Bench inspection!

Last Friday we had the bench inspection session. Our tutor Simon came in the morning. We had an amusing chat about the copter project. We showed him how the copter functions. Afterwards, the assessor came by to see our  progress. 

Group photo with Simon

In the afternoon, Simon brought some UAV amateurs to us and we discussed about the improvements of the quadcopter. It was quite amusing talking to those guys.

Enjoy your Easter holiday and have fun!

Ally & the team

The first test flight outside

Last Thursday we finally managed to go through all the safety considerations and came to the trial flight stage. Here the video shows the first test flight outside the EE building. The wind outside the building was kind of annoying. However, the test flight reveals that the pitch and roll function works well and the throttle configuration should be set lower.

Try again, Fail again, Fail better

Through 5 weeks of study, we have gained much more knowledge doing practice than simply obtaining in documents and books. Reality is always more complex than theory and thus requires a lot more efforts.

Samuel Beckett once said: Try again, fail again, fail better. Now it seems clear to me the importance of every failure is for the sake of the next improvement. It always struck me that when you are looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you are in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Do not hesitate, just get down to business!

Ally & the team

Week 5 ---- Breakthrough

Hi, everyone. After 4 weeks of efforts, the group finally comes to the trial flight stage. However, we were still waiting for the large size 14.8v LiPo battery to arrive. It took us quite a lot of time waiting for the battery but luckily we found an alternative with minor size. The battery, however, was not sufficient for all 4 motors to keep spinning for a long time. Therefore, the large battery is vital for the final flight.

In the tutorial, we had a discuss with Simon about the Raspberry Pi. Kris was confused that the computer seemed to be not connected to the Raspberry Pi since it did not reveal signal of the IP address of the Raspberry Pi. Simon helped Kris find alternatives for the recognition to work.

A picture to reveal the relationship of raspberry pi and the two computers

In the afternoon, we managed to go through several pre-flight checks.

Ran was checking one of the ESCs

Xiaotian was testing the sensibility of the transmitter

Really looking forward to the trial flight test next week!

Until then, I will see you on Wednesday.

Ally & the team

Week 4----under pressure

It is a late post of week 4 update. After tons of trials and experiments, the UAV finally managed to go through the ESCs calibration and the arming successfully. 

The  sudden breakdown of the circuit in week 3 really confused us for a long time and it turned out to be the problem of the power supply. Due to the current limitation of the power supply, when it is supplying power to the UAV, the current will experience a leap and therefore it exceeded the max current load. It is quite a unique problem, however, we figured it out by analyzing the circuit part by part. The tackling of this intractable problem was quite a relief to everyone :) After altering the power supply with a 7.4v LiPo battery, the breakdown of the circuit never happened again. 

The original broken 14.8v LiPo battery 

However, the battery was far from enough to provide power to the main circuit, and thus led to the instability of the spinning of the four motors as shown in the video below:

Arming process showed the instability of the two motors

In the afternoon, we talked to our tutor Simon about our trial flight blueprint. However, Simon, as an expert in UAV arena, considered the trial flight quite seriously. He enlightened us about the possible dangers we might encounter if not fully prepared. The propellers, for instance, would have great power with high speed, which could be a potential danger to human body. Therefore, we had to reconsider different situations and write a safety issue report before we reach the point of the trial flight.

Until then, have a great weekend!

Ally & the team