Attended: Kevin, Gordon, (Tyler)

• Began populating Board 6 with charging chip
• Conducted transmission tests with changing solar irradiance
  • this was done using the adafruit charging chip
  • we first let the board transmit for some time
  • then we played with the solar irradiance levels to see what conditions it will stop transmitting
• Transmission testing outside
  • 1 - have board transmit indoors
  • 2 - move board outside into the sun
  • 3 - bring back inside
  • 4 - move board outside into sun but with solar irradiance and solar panels covered

• Debug populated board 5
  • Some parts need to be swapped out
  • Continuity test of board 5
• Create another spot on csv file for measuring voltage at XBee pin
  • Will be used to look for ghost voltage
  • Nathan said we might not be able to do it : Correction we might be able to use it
  • Debug LED flag : turn on led and keep it on after Ghost voltage is perceived
  • ADC6 might be able be a input chart
• Transmission Tests
  • test adafruit charging chip indoors and outdoors
    • make sure output is good
    • LED behavior
    • behavior with irradiance
  • test our charging chip
    • behavior with irradiance
    • LED behavior
    • Hopefully simply changing the charging chip will fix the problem
• Look into power switching of charging chip
  • Tryston said that between 4.3 - 4.5V the board would be powered by the battery instead of the solar panel
• Use debug LEDs to set a flag if the board is not transmitting
  • What do we flag?
  • Make the XBee drop a packet using the light
  • match XBee power drop to switch between solar panel and battery power
  • Look into board behavior when light is on full blast
• Populate a new board as soon as new parts come in
• Take off vswitch and connect to the charging chip load
  • LEDs should act the same as the adafruit charging chip LEDs
• Populate a board with charging chip
• Charging chip debug LED tests
  • 1 - 5bit number to voltage tests
    • this is used to make sure that the charging chip follows tryston's charging chip behaviors
    • to be completed for adafruit charging chip and dragon fruit charging chip
    • 5bits = 31 in decimal
    • 0 = 3V
    • 9 = 3.9V
    • 13 = 4.3V
    • 20 = 5V
  • 2 - Use 3 debug LEDs to visually indicate when switching between solar panel and battery
    • LED 1 : Vload = Solar Panel
    • LED 2 : 4.3 < Vload < 4.5 (around the voltage that Vload switches from Panel to Battery power)
    • LED 3 : Vload = battery mV
    • If all are off, then the load voltage is between 4.3V and battery voltage
    • Need to connect Vload to MCU
  • 3 - Use LEDs to flag Ghost voltage, low XBee voltage, and dropped transmission
    • LED 1 : Ghost voltage is 4V (this is much too high for XBee power)
    • LED 2 : XBee voltage at less than 2.7V (full range is 2.7 - 3.6V)
    • LED 3 : flag for transmission (we do not know how to do it yet)
    • Need to connect XBee power to MCU

Contributing authors:

Created by tyamauchi on 2017/03/14 01:35.