with our project completed, we worked on poster and presentations.

we went for a night trip to shoban mandir with club seniors. we made observations there

we recorded data from 11:30 to 13:00 hrs.we discussed the graph with club seniors . we have observed changes in amplitude of radio emissions from sun with time. we also observed that amplitude of radio emissions over a certain frequency range is somewhat constant with small peaks at certain frequencies.

During the SnT Evaluation, we were given an idea that we must calculate the semi-major axis of each planet's orbit. We worked out that we could do it, by utilizing the The Third Law of Kepler, and translating the information available, into a form that can be used in our calculations. We proceeded on to make a spreadsheet and feeding all the data, we had calculated in it.

Upon exploring the APOGEE-2 link on the SDSS website , we found out that APOGEE-2 covers 14,000 stars in the Kepler field of view. Upon searching some more for the data we found out that APOGEE has arranged its data according to its Apogee ID and unfortunately we were unable to establish a relation between the Apogee IDs and the Kepler IDs.
We are looking for other ways around the APOGEE-2 data.

We pondered on the possibility of calculating mass of planet , inclination and obliquity of its orbit . Since mass cannot be obtained from a light curve, we had to expand the domain of our project to look for data from other sources regarding other planet hunting techniques, like radial velocity method , astrometry and spectral analysis.
We came across a program APOGEE-2 on a website of SDSS ( Sloan Digital Sky Survey) (www.sdss.org) />It claimed to provide archive data by radial velocity method and spectroscopy for 300,000 stars in different regions of sky.
We are yet to explore it.

We had our SnT level project evaluation today. We briefed them about our project's motive and progress.
We also discussed about any future possibilities of extending the project's aim as our current aim was near to completion.

We had our club level evaluation today.
We also had star-gazing-cum-observation session for the remaining time.
No significant work on the project was done today.

we recorded radio waves from sun between 13:00 to 14:00 hrs.

we started collecting data and recording it using speclab. we recorded radio waves emmited from hand.

we went to the market for a stand to support our antenna. we bought it and fixed it with the antenna. in this way our radio telescope got ready. we are now ready to collect data from radio source and record it.

we then searched for a software to record the signals recieved from the reciever. we came across two software - radio sky pipe and speclab. we read about two. and decided to use speclab as it was more user friendly.

we connected the audio jack parallel to the buzzer . then attached stereo cable to the audio jack

Went to Tinkering lab and made mount of stepper motor and checked new stepper motor driver by connecting it to motor and computer through arduino uno.
However connection was not successful.

Went to Tinkering lab and took time for making mount of stepper motor.

Went to market to purchase driver for stepper motor, gears .

Went to the observatory and installed DDw, team viewer to remotely control observatory.
We were successful to control it.

Observation session and planetarium show conducted for the visitors.

we worked on lose connections .we used better connectors this time . the connection was established as done previously. we added a switch between our power source to provide power as and when necessary. instead of Li ion batteries we used 2 9V batteries and battery holder to add stability to our power connection. we then checked the connection by placing our hand infront of it. we were overwhelmed to hear the sound of the buzzer. our telescope could detect the radio signal. next we have to connect it to PC using audio cable.

We analysed the following stars for extracting data-
->2307199
->5084942
->8030148
->8107380
->9527915

We analysed the following stars for extracting data-
->2441495
->6442377
->10810838
->11402995
->11666881

we tested our dish connection by aligning it wit the existing dish antenna at hall2 canteen. as expected everything went well. the buzzer buzzed indiating we could receive the satellite signals. we are now sure that the receiver and sattelite finder are ok. the issue was with the connection. we have to fix connection problem

we went to market and bought the audio jack and audio cable..

we called the cable operator to seek some help but he could not come as he was out of town for some days. hence, no work on the telescope could be done. we however read of modification in satellite finder. we need to replace the buzzer circuit by an audio jack and then to PC through the audio cable. so we decided to go to the market next day.

we met at noon and focused on sun. but no buzzing sound was heard. we tried again and again but it didnot work. we met again in the evening and tried to fix the problem by tightening the connectors from cable but it didnot work . we then thought of testing it with existing dishes in the campus but we didnot get permission. so we decided to call the mechanic next day

we have bought the batteries and connected it to the satellite finder. when we did so we heard a buzzing sound from the satellite finder when we placed our hand near the receiver. but after sometime no buzzing sound was heard on placing our hand near the receiver . we did not understand the reason for the malfunction. we thought it might work for solar radiations and decide to meet next day

We had visitors to whom we showed our newly made planetarium show and also helped them observe the wonders lying in the sky, with the aid of telescopes.
We also analysed
Kepler ID 3825670 , 4180280 , 8506766, 9904059, 12105051

We analysed Kepler 62d ( 3rd planet from its star )
We are trying to pin down Kepler 62 b / c / e / f from the same light curve.
Alongside we also analysed
Kepler ID 7778437
And Kepler ID 11974540

Went to observatory and discussed about image extraction (which is in .fit format) from astroFX software of celestron telescope .
- Issues:
- No delay for the nob to rotate.
- Solution:
- Decided to take alternate photos.
Also take measurements of base platform for attachment of circuit board.
Discuss the feasibility of using Raspberry Pi instead of laptop.
- Issues:
- Not availability of AstroFx or similar software on ubuntu.
- Storage issues.
- Controlling the software for other computer on network.
- Solution:
- Decided not to use Raspberry Pi.

