November - December 2023

Dev Log 17

Project Update - November 2023

Not much progress was made this month. I got the Arduboy Clone PCB, now called the ArduGame, manufactured and put it together (fig 1). Everything works well except for the fact that I swapped the pins of the left and right buttons on the D-Pad, so had to fix that in software. PCB Schematic and Layout can be found here - https://github.com/abhignay/ArduGame

fig 1 - ArduGame

Now that I was done with this project, I started working on Air MK1 again. I designed and printed a fin-cutting jig and a jig to align the fins, and tried cutting out 4 fin slots on a spare piece of airframe (fig 2, 3, 4, 5)

fig 2 - Fin slot cutting jig

fig 3 - fin alignment jig

fig 4 - fin slot

fig 5 - Air MK1 with fins attached

I also assembled another TFAC r3 PCB (fig 6) and also assembled an updated telemetry board (fig 7, 8). This PCB uses JST connectors to connect to TFAC rather than jumper cables and terminal blocks. It also has an inbuilt step-down converter so it can be powered with TFAC's 5V rail than can supply a lot more current than the 3.3V rail.

fig 6 - TFAC r3

fig 7 - Telemetry Breakout v2 Front

fig 8 - Telemetry Breakout v2 Back

Project Update - December 2023

This month was a lot of Air MK1 development. First thing I did was epoxy on the centering rings and eye bolt to the motor mount tube (fig 9). This was my first time ever working with epoxy so the end result was very messy :/

fig 9 - eye bolt and centering ring attached to MMT

Next up was the fins. I cut out slots for the fins on the airframe, glued the motor mount tube into the airframe and did the inner fillets for the fins. Then I epoxied on the rear centering ring and did the outer fillets (figs 10, 11, 12)

fig 10 - Air MK1 with inner fin fillets done

fig 11 - Rear centering ring attached

fig 12 - Outer fin fillets

After this I sanded down the fillets and beveled the leading and trailing edges of the fins (fig 13).

fig 13 - fillets sanded, leading and trailing edges beveled

Finally it was time for painting. I decided to go with a white base coat and blue accents. I first painted the forward airframe in white (fig 14).

fig 14 - forward airframe painted

After this I ran out of white paint, but had some blue paint handy. I really wanted to see some evolution in the paint scheme of Air MK1 so I hit the fins with a coat of blue paint (figs 15, 16), which as you'll see soon enough was a terrible idea. When painting you really want to do the light colors first, then the darker ones.

fig 15 - exposing only the fins for the blue paint

fig 16 - fins painted in blue

After I got the white spray paint I hit the aft section with 3 coats of white paint (fig 17). Unfortunately there were quite a few paint bleeds near the fins which could be avoided had I painted the fins white and then blue rather than the other way around.

fig 17 - Air MK1 aft section fully painted

And with that Air MK1 is 95% of the way complete!