Stanford SSI Wiki - User contributions [en]

How to Install and Configure Altium

2020-07-17T17:59:38Z

Mjpauly:

{{guide| authors=Sasha Maldonado ({{slack-user|smaldonado}})}}

==Background==

Altium Designer is SSI's preferred circuit board design program. The program runs exclusively on Windows; Mac and Linux users have successfully run Altium through both dedicated Windows partitions and Windows virtual machines. Though debated amongst SSI members, a USB mouse is also a useful tool when designing circuit boards.

[https://altium.com Altium Ltd.] sponsors SSI with a number of shared licenses to use their software. These licenses are managed over the internet - after signing in for the first time, your computer will automatically download a license file every time you open Altium and release your license when you close the program.

Altium allows users to draw circuit schematics and then design the physical layout of the components represented in the schematic. This requires libraries of symbols to represent components, the physical dimensions of those components in real life, and links so that they can be purchased from suppliers. SSI and Stanford Solar Car Project members have designed parts for these libraries over the course of several years, and as an Altium user, you will almost certainly [[Making Parts for PCB Libraries|add parts to the SSI PCB libraries]].

These libraries are shared and synchronized amongst all of SSI's Altium users using a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Version_control version control] technology called Subversion (typically "SVN"). SVN allows a group of folders (known as a "repository") to be shared selectively between SSI's Altium users, while tracking changes between versions of the files and allowing users to decide when they share changes they've made with the rest of the SSI userbase (sharing your changes is known as "committing" those changes). SSI's SVN is hosted on a server in ES3.

==A Brief Motivational Note==
At the time of this guide's original writing, only two people in SSI had used Altium for more than a year (neither of whom wrote this article - I began using Altium 8 months prior to originally writing it). As with any worthwhile skill, Altium takes time to gain familiarity with, and doing projects in Altium - though initially somewhat tedious and frustrating at times - is the best way of learning to use it.

Furthermore, as with all good technical software, Altium has many features, with many buttons and options. This is understandably anxiety-inducing. This guide (and the SSI wiki at large) is written to try and point you to the buttons you will need to complete setup and common tasks, which are a small subset of all of the buttons available to you. People who have worked in Altium for 20 years have commented that they still have never used most of the features of the program. In reality, doing a couple of projects is enough for you to learn what the core functions are and how to use them, and SSI has a robust community of able and willing engineers eager to help you get started.

With that in mind, let's get underway!

==Installation and Setup==

===Account Setup===
[[File:TortoiseSVNMenu.png|thumb|200px|right|A screenshot showing all of the SVN functions available when right-clicking after installing TortoiseSVN. You will never use most of these.]]
Within the {{slack-channel|altium}} channel, request an account for both Altium itself and for the SVN. Messaging {{slack-user|altium-admin}} will summon the relevant person.

===Installing SVN===
''Skip this step if you're configuring a Lab 064 remote desktop''

You will need SVN software to use the SSI Altium repository. The recommended choice is to install [http://tortoisesvn.net/ Tortoise SVN] (Windows-only). There are solutions for Mac and Linux users as well, though none quite as streamlined as TortoiseSVN; many Linux and Max users use the command line (Terminal) to handle SVN.

TortoiseSVN will run persistently on your computer and allow you to work with files synchronized with the SVN. As shown at right, TortoiseSVN will appear as a menu available when right clicking on files or folders. We will introduce the most useful of these commands in this article; several more are discussed [[Using TortoiseSVN|here]] (recommended reading ''after'' completing this guide).

===Downloading SSI Altium Libraries===
[[File:SVNCheckout.png|thumb|200px|right|Make sure you're right clicking on the folder you just created.]]
[[File:SVNCheckout2.png|thumb|200px|right|Your checkout window should look very similar to this.]]
Find a convenient location on your computer (i.e. your desktop) to create a folder that will host all of the shared SSI Altium files. Create a new folder there (my folder is called "SVN-SSI-Altium," though "altium-core" is what the folder is called on the server). Right click on the folder, and select "SVN Checkout" (see right). A window should pop up (see right) showing a URL to download files from and a location on your computer where the files will be downloaded. Verify that the target on your computer is where you intend and set the URL of the repository to {{altium-repo}}, and click OK. You will then likely be prompted for your SVN login - this will be your '''username''' and password Slacked to you after you requested them. You do not need credentials to download the libraries on campus, but you do need credentials to push changes to the libraries (regardless of where you are). Enter credentials if you have them, click OK, and your computer should begin to download the Altium libraries. These should take less than a minute to download on campus.

===Installing Altium===
''Skip this step if you're configuring a Lab 064 remote desktop''

Once you have an Altium account, Altium Designer can be downloaded [http://www.altium.com/products/downloads here] after logging in on the Altium website. Be aware that the software will only install on Windows operating systems. After downloading, install with the default settings.

===Connecting Altium to the License System===
[[File:AltiumLicense.png|thumb|200px|right|Protip: Don't publish sensitive information on the internet.]]
After Altium finishes installing, open it. Under "My Account," click "Sign in" and log in with your Altium account. Check "Sign me in when I open Altium Designer," as this will automatically grant you license access when you start the program. Next, under "Available Licenses," select Altium Designer from the list of products (you may or may not have other options listed; you can safely ignore all other ones) and click "Use" underneath (see right). This will now happen automatically every time you open the program.

===Open SSI Integrated Library===
[[File:ProjectsPanel.png|thumb|200px|right|This is a super useful panel to have open pretty much whenever you're in Altium.]]
If you do not see the "Projects" panel of your Altium window (see image on right - if open, the panel is typically on the left side of your screen), you will need to open it. This can be done in "View → Workspace Panels → System → Projects," also accessible with the keyboard shortcut {{altium-shortcut|v → w → s → p}}.

Once this panel is open, File → Open and navigate to the folder you set up for the Altium SVN. Enter, and go to "libraries/intlib." Inside, you should find "SSI.LibPkg" (whose file name may simply show up as "SSI"). Open the file; it should expand in your Projects panel, as shown at right.

===Compiling the SSI Altium Library===
With SSI.LibPkg open in your Projects panel, right click on SSI.LibPkg and hit "Compile Integrated Library SSI.LibPkg." This LibPkg file is an editable copy of all of the symbols, component footprints, and supplier links used for designing circuits and circuit boards in Altium; compiling it produces a non-editable version that can actually be used in circuit design. The compile process will take up all of Altium's resources and typically lasts between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. When done, you may see a "Messages" panel appear, which should indicate that you compiled successfully. Even if the Messages panel does not appear, you should be able to tell when the library finishes compiling based on a green progress bar in the lower left part of the screen.

If the Messages panel appears but errors show up (which is rare), message {{slack-channel|altium}} for help, as the failure is likely due to a recent editor of the library doing something incorrectly. Errors may or may not prevent you from proceeding in this guide; attempt the next step, knowing that you may be forced to pause until the errors are resolved.

This step is important, as it is required every time you wish to update your copy of the library to include changes that others (or you) have made. You will likely do this a good number of times over the course of your Altium career.

===Installing the SSI Altium Library===
[[File:LibraryInstallWindow.png|thumb|200px|right|You will end up with something like this.]]
If you do not see the "Libraries" panel of your Altium window (if open, the panel is typically on the right side of your screen), you will need to open it. This can be done in "View → Workspace Panels → System → Libraries," also accessible with the shortcut {{altium-shortcut|v → w → s → l}}.

Once the panel is open, click the "Libraries..." button in the upper left, bringing up a window as shown in the image at right. Go to the "Installed" tab, where a list of (typically two) default libraries will appear. These libraries are not built to SSI standards and no SSI projects use them. Click on each library in the list, and then click "Remove" in the lower right.

Next, click "Install..." and then "Install from file." A new file dialog will open up; from your Altium SVN folder, navigate to "libraries/intlib/Project Outputs for SSI," where you should find SSI.IntLib (which will again likely just appear as "SSI"). Select it, and it will install.

If you do not have a "Project Outputs for SSI" folder, your compile failed, and you will need to resolve the issue before proceeding.

===Installing the Microsoft Access 2010 Driver===
For reasons that are poorly understood, many SSI Altium users cannot use database libraries without first installing this [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=13255 Microsoft Office 2010 compatibility driver]. Make sure to get the 64-bit version if using Altium 18.0 or later. This solution took considerable experimentation to discover and is a good example of SSI [[Tribal Altium Knowledge]]. Installing this driver, though demonstrably not required for all users, will prevent hard-to-diagnose future headaches.