We were asked to make shows for our planetarium, and today was their presentation. Our shows were reviewed by club seniors.

We all were divided into groups and we had to present a small planetarium show, based on Stellarium.

Planetarium show

Performed live stellarium show

Tested image processing code in C++ by making two images of big dipper (one focused and other unfocused by using GIMP in ubuntu) and program worked well.

We analysed the light curves of the following stars-
->3531558
->5897826
->9450647
->9579641
->11250587

Wrote a code for arduino and serial communication in C++.

Wrote a code to compare two images and find more focused image by calculating number of white pixels of binary image in C++.

having assembled parts of the antenna, we worked on wiring. we attatched cables to lnb and satellite finder. we were about to connect the battery , when we found that we were one battery short. we had four Li ion batteries summing 12 V . but we needed 15 V Dc source. hence we decided to buy Li ion battery and then connect it to the receiver part of sattelite finder. Later in the night we had planetarium shows.

having bought the equipment , we started work on it. we assembled parts of dish. the wiring is to left to be done which will be done tommorrow

We analysed the light curves and drew conclusions for stars with the foll the following Kepler Id's-
->2444412
->4055765
->7914200
->8505215
->8711294

we brought the components from the market. we are now ready to start the work on our design

we received mail from proffesor BC Joshi suggesting improvements in our receiver design. he suggested use of butterworth filter instead of simple RC filter which has a poor roll off. we read about butterworth fiter , cutoff frequency of filter. we decided to use butterworth low pass filter followed by butterworth high pass filter for our band pass filter design.

We had astrophotography session , DSLR camera handling session.
We also had night sky observation session.
No significant work was done.

Studied the star Kepler-22. Analysed its light curve for the presence of Kepler 22 b ( planet just in its star's habitable zone of almost twice the size of earth with a period of 289 days ). The planet being one among the prime candidates for earth like exoplanets.
We also studied curves for several other systems :
-> 8056665
-> 6056992
-> 7199397
-> 8554498
-> 9527334

No work related to project was done. We are waiting for components.

We have already studied too much theory. So we considered that we will start working as soon as components arrive. Not much wok was done.

Write simple python and arduino code to test the communication.
http://www.makeystreet.com/xrohitgupta/celestron-auto-focuser/files/
For serial communication you may have to download pyserial
http://pyserial.sourceforge.net/pyserial.html
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pyserial/files/latest/download

Learn about histogram, and write code to draw the histogram of any particular image.
http://docs.opencv.org/modules/imgproc/doc/histograms.html

Read more about Serial Communication.

Planetarium Workshop.

Try to figure out how we can communicate the output of the python code to the arduino.
Learn about serial communication
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_communication
http://www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/Serial

Write a code of image thresholding using the trackbar but trackbar is not interacting with the output image window
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os8-3uMPtlQ

We analysed Systems with the following Kepler IDs-
->8191672
->9631995
->9941662
->10874614
->11804465
->6922244
->5812701

We have uploaded their reports as docs.

We analysed Systems with the following Kepler IDs-
->10666592
->11446443
->10748390
->11853905

We have uploaded their reports as docs.

It was hard to believe but most of the planets had orbital periods (The time to go around their sun, once) was LESS THAN 10 DAYS !!

we came up with the idea of making a mount for the telescope. we thought of using three layers of plywood. the lower layer being fixed. we attach a srew to the upper layer and a bolt to the middle layer.by moving the nut over the bolt , we can ensure the circular movement of antenna.

No work on on the project was done. We made telescopic observations and were taught about astrophotography.

Astro Photography Workshop

We had astrophotography and telescope handling sessions.

We had astrophotography and telescope handling sessions.

Today we discussed among ourselves about the modifications we are planning to do. We were confused with receiver circuit(as how to use inductor and capacitors effectively). We considered taking help from prof. BC Joshi of NCRA. Here are some links:
https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DjBNcTn9BEy0&h=pAQE_zceq
https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DoNxsripQZTQ&h=kAQGT4suQ
https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DDkURL4mETT4&h=fAQHJ9woo
https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D934_teo14Ik&h=8AQFOujbn

We realized that this year's problem was much higher than the level we could work out. So we decided that we must contain ourselves to the first Problem Statement which was a bit easier than the others.

Nothing of much importance was done in context of this project.

We had an internet connection problem but still managed to analyse data for Kepler 3-b and Kepler 4-b and, as expected, the data values we calculated matched the generally accepted values, within a small margin of error.

We started the analysis of light curves of systems with confirmed exoplanets. We calculated the radii and transit duration for systems Kepler 1b and Kepler 2b, and found out that our calculated values matched quite well with the generally accepted values.

