Microcontroller project for the nerdy paramotor pilot
Goal: This project is devoted to bringing to the forefront those key pieces of data that most paramotor pilots might want to have in view at any given time.
Vision: Chassis mounted 3D Printed Enclosure to contain: - Microcontroller (Feather M4 Express SAMD51 based chipset as of 9/21/21) - LiPo Battery capable of minimal 2hr of flight time - Sensor Interfaces - GPS (ultimate gps featherwing, adafruit) - BME280 (temp,barometer/altitude,humidity) - Thermocouple (type K, w/ amp, for cylinder head temp) - Analog pins for Hall Sensor (rpm) and capacitance sensor (fuel level) External OLED Display on GoPro helmet mount to display data - 128x128 OLED, over i2C, 4 wire - Plug into chassis unit once harnessed in Looping Program to query all sensors for data, and print on a 1x/second refresh
Timeline: 2019: Idea and some brainstorming 2020: More of the same but lots of idle nothing time 2021: June 15: Beginning to research and conceptualize in more detail July 15: Begin to acquire components and organize thoughts August 15: Begin to assemble hardware and test code for sensors September 15: Most hardware acquired; Testing individual sensors and output variables; Each sensor able to output data successfully; September 20: Decision to move up to M4 Cortext Feather for increased storage and RAM September 20: Testing combing of sensors in master code.py file ; multiple issues / conflicts; need some assistance from discord. September 21:
Hardware: Microcontroller M4 Express Feather $23 Featherwings/Modules Ultimate GPS Featherwing $22 Sparkfun i2C Feather $7 BME280 $11 128x128 GS OLED $22 Thermocouple Amp $12 Thermocouple $10 Hall Sensors $13 Misc Supplies $30
Code Structure: Main File Code.py - main file (obviously) which will contain it all at the end Supporting Files GPS.py BME.py OLED.py FUEL.py Hall.py Thermocouple.py
Issues: 09/21/21 When combining code into 1 file seems to be getting conflicts and memory errors. could be lots of things. will be simplifying and building code stepwise to see what i'm breaking as i go.