===Installing Passives Database Library===
Several additional parts categories - including a large number of surface mount chip resistors and surface mount ceramic capacitors - are stored in separate "database" libraries because they come in several thousand very similar varieties which can be defined using a creatively formatted Excel sheet and are imported into Altium through a .dblib file. We will install this library in this step.

In the same window used to install SSI.IntLib (from the Libraries panel, "Libraries..." → ''"Installed"'' → "Install..." → "Install from file"), navigate to "libraries/dblib." You will initially see nothing there; to fix that, change the type of libraries visible from "Integrated Libraries *.INTLIB" to "Database Libraries *.DBLIB" (see right). Three files - "passives," "resistor," and "sscp" should appear; install "passives.DbLib."

===Configuring Altium Preferences===
[[File:SystemDefaultLocations.png|thumb|200px|right|You will end up with something like this.]]
Altium's default preferences are quite workable, but a couple of settings relating to the default locations of files need to be configured on each new computer. To change Altium preferences, from the top bar, click "DXP → Preferences..."

====Files and Libraries Location====
Within Preferences, go to "System → Default Locations." There are two fields; set "Document Path" to your Altium SVN folder, and set "Library Path" to your "libraries" folder in the Altium SVN. See the image at right for an example of the result.

====Templates Location====
[[File:DataManagementTemplates.png|thumb|200px|right|You will end up with something like this, unless you're attempting to steal my identity, in which case you will end up with ''exactly'' this.]]
An unjustifiable length of time was spent creating formatting templates for SSI circuit schematics, which make for a clean, professional project and add a bit of information to each schematic. To use, in Preferences, go to "Data Management → Templates," and set the "Template location" field to point to the "libraries\templates" folder in your Altium SVN. See the image at right for an example of the result.

===Install the SSI PCB Logos Font===
Adding logos to PCBs is an important aspect of professionalism, part of SSI's agreements with its sponsors, and a nice way to add some creativity to a technical process. For logos that SSI commonly uses, we've created a font with scalable versions of each. This font is stored in "libraries\logos\SSI" - there, you can double click on "SSI_logos.ttf" to install it.

===Remap Delete Key===
[[File:DeleteKeyRemapping18.png|thumb|200px|right|You should end up with this.]]
''This step is only required of computers which do not have distinct "backspace" and "delete" keys. Desktops and most non-Apple laptops can skip this step. '''Apple laptops which have a "delete" key that functions as a backspace key need to complete this step.'''''

If you do not have a schematic open already, open one by clicking "File → New → Schematic." Next, open up the Customize panel by either clicking on a blank space of the toolbar (the space to the right of the "Help" drop-down menu works) or by right-clicking in that same spot and selecting "Customize..." In the window that comes up (see right), click "Edit" from the "Categories" column on the left, then double click on "Delete" in the "Commands" column on the right. This is the command used to delete components from a schematic, which is by default mapped to the delete key, which, if you're completing this step, you do not have. Click the "Primary" field, and then hit your backspace key to remap the command to that key. This only changes the delete key for schematics, so repeat this process with a PCB document open.

==A Brief Introduction to SVN==
This is the last part of this guide! You have actually already completed the installation and configuration of Altium; this step is intended to give you a quick introduction to SVN and how to use it. You will not need Altium for this last step; if you're completing this tutorial at a time when others are likely to also be working through it, close Altium, as that will free up licenses for others to use. If you're already familiar with SVN, skip to the [[#Your First Commit|last task]].

===Background===
An SVN repository is a series of "snapshots" of a folder over time. Each snapshot is called a '''commit''', and represents the state of the folder and some or all of its contents at a moment in time. Commits are created by users (aka you) when they want to preserve a version of the files they are working on - this typically happens after making a group of changes to files stored in the SVN repository (ie. after adding a part to a library or making progress on a circuit schematic or circuit board).

Any file can be stored in an SVN repository, and the repository can detect any change to any file. With TortoiseSVN installed, tracked files in an SVN repository which have been edited since the last commit will have a small red exclamation point displayed on their icon when viewed in a folder. New files created in your Altium SVN folder will not automatically be tracked - this is intentional, and a good thing.

Unlike other version control systems, "branches" do not work in SVN. All commits in an SVN repository contain changes that directly follow the commit before them, and can have only a single commit that follows after them. Because of this, SVN users can '''lock''' files and folders, becoming the only person allowed to commit changes to that file or folder. Other users can still edit the files, but their changes cannot be committed, making those edits futile. TortoiseSVN shows when a file has been locked by someone else, to help keep you from trying to edit something that somebody else is working on. Locking exists so that two users cannot try to commit different versions of the same file - someone who opens a file and knows they will commit changes to it soon can lock the file, marking the fact that they started editing the file first and so should be allowed to complete and commit their changes before anyone else. Locks can be taken away from someone who locks a file for an extended period of time, preventing abuse of this feature.

Changes other people make to files stored in the SVN must be downloaded manually, through the SVN '''update''' command. Updating replaces any files in your SVN folder that have been changed since the last time you ran SVN update with their most recently committed versions. You can see if there are new SVN commits to download in the {{slack-channel|altium}} channel, where notices of new commits are automatically posted.

Future tutorials will discuss when and how to add files and how to use Altium's SVN commands; below, we will briefly discuss how to generally commit file changes to the SVN repository.

===Your First Commit===
[[File:MakingACommit.png|thumb|200px|right|You will likely only have iwuzhere.txt in your list of files to commit, but if you have others, leave them unchecked.]]
In your SSI Altium SVN folder, right click while ''not'' on any file or folder, and mouse down to "SVN Update" and click it. This will quickly bring all of your files up to date. Next, in your Altium SVN folder, find "iwuzhere.txt." This file is tracked by the SVN repository, and should have a small green check mark on it. Right click on the file, mouse down to "TortoiseSVN," and then click "Get lock..." Click OK on any windows that appear. A small lock icon should appear on the file - you now have the lock on this file.

If the file was already locked by someone else, you will not be able to lock it, and should message the {{slack-channel|altium}} to ask to lock it. If you do not receive a response within 10 minutes, lock the file as described above, and check "Steal the locks" to take the lock from whomever had it previously. Slack is how locking conflicts like this (which are rare) are resolved, and 10 minutes is a short period of time to wait for a response, but this file is simple and very little work is lost from stealing the lock on it. If someone else commits a new version of the file, run another SVN update, and then you should be able to lock it.

Open the file, and add your name and the current date, matching the format of the names already there. ''You're now a part of SSI's corps of electrical engineers!''

To finish, go back to your Altium SVN folder, right click while ''not'' on any file or folder, and mouse down to "SVN Commit..." and click it. A dialog box will come up (see right), at the bottom of which should be a list of files. This shows files you have changed since the last time you ran SVN update, and ''should'' just have iwuzhere.txt listed. Make sure you have it checked. In the text box at the top of the window, you will need to write a '''commit message''', a brief description of what changes you're committing. This message will appear in Slack and must be at least 20 characters (but shouldn't be longer than a single sentence). Once you've written it, click okay, and wait for a message to appear in Slack.

'''You're done!''' Welcome to Altium!

==Next Steps==

;A First Project :[[Your First Altium Project|This (currently in-development) guide]] offers you a walkthrough of a fun introductory Altium project, which ends with making a circuit board that allows you to play StrEEt Fighter with your fellow SSI members.
;Creating Parts for Altium Libraries : [[Making Parts for PCB Libraries|This guide]] walks you through the process of adding new parts to the SSI Altium library, teaching both the process involved and quality standards for the library that we and the Stanford Solar Car Project have long worked to maintain.

[[Category: Altium]]

Tribal Altium Knowledge

2020-07-17T17:58:30Z

Mjpauly:

This page is for documenting strange recurring issues in Altium for the benefit of SSI and greater humankind.

==Inability to Install .dblibs (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the 2007 Office System Driver)==

Many SSI users of Altium cannot install database libraries (used for resistors and capacitors) by default. Installing [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=13255 this driver] typically resolves the issue. More documentation [https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/using-database-libraries-with-32-bit-and-64-bit-altium-design-software-on-the-same-computer here]. Make sure to get the 64-bit version if using Altium 18.0 or later. You may need to uninstall and then reinstall the dblibs after installing the driver before they work.

==Migrating from SVN pre-October 2017 to post-October 2017==

===What's new?===
* The SVN is now served from Tabitha, a server in ES3.
* All login credentials are now automatically produced on Tabitha and distributed to SSI SVN users via Slack.
* You will only need to enter your password once.
* The SVN repository formerly stored as a single large repository is now a larger number of independent repositories listed [[List of SVN Repositories|here]].