Connect the motor using motor driver.
Write and run the code for the stepper motor. Able to control the motor (speed, no of steps)
Here is the simple code to test the motor :
https://makeyfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/3489/sketch_may30a.ino
Also this tutorial can help :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtJM-8rokGg

Read about pixels ad types of images - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-WV7LfoX7k />Write a code of image thresholding - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-WV7LfoX7k

Try to understand the complicated connections.
This article may help : https://athulbalan.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/interface-a-stepper-motor-with-arduino-%E2%80%93-lesson-3/

Read about basics of opencv and wrote basic code to read image using opencv

Read and discussed this article about, Stepper motor and driver selection.
- http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/Datasheets/StepperSelection.pdf

Decided To use
- Bipolar Stepper motor
- IC L298N based driver.

Opencv directories not working in Sublime text editor , tried to solve the issue. Finally decided to use terminal

: Learned how stepper motor works.
Its basic controls and how we can exploits its properties.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bngx2dKl5jU

:Installed ubuntu 14.04 and tried to install opencv directories using sublime text editor 2

having thought of a way to make our reciever , we started looking for the feasibility of our idea. we saw a video of 1420 MHz reciever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=934_teo14Ik
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsGRM024jRc
seeing this video we were assured that our idea was somewhat correct. However, there was a problem with the amplifier, the noise that the circuitry produces will add to the signal even if external noise is filtered. The internal noise may depend on the thermal conditions and the circuit design. we discussed about this with our seniors. There was two ways left, either we buy a low noise amplifier or discuss it with some electronics proffesor. However , this is a part of some modifications , we had planned.our basic design is ready and we are prepared to work as the components arrive.

We tried to understand the problem statement of GTOC 8.

today we discussed about how to make our reciever. we saw videos about design of low pass filter, amplifier, frequency mixer. we came up with thw idea that if we pass the signal through an array of amplifier and low pass filter , we could extract the low frequency signals with our main focus on 1420 MHz signal at which we get 21 cm hydrogen line.After ward ,our seniors gave us some questions.

Found a web page showing many methods of analyzing light curves. We are now ready to analyse light curves

This year's Problem Statement was released today.
We read the problem description and tried to realize the intricacies of the problem.

We found out way to interpret the data available from light curves to find out various properties of exoplanets viz. mass, radius, density etc.
We are quite ready to start analyzing stars on our own.

today we discussed about modifications in our project. we thought to use 12 V Li acid battery as a power supply to power LNB and satellite finder.
we read about LNB modification
here are links from where we collected information:=
http://www.radio-astronomie.com/radtel.htm
http://www.scienceinschool.org/2012/issue23/telescope

Arduino Part:
Practiced two tutorials on arduino.
- PWM, function and buttons.
- And Electronic Basis like potentiometer, voltage regulator.

we recieved mail from professor BC Joshi. He said that the list of equipments we had mailed him were fine.However, he suggested us to make a simple ASRT at beginning and then go for some modifications. He suggested some. we are waiting for the components to arrive. meanwhile, we are discussing about the modifications. We had a club level evaluation . We were asked to increase our efficiency and read about the circuitry of the reciever we are planning to make on our own.

We had a Club-Level evaluation of our projects, where we explained our progress and future plans for the project.

We had a Club-Level evaluation of our projects, where we explained our progress and future plans for the project.

we were confused with the frequency range for radio astronomy and use of set top box in radio telescope. we discussed about it with seniors. still confused , we mailed to proffesor,BC Joshi asking solution to our problems.

We read the Lecture Notes of a course provided by MIT Open Course Ware - Astrodynamics (16.346 Fall 2008)<http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/aeronautics-and-astronautics/16-346-astrodynamics-fall-2008/index.htm>

We read the Lecture Notes of a course provided by MIT Open Course Ware - Astrodynamics (16.346 Fall 2008)<http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/aeronautics-and-astronautics/16-346-astrodynamics-fall-2008/index.htm>

We analysed a few more light curves.

We tried to analyse some light curves of stars we got from NASA's STSCI archive.

We read documents related to Kepler Mission and got some insight into the functioning the space telescope.

- Issued Arduino Project kit from the electronic club.
- Familiarise Ourselves with Arduino.
- Practiced by running some code on the Arduino.

- Visited Observatory for analysing how the auto focuser can be attached to the telescope.
- Astro - Photography Workshop taken by Coordinators.
- Discussed Components that would be required for the projects.

