The Avionics team is currently working on 'AV3' class hardware and firmware for the Launch Vehicle No. 2c airframe. The AV3 hardware includes a PowerPC flight computer, a USB-based avionics bus, and a half-dozen USB-based avionics nodes including a GPS, IMU, power system, recovery node, and amateur TV broadcast.
- If you're new to the avionics team, or you want some information on a previous sytem, please see our Introduction to PSAS Avionics Page, and then see our list of project ideas below.
- For more in depth reading about the avionics nodes, see the 2006 Capstone Project Final Report (CapstoneLV2bProjectReport).
Sponsored projects
These projects are undergraduate engineering capstones that PSAS has sponsored:
- Capstone 2010 project: Flight computer carrier board
- Capstone 2009 project: The Avionics Power Supply (APS)
- Capstone 2006 project: The node 4 generic front end
Avionics System version 3
Here are the current subsystems in the AV3 avionics system:
- PowerPC Flight Computer
- PPC Flight Computer Carrier board
- AV3 Generic Front End
- AV3 battery pack
- AV3 battery board
- AV3 GPS system
Misc
Deprecated and unorganized subsystems:
- PV-700 Digital Video Recorder
- ARTS-2 Flight Computer
- The whole to do list
- New LV2c recovery node
- IMU Calibration
- LPC USB Isochronous Mode
- Avionics to-do list
- Avionics to-get list
- Bob-4 Video Overlay Board
- Airframe Test Computer Info
Older News
The 2006 Capstone student team has finished their 2006 Capstone Project.
Old CAD drawings for old hardware copied from the old SVN repository OldCAD
Avionics Development Information
- Page for the software for the sensor nodes
- Getting up and running with Olimex LPC2148, openocd, eclipse etc
- Yet another getting started tool chain and development environment setup
Avionics System 3 (AV3) Hardware
Here are the current block diagrams of:
USB Nodes
- Generic USB node front end: 2006 Capstone Project
- OLD: Amateur TV System: Broadcasts NTSC video with overlay at 1.25 GHz.
- OLD: Avionics Power System: power switches, battery and bus monitoring
- GPL-GPS
- AV3-IMU
- Inertial Measurement Unit: inertial sensors (also pressure and temperature sensors)
- Magnetometer: 3D sensing of the Earth's magnetic field
- OLD: Recovery Node: Battery backed up 2m radio receiver and pyrotechnic actuators
Firmware is at: http://svcs.cs.pdx.edu/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=psas/freertos.git;a=summary
Launch Tower
- Launch Tower Computer (LTC): A Linux-based x86 PC104 stack with Lucent Orinoco 802.11b card and CAN.
- 24dBi 2.4GHz 802.11b parabolic dish antenna ("BBQ" grill antenna).
- Launch Tower Relay (LTR) board: PIC18F458-based CAN node with four relays and some analog sampling.
- RocketReady Relay (RRR) board: PIC18F458-based board which provides rocketready relay interlock in firing chain.
- Launch Igniter Circuit: igniter circuit for launch igniter.
- Umbilical cord: Connects LV2 to the electronics box. Provides shore power, includes rocketready relay interlock.
- Launch Tower Power System:Solar array, charge controller, and battery
Avionics Hardware/Software Tools
- Electrical Nomenclature: Project naming conventions, names for components, schematics, etc.
- GerberTools
- AvionicsSVNAccess: getting access to the Avionics software itself
- EagleCad: Cadsoft's EAGLE schematic capture/PCB CAD program
- LPKF 91 router information
Other Advanced Amateur Avionics Systems
- MARS Society: http://www.ukrocketman.com/rocketry/gimbal.shtml
- Robert DeHate: http://www.geocities.com/rdh82000/L3/
- MIT's Autonomous Helicopter: http://web.mit.edu/%7Eferon/Public/www/DASC.pdf
[Off Topic]
From Spencer Webb of AntennaSys:
- Webb's Law of Project Complexity: "All good projects go from simple to insanely complex, then back to simple after a required epiphany."
- Corollary to WLPC: "If the project never gets to the insanely complex stage, it is probably not worth doing."
- Second Corollary to WLPC: "If the epiphany never comes, the project will likely be an insanely complex failure."
Avionics Team Meeting Minutes
To add a new entry, please use the data as the name of the page in the form YYYY-MM-DD. Don't forget to uncomment the avionics news tag!
2011-06-10 - Restart v4 CPA work
2011-05-15 - Build of node5 prototyping boards
2011-05-03 - Firmware structure discussion
2011-03-29 - Lecture on soldering, FC to Node5 GFE USB Communication
2009-07-21 - Avionics mounting structure
2009-06-09 - Next steps! And 802.11a adapters?
2009-02-17 - EAGLE CAD Workshop
2009-01-15 - The Universal Rocket Bus
2008-08-13 - Switched launch dates, airframe update, and avionics update.
2008-07-23 - New avionics folks, nosecone mold finished, OSCON
2008-07-02 - Standalone ATV System discussion and design start
2008-04-09 - Ad Hoc comm team meeting on communication system frequencies
2007-09-26 - Fire test of MJG Technologies J-Tek igniter
2007-08-08 - General meeting; ikiwiki demo session
2007-04-11 - Bruce gives a presentation on RTOSs for the LPC2148
2007-03-14 - Recovery Node discussion
2007-03-07 - Beginning to hand out projects for AV2c...
2007-01-03 - Where are we, where are we going
2006-09-06 - Notes up until this point
2006-02-15 - EAGLE CAD Workshop
2005-12-16 - Capstone Team: Official meeting with faculty advisor, Mark Faust
2005-11-30 - More avionics architecture, PPC flight computer, and CAN vs USB discussions
2005-10-25 - Discussion of avionics architecture and PPC flight computer
20094-11-02 - LV2 Avionics Module complete!! With pictures!
2004-06-09 - APS (Avionics Power System) design: Li Ion battery charger choice
2004-05-30 - Critical path scheduling and APS
2004-02-01 - Chat with Professor Jim Binkley about 802.11b and Linux drivers
2003-10-13 - Power measurements on each component of the avionics system
2003-10-07 - What's next, timelines, task lists
2003-08-26 - To do list, what's critical
2003-07-22 - Non-PDX tasks, Protocols, LTC, Rocketview API, Routers
2003-06-24 - Things to do by August 22nd
2003-03-11 - Recovery node design review
2003-01-28 - EAGLE PCB CAD Workshop
2002-09-10 - Hardware work @ Andrew's; Software @ FAB CS lounge: telemetry client works
2002-09-08 - ATV distro board and PicCore @ Andrew's; Software @ FAB CS lounge
2002-08-27 - GPS CAN node done; Clementine determined to be broken
2002-08-25 - ATV hardware & distro board designed. Jupiter boards programmed. Ate pizza.
2002-08-20 - PicCore lecture; James starts hacking FC software together
2002-08-13 - Overview of what needs to be done; James' notes on FC update
2002-08-11 - Paul and Andrew discuss GPS node processing
2002-07-21 - More to-do items; got LV1b 2m receiver to work, and tested it
2002-07-07 - Getting CAN nodes working w/PicCore
2002-06-25 - Paul and Nate's CAN node dev system finally up and running
2002-06-18 - Project timeline until the scheduled 8/3 launch
2002-05-28 - James hacks away on FC, Andrew on the beginnings of PicCore
2001-12-04 - OGI Lecture: Intro to Extreme Programming (XP)
2001-06-27 - Meeting with Jim Binkley of PSU CS on 802.11b