===How do I move?===
[[File:root-folder.png|200px|thumb|Your root folder will look like this inside]]
====Get credentials====
A large number of people were automatically given SVN credentials. If you did not, message {{slack-user|svn-admin}} in {{slack-channel|altium}} requesting them. You will need to enter your username and very long and complicated password the first time you try to download an SVN but it will then be saved on your computer. Thanks to HTTPS/SSL, your password is never transmitted or stored in plain form, including when its checked on the server or in Slack (which is encrypted).

[[File:SVNCheckout.png|thumb|200px|right|Make sure you're right clicking on the folder you just created.]]

====If you already have the Altium SVN on your computer====
# If you have Altium open on your computer, close it.
# Find the root folder of your Altium SVN repo (see right).
# Take note of the root folder's name, and then rename that folder to something else (i.e. add "-backup" to the name).
# Create a new folder with the same name as the old root folder you just renamed. We will refer to this new folder as ''altium-core'', the name of the repository you'll be syncing into it.
# Right click on ''altium-core'' and SVN Checkout... (see right) the new Altium repository, with the URL at {{altium-repo}}.
# Hit OK on the window that comes up and wait while the repository downloads. This should take a minute or less. Report unusually long download times to {{slack-channel|altium}}.
# When complete, open Altium, and [[How to Install and Configure Altium#Open SSI Integrated Library|recompile the SSI Altium Library]].
# Verify that your capacitor and resistor database libraries are still installed, and [[How to Install and Configure Altium#Installing Resistor and Capacitor Database Libraries|reinstall them if necessary]]

You've successfully ported to the new Altium SVN! You can now also sync board files as described [[#Syncing board files|below]].

====If you did not have the Altium SVN on your computer====
[[File:badSVN.png|200px|thumb|Don't do this]]
[[File:goodSVN.png|200px|thumb|Do this instead]]
You don't actually need to do anything. Follow the instructions in the [[How to Install and Configure Altium|installation guide]] normally. They have been updated to reflect the change in SVN hosting.

====Syncing board files====
Board files (and other SVN-controlled files) are no longer stored in the same repository as the core Altium libraries, dramatically improving repository size. To sync a new repository, find its URL [[List of SVN Repositories|here]], create a new folder on your computer, and right click --> <nowiki>SVN Checkout...</nowiki> the new folder and copy in the relevant URL. '''DO NOT''' make the new folder inside of your ''altium-core'' folder, and, generally, do not put any SVN repository inside any other (see right).

You can sync any number of individual repositories onto your computer by checking them out as described in the above paragraph. Each repository needs its own folder. For organization, you're encouraged to make a new ''ssi-svn'' folder next to your ''altium-core'' folder, and then to make a subfolder in ''ssi-svn'' for each new repository. This is shown below.

Recommended Directory Structure:
<nowiki>

somewhere easy to access (Desktop, Documents, etc)
--> altium-core
--> libraries
--> README
--> ssi-svn
--> satellites-altium
--> project files
--> balloons-altium
--> project files
...</nowiki>

===Why did this migration happen at all?===
Assembla's sponsorship was nominally agreed to for 1 year, which has elapsed. While we still enjoy the benefits of sponsorship, they could be revoked at any time. In addition our sponsored plan only supports 100 users and we very immediately need more - while this could be addressed by purging currently inactive users, that's surprisingly labor intensive and would become an ongoing maintenance task. We're also in talks with others about sharing the Altium libraries around Stanford, which means granting a lot more users SVN access or otherwise needing more control over the repository than Assembla allows.

If you're reading the above and thinking "well, this sounds like it's still probably solvable within Assembla," you're not entirely wrong. However there was some negotiation involved when we first approached them and if they refused to expand the scope of our sponsorship and/or revoked it we would be stuck without an SVN hosting solution, as the service is prohibitively expensive. SVN hosting online is an underserved market (and Assembla is the market leader, and as such can price assertively), meaning that there are not good alternatives online. Hosting an SVN ourself is relatively easy (initial setup actually took about 20 minutes), replaces a service that is not truly commoditized, and offers opportunities for growth not available with Assembla.

Tabitha has also been measured as running at 10-20x faster than Assembla, possibly due to being on a gigabit ethernet network on campus.

The breakup of the SVN repository is intended to declutter and save disk space on people's computers. While as-is SVN and TortoiseSVN support selectively syncing specific parts of a repository, the procedure for doing so involves a significant amount of poking around in menus. Altium workshops were a strong motivator for this; it's easier to give people trying to learn Altium a quick download of just the files required to get it up and running than to require them to sync the entire SVN or to walk through how to sync specific parts of it. Breaking out individual team SVNs also means that it's easy to only follow or keep up to date with certain teams. However, authentication is set up such that anyone authorized to use the SVN can sync any project, giving the benefits of having separate repositories without the barrier to joining of needing to be manually added to the project.

==Part Linkage Failure Triggering Fatal Error on SSI Library Compilation==

{{altium-stub}}

==Placeholder to Trigger the Creation of a Table of Contents==

==Unable to set the papersize property of the pagesetup class==

This error may appear when exporting your BOM. Try opening the configuration menu for the BOM export and checking the "Open Exported" option.

[[Category:Altium]]

Tribal Altium Knowledge

2020-07-17T17:57:05Z

Mjpauly:

This page is for documenting strange recurring issues in Altium for the benefit of SSI and greater humankind.

==Inability to Install .dblibs (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the 2007 Office System Driver)==

Many SSI users of Altium cannot install database libraries (used for resistors and capacitors) by default. Installing [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=23734 this driver] typically resolves the issue. Make sure to get the 64-bit version if using Altium 18.0 or later. You may need to uninstall and then reinstall the dblibs after installing the driver before they work.

==Migrating from SVN pre-October 2017 to post-October 2017==

===What's new?===
* The SVN is now served from Tabitha, a server in ES3.
* All login credentials are now automatically produced on Tabitha and distributed to SSI SVN users via Slack.
* You will only need to enter your password once.
* The SVN repository formerly stored as a single large repository is now a larger number of independent repositories listed [[List of SVN Repositories|here]].

===How do I move?===
[[File:root-folder.png|200px|thumb|Your root folder will look like this inside]]
====Get credentials====
A large number of people were automatically given SVN credentials. If you did not, message {{slack-user|svn-admin}} in {{slack-channel|altium}} requesting them. You will need to enter your username and very long and complicated password the first time you try to download an SVN but it will then be saved on your computer. Thanks to HTTPS/SSL, your password is never transmitted or stored in plain form, including when its checked on the server or in Slack (which is encrypted).

[[File:SVNCheckout.png|thumb|200px|right|Make sure you're right clicking on the folder you just created.]]

====If you already have the Altium SVN on your computer====
# If you have Altium open on your computer, close it.
# Find the root folder of your Altium SVN repo (see right).
# Take note of the root folder's name, and then rename that folder to something else (i.e. add "-backup" to the name).
# Create a new folder with the same name as the old root folder you just renamed. We will refer to this new folder as ''altium-core'', the name of the repository you'll be syncing into it.
# Right click on ''altium-core'' and SVN Checkout... (see right) the new Altium repository, with the URL at {{altium-repo}}.
# Hit OK on the window that comes up and wait while the repository downloads. This should take a minute or less. Report unusually long download times to {{slack-channel|altium}}.
# When complete, open Altium, and [[How to Install and Configure Altium#Open SSI Integrated Library|recompile the SSI Altium Library]].
# Verify that your capacitor and resistor database libraries are still installed, and [[How to Install and Configure Altium#Installing Resistor and Capacitor Database Libraries|reinstall them if necessary]]

You've successfully ported to the new Altium SVN! You can now also sync board files as described [[#Syncing board files|below]].

====If you did not have the Altium SVN on your computer====
[[File:badSVN.png|200px|thumb|Don't do this]]
[[File:goodSVN.png|200px|thumb|Do this instead]]
You don't actually need to do anything. Follow the instructions in the [[How to Install and Configure Altium|installation guide]] normally. They have been updated to reflect the change in SVN hosting.

====Syncing board files====
Board files (and other SVN-controlled files) are no longer stored in the same repository as the core Altium libraries, dramatically improving repository size. To sync a new repository, find its URL [[List of SVN Repositories|here]], create a new folder on your computer, and right click --> <nowiki>SVN Checkout...</nowiki> the new folder and copy in the relevant URL. '''DO NOT''' make the new folder inside of your ''altium-core'' folder, and, generally, do not put any SVN repository inside any other (see right).

