Aidan: we should test before committing to 2 copycat drones (for cost)

  • better to have 2nd copy even if not fully optimized - most components at least will be salvageable even if some things need to change

  • most of it is low cost… so probably ok

Open

middle alu block!!!!

• LEDs

• Airframe should be ready before comp starts

• We should sleep early

Sensor Updates

• Two M9N better redundancy with same accuracy.

  • therefore we can do what we want

  • using 2 M9Ns means we also get a redundant compass

• Will re-test RTK accuracy with tuned position hold & optical flow.

• Compass can’t be calibrated due to wires on Vanny in the way

• Vibration graphs from vanny are not great

• probably vanny airframe specific

• did run autotune - jitter, from either bad vibration, tuning…. frame flex..?

RF updates

• Spectrum analyzer???

Motor 3-phase connectors

MECHANICAL electrical INTEGRATION

• Found plenty of bullet connectors in the bay

  • Seems like we have enough, is there a reason why we can’t use the ones in a connector box on the EE shelf?

  • should figure out how many bullet connectors we want

  • use triangle ones as decided (MR30s.. MT30s?)

  • pick the most serviceable and reparable

  • bullet connectors between ESC-3phase + more stuff @Anthony Luo to clarify :|

  • Order soon! Order 2 weeks ago

• EE still needs to source Motor/ESC wire

  • Should be a small task

  • Light wire

  • COPPER

  • sheaths that don’t melt : /

  • data cables that aren’t too thick

  • different colors/color standard

  • twisting wires?

Battery PDB Distribution

ELECTRICAL

• Do we have two PM02Ds in the bay? - yes Do Not Break 6-12S voltage

  • If so, electrical member needs to test the current sharing capability of the power modules to see if we can get even current draw from each power module

  • Potentially borrow E-Load from Midnight sun

Airside Electrical Layout

ELECTRICAL MECHANICAL INTEGRATION

• Electrical Wiring diagram experiencing slow progress (unfortunately)

  • Some of the modules are in the diagram but things need to start getting connected

  • Power distribution wiring about halfway done

Access in a draw.io document - link in confluence if possible

• Do we have all the JST-GH connectors (housings) that we need to connect to pixhawk

  • Took a quick look in the connectors box and only found connectors for 5 pin

  • Do we need to order more from the other kinds?

Next Term Handoff - Frame Continuation

• make manuals/documents to help this

• Aircraft manual for airframe 2024 comp

• Electrical QA Standards

  • make instructional documents for testing ESC, etc

  • how to inspect for solder bridges, spilled solder, cold solder joints

  • twisting wires guide?