August 18, Tuesday

Following from last’s week placements of the dummy weights, we attached the actual electrical components along the centre of the longer axis of the balloon. As the balloon has a lift of 242g while our components were lesser than that (~130g), we used blue tack to act as additional weight to allow the blimp to reach static equilibrium. The blue tack was also distributed adequately to ensure rotational equilibrium as well. After completing all the necessary wire extensions from the parts to the batteries, we were ready for our maiden flight attempt.

 

 

The throttle and yawing of the blimp were working fine and the blimp was able to move fluidly. However, the pitching mechanism did not seem to have any impact at all on the blimp. Also, when the yaw and pitch controls were used, the coreless motor stopped rotating and the throttle control had to be re-calibrated. We suspected that the soldering of the ESC was not secure and went to re-solder. However, we had the same issue and thus decided to swap out the coreless motor.

In addition, the balloon kept deviating left due to the torque produced by one propeller. Although we knew torque would be a factor, we assumed it to be negligible and decided to go with one propeller first. Now, we clearly knew that torque was an issue that we cannot ignore.

 

August 19, Wednesday (on to V3)

 

We changed the pitching mechanism by removing the rod and attached a second servo to the “yawing” servo. This second servo rotates the propeller up and down to perform the pitching. The coreless motor was also replaced with a new one. After making both changes, the blimp was able to pitch up and down, and the throttle was not disrupted by the yaw and pitch controls. The joystick needed to be moved slowly in order to not cut off the throttle.

 

 

 

The WiFi camera was working fine and it is able to take both photos and videos.