- Discussed about image processing part and decided to use opencv tool for the same.
- Setup opencv in our Laptops.
http://opencv-python-tutroals.readthedocs.org/en/latest/py_tutorials/py_setup/py_setup_in_windows/py_setup_in_windows.html#install-opencv-python-in-windows />- Learn some basics of open cv
http://opencv-python-tutroals.readthedocs.org/en/latest/py_tutorials/py_gui/py_image_display/py_image_display.html#display-image

Astro Presentations

- continue with Tutorial videos
Tutorial 04 for Arduino: Analog Inputs
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js4TK0U848I

Tutorial 05 for Arduino: Motors and Transistors
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bHPKU4ybHY

Tutorial 06 for Arduino: Serial Communication and Processing
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0pSfyXOXj8

- install arduino software and drivers
- saw Jeremy Blum online tutorial
Tutorial 01 for Arduino: Getting Acquainted with Arduino
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCxzA9_kg6s

Tutorial 02 for Arduino: Buttons, PWM, and Functions
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LCCGFSMOr4

Tutorial 03 for Arduino: Electrical Engineering Basics
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abWCy_aOSwY

- discussion about image processing with seniors
- saw Jeremy Blum tutorials about arduino - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCxzA9_kg6s&list=PLV009FNOX7Tf-XSyghg2vrSYXw1QcCHaX

- project finalised and discussed with electronics club coordi and seniors
- read about auto focuser from- http://emediadesigns.com/focuser/

- read for auto focussing telescope, stellar dust simulation
- auto focus- http://astro.neutral.org/diy_focuser.html (homemade focuser)
http://www.yesyes.info/index.php/diy/motor-focuser/ (homemade focuser)
- formed abstract on Auto focuser

- read for auto focussing telescope, stellar dust simulation
- auto focus- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahtinov_mask /> http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=206205.0 /> http://sourceforge.net/p/arduinofocuscontrollerpro/discussion/general/thread/f4880aeb/?page=1 />
- stellar dust- https://www.khanacademy.org/science/cosmology-and-astronomy/stellar-life-topic/stellar-life-death-tutorial/v/accreting-mass-due-to-gravity-simulation />

Today we searched for some books in astronomy. They are uploaded.
Not much work was done.

1.Today we read about helical antenna radio telescope.
Not much resources are available in internet about it.
One useful link is
http://astro.abhinav.ac.in/
2. We realised that the we need to know more about frequency allocations.
3. Started searching about cables as we forgot to mention it in our list.
Resources not much available.

All people presented their slideshows on different topics of their choice.

Downloaded FITS files corresponding to the Kepler ID's of false positive candidates as well as confirmed candidates as observed the difference between their light curves.

Visited www.planethunter.org and to see some sample light curves and analysed them.

We viewed some online tutorials on using DS9 (Search YouTube for NITARP episode 2-DS9) and learned to manipulate
some images taken by large telescopes stored in FITS format.

We browsed through the NASA Kepler website, from there we aimed to retrieve data from its server.
Website MAST Kepler holds onto a KOI's data. We sample searched random files and staged the archived fles on the server. Later downloaded the staged files via FTP.
As expected the downloaded files were of extension .FITS, threfore we downloaded NASA FV viewer help us handle those files.
We hovered through its interface to explore more of the file, but were unable to understand it fully.

We had a look on the fifth problem of GTOC and saw its answer as a simulation in a Youtube Video.<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azDkCSbbmTU>

All the people gave presentations on topics of their choice.

Again, we switched back to discussing the intricacies of the first GTOC problem.

We researched some more topics related to interplanetary travel.

We tried the same problem as yesterday (Save the Earth). We read about the technical terms used in the problem.

Glanced over the first problem of GTOC (Problem 1 : Save the Earth). Thought of some possible scenarios for which the problem could be worked out, but couldn't reach a solution.

Servo control systems are best suited to high speed, high torque applications that involve dynamic load changes. Stepper control systems are less expensive and are optimal for applications that require low-to-medium acceleration, high holding torque, and the flexibility of open or closed loop operation.

We decided to use stepper motor

21/5/2015-
Not much could be done due to internet problem.

22/5/2015-
there was presentatation in groups at club level. so no work was done on the project.

Today we studied about individual components of radio telescope and made list of necessary components to be bought.Here are some sites we visited.
http://www.astrosurf.com/luxorion/radioastronomy-rt.htm (this was a very useful site)
http://www.astrosurf.com/audine/English/result/scan.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-locked_loop http://www.satcritics.com/sc_tech_lnb.pdf http://www.passmyexams.co.uk/GCSE/physics/earth-based-telescopes-radio-telescopes.html#top http://ipnpr.jpl.nasa.gov/progress_report2/XVI/XVIO.PDF http://www.ece.umd.edu/~tretter/commlab/c6713slides/ch5.pdf http://www.gb.nrao.edu/electronics/edir/edir214.pdf https://uspas.fnal.gov/materials/08UCSC/mml17_nonlinear_circuit_elements.pdf http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/radiotel/frontend.html
As there may be doubts about components(as we had) all the websites that were quite useful are listed here.

In our plane we have successfully applied PID on gyro, and accelerometer (roll and pitch axes). We are suitably changing values of proportionality constant to get optimum stabilization. We have also finished the code and installation of telemetry through MAVLink protocol. We are left with minor improvements in the circuit for improving efficiency and robustness.

Our plane has finally been fabricated and completed. Due to inability of pink foam we finalized a Styrofoam plane. This time we had made the fuselage hollow and it was lined with balsa wood to give it strength and rigidness. The hollow space is meant for battery, micro controller circuit and ESC. Small doors facilitate entry inside the hollow. There is a small styro mount at the center of the wing for placing the MPU-6050.

