User:Jromanch0088/enes100/My work

Write problem/project Goal
Can not get ESC to work. The goal is to get propeller spinning so we can write a program to autonomously control propeller speed.

My First Task
I am going to bring home an ESC and get the propeller spinning. As well as learn how to fly the quad-copter.

Summary of actual work over first weekend
I accomplished both goals of getting the ESC to spin as well as learning how to fly the quad copter so we could demonstrate it on campus.

Week1 Narrative
I took the ESC home and after fiddling with it for a little bit I got the motor to spin while running the knob program. I flew the quad copter three different times over the weekend and got the hang of it after the second flight. The android control system is sub par and takes a lot of getting used too.

My Second Task
I am going to document the ESC and write a basic tutorial for it so anyone can get the motor to spin at various speeds.

Summary of actual work over second weekend
I have not been able to make too much progress with getting any other motors to work because of the different ESCs, but an order was placed for more and hopefully they will be in by next week so we can get the other three motors up and running.

Week2 Narrative
I have done a large amount of research on making a gyro and working with the accelerometer. I found this site Arduino & Accelerometer that will be very helpful in figuring out how to measure the values and program the arduino with the accelerometer. Once we get the main frame built we can safely test the system out for the different axis control by doing something similar to this video. X & Y axis testing The one nice thing about this is we can have the motors running with propellers and get a feel for just how much we will need for it to turn without crashing. I also have started to learn the basics of 123D in order to have a 3D design of the quad copter so we can visualize it before wasting materials on a design that would not work.

My Third task
I am going to complete the design of the quad copter on 123D. I am going to make a gyro over the weekend as well so we can get the programming finished with the arduino.

Summary of actual work over third weekend
What I planned to do never got finished. This is because I got the helicopter blade spinning with the Thunderbird 9 ESC. The reason why we could not get them spinning was because we did not have enough power running to the ESC. I helped write a program to test how fast we could get the motor to spin. I found that the motor will not spin any faster than 1000 (this is the serial monitor number that we read when we hook up the arduino to a pc, I do not know what it represents.) this is either an indication of the maximum the motor can put out, or we need more power to make the motor spin faster.

Week3 Narrative
I got the Thunderbird 9 ESC running without the pot. After running into some problems with the wiring of the ESC, everything went smoothly. The main problem we were having was one wire that had a break in it and it was causing the ESC to fail intermittently. Everything is working now. The next step is to build a gyro so we can program the arduino. I also did some research on a gyro system for the arduino. Even though this particular example is for a two wheeled robot, we can still apply the same basic idea to our copter. Gyro

My Fourth task
I plan on hooking up two motors to the arduino and placing them on the balance beam to program them so they will level out. I also plan on finishing the design on 123D.

Summary of actual work over fourth weekend
Worked on the wiki pages more than the design in 123D.

Week4 Narrative
I worked on the 123D design for the helicopter, I ran into more problems with constructing the helicopter blade. I haven't been able to find any other tutorials online for any other CAD program which has made trying to make one from scratch very difficult.

Complete Project Page
Helicopter