Lab

Recommended Tools

In addition to the resources that the course provides, students may find it useful to obtain the tools below:

  • wire cutter
  • wire stripper
  • needle nose pliers
  • screwdrivers
  • hex set (ball ends)
  • electrical tape
  • small scissors
  • a small file

Lab Resources

The Srivastava Senior Design Lab (2070 ECEB) is dedicated to ECE 445 usage. This lab provides you access to a vast array of lab equipment, hardware, and software for your use in developing and implementing your senior design project. In addition, course staff will make themselves available in this lab during their office hours to provide guidance on your project throughout the semester. It is our intention that this laboratory space provides you and your team with all the tools you would need to develop and test your project (within reason!). If there is something that you require in the lab to complete your project that does not exist in the lab, talk to your TA and we will see if we can remedy the situation.

Lab Bench Reservations

If and when the semester gets so busy that finding a lab bench to work at becomes difficult, please make use of the Lab Bench Reservation System in PACE. Reserving a lab bench will guarantee priority access to that bench, even when the lab is busy. To use the tool, after authenticating in PACE, you will see a page with a title "Signup for lab bench" with some text and a large table below that. The table shows the schedule for each bench on a given day (use the orange arrows or "Go To Date" text box to see a different day).  You make your reservation by simply clicking in a grid cell in the table, which will turn the box green. Click on it again to un-reserve the bench (and the box will turn white again).  Benches that are already reserved by another group will be denoted with a yellow box (you can hover your mouse over a yellow box to find out what group has reserved the bench).

A few ground rules:

  1. You may use a lab bench (a) during a time for which you have it reserved or (b) any time during which it is not reserved in the system (on a first-come-first-served basis). However, if you are working at a bench that is unreserved and somebody reserves it using the online system, the group with the reservation gets the lab bench.
  2. There is a limit on the amount of time for which you can reserve benches in 2070 ECEB.  The limit is currently a total of 4 hours of total bench time in the lab per group per day (e.g., 2 hours at Bench A and 2 hours at Bench B would max out your team's reservations for the day).  While this may seem restrictive, keep in mind that the course serves more than 60 groups in a typical semester and the lab has only 16 benches.  Also keep in mind that you can work at a bench if it is unreserved.
  3. Some lab benches have specialized equipment at them, such as digital logic analyzers.  Try to reserve the lab bench that has the equipment that you need.
  4. Cancel reservations that you will not need as soon as possible to give other groups a chance to reserve the lab bench.  You can cancel a reservation up to 1 hour before time and not have it count against your daily allotment.
  5. Conflicts and/or reports of people not following these rules should be sent to your TA with the course faculty in copy.
  6. Above all, be courteous.  Especially near the end of the semester, the lab will be full most of the time and stress will abound.  Clean up the lab bench when you are done with it.  Start and end your sessions on time.  Be patient and friendly to your peers and try to resolve conflicts professionally.  If we notice empty lab benches that have been reserved, we will cancel your reservations and limit your ability to reserve lab benches in the future. Similarly, do not reserve more time than you will need.  If we notice that you are frequently canceling reservations, we will limit your ability to reserve lab benches in the future. Finally, do not try to “game” the system and reserve a bench for 30 minutes every hour for eight hours. We will notice this and revoke your ability to reserve a bench.

Lab Rules

There are two overriding rules of working in the Srivastava Senior Design Lab. First, be safe. Second, be courteous. Lab access will be revoked if you fail to complete the required laboratory safety training by the deadline or if you break any of the lab rules. Specific points and examples of what we expect:

Breaking the rules or exhibiting bad laboratory etiquette will lead to a loss of points and/or revocation of laboratory access.

Lab Equipment Rules

Do not remove any equipment from the lab. Students may not change the connections on equipment without TA approval. Any approved changes that are made should be undone before leaving the lab. If a bench instrument is malfunctioning, a red repair tag should be placed on it and you should notify your TA. This alerts the staff to the problem, and allows the Electronics Services Shop to fix the problem.

When using a piece of laboratory equipment for the first time, please ask a TA for help. If you are inexperienced with a piece of hardware, do not assume that it is broken just because you cannot figure out how to use it. Similarly, if you use a piece of equipment to test your project and the equipment does not perform the way you think it should, do not assume the fault is with the equipment, and do not try again with equipment on another bench. Rather, stop and make absolutely sure the problem is not with your connections or project.

If you break any laboratory equipment, you must tell your TA within 1 business day. Any attempts to conceal breakage will result in an F in the course.

Room Access

The lab room (2070 ECEB) is on the electronic key-card system. The Department automatically adds room access to the building and the lab for all students on the roster. You will need a “prox enanabled” I-Card to swipe into the room. If the door does not open after several attempts, you may need to get a replacement card. Room access is automatically restricted to faculty and TAs during official breaks (i.e., Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring Break).

