Posted on

Team Status Report for 11/15

Fixed ethernet issues and now pings successfully to interface PCB. 1 of 2 illumination PCBs brought up (was delayed due to parts shipment delays) as seen in image below. Presented our work in integrating these submodules during both Monday and Wednesday interim demos.

On schedule, we aim to have the EPC660 imaging chip able to receive signals and bring up the second illumination PCB to test modulation between the two systems during this next week.

illumination of green light

successful pings between interface pcb and ethernet

discovering the issue with ethernet connection using xray

 

We also have system-level validation tests planned out for the next few weeks once the individual subsystems work well.

  • Communications test: Verify that the signal chain from the image sensor all the way back to the ethernet peripheral works with <1 frame drop every minute. We will simply measure the total amount of frames and plot that versus time.
  • Range test: Verify that we are able to identify a small object at 5 m of range. We define “identify” as a visually noticeable gradient in pixel shading that changes with distance. We plan on using small blocks and other objects of different shapes to fully validate this.
  • Water test: Finally, we hope to put the entire enclosure underwater to verify that a) no water enters the enclosure and b) the depth maps are able to be generated of differing maps underwater. We hope to use the new RIC facility at Hazelwood Green that TartanAUV has access to for water verification.
Posted on

Claire’s Status Report for 11/15

Updated Gantt charts to reflect past schedule changes due to parts shipment delays and extra time needed to layout PCBs.

Presented team demos this week, next week I aim to work together on getting the EPC660 imaging chip to receive data.

We are currently on schedule!

To verify that the power consumption is met, calculations were made drawn from data sheets for most power hungry components on the interface PCB. This ensures that there is enough current from the power supplies and verifies the trace widths necessary for various signals. When this was reflowed, basic EE lab tools were utilized to check for clock signal modulation, power supply voltages, and continuity tests.

Posted on

Gleb’s Status Report for 11/8

  • Received PCBs
  • Selected and ordered the bandpass filter
  • Assembled and reflowed the camera board.
  • Helped Claire and Sid bring up the camera board STM32 microcontroller (hardware and software debugging).
  • Organized parts for assembling the remaining two boards

(See team report for pictures).

  • We are on schedule.
Posted on

Team Status Report for 11/8

Brought up interface pcb and power pcb, debugged through issues with some circuitry that was fixable with bodging. We are able to power the boards with no issues and flash code onto the STM32 MCU on the interface PCB.

We are on schedule, working towards the interim demo to develop firmware to get clock modulation signals working in addition to ethernet connection. Due to components shipment delay, we are focusing on getting the interface pcb subsystem working before starting on the LED driver pcbs.

Posted on

Sid’s Status Update 11/8/2025

This week, I worked on reflowing our power board and electrically testing it. Happy to say that all rails (5V, 10V, and -10V) fully work! This will allow us to power all rails of the image sensor. In addition, I helped bringup the microcontroller on our main image sensor board, and wrote some firmware proof-of-life for it. I also worked on porting over the SI5338Q register maps to our firmware, which will allow us to generate the modulation clock signals and LED clock signals. We are currently debugging this chip and hope to have it ready for the demo. See team status report for all pictures.

This week, I hope to get a lot of integration testing done, along with all of the demo tasks. We will be testing DCMI on the image sensor and making sure that it works, and hopefully will start on Ethernet testing as well. I am currently on track, as we have reached the integration phase with about a month to go!

Posted on

Claire’s Status Report for 11/8

Helped bring up interface pcb and debugging circuit issues. I was at a conference in Chicago so I was absent for initial unpacking and reflowing of parts.

We’re in our integration phase so most progress are made together, see team report.

We are on schedule, currently preparing for our interim demo days to show off as much as we can. Goal is to have the interface pcb be able to send data through ethernet and to the led driver pcb.

Posted on

Sid’s Status Report for 11/1

This week, I ordered the power distribution PCB through JLC and worked more on the Ethernet/LWIP implementation. The boards required a pretty big Digikey order, as well as some back and forth with JLC to work out manufacturing defects. Unfortunately, LWIP library creation is not directly supported on the STM32H563, so I had to pull the LWIP library from a different dev board and perform some CubeMX tricks to get the code to compile. This was complicated by the fact that we do not use FreeRTOS either. The LWIP server is written, and since we now have a Nucleo I plan on testing it this week.

For next week, I plan on getting the code into a fully compiled state and add status LED flashing to make sure that the STM board that we get is alive whenever it does get here. I am still on schedule, as the firmware should be ready to flash on the boards when they are here and hopefully will not be the gating factor.

Posted on

Team Status Report for 11/1

Talked through ethics assignment before class and put together additional insights from class discussions and lecture. Ordered PCBs and parts needed, working through JLC issues. Discussed firmware and talked about integrating subsystems together. We also started planning for priorities when parts arrive and what to present for our interim demo.

Posted on

Claire’s Status Report for 11/1

Put together BOMs for PCBs, updating manufacturer part numbers.

Met with team to complete ethics assignment and discussed through potential misuse of our product. Planning for what to present on demo day and what we can feasibly get done to show off while waiting for orders to arrive.

Next week we will reflow the boards and flash code initial code to work through integration of our subsystems. On schedule!