We've been making progress recently, mostly in infrastructure which is what we need to get POGO and Spike going.
We are now sparging HTP, though at a lower rate than desired. About 4 gallons are now ready for freezing. Dave W.'s 'teacart' refrigeration project is coming along nicely, unfortunately I can't keep up with where he's at in the project.
Many thanks to both Daves and Sean for their help out at the Ranch on Saturday. Concentration of the sparge product is ~81%.
A new test-stand computer is coming along nicely. The software is ready (though new features continue to be added). The 'Flight Control & Telemetry Protocol' (FCTP) is working very well for the test stand software. The hardware is a fanless mini-ITX board, signal conditioners and mounting board, battery, and charger mounted in a small case. Last Sunday we started making connectors and mounting plates. We made block models of the various components in CAD to check possible layouts. <http://www.piratelabs.org/teststandcomp.jpg> The red block is the battery, black block is the charger, the blue-green block is the bounding block of the mini-itx board, the blue, orange, green, and silver are the more detailed 5B signal conditioner boards. Not shown are the various connectors and wiring harnesses. It turns out our first idea for the layout didn't work at all. After rotating the 5B boards around we got everything to fit with room to spare. We are still waiting for various components to arrive. (Stupid little things like the box itself, a PCI riser card, and a PCI A/D board.)
Kudoes to DaveM for his work with SolidWorks to lay out the inside of the box so everything fits and there is plenty of room for future expansion. The box is on time and should be in my hot little hands relatively early tomorrow morning. It's the only thing on that list that is absolutely crucial for the hardware work session tomorrow. One thing that's critical and not on the list of things to get are the brackets for the 5B08 boards and the HDD, which are paid for and should be ready for pickup at the Santa Clara Metal Supermarkets location tomorrow after 10a. I picked up some the random stuff we need, but still have to grab standoffs, screws, and heat shrink tubing.
-p
Mars or Bust! www.marssociety.com
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