User:Jromanch0088/My Work Project

Write problem/project Goal
To build a quad copter controlled autonomously by the arduino

My First Task
I am going to help hook up four motors to a single arduino, and also test the different motors to see how much lift they can generate.

Summary of actual work over first weekend
I did not get around to hooking up and testing the four motors, instead I tested the Zagi motor (orange prop) with two different setups. The first setup was very crude and I was afraid the motor was going to pull the screw out so I made a different one and tested that.

Week1 Narrative
I created the "lift test" platform during the week, there were two versions, the first was a very crude setup which consisted of a block of wood, the motor, and a screw. I tested this and after running it for less than 2 seconds and I was afraid the screw was going to get ripped out. So I made a better design for a new platform, drilled out a hole for the motor, secured the motor with three screws, and also a tether system was used this time so we would not have to endanger our fingers. We could not achieve lift off with this program, it was right at the point of lifting off but it couldn't actually lift the block of wood off the table. It was kind of "floating" if you could say that. You could push the motor around and it would move freely on the table with no friction but it was not "flying". Because of this we decided to change the program because we wanted to achieve liftoff. After running the program a few times a change was made so the motor would run at its maximum speed of 150 for 15 seconds. The motor ran for about 8 seconds at this speed then at this point it started smoking and smelled of burning parts. Success on killing our first motor! The first time we tried the lift test we could not achieve spin up. This was because we needed the ESC to reset but we could not get it too at first. Here is that video. First lift test (Failed) This is the first video of testing with the first block setup which was actually successful. First Lift Test This second video is of the second block with the tether system. Second Lift Test This video is of the Spin Up program, we had some problems with this program for some reason. It would spin up as seen but it would not hold its spin up speed as long as it had been set to hold it for. Anyhow here is the video for this. Spin Up with lift test The video of when we killed the motor with the modified spin up test. The video did not start when I hit play that is why the motor is spinning when the video starts. It started about 5 seconds after spinning, then the motor died. Here is the video of that. Killed Motor

My Second Task
I plan on testing the other purple motor with the lift test, as well as trying to get four motors hooked up to the arduino.

Summary of actual work over second weekend
I documented the different propellers and got the Hacker A10-13L motor running with three different propellers.

Helicopter Propellers & Lift Test
I found and documented the different propellers available to the group. There was a problem with the propeller on the lift test. This problem was that the helicopter blade was pushing air up, not down. This caused the lift test to fail completely because the propeller was pushing the platform into the table, not away. Here is the video of the lift test with the propeller pushing air up, propeller name R8x4.5 Lift Test #2 R8x4.5. I took a guess at possible solutions and first I tried just flipping the propeller upside down. This produced and interesting result, the propeller pushed even more air in the upwards direction. Here is the video for Lift Test #2 R8x4.5 (UpsideDownPropeller). Another possible solution I came up with was to change out the propeller. I found a 12x4.5 blade and swapped it out with the original R8x4.5 propeller. After a few problems with the power supply, I got the blade spinning and this blade had the correct orientation. Here are the two videos with two different power supplies that both did not supply enough power First Failed Attempt with 12x4.5. After switching the power supply out I got the same result here is the video of that Second Failed attempt with 12x4.5. And the final failed time Third Failure. While the propeller spins, it only spins once for about 1 second then I have to change the power supply. Finally I found a power supply that supplied enough power to spin the blade. It was pushing air downwards and liftoff was achieved. Here is the first successful liftoff Lift test success!. At this point I figured out how the labeling key worked on the propellers. If the propeller dimensions have an "R" in front of the dimensions that propeller requires a motor spinning clockwise to achieve lift. If the propeller dimensions do not have an "R" in front of the dimensions the propeller requires a motor spinning counter-clockwise to achieve lift. There are three different propellers I documented. The 12x4.5 is the largest of all of the propeller. The amount of lift generated by the 12x4.5 seems to be the same as the other two propellers but with the large blade it takes longer for it to lift off. This is most likely because the propeller it larger so its spin up is not quite as fast. The 10x4.5 is the medium sized propeller. It creates a large amount of lift with quick liftoff. Barely any delay when the ESC resets to when it is airborne. The last propeller is the 8x4.5 propeller. It can lift the same amount as the 12x4.5 blade. This is probably the blade we should go with considering the size-lift ratio.

Here are the other videos of the lift test that I took:

First lift test setup with 12x4.5 Propeller, achieved liftoff. - First lift test setup

First lift test setup with 12x4.5 Propeller with extra weight, this could not achieve liftoff. - Extra weight

First lift test setup with 12x4.5 Propeller with half the extra weight as the above video, liftoff just achieved. - Half extra weight

First lift test setup with 12x4.5 propeller with half extra weight and liftoff achieved much more visibly - True liftoff with half weight

Second lift test setup with 12x4.5 propeller with half extra weight, liftoff achieved but barely visible because the tethers were too tight - Second lift test extra weight

Second lift test setup with 12x4.5 propeller with no extra weight, liftoff achieved - Second lift test no extra weight

Second lift test setup with 10x4.5 propeller with no extra weight - Second lift test 10x4.5

Second lift test setup with 8x4.5 propeller with no extra weight - Second lift test 8x4.5

Sea-Saw
In class our team worked on setting up the sea-saw so we could begin testing the accelerometer and gyro. I drilled the holes for the motor with help from Amir. Then I attached the motors. After that i attached the escs then ran wires to the arduino which was centered in the middle of the sea-saw.

My Third task
I am going to try and get both motors running off of one arduino so I can test out the sea saw.

Summary of actual work over third weekend
What I did over the third week was test the see saw. I also wrote some new programs to alter the behavior of the see saw.

Week3 Narrative
Over the week I worked with the see saw. My main problem was with the power supply. After successfully running the esc spinup programs the power supply failed after running the program for about .5 seconds. This causes major issues for me because I could not test out the new programs I wrote to test if they work. I wrote a program that runs the propellers at a low speed and with a teeter totter motion. This program was run successfully for 2 minutes nonstop, then the power supply started acting up.

My Fourth task
My next goal is to try and figure out what is causing the power supply to fail. As well as test my new programs if i get the power supplies up and running.

Summary of actual work over fourth weekend
What I did over the week was figuring out how the power supplies worked. As well as testing out my new code which worked.

Week4 Narrative
I played with the see saw, as well as figuring out a wiring issue that was related with the power supply failures.

Complete Team Page
Heli team page