Ship #1 Pending review

@quintessence24 on Koganeee · 4 days ago

As a Jujutsu Kaisen fan and an admirer of flying pets, I wanted to make Kogane for my room. The objective of Kogane is to be a person-following flying pet assistant that can communicate with voice and through a retractable screen, sort of like a flying Alexa but friendlier! I also wanted to make drones for a while and it seemed like a cool approach to make Kogane. A use case that I had in mind is when I’m working in my room and my hands are busy and if I need to quickly pull up a tutorial, I would normally have to put things down to find my laptop. Instead with Kogane, I can call for Kogane wherever I am in my room and quickly check for information or pull up a Youtube tutorial from its screen without any physical contact.

I got everything to work on a very close call, but my harnesses weren’t very strong and accidentally tangled with the propeller for a second, causing a motor to burn up and failing the first test flight (and of course, the shell for Koganeee was pretty but reduced performance aerodynamically). Nonetheless, all of the tests passed and I just need to swap out the motor, but still a successful project regardless and I’m proud of everything I was able to learn, whether it be firmware and networking with the ESP32, the endless soldering sessions for different kinds of components, taking care of batteries, etc.

Check out my project and of course, contact me on Slack (sujaygolla24) for questions or just to nerd out about JJK or other anime!!! :D

5 devlogs
6h build

Video of Project → See source code →

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@quintessence24 on Koganeee · 4 days ago

6h 10m 6s logged

Devlog #4 - Preparing and starting build

Summary

Had to unpack and arrange all of the electronics I received, checked connectors and what I needed to make connectors for again.
Realized I had designed for JST-XH rather than JST-SH connectors so spent a while trying to learn all of the different types of connectors so that I can avoid making the same mistake again
For the time being, I stripped wires, crimped them and used my JST-XH connectors for the FC to ESC connection
I had no idea how to solder XT60 connectors so I had to learn, and then after a while, I realized I needed to connect a male female pair at the end to avoid deformation so I had wasted the soldering session

Next Steps

Noticed that JOURNAL.md is more preferred for hardware projects, so I will be switching to that for future documentation
Will continue soldering, wiring and coding step by step, but more specifically, I will work on checking if the ESC to FC connection works and if I can power the 5V rail on the board

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@quintessence24 on Koganeee · 4 months ago

16h 24m 22s logged

Devlog #3 - Finishing the CAD and Ready to Ship

Summary

Finished the CAD for Kogane, the drone and the ground station
Vibe coded firmware temporarily and tested functionality with my laptop webcam manually
Finished documentation and shipping it to Outpost

Next Steps

Once approved, I have to order and build
Will work on firmware while waiting for the parts to arrive to save time

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@quintessence24 on Koganeee · 4 months ago

16h 19m 11s logged

Devlog #2 - Finishing the FC PCB

Summary

Followed the tutorial for tips to layout the board
Used more tutorials and datasheets to understand different concepts of board layout like via stitching and filled zones
Made a 4-layer PCB for the first time and learned how to connect power and grounds to appropriate components with vias
Learned different routing practices, and despite the suboptimal routing, I am pretty confident now that it will at least be functional

Next Steps

Finishing the CAD model and final BOM
Finishing the firmware template, maybe even using some cameras to test the positioning system

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@quintessence24 on Koganeee · 4 months ago

25h 46m 49s logged

Devlog #1 [Real] - Schematic design and shopping

Summary

Used various different sources to learn about different components used in FCs
Learned how to use datasheets, Webench, LCSC part selections, etc.
Spent time reviewing different requirements for batteries and W/T ratios for drones in general and picking the right batteries and circuit designs
Spent a lot of time scoping and rescoping the PCB, including having to remove battery charger and using an external ESC as it was too complex and tight for the compact PCB, especially while having a separate MCU and a lot of other peripherals
Learned how to use the STM32CubeMX firmware and how different protocols worked
Started exploring PCB editor and systematically arranging components

Next Steps

Finish arranging PCB
Route the PCB and get it verified
Finish the CAD model and final BOM
Come up with a basic template for firmware

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@quintessence24 on Koganeee · 4 months ago

1h 23m 16s logged

Spent some time figuring out how to deal with the placement of different components and the scope of this project. Firstly, I decided that it made sense to use lightweight models for voice and video, keeping it limited so that it can run independently on A7S rather than relying on my laptop. Then I decided to have 2 mmWave sensors to cover blindspots and detect position of humans in the room, and decided it would be cool to integrate CV with mmWave, so added a fixed camera to help inform the drone position. A small FPV camera on the drone can allow it to avoid obstacles, and it would be cool to integrate VISTA (a research paper about drones navigating unknown maps) at least for initial calibration. Still figuring out the feasibility of a custom FC or if it would be easier to have a basic FC and a separate ESP32 for communication, camera and for extending the project to control servos for the rolling screen and a gripper in the future. Drafted the BOM but will find more stuff on AliExpress tomorrow.

I also explored how to use Hackatime with Onshape and started making the head of Kogane