Ground Station Design Notes 2022

Driving issues:

• Connectors on top plate and hardware on bottom plate make disassembly inconvenient because everything needs to be unplugged with the top plate dangling
• Nothing is hard-mounted, friction fit at best, top plate is gravity placed. This allows it to move around while in transit, which is not good with a significant amount of hardware.

Major goals:

• Mount all electronics to top plate
• Epoxy threaded posts/standoffs to case to solidly mount plates

Nice to have:

• Reinforcement for weight of hardware
• Cable management channel
• Rubber port covers
• Gaskets everywhere
• Closable door on left side for storage of batteries, etc.

Mounting Notes

Ground station will be powered by external laptop batteries (through switch and 20V barrels).

Hardware requirements, power on, battery swap procedure explained in Electrical Notes.

Deliverables:

• Designed and tested housing plates
• Printed drawings of Pelican hole spacing and threading
• Printed drawings of component hole spacing and threading

Resolutions:

• Top plate mounting achieved despite limited space by using the fans to mount an additional plate for electronics only, stacking the pandas. This has the nice effect of putting the pandas next to the intake fan (lower fan, so you don't get hot air in your face).
• Weight reinforcement turned out to be unnecessary, but the additional plate underneath allowed for extra surfaces that more fully sealed the storage door, at the cost of making assembly a bit more annoying.
• There aren't really enough cables (or room) to justify a dedicated cable management channel, but there are a couple of positions for Velcro ties.
• Several more barrel outputs added to right side for future hardware (Ethernet switch, possibly)