THRUST RIG

The Thrust Rig is used to test the thrust from different motor propeller combinations.

Hardware Required

i) HX711 Weight Sensor Module

ii) 5Kg Load Cell

iii) Raspberry Pi

iv) Brushless DC Motor

v) Propellers

vi) Electronic Speed Controllers

vii) Push Button

Assembling the hardware

Connecting the HX711 Weight Sensor Module to Raspberry Pi

i) VCC to Raspberry Pi Pin 2 (5V)

ii) GND to Raspberry Pi Pin 6 (GND)

iii) DT to Raspberry Pi Pin 29 (GPIO 5)

iv) SCK to Raspberry Pi Pin 31 (GPIO 6)

Connecting the ESC to the Raspberry Pi

Note: Do not connect the 5v pin to the Raspberry PI i) Black pin to GND

ii) Yellow Pin to Pi Pin 7 (GPIO 4)

Connecting the ESC to the Motor

Connecting to raspberry pi via shh

Installing raspberry pi imager

i) visit https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads

ii) Download the Raspberry Pi Imager installer for your Operating System and run installer

iii) Launch Raspberry Pi Imager and choose raspberry pi OS

iv) click the settings(advanced options) icon and to the following- enable ssh,set username or password for the pi, (in our case password is "drone" but can be customized,configure wireless LAN (network youll be connecting your pi to)the ssid and password must match your wireless network and click save.

v) choose SD CARD under storage & click write

ssh into raspberry pi

i) make sure your computer and raspberry are connected to the same network

ii) in command line use the command below to reach your raspberry via ssh

ssh pi@raspberrypi.local

iii) when prompted for password enter password you setup initially in the pi imager (in this case my password is "drone")

iv) voila you're have successfully got into the raspberry pi :).

Running the files

Clone the repository using the command below

$git clone https://github.com/RogeK/Thrust_Rig.git

Navigate to the src directory

The mass of the motor and the propeller may affect the accuracy of your reading. To prevent this, run the example.py file and press the push button. The value of the readings will be set to 0.

To run the example.py file, run the command below

python3 example.py

Once the value of the readings have been set to 0, exit the program by pressing ctrl + c keys. You can now start testing the thrust of the motor by running the command below

python3 start.py

The thrust values are written to the Thrust_Values.csv file in the src directory

License

MIT