To do

I tried searching for a paper to go with the quad-rotor video I posted yesterday, but no luck. I did find a couple of other papers, though.

Today's tasks:

1. Review paper
2. Quad-rotor dynamics
3. Get wireless Matlab control working
4. Work on P&T
5. Look for Summer Bridge assistants
6. Work on parts list -- 6 V and 3.3 V DC-DC converters; price for Meanwell unit

Quad-rotor and LiPo

Some notes on LiPo batteries:

1. Here's a good summary. In particular:
1. We need a connector to mate with the battery's taps, to check that each cell is fully charged. A charge balancer would be nice; I've added one to the parts list.
2. We need a safe charging set-up, with a bucket of sand handy and probably a Pyrex dish with sand to charge batteries in.
3. Don't charge at more than 1C.
4. Our ESCs have a built-in low-voltage cutoff that is set to (starting battery voltage) * 0.74. So, the batteries MUST BE FULLY CHARGED BEFORE CONNECTING THEM for this to work properly.

Now, what neat things can a quad-rotor do?

The list:

1. Look up info re: LiPo charging / discharging
2. Look for 1A inverting regulator
3. Consider appropriate battery for quad-copter
4. Review paper
5. XBee / Bluetooth
6. Finish deriving and document dynamics

To do

The list for today:

1. Paper review?
2. XBee
3. Meeting notes
4. Schedule pest control
5. Dynamics