We started the tuning over again, I(Sharun) flew the quadcopter today. Things went smooth we found the sweet spot for kP for the rate of roll and pitch. Then we moved on adjusting angle coefficients, much better performance today with angle coefficients. We also tried adding fourth order filter to the reciever values. The five point average for gyro values was also applied. Both these modifications led to delayed response, so they had to be rejected. After tuning for a while now, the graphs of setpoint and the gyro value seemed quite satifactory.

We figured out the problem with our tuning. One senior,Nikhil, adviced us on the same our rate PID tuning wasn't done the right way, also we were completely wrong about the kI coefficient. So, we were a bit demotivated to not meet a major goal like angle PID, forget about altitude holding and gps. We left and decided to start work in the morning itself the next day.

The project will be done in three phases.
Phase 1: The aim will be to check if the wing produces enough lift. We would be using a normal trainer plane fuselage and control surfaces for elevation and yaw.
Phase 2: We would be developing the weight shift mechanism, and making trike look alike fuselage. Wing from phase 1 would be used.
Phase 3: A lighter variant using carbon rods will be made. Aim will be to make a lighter, aesthetically pleasing, working model.

we were in need to make a model with hollow fuselage that has enough capacity as well as strength and can carry electronics items. So, as suggested by our mentor Shreyash we made our plane by strofoam, balsa wood and balsa ply. For PID tunning we need our plane in sight while tune so the plane must be slow (glide) as much as possible( we need high aspect ratio), since speed is less we need more therefore we decided our wing to be dihedral and increased our wing span.

The pair of pylons were made from balsa ply. They were screwed to the wing at the top, and inserted and glued with BondTite to the fuselage.
The length was 35 cm, with 7 cm inserted in the fuselage.

The wing did produce enough lift, as checked from phase one.
We decided to make a T shaped fuselage from aluminium spar of square cross section of 2.2 cm side. The pylon was 10 inches long.
The fuselage was initially cut sufficiently long to accommodate for varying the position of centre of gravity. We kept on decreasing the length afterwards.

After malfunctioning of vaccum pump and lack of time, we finally decided to test our gyro coding circuit on a styro based a dihedral wing model.

The phase 1 fuselage was same as that of a trainer plane. Since our purpose was simply to check if the wing can generate enough lift, we chose to go with easy to make fuselage of trainer plane.

Unsuccesful tuning, not much work

I had completed making the board, I took it to my room yesterday and completed there. This one is much better than the previous ones. So, we assembled the quad again, and started tuning. But the vibrations are too much and the graphs on qgroundcontrol dont give any leads to the problem. We tried the other angle algorithm, the DCM, but either it was too slow to respond or it was too noisy. So, overall it wasn't as good as the quaternion algorithm which we have been using.

I(Sharun) started making a new board, Satya and Animesh had bought a new PCB with more hardness and better quality. Satya worked on debugging the code for a while.

To be written

To be written

To be written

Today, starting was just a waste of time, we could only wait for the batteries to get charged. Then, after 1 or 2 flights some error cropped in, the quadcopter flipped and crashed mid-flight. We debugged and found out that the MPU was giving wrong and random values. But when we removed the circuit board and connected the MPU directly it gave right values, so the circuit board was creating problems.

We decided to make a new one.

Well, the angles were measured again and by changing the beta coefficients in the angle code the update rate was improved and hoping to get better results we began tuning again. After a lot of attempts the kp for angles was finalised very low(0.02 to 0.05) and then we added a little kd term too. But the quad didn't perform that better, still the code without the angle PID was performing better. Then we tried adding a bit of kI term and it stabilized a bit. So after a lot of tuning attempts we left, deciding to look more into tuning better and choosing the beta coefficient in angles code.

We tried the different algorithms, but they didn't work as fine as the quaternian algo that we have been using. The pressure sensor code didn't seem to work too. No tuning could be done today.

The tuning of coefficients continues. The vibrations are reduced a little by tuning the P and D terms but we cannot get rid of them. May be the angles were too noisy. We planned on using other algorithms for improving angle estimation. I(Sharun) decided to look into DCM and Satya decided to find angles using DMP. Animesh was working miscellaneously on the sonar sensor. Rachit was writing the pressure sensor code.

autopilot type header file which will use HERTBEAT signals to receive data and wireless devices,,,,,,,

Wee moved on to testing the quad and tuning the PID coefficients for angles. The vibrations seemed difficult to be removed.

We were thinking to make U-rods, and connect it to the boosters. The pipes in which rods can go will be connected to the sustainers.

We made slits in the wooden board to make sliders for the booster launcher. We inserted the nozzle in slit and made sliders; first from the aluminium sheet. However, The motion was restricted and the slide was not smooth. So we made them with the wood. Now the slide was smooth.
We took four 1 feet pipes, threaded at both ends. We reduced the diameter of the pipe using lathe so that bottle can slide over it easily.

The same umbrella cloth was used.
However, this time the cloth was attached completely stretched and under tension.
It was attached just under the leading edge of the frame.