You can sync any number of individual repositories onto your computer by checking them out as described in the above paragraph. Each repository needs its own folder. For organization, you're encouraged to make a new ''ssi-svn'' folder next to your ''altium-core'' folder, and then to make a subfolder in ''ssi-svn'' for each new repository. This is shown below.

Recommended Directory Structure:
<nowiki>

somewhere easy to access (Desktop, Documents, etc)
--> altium-core
--> libraries
--> README
--> ssi-svn
--> satellites-altium
--> project files
--> balloons-altium
--> project files
...</nowiki>

===Why did this migration happen at all?===
Assembla's sponsorship was nominally agreed to for 1 year, which has elapsed. While we still enjoy the benefits of sponsorship, they could be revoked at any time. In addition our sponsored plan only supports 100 users and we very immediately need more - while this could be addressed by purging currently inactive users, that's surprisingly labor intensive and would become an ongoing maintenance task. We're also in talks with others about sharing the Altium libraries around Stanford, which means granting a lot more users SVN access or otherwise needing more control over the repository than Assembla allows.

If you're reading the above and thinking "well, this sounds like it's still probably solvable within Assembla," you're not entirely wrong. However there was some negotiation involved when we first approached them and if they refused to expand the scope of our sponsorship and/or revoked it we would be stuck without an SVN hosting solution, as the service is prohibitively expensive. SVN hosting online is an underserved market (and Assembla is the market leader, and as such can price assertively), meaning that there are not good alternatives online. Hosting an SVN ourself is relatively easy (initial setup actually took about 20 minutes), replaces a service that is not truly commoditized, and offers opportunities for growth not available with Assembla.

Tabitha has also been measured as running at 10-20x faster than Assembla, possibly due to being on a gigabit ethernet network on campus.

The breakup of the SVN repository is intended to declutter and save disk space on people's computers. While as-is SVN and TortoiseSVN support selectively syncing specific parts of a repository, the procedure for doing so involves a significant amount of poking around in menus. Altium workshops were a strong motivator for this; it's easier to give people trying to learn Altium a quick download of just the files required to get it up and running than to require them to sync the entire SVN or to walk through how to sync specific parts of it. Breaking out individual team SVNs also means that it's easy to only follow or keep up to date with certain teams. However, authentication is set up such that anyone authorized to use the SVN can sync any project, giving the benefits of having separate repositories without the barrier to joining of needing to be manually added to the project.

==Part Linkage Failure Triggering Fatal Error on SSI Library Compilation==

{{altium-stub}}

==Placeholder to Trigger the Creation of a Table of Contents==

==Unable to set the papersize property of the pagesetup class==

This error may appear when exporting your BOM. Try opening the configuration menu for the BOM export and checking the "Open Exported" option.

[[Category:Altium]]

Olympus 2019

2019-03-07T04:53:55Z

Mjpauly: changed tenses

[[File:Launch1PrepOlympus2019.JPG|400px|thumb|right|frame|The team setting up the rocket on a pad at FAR for the first test launch of the year.]]

Olympus 2019 will be the third SSI team to compete in the [[Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Competition]], succeeding [[IREC 2018]]. The rocket features a compact avionics bay, a redesigned recovery system, a fiberglass airframe with a carbon fiber fin lay-up, and a protein crystallography payload. Currently, a liquid propulsion system is in development, and may be the motor for the final iteration of the rocket, though this is still undecided. This liquid motor was a continuation of the prior year's Helios project, and used many of the same design principles.

=Overview=

=Goals and Requirements=

The goal of the rocket design is to be capable of delivering an 8.8 pound payload to an altitude of 30,000 feet while employing as much student innovation as possible.

=System Design=

Unlike the year before, the Olympus 2019 rocket uses five-inch diameter body tubing instead of four-inch tubing. This choice was driven by the design of the tanks for the liquid propulsion system.

==Avionics==

The avionics system consists of multiple custom printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs), which used direct board-to-board interconnects to eliminate the use of wires.

The main boards in the avionics system are:

* [[SpaceSalmon]], a rocket flight computer developed by [[User:timv|Tim Vrakas]], both for Olympus and for [[Spaceshot]].
* COTS Carrier, a board designed by Shreya Ravi to interface a Stratologger commercial altimeter to the rest of the avionics system.
* RF Carrier, a board designed by Albert Landa which was the interface between the avionics bay, the GPS module, and the [[S6C]] long-distance radio.
* Bulkhead Board, the interface between the avionics bay and the e-match connectors, designed by Jainil Sutaria.

==Recovery==

==Structures==

==Payload==

==Propulsion==

==Staging==

=Test Launches=

==Launch 1, March 2nd at FAR==

Launch 1 tested all systems at some level of functionality, except for propulsion. The rocket flew to an altitude of approximately 8,000 feet. The main parachute deployed at apogee, which, along with 20 mph winds, caused the rocket to drift 3.6 miles downrange before landing.

* [https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1YZpiro6P3A5I34i0m84hWfSTTMGeavBv Launch Photos]
* [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RbQkOJxg3LdL_FF6RQ7w_eTirgYRweoB_piz0qpQAhM/edit?usp=sharing Lessons Learned]

==Launch 2==

==Launch 3==

=The Competition=

=Documentation=

[[Category:Rockets]]

Olympus 2019

2019-03-07T04:32:55Z

Mjpauly: Created page with "The team setting up the rocket on a pad at FAR for the first test launch of the year. Olympus 2019 was the third S..."

[[File:Launch1PrepOlympus2019.JPG|400px|thumb|right|frame|The team setting up the rocket on a pad at FAR for the first test launch of the year.]]

Olympus 2019 was the third SSI team to compete in the [[Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Competition]], succeeding [[IREC 2018]]. The rocket featured a compact avionics bay, a redesigned recovery system, a fiberglass airframe with a carbon fiber fin lay-up, and a protein crystallography payload. Currently, a liquid propulsion system is in development, and may be the motor for the final iteration of the rocket, though this is still undecided. This liquid motor was a continuation of the prior year's Helios project, and used many of the same design principles.

=Overview=

=Goals and Requirements=

The goal of the rocket design was to be capable of delivering an 8.8 pound payload to an altitude of 30,000 feet while employing as much student innovation as possible.

=System Design=

Unlike the year before, the Olympus 2019 rocket used five-inch diameter body tubing instead of four-inch tubing. This choice was driven by the design of the tanks for the liquid propulsion system.

==Avionics==

The avionics system consisted of multiple custom printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs), which used direct board-to-board interconnects to eliminate the use of wires.

The main boards in the avionics system were:

* [[SpaceSalmon]], a rocket flight computer developed by [[User:timv|Tim Vrakas]], both for Olympus and for [[Spaceshot]].
* COTS Carrier, a board designed by Shreya Ravi to interface a Stratologger commercial altimeter to the rest of the avionics system.
* RF Carrier, a board designed by Albert Landa which was the interface between the avionics bay, the GPS module, and the [[S6C]] long-distance radio.
* Bulkhead Board, the interface between the avionics bay and the e-match connectors, designed by Jainil Sutaria.

==Recovery==

==Structures==

==Payload==

==Propulsion==

==Staging==

=Test Launches=

==Launch 1, March 2nd at FAR==

Launch 1 tested all systems at some level of functionality, except for propulsion. The rocket flew to an altitude of approximately 8,000 feet. The main parachute deployed at apogee, which, along with 20 mph winds, caused the rocket to drift 3.6 miles downrange before landing.

* [https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1YZpiro6P3A5I34i0m84hWfSTTMGeavBv Launch Photos]
* [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RbQkOJxg3LdL_FF6RQ7w_eTirgYRweoB_piz0qpQAhM/edit?usp=sharing Lessons Learned]

==Launch 2==

==Launch 3==

=The Competition=

=Documentation=

[[Category:Rockets]]

File:Launch1PrepOlympus2019.JPG

2019-03-07T04:02:55Z

Mjpauly: The Olympus 2019 team stands up the rocket on a pad at FAR.

The Olympus 2019 team stands up the rocket on a pad at FAR.

IREC 2018

2019-03-07T03:42:45Z

Mjpauly:

[[File: IREC2018pose.jpg|400px|thumb|right|frame|The team posing with the fully integrated rocket before launching it at the competition.]]

