August-October 2023

Dev Log 16

Project Update - August 2023

I received the new TFAC r3 (fig 1) PCBs. And assembled them (fig 2), GPS radio and all.

fig 1 - TFAC PCB evolution

The GNSS radio sort of works. It comes up on the I2C bus (fig 3), but doesn't give any data when connected to the antenna. I suspect this is an issue with the antenna rather than the board layout, but I'll have to test it out with another antenna to actually figure that out.

fig 2 - TFAC r3 fully assembled

fig 3 - I2C scanner showing all the sensors!

Project Update - September 2023

Back to Air MK1 development this month. First thing I did was design and 3D print a nosecone and coupler tube for the vehicle (fig 4).

fig 4 - Air MK1 forward section

Then I cut the aft airframe to size and drilled the holes for mounting the avionics stack and the cutouts for the runcam (fig 5, 6)

fig 5 - Air MK1 forward section fully cut out

fig 6 - RunCam view from Air MK1

Last thing I did was integrate all components of the avionics stack together (fig 7)

fig 7 - Avionics Stack fully assembled

Project Update - October 2023

The next thing I had to do with Air MK1 was work on the aft airframe; fins, centering rings, things like that. I designed laser cuttable files of those components and sent them to get laser cut (fig 8)

fig 8 - fins and centering rings laser cut

While waiting on all those parts I was inspired by a Short Circuit video on the Arduboy game console to make my own. My first PCB design (fig 9) was using an RP2040, at that time I didn't get the fact that the Arduboy was an AVR-based ecosystem. Once I figured that out I switched to using an Arduino Pro Micro as my microcontroller (fig 10).

fig 9 - 1st revision Arduboy clone

2nd Revision Arduboy clone