We used umbrella cloth as the material.
While attaching it to the wing, we kept it loose

The frame was that of a rogallo wing. The leading edges were made of reinforced balsa rods from balsa sheets. Reinforcing was done with 80gsm glass fibre sheets. The spine was from 1.25cm thick square cross sectioned alumium spar. The three were joined to a balsa piece.
Additionally, two supporting ribs were installed to give stability. Ribs were of the same material as the leading edge of the wing.

After gyro, we went on to use the accelerometer values. We have managed to filter out orientation from the data (including various noises), with the help of simple integration of errors and prediction of future orientation. We are also currently reading about MAVLink (telemetry) connection. After this we plan to compensate for error due to acceleration of plane.

//Beehive Removal

Today we calibrated the magnetometer by storing the data in txt format and when that was input to a software it gave all the necessary coefficients. This code was tested, and after a few trials of calibration we got it done. Then the calibrated values were employed for my(sharun's) angle estimation code and we were able to obtain better angles. But still sometimes the angles behave wierdly, they all start to change simultaneously, and rest of the times they work fine. We guess its a connection problem.

I(Satya) got the quad to store parameters in EEPROM. Sharun and animesh soldered pins onto our MS-5611 sensor. We stored magnetometer data so that we can calibrate our magnetometer using ellipsoid fitting method in order to use our magnetometer in our angle estimation methods, making it possible for us to getter more accurate yaw angles. Animesh carried on working on his implementation of a Kalman filter.

Sharun implemented an angle estimation code which uses gradient-descent method and quaternions, and then tuned the parameters associated with it. Rachit started coding for the MS-5611 barometer. I(Satya) wrote code which made live changing of PID gains possible(i.e while the quad is on and disarmed).

We tuned our quadroter's PID gains further and redistributed among ourselves.

We had trouble uploading code onto our Arduino Mega, leading to complications. Later, we ended up busy cleaning our Aeromodelling club HQ, which was in a state of chaos before.

I(Satya) figured out build custom MAVLink messages and how to build a custom qgroundcontrol to use them. I got the quad to use Animesh's angle estimation code and modified our code to use dual PIDs for roll and pitch. We also decided against using BMP085 and instead opted MS-5611 instead due to concerns over reading delays and precision.

We tuned our quadrotor's rate PID gains. Animesh continued to code his version of an angle estimation algorithm which uses explicit complementary filter and quaternions. Rachit was working on BMP085 code. Sharun was working on the implementation of roll,pitch and yaw angles estimation using DCM.

Finally the telemetry worked, the problem was- baud rate. We found out that there is a fixed baud rate at which telemtry works and it was 57600. Now we were able to run mavlink and collect data through qgroundcontrol software.

To be written ...

1. Purchase a single piece cue stick which is conical for a longer length.
2. Select the part of the cue stick which is perfectly conical. Generally the tip of the stick is conical and smooth.
3. Apply 2-3 coatings of polishing wax on the stick to give a smooth and shiny finish to the surface.
4. Apply vaseline on the required part for making it smooth and slippery.
5. Roll 1-inch tape in the reverse direction ( i.e. sticky surface away from the cue stick ) carefully avoiding any wrinkles or bubbles as far as possible.
6. Cut out a mylar sheet of size accommodating the size of fibres that need to be put on the cue stick.
7. Cut out glass fibre and carbon fibre of the required size and place it on the mylar sheet one at a time.
8. Prepare epoxy-hardener mixture in the mass ratio 10:1.
9. Apply epoxy mixture to them and then apply it on the surface of the cue stick.
10. After all the layers are applied, tape the surface wiping off the extra epoxy oozing out from time to time.
11. Keep it for drying.
12. To take out the boom, hit the cue stick on the ground giving it a strong impulsive force, resulting in the removal of the boom.
13. Keep the boom in the sun to allow the epoxy on the internal surface to dry.
14. Sand the surface of the boom lightly ( after putting the boom on the cue stick to avoid the deformation of the boom due to compressive stress ) to make it smooth and also remove the tape stuck on the inner surface.

Two bottles should be connected to each other using quick release connector. However, we could not get them anywhere in Kanpur city. So we, are planning to make an alternate connector mechanism. Work under progress.

We are using single 1.5 L water bottles as the boosters. We will connect the boosters the boosters with iron pipe.

Earlier we tried to fix the connector (5-pipe connector) using adhesives i.e. DST and Doctor tape. However, it came off as there was much torque and force after connecting the pipes. So, we made 2 clamps to hold them. The connector can freely rotate and self adjust in the clamp.

I(Sharun) soldered the pins for magnetometer on our circuit board. After that we tried running telemetry once again, but it didn't help. So we started on with manual tuning.

Our main plane is going to be made up of pink foam with glass fiber coating and its fuselage will be hollow and made up of glass fiber only. But due to lack of vacuum pump we are unable to work on our main plane.
So, in order to test the code of aurdino we have one styrofoam plane ready and another styrofoam plane will be ready by today, and both of these styro plane are well strengthen.

