ECE 477 Final Presentation Team 18 Spring 2013

Derek Pesyna, Tim Brown, Evan Foote, Doug Wile

Outline

• Project overview• Block diagram• Design challenges• Individual contributions• Project demonstration• Questions / discussion

Project Overview

Humble Hubble is a self-aiming telescope. This telescope will obtain its global position and the local time via GPS. It will then automatically orient itself to point at a user selected target (star) using a variety of onboard sensors.

Underlying motivation:

A desire to combine a knowledge and passion for electrical and computer engineering with an interest in astronomy to create a useful and educational product.

Block Diagram

Block Diagram (Cont)

Design Challenges

• Digital sensors in small form factor• Components replaced after PCB• Several components sensitive to EMR (Bluetooth,

GPS, compass)– Break PCB into three separate boards

• GPS signal not always available– Include manual mode

• Sensors prone to error (EMI, device gets bumped during operation, etc)– Include calibration mode to offset the error

Individual Contributions

• Team Leader – Doug Wile• Team Member 2 – Tim Brown• Team Member 3 – Derek Pesyna• Team Member 4 – Evan Foote

Team Leader – Doug Wile

• PCB Layout• Celestial Coordinates vs Horizon

Coordinates research• Star data consolidation• Microcontroller software

Member 2 – Tim Brown

• Microcontroller Selection• Pin assignment• PCB Footprints• Microcontroller software

Member 3 – Derek Pesyna

2 Major Contributions:• Packaging and Design – CAD Model and built

mount• Android ‘Humble Hubble’ Application –

Programmed and Debugged Bluetooth communication application

Member 4 – Evan Foote

• Researched Major Components• Helped Design Circuit, Board Layout• Soldered PCBs

Project Demonstration1. An ability to establish a coordinate system based

on the telescope's absolute global position via a GPS chipset, and relative orientation based on an accelerometer and electronic compass.

2. An ability to compensate for combined variations in the Earth's gravitational and magnetic field, and variations in telescope geometry and mounting configurations via electronic user calibration: centering the optics on a desired target from a list of one or more prominent celestial bodies (i.e. the Moon, Polaris, Venus or other predetermined bright objects).

Project Demonstration (Cont)3. An ability to retrieve celestial coordinates and

targets via Bluetooth from an external host.

4. An ability to automatically move and point the telescope at the designated target using feedback loops from integrated motor encoders.

5. An ability to allow the user to manually override the telescope's target coordinate using an onboard electronic control interface, and to display information regarding headings on an onboard LCD.

Video Link: PSSC Demo Video

Questions / Discussion