Walter Castellon CpE & EE
Mohammad Amori CpE
Josh Steele CpE
Tri Tran CpE
Sponsored by:
Dr. Josh Colwell
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Planetesimal to Protoplanet to Planet is well
understood
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Prior to this stage is still unclear
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Have gravitational forces
How do the particles stick together?
High velocity vs Low velocity impacts
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Do they hold the key?
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COLLIDE-3 will be attached
to a sub-orbital rocket
Upon entering microgravity LED’s and a
Camera will be turned on to
record the experiment
Next a spherical quartz
object will be dropped onto
dust/simulant
The camera will record the
results of the quartz object
and dust/simulant in
micro-gravity
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COLLIDE-3 scheduled to fly on private,
experimental suborbital rocket
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This rocket had an AVM module which would
control all of the functions of COLLIDE-3
The rocket had problems, and was no longer
available to us
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Dr. Colwell was left with an experiment, but no way
to run it
Needed a new AVM if he wished to utilize his
experiment on a different rocket.
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Brain of experiment
Manages hardware/power
Runs COLLIDE-3
Record results
Store results
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Connected to 28VDC source and 120VAC sources
Low weight
High vibration resistance
Fully automated
Capable of recording greater than 80fps at 640x480
at times ranging from 30s-2m
User friendly
External access to flight variables
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Experiment must always update with these new variables
Cost efficient
DM
P820
SSD
CAMERA
H48C
LEDs
Microcontroller
MICROSTEP
DRIVER
MUSCLE
WIRE
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EPIA P820-12 embedded board
Microcontroller
Camera
LEDs
Solid State Drive
Accelerometer
Display Module
Stepper Motor
Micro-step driver
Muscle wire
Wireless Comm
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LEDs: 2 LED arrays each array has 48 LEDs
Micro-step driver: requires 12v, 5v, PWM
Muscle wire: 1 amp of current at 5V
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AVM will be able to support both industrial
and consumer cameras
SVSI “Stream View-LR” and GoPro “HD Hero”
GoPro is a consumer camera used during initial
experiments to reduce financial loss in case of
rocket failure
SVSI is an industrial camera that will be used
more often in the long run
SVSI
GoPro
200 FPS
60 FPS
640 x 480
1280 x 720
Gigabit Ethernet
None
$5950.00
$199.99
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Can use either serial or USB interface
User friendly software
Will allow user to view current
experimental variables
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Displays all experimental variables
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Delay after microgravity
Delay to record
Recording duration
Updates every 1 second
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Rocketfish micro-USB bluetooth adapter
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Data transfer of 3 Mb/s
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Range of 20 feet
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No interference
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Minimal weight and footprint
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Supported by:
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Windows XP, Vista, 7
MAC OS 10.4 and later
Default shared folder is AtMega code
Variables will be top 3 lines for ease of access
Copy file locally  make changes  copy
back to shared folder
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Using SATA II connection write speed is 95
MB/s
Shock Resistance is 1,500 G
Vibration Resistance 2.17G – 3.13G
(Operating – Non-Operating)
CRUCIAL
Series
M4
Interface
SATA III/II
Capacity
60 GB
Write Speed
95 MB/s
Price
$79.99
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Parallax H48C
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3-axis readings
Unfortunately, support is for
PBASIC language
 Need conversion for ATMega
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Reads in voltage outputs from each axis and
converts into a G-rating using the following
forumula:
 G = ((axis – vRef) / 4095) x (3.3 / 0.3663)
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Our code must do this conversion
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Pins can sometimes falsely detect G-levels
Costly mistake that needs to be protected
against
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Will have counter loop that continuously checks flag
every .4ms
If pin consistently reads zero gravity for set amount
of time, it is not a false positive, and experiment can
proceed
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Hosts the experimental code and the
variables that can be changed externally.
Uploads procedure code to the
microcontroller
Activates recording for the camera
Handles high speed image transfers from
the camera
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Cost is $310
Windows board
Compatible to all cameras
 Flexible to experimental changes
 User friendly
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Excellent hardware and
software support
Smaller form factor
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Stores experimental variables and procedure
Reads in microgravity mode from
accelerometer
Utilizes relays to activate COLLIDE-3
components
Communicates with EPIA P820-12 to power on
camera
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6 dedicated PWM lines
Small footprint
Meets basic requirements
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I/O pins
Memory (RAM, EEPROM)
Serial/USB pins
Larger support base
C language (all members familiar)
Familiarity
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Allows communication between the Arduino
program on the P820-12 and the ATMega328
Utilizes the ATMega’s Tx and Rx lines
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Rocket will only provide standard AC sources
and a 28V DC power supply
Our components take 5,6, and 12 volts
12V: Microstep VCC, LEDs
 6V: Microstep input, muscle wire
 5V: ATMega328
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Will utilize DC-DC converters and regulators
to convert the 28V to usable levels
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12V requirements will be handled by CINCON
EC7A-24S12
Input voltage range of 18-36VDC
Output voltage regulated at 12V with output
current of 835mA
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6V requirements will be
handled by POWER
TRENDS PT78ST106H
Takes input voltages
from 9-38V
Outputs a constant 6V
voltage at a current of 1 amp
Will utilize two of them, since we will use more
than 1 amp of current at 6V
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Finally, 5V requirements will be handled by a
standard LM7805 5V regulator
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Instead of regulating the 28V input source, this will
simply be taking in a 9V battery
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Since the microcontroller cannot provide enough
volts/amps to power COLLIDE-3’s components, it will
instead activate a relay, which will have a load of the
regulated voltages from the
sources previously mentioned
We will implement the
AXICOM IMB03C mechanical relay
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Handles up to 2A of current
Functions up to 300g of shock, survives up to 500g of shock
100uV control voltage will switch relay, which can have a load
up to 220V
Pin
Label
Definition
1
CLK
Synchronous clock input
2
DIO
Bi-directional data to and from the host
3
Vss
Power supply ground which is 0v
4
Zero-G
5
CS\
Chip select input; active-low
6
Vdd
+5 vdc
“Free-fall” detection output; active-high
Start
Part
Cost
Part
Cost
P820
$310
SSD
$79
ATmega328
$3.83
Accelerometer
(H48C)
$31.88
Serial to USB converter
$15
DM
$88
Voltage regulator
$2
Relays
$10
Button
$1
Breadboard
$12
Misc. Components
$5
LEDs
Included
Bluetooth
$40
Micro-step
Driver
Included
Muscle Wire
Included
Cameras
Included
Case
Included
Total
$646.71
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Communication protocol between EPIA P82012 and ATmega328 (FT232R)
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Camera compatibility
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Changing variables externally
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Mono
Theft
Crashes
Questions?