<code>
TO_BE_WRITTEN
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1. Apply vaseline / polishing wax on a carbon rod / tube which is going to be used as the joiner rod.
2. Apply tape in the reverse orientation (i.e Sticky surface away form the rod) in a spiral.
3. Cut glass fibre strips of width approximately 4 to 5 cm and length according to the length of the rod.
4. Prepare epoxy-hardener mixture of weight ratio 10:1. Stir gently to avoid introducing air bubbles.
5. Cut out a mylar sheet of size accommodating the glass fibre strips comfortably.
6. Put the glass fibre strip on the mylar sheet and apply epoxy mixture to it using brush (wearing gloves for protection) such that it sticks to the sheet smoothly and no part of the strip is protruding out of the plane of the mylar sheet.
7. Put a strip of tissue paper on the fibre and press with paint roller gently to take out extra epoxy and take out the tissue paper when no more epoxy is being absorbed.
8. Lift the glass fibre sheet and apply it on the carbon rod in a slanting manner. Apply as many layers of glass fibre as per your requirement.
9. Tape the carbon rod (with glass fibre sheets on) gently.
10. Leave the rod to dry for about 2 - 3 hours.
11. After the epoxy has cured, remove the tape.
12. Hold the carbon rod using pliers and pull the rod gently, occasionally rotating the rod for easing out the process.
13. Again put the joiner tubes under sunlight for final curing.

Satya and me(Sharun) tried serial communicationo by another telemetry assuming that something was wrong with the one that we used yesterday. But it turned out that this one was behaving the same, giving garbage on the console. We adjusted gains of the sensors through manual testing.
Animesh ran quaternian code, but it didn't give desired results today. I wrote the code for DCM, but there was some problem with my arduino software and couldn't test it.

2 days ago we had completed our basic code(including receiver/output) which only uses gyro for now. The tasks left now are to insert proper values in our code and creating the circuit board for Arduino, MPU (which will be completed today). After this we will test this on our basic workshop fabricated plane.

The testing couldn't be repeated today due to lack of motors, which were employed in other projects of the club. I started writing the code for DCM. Animesh was done writing the quaternian code, but it needed debugging. Rachit tested the barometer code and started studying about the gps. Me and Satya tried running qgroundcontrol software by connecting the arduino through usb, and it ran fine, it was really cool to see the graphs being plotted on real time data. We then tried the same using telemetry, but it didn't work. We tried to troubleshoot this a lot but it didn't work. May be there was a problem with the telemetry, so we thought of trying the same on a different telemetry tomorrow.

I(Sharun) studied about DCM, because the next obvious step for stabilizing the quadcopter was the angle estimation, starlino guide proved to be useful. Satya tried mavlink by connecting through usb, on the qgroundcontrol software. Animesh continued to work on quaternian(which also is used for angle estimation, its just that we wanted to try both the methods). Rachit wrote the code for collecting raw data for barometer, because it was the next sensor to come up on our board.

Other than that, the testing of the same quad was done once more, it didn't work out as good as last time. I also tried to repair a not working solder wire, created an all new connection, but it still didn't work, the cord was not working. We also made the connection for connecting telemetry to the arduino.

Today the team started work in the noon itself. Till the evening we completed soldering the new circuit board. Satya tested the magnetometer code and printed its data. Animesh and Rachit worked on the quaternian.
In the night time we tested the quad which was getting stabilized only on the gyroscope values for now and with only low pass filter of the IMU. Despite the not-so-advanced code which was done till now, the quad was more stable than expected, though it was still far from what we want to achieve.

We added wires to the circuit board. But later the board was ruined when a couple of pins got shorted with each other and also the pins were soldered poorly so we decided to make a new one. I(Sharun) started practicing flying of a helicopter on the simulator. Me and Animesh completed SD card data logging. Rachit continued his work on quaternian. Satya completed implementing mavlink.

I(sharun) started soldering the circuit board that fitted both arduino due and mega. All pins were soldered but the wires were left. We assembled our quadcopter for the first time, caliberated the esc's and checked the connections and motors. Satya also printed the response in motor PWM's to the change in orientation of the quad.

Today we started assembling our quad. Satya and Rachit completed the code with the all the miniature finishings. Rest of the time there was evaluation.

lost

Today we didn't do much work. Moreover, there were nocoordinators and few of the other teams up for work. So we studied on our own today.

lost

lost

Circuit board soldering couldn't be started today due to lack of equipments. We wrote PID codes today. Rachit and Animesh wrote a PID code and then tuned it. Me(Sharun) and Satya wrote a different PID code and then using it, we tried stabilising the servo at a certain angle which otherwise is rotating proportional to the gyroscope value along one axis. Circuit board soldering was postponed for tomorrow.

We wrote the code for reciever using pin change interrupt. It was decided that circuit designing would mainly be mine(Sharun's) job, so i tried practicing soldering on spare boards and we decided to start making the circuit boards tomorrow. The other members wrote the PID code and we discussed about it.

We all tried our first hands on soldering circuit boards today. We also wrote the code for reciever and monitored the raw data initially from 1 channels and then moved on to 4 channels. We read further about PID.

