The Larry Project

Sam and I spent 5 hours yesterday installing all of the electronics in the airplane. We also fixed the muffler, which had been coming loose. We checked the balance, and it is just about right. It may be a bit nose-heavy, which means we might be able to remove some of the lead weights from the nose.

Next weekend is the last chance I’ll have to fly it before my presentation. I think I might be able to get it ready to fly by then. It is already setup to collect flight data, but not quite ready to control the airplane on its own. Right now there are two receivers onboard: one for control, and the other for data logging. I think I need to solder a longer antenna on the modified receiver before I trust it with the airplane.

I think my flight control software might be sending sevo command updates to frequently. I’m not sure, but it seems like the servo controller is missing some of the signals. I might have to slow the flight software main loop down, or at least slow the servo update down.

Also, the flight computer is missing about 1/4 of the IMU signals due to buffer overruns. This means that I either need to speed main loop execution somehow, or that I need to reduce the IMU output frequency.