Last week, both of the hardware-teams: electrical and mechanical, had training. In the start-up phase it was a lot of new stuff to learn. Here is a summary of what they went through:
The first weekend the electrical team got a brief on what already has been done on the ASV by our previous team, and what still needs to be done. Each subsystem was discussed, and further work planned. The members that were a part of the team last year presented what they worked with for the other group members.
Later it was time to learn about soldering. The members learned different techniques for soldering different components and remove already soldered components. To practice they used soldering-kits and soldered small SMD-components to circuit boards. It was difficult in the beginning but they became better after some practice.
The second weekend, NordCad held a course in PCB-design using OrCad, which is the software that electrical will use for designing circuit-cards this year. They learned how to draw circuit-forms, how to simulate circuits, making footprints for components and how to make the PCB-layout. They learned about different PCBs and how it's best to make footprints, layers with copper, traces and pads. Another topic was how the cards were produced and assembled, and it exists a lot of different functions one can use! They went through the PCB-editor and added components. In addition, they went through DRC and Gerber-files.
For the mechanical team the first period has contained a lot of learning, brainstorming and concept phase. New mechanical members also got to see our new office and workshop. They have made drafts and plans for where to place the thrusters. . The mechanical team also had a course about CAD, and made models in the program and 3D-printed the models. CAD is a digital design-technology for computers which replaces manual drafting. To exercise they recreated parts of the already existing AUV, Belluga, using CAD and 3D-printer. The old members held courses in the CAD-software, SolidWorks for small groups each
This picture shows 3D-printing of a tool-holder
To the right you can see a model in CAD and to the left you can see the 3D-printer
This is a draft from brainstorming, and is an idea of how the ASV could look like
