2023-2024 Avionics Meeting Notes

Owned by Ben Hyman (RIT Student)
Last updated: Apr 24, 2024
10 min read

2024-04-23

Attendees:


Hardware

  • Backplane:
    • No updates
  • GRIM Reefer:
    • Worked very well in an L1 this weekend
    • Buzzer works

Software

  • Aaron
    • Little SW work done past week because ski trip and business trip (smile) 
      • Probably won't be able to write as much software until after I move to LA in 2 weeks
      • Still reviewing people's PRs though. I can still continue to review
        • Nice job to Richie for GRIM and Nate for radio module work!
    • Did work with Donovan to get us a Segger sponsorship though!
      • 2 JLink Pluses (Worth ~$500 each)
        • Like the STLink, but better. Unlimited hardware breakpoints and faster flash speed
        • Real benefit though is to use software to profile our RTOS and benchmark our software iterations in the near future
      • 1 Flasher Portable Plus (Worth ~$1200)
        • Probably should've just asked for more JLinks lmao
        • Anyways, we can store multiple different binaries and flash our flight hardware in the field without a computer
      • Yes, equipment is absurdly expensive and a very lucrative market. More sponsorships soon 🙊
    •  Remaining things to get done before IREC:
      • Weekly reminder to figure out issues with the I2C bus. This goes for both sensor module and GRIM (and maybe POTATO. Need to test the LPS sensor more)
        • Issues found on sensor mod and GRIM haven't been seen on power module which is running I2C at 400 kbit/s
        • GRIM I2C seems to not die once I2C speed is dropped down to 100 kbit/s
        • Sensor Module I2C takes a little longer to die when dropped down to 100 kbit/s reading a single sensor every 50 ms
          • When reading around every second, the bus continues to work
      • Getting the data logging library up. Was almost done minus some testing 2 weeks ago. 
      • Software state machines for data logging management 
    • Might've started smol rewrite of GSW which is a less important side thing that won't get in the way of finishing FSW (big grin)
      • Will probably be worked on after IREC, but something to keep on software people's radar
      • Written in Golang which is good for networking and concurrency based applications (like the GSW 👀)
        • Also more benefits like better memory safety, build process, analysis tools, etc.
        • Redesigned and rewrote how the vehicle/telemetry configuration 
        • Evaluating whether we should continue with shared memory for IPC. Can move to slower, safer IPC methods for rockets. Might not be fast enough to handle engine tests though, but can't tell without further benchmarking.
    • Need to talk to structures. We should see about getting a RocketPy simulation for the IREC tech report. 

2024-04-09

Attendees:


Hardware

  • Ordered parts for sensor module
  • Louis Fleisher (RIT Student) and Alex Moczarski (RIT Student) responsible for fixing sensor mod
    • List in slack with changes
  • GRIM Reefer
    • Buzzer problem was actually a software problem
    • Amplifier seems to not be amplifying as much as we expected 
    • Can get around this for now by increaing the gain on the ADC
  • Alex Moczarski (RIT Student) can hook us up with any Analog Devices evaluation kit
  • POTATO:
    • All of the parts of the board work
    • Damian Suarez (RIT Student) needs to solder different resistors to adjust gain
    • Problems are on MECE side, not POTATO

Software

  • RICHIE
    • Going to try to get FSW done enough to be ready for this weekend's launch

2024-04-09

Attendees:


Hardware

  • What the fuck is up fuckers
    • Classic Aaron


Software

  • Aaron
    • Power Module software pristineeeeeee
    • Sensor Module 💩
      • Non deterministic issues with reading sensors. I2C bus lockup that requires a full power cycle of the microcontroller
      • Probably caused by reading so many more sensors at a faster rate compared to power module. For comparison, sensor module reads 4 sensors at the moment every 10ms compared to power module reading 3 sensors every 66 ms
      • Might experiment with IO batching and taking advantage of the provided hardware interrupts to maybe make spamming the bus less likely
      • Maybe have 2 i2c buses and split sensors on a future sensor module revision?
        • MS5611, LSM6DSL, TMP117
        • BMP388, ADXL375, LIS3MDL, SHTC3?  
      • Networking works when you screw with the pinouts. (pls fix Louis)
    • POTATO
      • Delegate reading LPS22 to Brian, Richie or Nate. Practically stole the sensor mod work lol
      • Working on RS485 communications. Making a wiring harness once I get back to work
    • code reviewwwss
    • Asking Nate to work on a debug only feature where GPS data gets sent over Ethernet

2024-04-02

Attendees:

Hardware:

    • Backplane, GRIM Reefer, and POTATO will be here tomorrow 
    • Sensor mod debugging
      • Resistors accidentally populated that shouldn't have been
      • Able to flash. Got some LEDs blinking
      • Cannot bind with Ethernet yet, might be a software problem
        • Cap. Its always a hardware problem - Aaron
    • Louis Fleisher (RIT Student) working on sensor module adapter board

Software: Aaron Chan (RIT Student)

    • Sensor Module
      • "have you been able to work with Nate at all on the sensor mod ethernet since Sat?" - Ben
        • No. All I got was a screenshot of a bunch of shit failing out. Will check when I have hardware in hand tomorrow (Im also coming in tomorrow (big grin))
      • Sat down with Brian to do some sensor module software
        • Hopefully reading temperatures wont take him too long
      • Decided to go and bang out reading all 5 other sensors last night (it'll work the first try. It did compile on the first try so it should totally work)
    • Radio Module
      • Wrote the receiver code. Too lazy to test it too tho
        • Will test tomorrow probably
    • Moment of truth tomorrow? Will we get backplane V2 tomorrow? WIll backplane work!?!? Stay tuned... 
    • Other news:
      • Space Race wants me to do code reviews for their software once they write it. If other sw people want to join feel free.

2024-03-26

Attendees:

Hardware:

    • Ordered Backplane, GRIM Reefer, and POTATO
      • Should be here end of next week  /beginning of week   after that
      • GRIM had a couple of oopsies but we're chillin now
    • Verified that the Backplane works with a new switchblox
    • ADC Breakout Board:
      • We thought we made it wrong
      • JLCPCB made it wrong
      • ADC was rotated 90 degrees
      • It works now 🥳
      • Going to file a quality complaint 
    • Louis's camera may not work

Software: Aaron Chan (RIT Student)

  • UDP Rx timeout works now. Our software for ethernet support should practically be done.
  • Plugged in autopilot for the first time? So far soo good...
  • Nate and I worked on getting Ethernet to LoRa packets going on the transmitting radio module
  • Remaining critical task items include 
    • Sensor data retrieval
    • LoRa to Ethernet on receiver module
    • Data logging (Yev wrote this. Just needs to convert C++ code to C)
  • Tackling sensor data retrieval and Lora To Ethernet this weekend probably if its not done by Friday. (I will probably be snowboarding on Saturday and Sunday though)
  • ADC: Richie
    • Driver is working now that the board is working
    • Able to successfully read voltages from the ADC
    • Something weird with the interrupt pin

2024-03-19

Attendees:

Hardware:

  • Need to make connector orientation correction kludge (COCK) for Sensor Module
    • Sam has been voltuntold
  • Backplane updates:
    • added magnetics to modules
    • Added USB-C PD capability for benchtop testing
    • Added test points
    • Fixed switchblox power connector
    • And probably more things I am forgetting
  • GRIM Reefer:
    • Switched out some extended parts for basic parts 
    • Waiting on components to arrive at JLC
    • Richie having trouble talking to the ADC breakout board
      • Will investigate with a logic analyzer
  • POTATO:
    • Went through comments and made changes
    • Made BOM for parts that need to be ordered that aren't in stock on JLC

Software:

