Post by Yiqing Wang on Nov 15, 2013 9:47:12 GMT -5
This meeting is mainly about the architecture of electronics system.
The original concept is to use a Beagle Bone Black as core, which will be responsible for calculation, making decision of recovery system deployment, data logging, controlling the radio transmitter etc. In short, pretty much everything.
Another custom board with an AtMega micro controller will be used to house all the sensors (including GPS) and e-match ignition. The AtMega is needed to interface between the sensors and Beagle Bone Black.
A concern is raised about having the avionics on the same system with the non-essential functions such as data logging and GPS location. And the discussion was centered around if it is worth it to have the essential avionics function on an entirely separate system to improve reliability and ensure the avionics can be finished and tested before work on non-essential system is started.
The conclusion of the discussion is that the potential benefit of improved reliability by having the avionics on an entirely separate system is unclear from both hardware(because the safety critical system will always contain roughly the same amount of student built components) and software (the system uses real time operating system designed for safety critical application). In addition changing the concept of electronics system at this stage would require a lot of work both right now and in the near future.
To address the concern regarding timing. The electronics group is made clear that work on non-essential system will not be started until essential system are completed and tested, with the exception of preparing for the necessary hardware integration, for example, laying down the physical connection for GPS chip on the custom board. And the completed essential system will be residing on a finished hardware which will NOT be used for the work on non-essential system.
The original concept is to use a Beagle Bone Black as core, which will be responsible for calculation, making decision of recovery system deployment, data logging, controlling the radio transmitter etc. In short, pretty much everything.
Another custom board with an AtMega micro controller will be used to house all the sensors (including GPS) and e-match ignition. The AtMega is needed to interface between the sensors and Beagle Bone Black.
A concern is raised about having the avionics on the same system with the non-essential functions such as data logging and GPS location. And the discussion was centered around if it is worth it to have the essential avionics function on an entirely separate system to improve reliability and ensure the avionics can be finished and tested before work on non-essential system is started.
The conclusion of the discussion is that the potential benefit of improved reliability by having the avionics on an entirely separate system is unclear from both hardware(because the safety critical system will always contain roughly the same amount of student built components) and software (the system uses real time operating system designed for safety critical application). In addition changing the concept of electronics system at this stage would require a lot of work both right now and in the near future.
To address the concern regarding timing. The electronics group is made clear that work on non-essential system will not be started until essential system are completed and tested, with the exception of preparing for the necessary hardware integration, for example, laying down the physical connection for GPS chip on the custom board. And the completed essential system will be residing on a finished hardware which will NOT be used for the work on non-essential system.