Embedded Files
Power System
Power System
The power system had to meet several needs. A Mauch Power Module rated to 100 Amps used a Hall Effect sensor to monitor the current drawn by the aircraft. The primary load on the UAS was the motors. Heavy 10 AWG wires carried power to the motor power distribution board. The PixHawk flight controller was supplied by a Mauch battery eliminator circuit (BEC). Various instruments (e.g. the RFD 900+ telemetry, the HERE+ GNSS module, and the laser rangefinder) were powered through the PixHawk. An auxiliary power distribution board was designed and prototyped to support other special systems that were integrated on the aircraft. The board included an Arduino Micro and a Pololu DRV8834 stepper motor driver. These instruments were included to support special payloads designed for the aircraft, such as the Payload Delivery System and the Digital Content Delivery System.
Eli routing wiring beneath the S1000
Auxiliary power distribution board
Placement of the power distribution board, Raspberry Pi, and BEC
Plugging connector into 5 V rail of power distribution board
3D Printing
3D Printing
3D printers are very useful tools for quickly prototyping parts. For our initial prototyping, we printed our parts in 3D printers, provided by the two universities (UAF and UAA) to their engineering students. The 3D printer is useful for performing basic prototyping to making sure that the dimensions for parts are correct. That way, parts do not go through a complicated machining process only to end up being useless due to some measurement being slightly inaccurate.
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