IREC 2018 was the second SSI IREC team to participate in the [[Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Competition]], placing second in the 30k commercial off-the-shelf motor category. The rocket was named Redshift and featured an avionics bay with a long-distance radio system, a reduced-diameter recovery system, a fiberglass airframe with a carbon fiber fin lay-up, a powered decoupling mechanism, and a software-defined GPS payload. The successor to the project was [[Olympus 2019]].

=Overview=

At four inches in diameter and 128 inches long, the rocket design used a minimum diameter airframe to house the Cessaroni Technology N2900 motor. With a wet mass of 58 pounds (dry mass of 27.8 lbs + 1-7 lbs lead shot ballast), the rocket was built to fly to 30,000 feet.

=Goals and Requirements=

The goal of the rocket design was to be capable of delivering an 8.8 pound payload to an altitude of 30,000 feet while employing as much student innovation as possible.

=System Design=

[[File:IREC2018cad.png|800px|thumb|center|frame|CAD model of the rocket, displaying subsystem layout.]]

The system went through a few key iterations: at first, a full staging system was considered, then a boosted dart system. After those options turned out to be relatively infeasible due to manpower and expertise issues, as well as the full system redesign that it would have required to conform to smaller airframe diameters, a move was made to a powered decoupling system.

==Avionics==

The avionics system consisted of multiple custom printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs), which used direct board-to-board interconnects to eliminate the use of wires.

The main boards in the avionics system were:

* [[Skybass]], an altimeter developed by [[User:Johnldean|John Dean]]. Testing of Skybass was referred to as SHITL (pronounced "shittle," /ʃɪt(ə)l/)
* Motherboard, which was the main interface between all other boards and contained the power distribution, arming systems, and e-match firing pathways.
* Daughtership, a board for mounting the StratoLogger and Raven COTS altimeters.

==Recovery==

At apogee, the recovery system deployed a small (32") SRAD drogue parachute for a swift, controlled descent (~70 ft/s) that minimized horizontal drift. The deployment of the drogue was triggered by a CO2 canister deployment mechanism.

When the rocket reached an apogee of 1,500 feet, the main SRAD chute (90"), which was retained in the recovery bay by the Tender Retention System, was aimed to deploy for a soft landing. Due to compact packing, the main chute did not successfully deploy.

The recovery bay was selected to have a restricted diameter (2.65"), smaller than that of the rocket airframe (3.9"). This reduced diameter was chosen so that the parachutes would be able to deploy through the restriction in the airframe size caused by the staging ring.

==Structures==

The structure of the rocket was constructed using COTS fiberglass tubing, with a student-built carbon-fiber fin lay-up. The structures team attempted to build a custom airframe using the [[X-Winder]] filament winder, but was unable to produce a usable airframe in time using this method.

==Payload==

The payload flown on the rocket was a software-define GPS experiment. The goal was to use a COTS software defined radio USB dongle (RTL-SDR), connected to a Raspberry Pi Zero, to capture raw samples from the GPS L1 spectrum. One the rocket is recovered, the raw samples could be downloaded from the Raspberry Pi's SD card and run through tracking algorithms to solve for the rocket's position throughout the flight. The advantages of such a system were specifically for rocketry applications, namely that such a system could be more resistant to losing lock with satellites during high accelerations during flight due to high rates of doppler shift, and that it could provide a way around the GPS COCOM restrictions. The COCOM restrictions limit consumer GPS operation under high velocities and altitudes, which poses an issue for SSI's [[Spaceshot]] project.

==Staging==

The staging project was a decoupling mechanism developed for high-speed decoupling. A stepper motor drives a lead screw, on which a nut rides, lifting and lowering a set of lever arms that turn the vertical motion of the nut into horizontal motion. This horizontal motion actuates a set three clamps which affix two metal rings together. These rings are each mounted on one half of the airframe. By backing off the clamps, the rings, and consequently the airframes, are free to separate.

Issues with the staging system arose when it was near to its completion. The greatest problem was that the stepper motor would have to provide a constant holding torque in order to keep the rocket rigid during the period of time between integration and when separation was required during launch. This application of holding torque required a significant amount of power, and the original battery size resulted in a 20 minute maximum lifetime. Given the lack of adequate space to add enough batteries for a multi-hour lifetime, required in the event of launch delays, and uncertainty about the speed with which the system would drain the battery, it was decided before test launch three that the project should be cut from the final rocket design.

==Launch Operations==

Launch Operations handled all launch logistics, including food at the launch, lodging for multi-day launches, checklist organization, pre-launch packing, and transportation.

=Test Launches=

==Launch 1==

TODO: Attach launch stats and a link to the data?

==Launch 2==

==Launch 3==

=The Competition=

=Documentation=

* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B-4ndZNTqcyyGEI-J9Cef_EhLjfIpOm6/view?usp=sharing Project Technical Report]
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JBI0Ohp3OFxwmPIfnDCpdROMip6v7sKL/view?usp=sharing Poster]
* [https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1FZ-EO2cmcVqKG4EX4ICNpjDG-7YpyGjMEO3sUQ1J7eA/edit?usp=sharing Fast Facts Card]
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/11V0K0Fe9YUkwESrhL8_F12ssUUUeGvvl/view?usp=sharing SRADio Podium Presentation Slides]
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nuDhLZtP00u9kX1kKX7aCkomgPamfNCM/view?usp=sharing SRADio Podium Presentation Proposal]

[[Category:Rockets]]

SpaceSalmon

2019-02-07T04:50:33Z

Mjpauly:

Space Salmon is the second generation (by some counting) rocket flight computer developed by SSI. It was preceded by the [[Skybass]] flight computer.

SpaceSalmon built on the previous generation SkyBass flight computer. Unlike SkyBass, which was a rectangular PCB that mounted vertically I'm the vehicle, Space Salmon was built onto a circular disk-shaped PCB, which fit into the rocket horizontally. This disk stacking arrangement (known coloqially
as "Stack Boi") was intended to compactify the avionics and reduce mechanical weight.

The avionics stack used two 12-pin headers for electrical connection between boards. The A-Stack carried power, arming, and data bus lines, while the B-Stack carried charge activation lines downward to the bulkhead.

disk mountedis page needs to be filled, but I wanted a permalink! [[File:SS_top.jpg|500px]]
[[File:SS_bottom.jpg|500px]]

SpaceSalmon

2019-02-07T04:49:41Z

Mjpauly: add SkyBass reference

Space Salmon is the second generation (by some counting) rocket flight computer developed by SSI. It was preceded by the [[SkyBass]] flight computer.

SpaceSalmon built on the previous generation SkyBass flight computer. Unlike SkyBass, which was a rectangular PCB that mounted vertically I'm the vehicle, Space Salmon was built onto a circular disk-shaped PCB, which fit into the rocket horizontally. This disk stacking arrangement (known coloqially
as "Stack Boi") was intended to compactify the avionics and reduce mechanical weight.

The avionics stack used two 12-pin headers for electrical connection between boards. The A-Stack carried power, arming, and data bus lines, while the B-Stack carried charge activation lines downward to the bulkhead.

disk mountedis page needs to be filled, but I wanted a permalink! [[File:SS_top.jpg|500px]]
[[File:SS_bottom.jpg|500px]]

Skybass

2019-02-07T04:47:35Z

Mjpauly: created SkyBass page

Skybass was a flight computer developed by John Dean for IREC 2017, and was used again for [[IREC 2018]]. It was based on the Teensy 3.2 and used a Kalman filter to determine altitude and flight state.

Releasing a Board for Manufacture

2018-11-01T06:56:27Z

Mjpauly: Added to category Altium

{{guide| authors=Sasha Maldonado ({{slack-user|smaldonado}})}}

All done with your PCB? Time to get it sent out for manufacturing and to order components and a stencil!

==Wait, What? I Thought I Was Done!==

[[File:whatisagerber.png|thumb|200px|right|A snippet from a Gerber file. They contain configuration instructions and a list of points (note the "XY" coordinates on the lower lines) for production equipment to "draw" shapes on each layer of a board.]]
PCB manufacturers require special files in order to actually make circuit boards. These files describe where to place and remove copper on each layer of the board, where to drill holes, and where to expose copper and draw artwork on the outsides of the board. There are several different formats that manufacturers will accept; for SSI's leading manufacturer ([https://bayareacircuits.com Bay Area Circuits], one of our oldest and most supportive sponsors), we export '''Gerber files''', which are machine-readable descriptions of what should be manufactured on each layer of the board. You'll also export a plain text file with coordinates for drilled holes (and what size drill bit to drill them with). These are the files required for a manufacturer like Bay Area Circuits to actually create a PCB.

