Here are minutes of our telecon Thursday May 26, apologies for the delay -- please just reply with (or let me know) any corrections -- thanks!:
Attendees: Yorke Brown (Dartmouth), Arnold Gaertner (NRC)
Yorke and students are continuing to test out the Meade telescope with its new mainboard both in the lab and outdoors. When they attempted a star alignment last Tuesday (May 31) on the roof of Wilder, the "drive training" process failed, in a way that is reminiscent of a firmware problem with said mainboard -- but fortunately a reproducible problem. Yorke will try uploading the firmware again, and re-trying the star alignment and drive training, ASAP. (As a reminder we are presently entirely and completely dependent on the functionality of this telescope -- we do not have an alternative to this portable telescope at present with the SBIG camera interface capability that we require.)
I took the hardware for the pre- and post-flight photometry cross-check device -- the 12" aluminum sphere (a photo of it is attached in a link at the bottom of this message, http://www.sharpeproducts.com/store/aluminum-12-dia-sphere) as well as the white "Avian-B" Lambertian reflective paint for its interior -- with me from Hanover back to Victoria for machining and painting, and it's currently in the machine shop. This will be a field photometry check device to, in the field immediately before launch, and right after recovery, cross-check photometry information from the ALTAIR gondola (to an accuracy and precision of about 1% or so. Note that photometry checks which will be more precise than that will be done in the lab, most precisely at NRC, and/or NIST -- however we want to have the ability to do quick cross-checks in the field immediately before and after flight.) Some renderings (of the upcoming device) are also attached in the attachment links at the bottom of the message. The UVic machinists say that they will have it ready in approximately a month or two, and then I will take it back to Hanover at that point.
We also now have the hardware for (a completely separate) survey-tripod-mounted device to cross-check yaw-pitch-roll information from the gondola (e.g., on days before/after flights) -- a photo of this hardware is in a link at the bottom. That hardware includes both the survey tripod (http://www.cpotools.com/cst-berger-60-alwi20-o-aluminum-tripod-with-quick-release--orange-/cstn60-alwi20-o,default,pd.html) and two adjustable angle mounts (http://www.thorlabs.com/thorproduct.cfm?partnumber=AP180). We'll make the fittings to attach the adjustable angle mounts to the tripod, and to the payload, in Hanover later this month.
We're currently revising the draft initial contractual agreement from our colleagues at Globalstar Canada, per requirements from the UVic research services office, regarding 2 initial SPOT Trace devices (and their service plans) for the educational side-project for the upcoming NATO SPS application, in which classrooms in elementary and high schools could launch company-donated SPOT Traces using party balloons (or a more environmentally-friendly version thereof), and track them to learn more about winds at different levels in Earth's atmosphere.
I fly back to Hanover on Saturday (June 11), and one of the many things for me do when I get there is to complete the motorized, propelled version of the dummy payload for initial fight tests with drops from a tethered balloon -- a few photos of initial assembly are attached in the links at the bottom of this message.
Back at UVic, Karun is working with a sample microcontroller board (with Microchip PIC18F87J50 microcontroller) from the UVic electronics shop, to use for testing motor control for an ALTAIR motor and propulsion control microcontroller board we will be designing this term. He has now gotten the pulse width modulation code for it up and running -- video at
https://particle.phys.uvic.ca/~jalbert/MotorAndPropTests/IMG_2136.MOV
and Karun has also solved the problem of simultaneous control of two propulsion motors, and of controlling a servo as well as propulsion motors. He's now working on monitoring the input from the on-chip A/D converters (which will be monitoring temperatures, motor RPM rates, and current flow). We just purchased a second little PIC microcontroller board: http://www.digikey.ca/product-search/en/programmers-development-systems/accessories/2621524?k=PIC18F97J94 with a more advanced version of the PIC18F87J50 -- the PIC18F97J94 -- so that we can test out that new one as well before we make our custom board with it. We also have the beginnings of a little mechanical test rig, the internals and externals of which can be found in the four attached photos, and in the following movie showing the lightweight but strong servo gearbox for rotation of the propulsion support axle:
https://particle.phys.uvic.ca/~jalbert/MotorAndPropTests/IMG_2145.MOV
and now the setup is all together, and just waiting for monitoring sensors (motor RPM, current, temperature) and microcontroller control:
https://particle.phys.uvic.ca/~jalbert/MotorAndPropTests/IMG_2198.MOV
As a backup / cross-check, we are simultaneously trying an Arduino-based control system (which uses an Atmel ATMega 2560 microcontroller). When within ALTAIR, the motor and propulsion control microcontroller board will logic interface with Yorke's main board (in a similar way to how the present cutdown-motor control board interfaces with the main board. Separate propulsion battery will of course be carried.) A screenshot of a propulsion system slow-control and monitoring program which I've been working on is attached.
