Ice Core Excavator (NASA Colorado Space Grant Consortium)
Project Summary
Objective -
Design and develop a payload that collects snow samples. The payload will be attached to a DJI Matrix and collect snow samples when the drone lands.
My responsibilities -
Devise electrical system that provides an auger with:
Control RPM (Rotations per minute) from Microcontroller.
365 RPM (+- 100 RPM) at no load.
Minimum Stall Torque of at least 1 Nm for at least 10 minutes.
Hardware shall weigh no more than 1.07 kg
Design PCB Using Altium that routes electrical hardware to ATMega328P Microcontroller
Drill Motor: GoBuilda 5202 Series, 425 RPM
Auger will attatch to motor. Motor provides 1.83Nm of Torque at Stall, 435 RPM at no load.
Drill Motor Controller: GoBuilda 15A Controller
Allows the Drill motor to be controlled through PWM signal from ATmega328p. Also provides a secure connection to battery and 5V output to PCB for microcontroller.
Battery: GoBuilda 3000mAh NiMH
3000mAh battery provides 15 minutes of current when drilling at max speed.
Stepper Driver: A4988
Provides current to stepper and control logic to drive the stepper.
Stepper: NEMA 11
Used to lower drone for drill to dig up to 15cm in depth.
PCB Routes Logic to Drill motor and Logic/Power to Stepper driver and Stepper.
3D View of Layout
Silkscreen Added to further clarify pinouts.
Layout of ICE PCB
Cross-Unders minimized, return path for each GND pad has seperate via, GND vias placed in as close proximity as possible to designated GND pads, Decoupling capacitors for ICs placed as close to Vcc terminal of IC as possible.
