15 July – 21 July

Hardware progress

  1. 3D printed 2 motor arm and dry ice cap

    Fig 10.1: Design of motor arm. The motor is screwed onto the rectangular base where there are 4 rectangular holes with a centre circular hole to fit the motor.
     
    Fig 10.2: Design of dry ice frame. The frame is placed on top of the dry ice and the semi-circular depressions in the frame are used to secure the dry ice to the frame and the electrical components that will be placed on top of the frame. 3D printed hollow plastic tubes are used to secure the dry ice by first drilling a shallow hole into the dry ice using a metal rod
  2. Tested the 3D printed cap and motor arm with 2 propellers to move the dry ice across the surface of a table in the forward direction.

    Fig 10.3: Set up with 2 motors and propellers secured to the dry ice 
  3. Unable to balance the speed of of the two propellers with one motor in one channel of the remote control. Without proper RC calibration, movement is possible with motors but steering and control is minimal

    Fig 10.4: Attempting dry ice hovercraft

    Fig 10.5: Attempting dry ice hovercraft

  4. Decided to try out using flight controllers (Pixhawk) to automate the speed of propellers
  5. 3D printed the other 2 motor arms (slightly edited to fit our frame snugly) and 4 fan caps (which covers the propellers and motors for safety reasons)

    Fig 10.6: Design of fan cap. It fits into the motor arm by the 2 grooves at the side

 

Software progress

  1. Used our Microzone MC6 Remote Control (RC) system and attempted to calibrate our motors through the Pixhawk. However, lack of PPM means it could not connect to the Pixhawk without buying a PPM encoder.
  2. Used the FLYSKY FS-i6X RC instead as it has PPM channel
  3. Attempted to calibrate the electrical components using Mission Planner
    1. Drone mode: allowed us to connect with the motors but it’s horizontal calibration was not applicable to our hovercraft design
    2. Rover mode: more similar to our general idea but it did not recognise our motors
    3. Submarine mode: does not recognise the RC