Computer Access

The lab computers are EWS computers and are setup like other Windows-based EWS systems you are familiar with. Standard EWS rules apply to these machines. In particular, please store any/all files you generate on a network drive or in the cloud. The C: drive should not be used for any personal material, since it is unprotected and is available only on the particular machine where it was originally stored. A particular computer may be cleared and reconfigured at any time for maintenance reasons.

In addition to the desktop computers, EWS maintains the printer in the lab. You are free to use it to print documents related to your project, but be aware that this printing counts against your standard print quota.

Illini Voyager

Cameron Jones, Christopher Xu

Featured Project

# Illini Voyager

Team Members:

- Christopher Xu (cyx3)

- Cameron Jones (ccj4)

# Problem

Weather balloons are commonly used to collect meteorological data, such as temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind velocity at different layers of the atmosphere. These data are key components of today’s best predictive weather models, and we rely on the constant launch of radiosondes to meet this need. Most weather balloons cannot control their altitude and direction of travel, but if they could, we would be able to collect data from specific regions of the atmosphere, avoid commercial airspaces, increase range and duration of flights by optimizing position relative to weather forecasts, and avoid pollution from constant launches. A long endurance balloon platform also uniquely enables the performance of interesting payloads, such as the detection of high energy particles over the Antarctic, in situ measurements of high-altitude weather phenomena in remote locations, and radiation testing of electronic components. Since nearly all weather balloons flown today lack the control capability to make this possible, we are presented with an interesting engineering challenge with a significant payoff.

# Solution

We aim to solve this problem through the use of an automated venting and ballast system, which can modulate the balloon’s buoyancy to achieve a target altitude. Given accurate GPS positioning and modeling of the jetstream, we can fly at certain altitudes to navigate the winds of the upper atmosphere. The venting will be performed by an actuator fixed to the neck of the balloon, and the ballast drops will consist of small, biodegradable BBs, which pose no threat to anything below the balloon. Similar existing solutions, particularly the Stanford Valbal project, have had significant success with their long endurance launches. We are seeking to improve upon their endurance by increasing longevity from a power consumption and recharging standpoint, implementing a more capable altitude control algorithm which minimizes helium and ballast expenditures, and optimizing mechanisms to increase ballast capacity. With altitude control, the balloon has access to winds going in different directions at different layers in the atmosphere, making it possible to roughly adjust its horizontal trajectory and collect data from multiple regions in one flight.

# Solution Components

## Vent Valve and Cut-down (Mechanical)

A servo actuates a valve that allows helium to exit the balloon, decreasing the lift. The valve must allow enough flow when open to slow the initial ascent of the balloon at the cruising altitude, yet create a tight seal when closed. The same servo will also be able to detach or cut down the balloon in case we need to end the flight early. A parachute will deploy under free fall.

## Ballast Dropper (Mechanical)

A small DC motor spins a wheel to drop [biodegradable BBs](https://www.amazon.com/Force-Premium-Biodegradable-Airsoft-Ammo-20/dp/B08SHJ7LWC/). As the total weight of the system decreases, the balloon will gain altitude. This mechanism must drop BBs at a consistent weight and operate for long durations without jamming or have a method of detecting the jams and running an unjamming sequence.

## Power Subsystem (Electrical)

The entire system will be powered by a few lightweight rechargeable batteries (such as 18650). A battery protection system (such as BQ294x) will have an undervoltage and overvoltage cutoff to ensure safe voltages on the cells during charge and discharge.

## Control Subsystem (Electrical)

An STM32 microcontroller will serve as our flight computer and has the responsibility for commanding actuators, collecting data, and managing communications back to our ground console. We’ll likely use an internal watchdog timer to recover from system faults. On the same board, we’ll have GPS, pressure, temperature, and humidity sensors to determine how to actuate the vent valve or ballast.

## Communication Subsystem (Electrical)

The microcontroller will communicate via serial to the satellite modem (Iridium 9603N), sending small packets back to us on the ground with a minimum frequency of once per hour. There will also be a LED beacon visible up to 5 miles at night to meet regulations. We have read through the FAA part 101 regulations and believe our system meets all requirements to enable a safe, legal, and ethical balloon flight.

## Ground Subsystem (Software)

We will maintain a web server which will receive location reports and other data packets from our balloon while it is in flight. This piece of software will also allow us to schedule commands, respond to error conditions, and adjust the control algorithm while in flight.

# Criterion For Success

We aim to launch the balloon a week before the demo date. At the demo, we will present any data collected from the launch, as well as an identical version of the avionics board showing its functionality. A quantitative goal for the balloon is to survive 24 hours in the air, collect data for that whole period, and report it back via the satellite modem.

![Block diagram](https://i.imgur.com/0yazJTu.png)