Week 8: ASCEND and TRAIN Lab Close Temporarily

Thursday of last week, the ASCEND crew got together to get in some extra work time. Our team had time to prepare for a battery test, 3D print structural components, and work on the custom PCBs that finally came in.

3D Printing one of the internal shelving pieces.

Constantino, Javier, and Misgana work together
to make custom cuts to our new PCBs.

The lovely 3D Printer!

Genesis soldering components
for the atmospheric profiling system.

Custom PCBs from CustomCircuitBoards.com!
Thanks for the freebies!

     

Friday however, we showed up to campus and were told to not come back until further notice due to the corona virus. The team grabbed what supplies we could, and we are now working remotely. The space grant people have advised us that both the launch and symposium have been cancelled, and it is starting to look like we won't reschedule until Fall semester. In the mean time, we have been working on abstract submissions, the presentation, and will be polishing up whatever contributions we can from home.

Spring break has been extended by another week, and it looks like we won't be back into classrooms any time soon. I will miss seeing everyone around, I hope you all stay safe and make the most of quarantine time!

Week 7: Spring Break and She Se Puede

Spring Break hasn't been much of a break, but it has been full of great experiences. I was given a chance to work for She Se Puede teaching a circuits and an Arduino course.

Instructing students how to build a buzzer game circuit. Great for learning the breadboard.

Teaching is something I have considered pursuing. Nichole Spencer has been organizing a 3-day event for the Si Se Puede Foundation, that has a group called She Se Puede, which is specifically for young women in STEM. Through the experience, students will get exposed to engineering concepts and get a chance to work on Arduino projects.

The students had no prior experience, so my partners and I had to develop a curriculum that went from the very beginnings of  using electricity to developing Arduino programs. It taught me a lot about simplifying material, making it engaging enough for kids, and being prepared for unexpected situations.

Wiring an Arduino using the overhead document camera

Overall the course went well. Although there were some hiccups, we were able to quickly switch to projects that we had the time and supplies for. It is very rewarding to know that through foundations such as Si Se Puede and Hermanas, I've been given a chance to inspire the next generation of engineers, and hopefully get more women into STEM careers. In the future I hope I to have more opportunities to help young people get the drive that has inspired me to work in science!

Week 6: BATMON and Payload Battery Monitor

BATMON:
Progress on the BATMON project forms is going well. The goal is to import the existing data into a MySQL database and add onto it using form submissions. The forms will be parsed and automatically upload the data to the database. We are finalizing the lists of data needed to be included, and I will be working on learning to auto populate fields within MySQL if a survey location already exists within the database. Hoping to do this with another database table that can be searched to find existing locations, and auto populate based on a match.

ASCEND:

The carbon fiber housing has been cured, so internal components are the focus of the project right now. Both the mechanical team and the video stabilization team are 3D printing parts that will hold the internal components. Our custom PCB designs were sent to the manufacturer for printing, and will arrive March 10th. We were able to work with CustomCircuitBoards.com, who was kind enough to donate these to our project. Thank you Zack!

Battery monitor with OLED display, tracks voltage, amps, and Watts with values and a graph.

We are hoping to do a full capacity battery test this week or next week, where we test our main power supply and monitor the output until it runs out of juice. We will also be placing the system within a container filled with dry ice to get as close to temperatures at high-altitude as possible. I recently began taking an interest in building circuits from scratch, and ditching using Arduino all together. Using an ATTiny85 MCU, I assembled a battery monitoring tool with an OLED screen using some libraries found online. I am hoping to hook this up to the system and see if we can graph the output of the battery during discharge period. If all goes well, I can modify it in time for launch to display the state of all device within the payload, so we don't have to open the the lid.

The team is working hard to complete the payload by March 28th, so things have been very busy for all of us. I will try to take more photos!