  • Aaron Chan (RIT Student)
    • Calculated Telemetry Sizes for each module (You'll see why below). Some of these can most likely be lowered down to either 8 or 16. Each signal isZ kept at 32 bits for simplicity at the moment.
      • Sensor Module: 544 bits
      • Power Module: 320 bits
      • Radio Module: 96 bits
    • Integration Testing
      • Prepare for a full integration test for the first week of April. This will involve:
        • Sensor Module successfully sending all of its data over Ethernet
        • Power Module succesfully sending all of its data over Ethernet
        • Radio Module getting valid GPS data
        • Radio Module transmits backplane data (sensor telem, power telem, GPS)
        • A receiver radio module receives backplane data, converts it into Ethernet packets and they can be read on the ground station.
        • Pretty visualizations in Grafana (I updated our Grafana from v7 to v10 and we have a way nicer layout now)
        • Testing LoRa range. Maybe on a Saturday and might need a car. Maybe try and get data across campus. Have an excuse to play with Baofengs too.
        • HEADS UP TO ALL SOFTWARE PEOPLE: I WILL START TAKING OVER ANY OF THE UNFINISHED SOFTWARE NECESSARY FOR THE ABOVE, WHICH I SAID I WAS GOING TO DO IN FEBRUARY. This has been DMed on Slack, but will make a reminder announcement too.
      • Hardware Needs:
        • Magnetics support for 3 modules (Either 3 Kludges or backplane v2 if it comes in time)
        • Sensor Mod V2
        • Power Mod V2
        • Radio mod
        • Switchblox (duh)
        • Make sure we have all the cables so we can get everything powered and we don't need to make more cables right before we want to test stuff
    • POTATO 
      • Implemented RS485 helper functionality
        • It probably works. Can't tell until I get a sensor module or POTATO and a RS485 transceiver to connect to my computer
      • Can start work on POTATO and Sensor Module communications although this is low priority and probably unncessary since they can operate independently
      • Can start work on getting telemetry if I get confirmation that schematics are finalized (just tell me in Slack)
    •  Radio Module
      • Doing maffs to figure out the most ideal LoRa configuration for our needs
        • Need ~5 km range? Need to confirm how far the rocket is drifting and maybe pad our distance
        • Two problems
          • Probably can't send all our backplane telemetry in a reasonable amount of time. Achieving 5 km range brings us down to ~70 bps. Can probably forego power module telemetry and some sensor module telemetry / consolidate pressure and temp into an altitude calculation.
          • Bigger problem: Zephyr does not support bandwidths lower than 125 kHz because LoRaMAC (network layer above) didn't support it. Guess they built it from the top down. Can probably add support, but we now know how long Zephyr takes to respond to PRs (at least for the sensor driver reviewers)
            • If we can max out our spreading factor to 12 our estimated data rate is ~292 bps, but estimated range is 3.09 Km (10.1K ft). See the problem? 
    • Other Zephyr news
      • Finally got my first approval for the ADXL375 driver. And second review to be addressed from the main reviewer. So close
      • Awaiting first approval for MS5611 driver... (It is now a shared driver with the MS5607 and determining which coefficients to use is done at compile time)

2024-03-05

Attendees:

Hardware:

  • Backplane:
    • Ethernet hardware works!
    • Verified with real Ethernet switch because of broken Switchblox
    • New Switchblox will come in on  
    • Once verified with Switchblox, Backplane rev2 can be made and ordered
  • Modules
  • GRIM Reefer:
    • Resolved all layout review comments
    • Going to do it again tonight
    • Mary Dertinger (RIT Student) needs to check inventory of throughhole components
    • Come up with BOM
  • POTATO
    • Fixed all DRC errors
    • Ready for another layout review
    • Start putting together a BOM

Software:

  • Aaron Chan (RIT Student)
    • Mega cool software progress
      • Ethernet works (in hardware and software)
        • Fixed the receive functionality. Zephyr Ethernet drivers rely on interrupts apparently
      • SNTP Receive capabilities 🙊
      • Also library functionalities for keeping track of real world time
    • Made a network architecture diagram
    • Fixed power module bootup issues caused by the SPI Flash integration changes a few weeks back
    • Working on getting POTATO communications working this week (itll work the first try with 0 testing)
      • Might work on just bringing up all the other POTATO functionality in an afternoon too
        • Scratch that. Still need Richie to finish the ADC driver, but I can probably do the other shit in like an hour or two

2024-02-27

Attendees:

Hardware:

  • We actually Power and Sensor Mods!
    • Need to order connectors and test points
    • Will order on Thursday when Louis lifts the embargo
  • Backplane:
    • Fixed a backplane so SwitchBlox can be powered off of it
    • Going to work with Nate Aquino (RIT Student) to test Kludged Kludge
    • Kludge 2 will be here at the end of this week
  • GRIM Reefer:
    • Doing Great!
    • Running DRC
    • Configuring layers
    • Almost done
    • Ready for review this week
  • POTATO:
    • Reviewed layout this past weekend
    • Need to fix a lot of DRC violations.
    • Should be ready for rereview this week
  • Misc:
    • Louis ordered the ADC breakout boards
      • Probably here next week

Software:

  • Aaron Chan (RIT Student)
    • Fuck you Ben. Filling out my updates before you asked (smile)
    • GNSS works
      • Both using Zephyr's GNSS subsystem and ubxlib (after they patched their stuff)
    • Debugging Ethernet receive in software
      • Seems that all incoming traffic gets ignored and need to figure out why
        • This includes ICMP response packets and ARP replies so modules won't be able to route packets directly.
      • Not a hardware issue since we had this working on launch-core
    • Zephyr reviewers finally getting around to my sensor PRs. Although we already have the drivers integrated in FSW as custom drivers
    • Trying to push people to write code faster fr
    • Set up some more sensor module software for inter-task communication and data processing
      • Pushing Brian to finish the telemetry reading task already and making sure it passes quality checks. (Something that should've taken less than an hour is taking a few weeks...)
    • Working on getting SLIP communications in so sensor module can communicate with POTATO too

