It Has All Arrived!

All my new toys have now arrived, and I'm gonna go play with them!

Parts have been ordered! and sampled.

In this bad picture, you may be able to see that I have ordered my firsts parts.

I bought:

• a 555 timer, not for this project, for an old kit I have
• a 7.5dc power adapter for my dev board
• an IR transmitter kit to play with the programming on the propeller
• and the Propeller Professional Development board

All this stuff is supposed to arrive on Monday the 24. I also requested a sample of a temperature sensor, the same one that's $6 on the Parallax site, directly from the manufacturer. I saved $6. I'm not sure when it will arrive.

GPS Board Modifications

I've done more work on the LEA-5H module pcb. I was looking into what parts will be need for the board, specifically for the Open Circuit Detection circuitry. Many of the parts need are extremely small (some around 1mm sq.), so I have decided to opt out of have the OCD. The benefits it would bring are not worth the effort it would take and the risk it would bring to soldering the board.

!!! I forgot to make a blog post when I finished my ADC break out board. It is now completed and you can find it here. Enjoy, and let me know if I need to change anything.

Intenational Viewers! And gps woes

I just checked out the Google Analytics report and not only do I have views from America (the main source), but also from West Vancouver, Canada, and Perth, Australia! I'm going global! ;)

Aside from my global popularity, I have run into a 5 foot tall speed bump. I'm working on making my pcb for the LEA-5H gps module from U-Blox, and when reading the hardware integration manual, the difficulty of this step hit me. Everything is so specific and sensitive, making this board is going to be a pain.

I'm currently wanting to have the Open circuit detection and short circuit detection circuitry on the board, as well as a SMA port for this antenna to plug into, and a usb port, and then the I/O to the main Propeller board.

If anybody already has something like this, or wouldn't mind helping in the construction, it would be greatly appreciated if you'd let me know.

P.S: What's the point of all the "holes" on the PCB as seen here, I have seen them on a number of boards and am baffled by them.

**Edit (8/4)**I contacted Peter Miller, over at Petermillerphotos.com, and he told me that the holes are to improve the ground plane of the antenna. He also gave me a few tips on the microstrip and its resistance, he suggests that in order to get the correct 50 ohm resistance, I should use a 4 layer pcb.

?Internship? and Autopilot Parts

I have decided to look into getting an internship in an MIT lab next summer, and seeing what it would take to make it happen. I have found a scientist that may be able to help me network on campus.

My first parts for the autopilot came this week. They were free samples (hooray) of the exact part I need. They're from tyco electronics and are 7 position ffc sockets. .1" pitch.

I'm Back and Better Than Ever!

I went on vacation this past week so I wasn't left with much time to research or post. But now that I'm back, I have nearly finished my PCB for the ADC break out board, and I've found my answer to how the IR sensor works when it is mounted at an angle. My holy grail came from here, and I was finally directed there by Chebuzz over on the Paparazzi forums. My equations are:

Pitch=(x+y)/2

Roll=(-x+y)/2

Woohoo! Now to work on the GPS and magnetometer guidance. That's gonna be interesting! Ublox here I come.

Well, I'm Back! And I've Been Asking More Questions!

Alright, over the past fews days I have read 40 pages of technical data (that was loads of fun), but in the process I figured out the differences in all the versions of the MCP3208. I am going with the MCP3208 BI/SL. I chose the 'B' because it is more accurate than the 'C' and the 'I' just means it has an industrial temperature rating. 'SL' just means it has a SOIC package.

Once I figured that out, I started working on a PCB break out board for the ADC so it would be easier to work with. Once I finish that, I'll post a link to it on BatchPCB, SparkFun's cheap PCB prototyping service.

I have also started trying to figure out the functional theory behind the XY ir sensor and the way it is mounted. I get how the tempurature differences correlate to pitch and roll. What I don't get is how it works when mounted diagonally. You can follow how that goes here, or you can click the title of this post.