Business Card, RevB

I am working on RevB of the dice, PCB business cards.  Maybe you are visiting this site after having been given one of these.

I built up a bulk programming rig using a TQFP Socket and a USBTINY programmer. This is for bulk programming of REV B of my "Business Cards". I was able to burn these 19 chips in less than 5minutes. Longest part was getting the IC's into and out of the socket. Wrote a batch file that would quickly run the AVRDUDE commands needed to burn the fuses and write the HEX to flash memory and verify.

Some of you may have one of the original versions of this that I made a few years ago and handed out. Below pictured is the RevB prototype. I made a mistake on the prototype and had to cut a trace and reroute a wire. This will be corrected in the production version. Production version will use blue, not purple solder mask.

For the geeks, Here are the list of changes between RevA and RevB...

* I made the whole thing thinner by eliminating the battery clip and recessing the battery into the PCB flush.

* Eliminated a bunch of components, namely the pushbutton (was able to make the battery clip also function as a switch. * * Eliminated the current limiting resistors on the LEDS, I instead now pulse modulate the LEDS in software to reduce apparent power to them.

* Switch from the ATMEGA328 to the less expensive ATMEGA48

* Eliminated the clock crystal and instead use the internal oscillator on the ATMEGA48

* Eliminated nearly all vias and improved overall PCB routing. Intentionally went with an organic "curvy" PCB trace routing for aesthetics instead of the more traditional 45degree routing.

Quest for the 100MPH Plane

I feel the need,  the need for speed.  I am currently working on a 100+ MPH HobbyKing radjet.  I am not quite there yet,  but feel I am well on the way.  Here is the current state of things.  Below is a video from FPV Fest where I clocked it at about 75MPH..

How am I going to break 100MPH?  Bigger motors and bigger batteries of course!

First off,  some data (click the chart to open a larger version)...

 The data in orange is what I was running in the video you just watched,  the data in yellow is what I plan on running.  Notice nearly twice the thrust! 

Here is a better comparison of the two options...

Notice a few things...

• nearly 3 times the amp draw
• the prop speed is up to 164MPH from 97MPH
• applying my actual losses I estimate the plane will go 125MPH

 of course, I figure that losses probably are logrithmic not linear, so the diminishing returns from actual losses due to more weight might be a bit more,  however I still feel pretty confident I can break 100.  The batteries are going to take some punishment.  I am going to need to run a 50C 1600MAH with an 80AMP ESC.  Stay Tuned!

CSIT-211 Final Project.

For my Final Project in CSIT-211 (Group Project),  I decided to implement my version of the classic game "Snake".  The snake uses Linked Queues to track the positions of all the snake segments, and uses a linear search for collision detection.  For more information, please download the .zip which contains the Theory of Operation paper as well as the power point and the code itself.

Click here for a .zip containing the compiled .jar, as well as the source and documentation.

Java Graphics & Input polling based on: http://compsci.ca/v3/viewtopic.php?t=25991

Camera mount for the ZMR-250

The sony mini FPV cameras are great, but they are difficult to mount.  I have designed a 3D printable mount to fit the ZMR-250 blackout clone quadcopter.

The design can be downloaded from thingiverse here.. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:725352

You can shoot from a straight forward mount to a tilt mount from 0-30 degrees in 5 degree increments based upon your racing preferences.  I am going to start with 15degrees and see how well that works for me.

These are the cameras I am currently using.

Here are some photos of the 15degree up tilt design..

 

2014 Flying Retrospective

Sorry I haven't been terribly active in 2014,  I've been doing a lot building and flying and less documenting my projects.  Here is a video I made which is a retrospective for 2014 of what I have been up to with my group of friends who all fly together...