2024-02-20

Attendees:

Hardware:

  • Power and Sensor mods have arrived!!!
    • Somewhere on RIT's campus
    • Probably get them Thursday
  • Backplane Magnetics:
    • Reworked Kludge to match devmod
      • To be tested as soon as possible
    •  James finished designing Kludge 2
      • Can order tonight
  • GRIM Reefer:
    • Layout is reefing
    • Handing over to Sam after diff pair is figured out
    • Everything fits (POTATO is crying)
  • POTATO:
    • No one is here
    • They started their layout
    • Its really small
    • Damian Suarez (RIT Student): Schematic edits where made and Layout is 90% done just have to do the RS-485 diff pair then we are ready for review (After many hours of praying/crying).

Software:

  • Aaron Chan (RIT Student)
    • Can non deterministically initialize the GPS driver
    • Need to find more time to do sw (smile)
    • Will work on Ethernet receive again this week.

2024-02-13

Attendees:

Hardware:

  • Sensor and Power Mod rev2
    • Fab and assy done, in QC now
  • Backplane Magnetics:
    • Kludge did not work (sad) 
    • James May (RIT Student) going to make a rev2 that includes everything on the wiznet reference schematic
      • Believe we are missing pullup and pulldown resistors on TX and RX lines
    • These will be shipped directly to Aaron Chan (RIT Student)
  • GRIM Reefers:
    • Layout was almost done, BUTTTTT battery meces made the board size smaller
      • Have to redo pretty much all of it now
      • Set back a week and a half
  • POTATO:
    • Schematics done and ready for review
    • Preliminary layout started

Software:

  • Richie:
    • Got GRIM branch merged into main
      • Big CI/CD moment 👏👏👏👏
    • Worked on ADC driver to include more features
      • MOARR channels


2024-02-6

Attendees:

Hardware:

Software:

  • Richie:
    • Worked on ADC driver and how Zephyr does time
  • Nate Aquino (RIT Student):
    • Aaron opened a github issue in ubxlib. More than likely starting Thursday (time permitting) I will start on a different task.
  • Aaron Chan (RIT Student)
    • Lots of shit
    • More progress on Ethernet receive. Shooting for this week, but thats hopeful
    • Helped debug a lot of Ublox issues. Need to open a ticket since it seems we did things correctly, but its failing to initialize

2024-01-30

Attendees:

Hardware:

Software:

Nerds \/

  • Richie:
    • Got fancy STM32 shield working with a Nucleo
    • Got native sim of Zephyr working. Can test events now 
  • Brian:
    • Working on combining init tests for sensor mod
  • Nate:
    • Fixed i2c pin numbers in radio mod device tree
  • Aaron
    • POTATO project setup in Zephyr
    • Debugging lots of Ethernet
    • Develop GRIM sw design / plan
    • More infrastructure shit (organizing libraries)
      • Need to still be able to configure what gets compiled

2024-01-23

Attendees:

  • @Louis Fleisher (RIT Student)

  • Sam Larson

  • @Damian Suarez (RIT Student)

  • @Natalia Sokolov (RIT Student)

  • Richie Sommers

  • @Mary Dertinger (RIT Student)

Hardware:

  • Sensor Mod: Louis Fleisher (RIT Student) 

    • Only violations left are Silk to Silk

  • Power Mod: Louis Fleisher (RIT Student)

    • James sent fab and assy files, need to check if they are still good

  • Grim Reefer: Mary Dertinger (RIT Student)

    • Finished power schematic and current sense

    • Working on ADC schematic

    • Need to go over schematics and fix them

    • Note I2C addresses

    • @Louis Fleisher (RIT Student) Started STM Cube project

    • Need to finalize selection of connectors and make in Altium

    • Ready for schematic review by end of Jan 27, 2024

  • POTATO: Damian Suarez (RIT Student) Natalia Sokolov (RIT Student)

    • Everything is done except for the important part

    • Setting up resistors for differential amplifier

    • Need to put in screw terminals

    • Maybe ready for schematic review by EOD Jan 27, 2024

Software: Nate Aquino (RIT Student)

  • Out of memory errors in ublox driver fixed

  • Aaron did a bunch of stuff last night (87 commits )

  • Grim (Richie): Working on ADC driver