Conceptual Designs |
Conceptual Design Overview
The team developed three conceptual designs to present to the clients during the preliminary design review. At this time the designs focused on different wireless architectures that could be used to get data from the sensors to the data storage device. The first design, described as completely wireless, has wireless transmitters on every sensor node transmitting to a single recieve node. The second design has groups of sensor nodes wired to a single transmitting node, which communicates with one recieve node. The third design is a hybrid of the first two, containing both wireless sensor nodes and groups of nodes. The links below provide schematics of the three design architectures. |
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Design Comparison Trade Study
To compare the three conceptual designs the team created a trade study matrix to rank the designs in different areas. The designs were ranked against each other with three being the highest and one the lowest. The table shows that design one recieved the highest rating in five of the ten items and the highest combined score, making it the top design from the trade study. |
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Value of Designs (1-3) |
Item |
Design 1 |
Design 2 |
Design 3 |
Comments |
Low Cost |
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all will meet budget |
Small Size |
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node size minimized |
Low Weight |
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low impact on VAST balloon |
Low Software Complexity |
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Low Hardware Complexity |
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Low Power Consumption |
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Meets additional Priorities |
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priorities besides #1's |
Low Packaging Complexity |
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protective packaging only |
High Usability |
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includes versatility |
Feasibility |
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Summation |
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This total would suggest that the completely wireless option has the most benefits |
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Conceptual Packaging Design
The picture below shows the basic packaging design being developed to house and protect the sensor nodes during the VAST flight and X-Jet testing. The package dimensions and circuit board mounting system will be fully developed once the exact size of the circuit board is known.
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Preliminary Design Review Presentation
On November 6th, 2007 we gave a preliminary design presentation to our faculty advisors and clients from NASA Ames.The presentation covered the specifications we are trying to meet, the sensors we are planning to use, and detailed descriptions of the three conceptual designs. The NASA Ames representatives chose design 1, the completely wireless option, as the design to move forward with for the rest of the year. The team and trade study agreed with this decision.
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Moving into Detailed Design
Now that the architecture is chosen the team can begin designing the layout of the circuits for the sensor nodes in detail. Following the current schedule, simple circuit pieces should be ready for display on Snapshot Day and the PCB circuit boards should be ordered before semester break. Once the PCB board design is completed, the packaging design for the boards can be finalized and constructed.
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