We studied further about concepts in coding an arduino, a few more libraries. We discussed and arrived at our circuit for the quad copter which mainly comprised of MPU6050, BMP085 and arduino mega2560. We also succeeded in controlling the speed of a brushless motor using arduino. Having studied how to extract raw data from an MPU sensor we implemented it and studied the MPUs data at different baud rates. After that we turned on the low pass filter in the MPU.

We got familiar with the basic codes for blinking led's and also the servo libraries, and studied about PWM. We tried them practically on arduino mega2560. We were able to control the angle to which the servo rotated. We also tried controlling the speed of a motor but couldn't do it today. We almost finished our styro plane workshop too. The slits for aileron servos and tail servos were made.

We now have a clear idea about the various communication protocols(uart,i2c,sli). We also studied about arduino from the official website, got to know about the various basic tasks with led's and servos that you could do using arduino. We also moved on with the styro plane workshop, today we sanded them further and started taping the components.

We team members met today, started the background study about arduino and communication protocols. We also started the styro-plane workshop. We cut out the fuselage, wings and tails out of styro sheet and sanded them.

We are done with the planning of the balsa plan. We have now moved to cutting of balsa wood by using laser cutter of the 4i lab. It took us around 2 hours to get all the pieces cut. After getting all the pieces removed from balsa, we now arranged the rudder piece by piece and almost completed it as of now.

completed the MPU coding and have taken the raw data of gyro axes and for mapping it with angle

Everything went as planned ,according to timeline .

Plane design was completed : We choose Fx63137 airfoil as its Cl value and shape met all our requirements.

wing-span :150cm
chord length : 24 cm

COMPONENT LIST
Motors-3
(Link-http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__23904__hexTronik_DT700_Brushless_Outrunner_700kv_USA_Warehouse_.html)
Arduino Mega-1
ESC-3
(Link-http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__15205__hobby_king_30a_esc_3a_ubec.html)
Servos-8
(Metal gear-3, Normal-5)
Receiver-1
Transmitter-1
Carbon Fiber rods
IMU sensor
PID controller

Coding team successfully tested the arduino with servo , motor , receiver .

Th e first thing and the most important thing in any project is to make the timeline of the project.We divided are team into two parts:

1. Fabrication and Design Team : Abhimanyu Kulkarni , Rishabh Vaish
2. Coding and Testing Team: Praveen Kumar,Devendra Meena,Prashant Saxena

The timeline was decided as follows :

20-26 may :1.Basic plane design ready
2.Arduino basics - running servo , motor , receiver and transmitter

27-29 may :1. start wing farbrication
2.PID coding

30-31 may:1.Boom and tilt rotor fabrication
2. IMU coding

1-4 june : 1. fuselage and tail fabrication
2. Integration of code

5-7 june : Completing the project

7-15 june: testing and tuning

We have made the scale down model on AutoCAD. Now we would be partitioning it and will get the parts to be put up on a 76mmx600mm balsa wood. This parts would be then cut by the laser cutter present at 4i lab. Laser printer accepts an AutoCAD file and cuts the desired design.

We have started our work on high pressure water rocket launcher which incorporates boosters. The base is made of roughly 20cmx20cm wooden board with stands. All the pneumatics are below the board. We are using rubber pipes of sufficient thickness, aluminium sheet sliders for booster launcher.

We have prepared the core for the horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer and wing with pink foam and the mold for fuselage with Styrofoam. Now our work is to cover with glass fiber and carbon fiber.

We tried all types of adhesives, beginning from fevicol, DST tape, tyre glue and rubber adhesives.
However, there were leakage issues with some of them. Morover, since it is a water rocket, usage of water reduced the adhesive property in some of them. We even tried sealants, like silicon sealants, but it could not bear much pressure. There was leakage after certain pressure. After a lot of research, we found people using polyurethane. Though it was quite difficult to procure it from local market, we managed to get it. Finally we had found the adhesive of our liking, since it could bear pressure upto 4 bar quite comfortably.

We studied about Arduino mega coding/ pins. We ran some sample codes on the Arduino Mega.
Then we went through the code for quadcopter available in the internet.

For making this, we first made the cutting bow and fixed wheels for removing drag and ease its movement, Then we made the fixed arm with Aluminium I-section and the rotating frame with Aluminium Box and joined them using a small piece of wood. We fixed the fixed arm on the vertical face of the tabletop. We drilled holes in the aluminum boxes and attached the pulleys at appropriate positions. We then attached the cutting bow to the arms with badminton racket wire through pulleys ensuring that the tension and the lengths of both the wires attached to the ends of bow are equal.

Precautions for Operation :
1. Tension and length of both the wires at the ends of the cutting bow should be equal.
2. First cut the upper surface of the airfoil from the back.
3. Keep the crocodile pins not too far off from each other.
4. Smoothen the upper surface of the airfoil either by taping or by applying Fevi-Kwik and then sandpaper.
5. The wire should be placed parallel to the cutting surface and no initial tension should be there.
6. The Cutter should be turned off only when the wire is out of the foam.
7. Keep extra weight ready to be added in case of any stoppages of cutter.
8. The weights and wires should be attached properly.