Regarding simulation of the above, James Hartwick (senior undergrad here at UVic, who has done an enormous amount for ALTAIR, including much of the current projectaltair.org website, light source work, etc) has now written an ALTAIR flight propulsion control and simulation program, which includes GFS (global forecast system) file input, for both forecast and real-time information of winds at all points in Earth's atmosphere. We'll have plots, images, and data from his software coming up very soon. I am developing a visualization interface for this control and simulation program, which will be based on Google Earth, but display the real-time (as well as forecasted) winds within Google Earth in a way that is somewhat similar to this site:
https://earth.nullschool.net
I'm working on a streak-vector display of winds within Google Earth that is reminiscent of the above site, and you can see a first attempt (with a single streak) here:
https://particle.phys.uvic.ca/~jalbert/GoogleEarthWindMovie.mov
UVic undergraduate Tyler Makaro will be helping us with the above as well.
Houman will send Cordell and/or us updated sections of his master's thesis soon -- that information will be extremely useful to us going forward. Also, Susana and Nathan, it would be very helpful for us all to get the JHU students' final writeup when you have a chance.
Our next grant application will be a NATO "Science for Peace and Security" application, together with Australian colleague partners.
That's all I remember, please send things that I forgot. Next telecon *tomorrow* (June 9), at 4 pm Eastern time.
cheers, thanks all! justin
On Thu, 26 May 2016 04:18:30 GMT, Justin Albert wrote:
> Hi! > > Telecon tomorrow (May 26) at the usual time: 4:00 pm Eastern (1:00 pm > Pacific, 10:00 am Hawaii, 22.00 European). Discussion items include: > flight planning; Meade telescope status and tests; light sources and > light source modelling; goniometric and pre- and post-flight > calibration; propulsion work; nanosat bus and payload solid models; > computing/website; grant applications; and recap of schedules. > > Here's how to connect: > 1) Open Skype on your computer (note that of course, you should first install Skype, http://www.skype.com , on your machine if you haven't already). > 2) In the "Contacts" menu, add me ( jalbertuvic ) as a contact, if you haven't already. > 3) Just wait for me to Skype-call you at the usual time (4 pm Eastern, 1 pm Pacific). > 4) If there is any trouble, or if you don't get a Skype-call for some reason and would like to join, just send me an e-mail (jalbert@uvic.ca). > > Here's the tentative agenda: > > I) Flight planning > II) Telescope tests, and current status > III) Diffused light source, and its modelling, pre- and post-flight calibration, and goniometric calibrations > IV) Propulsion & motor control work > V) Nanosat solid models & Houman's thesis > VI) Computing/website > VII) Grant applications > VIII)AOB > > Talk to you all tomorrow, thanks! > justin
Attachments:
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2016/05/22/18.23-24702-12inAlSphere.jpg
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2016/04/06/16.53-58615-SideView.pdf
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2016/04/06/16.53-48539-TopView.pdf
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2016/05/22/18.23-93827-tch-roll_calibTripod2.jpg
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2016/05/22/18.23-52091-MountedMotorAndESC.jpg
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2016/06/08/18.04-17780-asseminternal3jun16.jpg
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2016/06/08/18.04-71442-assemexternal3jun16.jpg
http://projectaltair.org/HyperNews/get/AUX/2016/05/04/17.45-92797-opulsionMonitoringNew.jpg