Your PCB, however, will ship from the manufacturer without any components attached. If, as in most cases, you're assembling a board yourself, you'll (usually) need two additional things: components, which we generally buy from [https://digikey.com Digikey] (but sometimes elsewhere, as needed - see [[Recommended PCB Component Suppliers]] if you're curious); and a stencil to help apply solder paste to your board for attaching components, which we usually buy from [https://oshstencils.com OSHStencils]. Digikey accepts Excel spreadsheets specifying the type and number of components needed to build your board, and OSHStencils uses aforementioned Gerber files to laser cut either polyimide ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapton Kapton]) film or thin stainless steel.

To recap, you will need three things:
# A collection of Gerber files (and a text file) to send to Bay Area Circuits (or another PCB manufacturer)
# A smaller collection of Gerber files to send to OSHStencils
# An Excel spreadsheet (called a Bill of Materials, or BoM) to upload to Digikey (or manually order from other vendors)

Luckily, we have a system for producing all of the above! Enter the '''outjob'''.

== SSI.OutJob ==

[[File:outjobadded.png|thumb|200px|right|A project with an outjob correctly added to it.]]

There are a number of things to configure to get Altium to correctly output Gerbers and other files. These have been fortunately taken care of and saved in a special Altium file called an '''outjob'''. You'll need to add the outjob file to your project (as if it were a schematic file), and will then be able to output files for fabrication with a couple of clicks.

Master copies of the outjobs are in the SVN at {{svn-repo|altium-core/libraries/outjobs}}. Outjobs are also automatically included in the PCB project templates at {{svn-repo|altium-core/libraries/templates}}. If you didn't start from a project template (doing so next time will make your life easier), '''make a copy''' of the outjob you want to use and paste it into your project folder. Making a copy is important so that your project doesn't break on other people's computers or as people update the master copies of the outjobs (which your board may not be properly configured for). '''Make sure to pick the outjob that correspond's with your board's layer count. SSI.OutJob is for 2-layer boards, and SSI-4-LAYER.OutJob is for 4-layer boards. Picking the wrong outjob may result in your board coming back without the inner layers it should have or with two extra inner layers.''' Once you've copied the outjob, in the Projects pane in Altium, right click your project and select "Add Existing to Project" and in the window that comes up, select your copy of the outjob. You should now see a "Settings" folder under your project in the Projects pane with an "Output Jobs" folder within it (see right).

Once you have the outjob in your project and are ready to export files, open the outjob by double-clicking on it from the Projects pane. This will produce a screen like the first one below:

<gallery mode="slideshow" widths=750px>
File:outjob.png|(1 of 2) OutJob configured for all outputs
File:outjob_no_BOM.png|(2 of 2) OutJob configured to skip BoM generation
</gallery>

[[File:outputfiles.png|thumb|200px|right|An example "Fabrication Outputs" folder.]]

This outjob has the "Generate Manufacturing Files" option selected on the right side and has all three outputs - Gerbers, a drill file, and an Excel bill of materials - enabled. From here, either click the "Generate content" button under "Generate Manufacturing Files" or hit the F9 key, and Altium will produce output files (yes, it is that simple!). Outputs will be placed in your project folder inside of a new subfolder called "Fabrication Outputs." Generating all of the output files takes generally about 1 minute.

If you're in a hurry (BoM generation takes about 75% of the output file generation time) or for some other reason just want to generate Gerber and drill files and not an Excel BoM, you can disable BoM generation by clicking the little numbered circle in the Bill of Materials row. Your screen will look like the second image in the above slideshow with BoM generation disabled. To reenable BoM generation, just click the circle again.

Once your fabrication outputs have been generated, find the new Fabrication Outputs folder and open it in your file browser. Add this folder to the SVN and commit it. You'll see a collection of files like the one shown at the right (with a different base name but the same file extensions). You care about the following files:
* [board].GTL - your board's top copper layer
* [board].GTS - your board's top soldermask layer, which defines what copper is exposed and solderable
* [board].GTO - your board's top silkscreen layer, which will appear as the printed artwork on the top side
* [board].GTP - your board's top solder paste layer, which will not be used to make the board but is needed for stencils
* ''[board].G1 (4-layer only)'' - your board's internal layer 1 (closer to the top side)
* ''[board].G2 (4-layer only)'' - your board's internal layer 2 (closer to the bottom side)
* [board].GBL - your board's bottom copper layer
* [board].GBS - your board's bottom soldermask layer
* [board].GBO - your board's bottom silkscreen layer
* [board].GBP - your board's bottom solder paste layer
* [board].TXT - your board's drill file
* [board].GM32 (sometimes [board].GKO) - your board's outline file
* Bill of Materials-[board].xls

You can safely ignore all of the other files (i.e. [board].apr), which are generated automatically and can't be suppressed but are not needed to manufacture a board.

For fabrication, you'll need to create a ZIP file containing all of the above files, except for the GTP/GBP files and the Excel spreadsheet (.xls). Make sure you specifically check the file extensions; several text files will be generated but there will only be one [board].txt file, which is your drill file. Give the ZIP a presentable, descriptive name that ends with "Gerbers" - it's going to be sent to a manufacturer. Also make sure you add the ZIP specifically to SVN so there's a record of exactly what was sent to the manufacturer.

== Putting It All Together ==

We'll now describe specifically how to get each of the three things you need to assemble your board.

=== PCB Fabrication ===
''This guide assumes you're ordering from Bay Area Circuits. For other manufacturers, the DfM process will be different, though you will still ultimately provide your manufacturer with your ZIP of Gerber files''

The first step in getting your board ordered is a manufacturability check, to verify you have all of the required files and the manufacturer can read them and actually make the board they describe. Bay Area Circuits (BAC) has a Design for Manufacturability (DfM) tool that automatically reads and interprets fabrication ZIPs to make sure the boards have a full set of files and can be built. Go to the [http://instantdfm.bayareacircuits.com InstantDfM] page and follow the instructions to upload your fabrication ZIP. Once you submit, you'll have to wait usually around 10 minutes (shorter for simpler boards, longer for more complicated/four-layer boards) for processing. You'll be emailed a link when your board has finished being evaluated. The link will go to a page like the first below:

<gallery mode="slideshow" widths=750px>
File:InstantDfM.png| (1 of 2) Passing DfM results.
File:InstantDfMfail.png| (2 of 2) DfM missing a file and failing manufacturability checks.
</gallery>

The goal is to always be within BAC's standard capabilities - this minimizes the risk of manufacturing errors and shortens production time. Small deviations (like the 0.01 mil deviation shown) come from rounding errors during the Altium export process and can be safely ignored. If truly necessary, features requiring the advanced capabilities can be produced; however this should be avoided if possible. The Altium design rules included in the template projects are designed to keep projects within BAC's standard capabilities.

The second image in the above slideshow shows a failing DfM check. There are two major issues: first, no board outline file was included in the fabrication ZIP, meaning that BAC doesn't know what shape of board to cut. Errors like this are easy to fix by uploading a new ZIP file with all of the required files and running DfM again. Second, a hole on an inner layer does not have a copper ring, meaning that a trace on that layer won't make a good electrical connection to the hole. This is a serious issue that needs to be fixed in the design before the board is manufactured.

If your board meaningfully fails DfM for design reasons, you will need to fix the error in Altium and then repeat the outjob and DfM process. This can take some time, particularly if there are multiple issues, so make sure to budget time for DfM ('''especially the first time you release a board'''). In industrial applications, for complicated boards, it's not unheard of for a design team to spend a week verifying manufacturability; SSI designs usually pass within a few hours, and less than an hour if there are no serious problems on the first attempt.

Once you have a ZIP that passes DfM, download the InstantDfM PDF report and add it into your fabrication ZIP (to show BAC that a passing DfM was run on that board). Commit that final ZIP to the SVN, and then message {{slack-channel|altium}} asking for your board to be released and with a link to your ZIP. The SSI BAC contact will give your board a final once-over and then send it out for manufacture - either that same day or as part of the next batch. Once that's done, your board is out of your hands! It'll be back in your hands in physical form in about a week. Congratulations!

=== Ordering Components ===
''This is generally a time-consuming process; [[BOMSquad]] is in development to simplify it but at present there's a decent amount of manual labor involved. Make sure you allocate time accordingly''

Open your BoM Excel file (in either Excel or Google Sheets).

