Planning and Design

The long-term objective for this project:

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Design, build and test physical instruments that can be constructed and installed within the instrument panel of the glider to replace the current LCD instruments in order to develop a more realistic flight simulator experience.

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From this the planning of the project could begin. The first task was to clarify team roles and responsibilities. Breaking down the project into defined parts was key in managing the workload. The project was broken up into two main sections: electrical components and instrument housing. 

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Research was then carried out into current systems and industry literature. The findings helped to narrow down the project direction and dramatically cut the topic learning curve. 

 

It was found that in order to make the electrical side of the project a reality microcontrollers needed to be paired with a simulation plugin. This allowed the simulation output data to be appropriately packaged in an understandable digital signal for the microcontrollers. This information was then processed by the microcontrollers so that the servos and stepper motors were actuated accordingly.

 

A digital circuit was designed with the appropriate functions mapped to micrcontrollers. The circuit was planned as barebones as possible.

 

Computer aided design (CAD) was to utilised in order to develop the plans for the individual physical instrument housing. Individual instruments had specific design criteria that set limitations as well as goals on the design.

 

The instrument designs were brought to life ready for through 3D printing and acrylic laser cutting ready for modification. The digital circuit was also ready to materialise in preparation for the prototyping stage.