=== Ordering a Stencil ===

[[Category:Altium]]

How to Install and Configure Altium

2018-07-15T19:59:31Z

Mjpauly: update delete key remapping section for Altium 18

{{guide| authors=Sasha Maldonado ({{slack-user|smaldonado}})}}

==Background==

Altium Designer is SSI's preferred circuit board design program. The program runs exclusively on Windows; Mac and Linux users have successfully run Altium through both dedicated Windows partitions and Windows virtual machines. Though debated amongst SSI members, a USB mouse is also a useful tool when designing circuit boards.

[https://altium.com Altium Ltd.] sponsors SSI with a number of shared licenses to use their software. These licenses are managed over the internet - after signing in for the first time, your computer will automatically download a license file every time you open Altium and release your license when you close the program.

Altium allows users to draw circuit schematics and then design the physical layout of the components represented in the schematic. This requires libraries of symbols to represent components, the physical dimensions of those components in real life, and links so that they can be purchased from suppliers. SSI and Stanford Solar Car Project members have designed parts for these libraries over the course of several years, and as an Altium user, you will almost certainly [[Making Parts for PCB Libraries|add parts to the SSI PCB libraries]].

These libraries are shared and synchronized amongst all of SSI's Altium users using a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Version_control version control] technology called Subversion (typically "SVN"). SVN allows a group of folders (known as a "repository") to be shared selectively between SSI's Altium users, while tracking changes between versions of the files and allowing users to decide when they share changes they've made with the rest of the SSI userbase (sharing your changes is known as "committing" those changes). SSI's SVN is hosted on a server in ES3.

==A Brief Motivational Note==
At the time of this guide's original writing, only two people in SSI had used Altium for more than a year (neither of whom wrote this article - I began using Altium 8 months prior to originally writing it). As with any worthwhile skill, Altium takes time to gain familiarity with, and doing projects in Altium - though initially somewhat tedious and frustrating at times - is the best way of learning to use it.

Furthermore, as with all good technical software, Altium has many features, with many buttons and options. This is understandably anxiety-inducing. This guide (and the SSI wiki at large) is written to try and point you to the buttons you will need to complete setup and common tasks, which are a small subset of all of the buttons available to you. People who have worked in Altium for 20 years have commented that they still have never used most of the features of the program. In reality, doing a couple of projects is enough for you to learn what the core functions are and how to use them, and SSI has a robust community of able and willing engineers eager to help you get started.

With that in mind, let's get underway!

==Installation and Setup==

===Account Setup===
[[File:TortoiseSVNMenu.png|thumb|200px|right|A screenshot showing all of the SVN functions available when right-clicking after installing TortoiseSVN. You will never use most of these.]]
Within the {{slack-channel|altium}} channel, request an account for both Altium itself and for the SVN. Messaging {{slack-user|altium-admin}} will summon the relevant person.

===Installing SVN===
You will need SVN software to use the SSI Altium repository. The recommended choice is to install [http://tortoisesvn.net/ Tortoise SVN] (Windows-only). There are solutions for Mac and Linux users as well, though none quite as streamlined as TortoiseSVN; many Linux and Max users use the command line (Terminal) to handle SVN.

TortoiseSVN will run persistently on your computer and allow you to work with files synchronized with the SVN. As shown at right, TortoiseSVN will appear as a menu available when right clicking on files or folders. We will introduce the most useful of these commands in this article; several more are discussed [[Using TortoiseSVN|here]] (recommended reading ''after'' completing this guide).

===Downloading SSI Altium Libraries===
[[File:SVNCheckout.png|thumb|200px|right|Make sure you're right clicking on the folder you just created.]]
[[File:SVNCheckout2.png|thumb|200px|right|Your checkout window should look very similar to this.]]
Find a convenient location on your computer (i.e. your desktop) to create a folder that will host all of the shared SSI Altium files. Create a new folder there (my folder is called "SVN-SSI-Altium," though "altium-core" is what the folder is called on the server). Right click on the folder, and select "SVN Checkout" (see right). A window should pop up (see right) showing a URL to download files from and a location on your computer where the files will be downloaded. Verify that the target on your computer is where you intend and set the URL of the repository to {{altium-repo}}, and click OK. You will then likely be prompted for your SVN login - this will be your '''username''' and password Slacked to you after you requested them. You do not need credentials to download the libraries on campus, but you do need credentials to push changes to the libraries (regardless of where you are). Enter credentials if you have them, click OK, and your computer should begin to download the Altium libraries. These should take less than a minute to download on campus.

===Installing Altium===
Once you have an Altium account, Altium Designer can be downloaded [http://www.altium.com/products/downloads here] after logging in on the Altium website. Be aware that the software will only install on Windows operating systems. After downloading, install with the default settings.

===Connecting Altium to the License System===
[[File:AltiumLicense.png|thumb|200px|right|Protip: Don't publish sensitive information on the internet.]]
After Altium finishes installing, open it. Under "My Account," click "Sign in" and log in with your Altium account. Check "Sign me in when I open Altium Designer," as this will automatically grant you license access when you start the program. Next, under "Available Licenses," select Altium Designer from the list of products (you may or may not have other options listed; you can safely ignore all other ones) and click "Use" underneath (see right). This will now happen automatically every time you open the program.

===Open SSI Integrated Library===
[[File:ProjectsPanel.png|thumb|200px|right|This is a super useful panel to have open pretty much whenever you're in Altium.]]
If you do not see the "Projects" panel of your Altium window (see image on right - if open, the panel is typically on the left side of your screen), you will need to open it. This can be done in "View → Workspace Panels → System → Projects," also accessible with the keyboard shortcut {{altium-shortcut|v → w → s → p}}.

Once this panel is open, File → Open and navigate to the folder you set up for the Altium SVN. Enter, and go to "libraries/intlib." Inside, you should find "SSI.LibPkg" (whose file name may simply show up as "SSI"). Open the file; it should expand in your Projects panel, as shown at right.

===Compiling the SSI Altium Library===
With SSI.LibPkg open in your Projects panel, right click on SSI.LibPkg and hit "Compile Integrated Library SSI.LibPkg." This LibPkg file is an editable copy of all of the symbols, component footprints, and supplier links used for designing circuits and circuit boards in Altium; compiling it produces a non-editable version that can actually be used in circuit design. The compile process will take up all of Altium's resources and typically lasts between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. When done, you may see a "Messages" panel appear, which should indicate that you compiled successfully. Even if the Messages panel does not appear, you should be able to tell when the library finishes compiling based on a green progress bar in the lower left part of the screen.

If the Messages panel appears but errors show up (which is rare), message {{slack-channel|altium}} for help, as the failure is likely due to a recent editor of the library doing something incorrectly. Errors may or may not prevent you from proceeding in this guide; attempt the next step, knowing that you may be forced to pause until the errors are resolved.

This step is important, as it is required every time you wish to update your copy of the library to include changes that others (or you) have made. You will likely do this a good number of times over the course of your Altium career.

===Installing the SSI Altium Library===
[[File:LibraryInstallWindow.png|thumb|200px|right|You will end up with something like this.]]
If you do not see the "Libraries" panel of your Altium window (if open, the panel is typically on the right side of your screen), you will need to open it. This can be done in "View → Workspace Panels → System → Libraries," also accessible with the shortcut {{altium-shortcut|v → w → s → l}}.

Once the panel is open, click the "Libraries..." button in the upper left, bringing up a window as shown in the image at right. Go to the "Installed" tab, where a list of (typically two) default libraries will appear. These libraries are not built to SSI standards and no SSI projects use them. Click on each library in the list, and then click "Remove" in the lower right.

Next, click "Install..." and then "Install from file." A new file dialog will open up; from your Altium SVN folder, navigate to "libraries/intlib/Project Outputs for SSI," where you should find SSI.IntLib (which will again likely just appear as "SSI"). Select it, and it will install.

If you do not have a "Project Outputs for SSI" folder, your compile failed, and you will need to resolve the issue before proceeding.

===Installing the Microsoft Access 2007 Driver===
For reasons that are poorly understood, many SSI Altium users cannot use database libraries without first installing this [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=23734 Microsoft Office 2007 compatibility driver]. This solution took considerable experimentation to discover and is a good example of SSI [[Tribal Altium Knowledge]]. Installing this driver, though demonstrably not required for all users, will prevent hard-to-diagnose future headaches.

===Installing Passives Database Library===
Several additional parts categories - including a large number of surface mount chip resistors and surface mount ceramic capacitors - are stored in separate "database" libraries because they come in several thousand very similar varieties which can be defined using a creatively formatted Excel sheet and are imported into Altium through a .dblib file. We will install this library in this step.

In the same window used to install SSI.IntLib (from the Libraries panel, "Libraries..." → ''"Installed"'' → "Install..." → "Install from file"), navigate to "libraries/dblib." You will initially see nothing there; to fix that, change the type of libraries visible from "Integrated Libraries *.INTLIB" to "Database Libraries *.DBLIB" (see right). Three files - "passives," "resistor," and "sscp" should appear; install "passives.DbLib."

===Configuring Altium Preferences===
[[File:SystemDefaultLocations.png|thumb|200px|right|You will end up with something like this.]]
Altium's default preferences are quite workable, but a couple of settings relating to the default locations of files need to be configured on each new computer. To change Altium preferences, from the top bar, click "DXP → Preferences..."

====Files and Libraries Location====
Within Preferences, go to "System → Default Locations." There are two fields; set "Document Path" to your Altium SVN folder, and set "Library Path" to your "libraries" folder in the Altium SVN. See the image at right for an example of the result.

====Templates Location====
[[File:DataManagementTemplates.png|thumb|200px|right|You will end up with something like this, unless you're attempting to steal my identity, in which case you will end up with ''exactly'' this.]]
An unjustifiable length of time was spent creating formatting templates for SSI circuit schematics, which make for a clean, professional project and add a bit of information to each schematic. To use, in Preferences, go to "Data Management → Templates," and set the "Template location" field to point to the "libraries\templates" folder in your Altium SVN. See the image at right for an example of the result.

===Install the SSI PCB Logos Font===
Adding logos to PCBs is an important aspect of professionalism, part of SSI's agreements with its sponsors, and a nice way to add some creativity to a technical process. For logos that SSI commonly uses, we've created a font with scalable versions of each. This font is stored in "libraries\logos\SSI" - there, you can double click on "SSI_logos.ttf" to install it.

===Remap Delete Key===
[[File:DeleteKeyRemapping18.png|thumb|200px|right|You should end up with this.]]
''This step is only required of computers which do not have distinct "backspace" and "delete" keys. Desktops and most non-Apple laptops can skip this step. Apple laptops which have a "delete" key that functions as a backspace key need to complete this step.''

If you do not have a schematic open already, open one by clicking "File → New → Schematic." Next, open up the Customize panel by either clicking on a blank space of the toolbar (the space to the right of the "Help" drop-down menu works) or by right-clicking in that same spot and selecting "Customize..." In the window that comes up (see right), click "Edit" from the "Categories" column on the left, then double click on "Delete" in the "Commands" column on the right. This is the command used to delete components from a schematic, which is by default mapped to the delete key, which, if you're completing this step, you do not have. Click the "Primary" field, and then hit your backspace key to remap the command to that key. This only changes the delete key for schematics, so repeat this process with a PCB document open.

==A Brief Introduction to SVN==
This is the last part of this guide! You have actually already completed the installation and configuration of Altium; this step is intended to give you a quick introduction to SVN and how to use it. You will not need Altium for this last step; if you're completing this tutorial at a time when others are likely to also be working through it, close Altium, as that will free up licenses for others to use. If you're already familiar with SVN, skip to the [[#Your First Commit|last task]].

===Background===
An SVN repository is a series of "snapshots" of a folder over time. Each snapshot is called a '''commit''', and represents the state of the folder and some or all of its contents at a moment in time. Commits are created by users (aka you) when they want to preserve a version of the files they are working on - this typically happens after making a group of changes to files stored in the SVN repository (ie. after adding a part to a library or making progress on a circuit schematic or circuit board).

Any file can be stored in an SVN repository, and the repository can detect any change to any file. With TortoiseSVN installed, tracked files in an SVN repository which have been edited since the last commit will have a small red exclamation point displayed on their icon when viewed in a folder. New files created in your Altium SVN folder will not automatically be tracked - this is intentional, and a good thing.

Unlike other version control systems, "branches" do not work in SVN. All commits in an SVN repository contain changes that directly follow the commit before them, and can have only a single commit that follows after them. Because of this, SVN users can '''lock''' files and folders, becoming the only person allowed to commit changes to that file or folder. Other users can still edit the files, but their changes cannot be committed, making those edits futile. TortoiseSVN shows when a file has been locked by someone else, to help keep you from trying to edit something that somebody else is working on. Locking exists so that two users cannot try to commit different versions of the same file - someone who opens a file and knows they will commit changes to it soon can lock the file, marking the fact that they started editing the file first and so should be allowed to complete and commit their changes before anyone else. Locks can be taken away from someone who locks a file for an extended period of time, preventing abuse of this feature.

Changes other people make to files stored in the SVN must be downloaded manually, through the SVN '''update''' command. Updating replaces any files in your SVN folder that have been changed since the last time you ran SVN update with their most recently committed versions. You can see if there are new SVN commits to download in the {{slack-channel|altium}} channel, where notices of new commits are automatically posted.

Future tutorials will discuss when and how to add files and how to use Altium's SVN commands; below, we will briefly discuss how to generally commit file changes to the SVN repository.

===Your First Commit===
[[File:MakingACommit.png|thumb|200px|right|You will likely only have iwuzhere.txt in your list of files to commit, but if you have others, leave them unchecked.]]
In your SSI Altium SVN folder, right click while ''not'' on any file or folder, and mouse down to "SVN Update" and click it. This will quickly bring all of your files up to date. Next, in your Altium SVN folder, find "iwuzhere.txt." This file is tracked by the SVN repository, and should have a small green check mark on it. Right click on the file, mouse down to "TortoiseSVN," and then click "Get lock..." Click OK on any windows that appear. A small lock icon should appear on the file - you now have the lock on this file.

If the file was already locked by someone else, you will not be able to lock it, and should message the {{slack-channel|altium}} to ask to lock it. If you do not receive a response within 10 minutes, lock the file as described above, and check "Steal the locks" to take the lock from whomever had it previously. Slack is how locking conflicts like this (which are rare) are resolved, and 10 minutes is a short period of time to wait for a response, but this file is simple and very little work is lost from stealing the lock on it. If someone else commits a new version of the file, run another SVN update, and then you should be able to lock it.

Open the file, and add your name and the current date, matching the format of the names already there. ''You're now a part of SSI's corps of electrical engineers!''

To finish, go back to your Altium SVN folder, right click while ''not'' on any file or folder, and mouse down to "SVN Commit..." and click it. A dialog box will come up (see right), at the bottom of which should be a list of files. This shows files you have changed since the last time you ran SVN update, and ''should'' just have iwuzhere.txt listed. Make sure you have it checked. In the text box at the top of the window, you will need to write a '''commit message''', a brief description of what changes you're committing. This message will appear in Slack and must be at least 20 characters (but shouldn't be longer than a single sentence). Once you've written it, click okay, and wait for a message to appear in Slack.

'''You're done!''' Welcome to Altium!

==Next Steps==

;A First Project :[[Your First Altium Project|This (currently in-development) guide]] offers you a walkthrough of a fun introductory Altium project, which ends with making a circuit board that allows you to play StrEEt Fighter with your fellow SSI members.
;Creating Parts for Altium Libraries : [[Making Parts for PCB Libraries|This guide]] walks you through the process of adding new parts to the SSI Altium library, teaching both the process involved and quality standards for the library that we and the Stanford Solar Car Project have long worked to maintain.

[[Category: Altium]]

File:DeleteKeyRemapping18.png

2018-07-15T19:53:18Z

Mjpauly: What you should end up with after rebinding your delete key in Altium 18.

What you should end up with after rebinding your delete key in Altium 18.

IREC 2018

2018-07-10T06:35:07Z

Mjpauly: added pronunciations for SHITL, including IPA English pronunciation

[[File: IREC2018pose.jpg|400px|thumb|right|frame|The team posing with the fully integrated rocket before launching it at the competition.]]

IREC 2018 was the second SSI IREC team to participate in the [[Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Competition]], placing second in the 30k commercial off-the-shelf motor category. The rocket was named Redshift and featured an avionics bay with a long-distance radio system, a reduced-diameter recovery system, a fiberglass airframe with a carbon fiber fin lay-up, a powered decoupling mechanism, and a software-defined GPS payload.

=Overview=

At four inches in diameter and 128 inches long, the rocket design used a minimum diameter airframe to house the Cessaroni Technology N2900 motor. With a wet mass of 58 pounds (dry mass of 27.8 lbs + 1-7 lbs lead shot ballast), the rocket was built to fly to 30,000 feet.

=Goals and Requirements=

The goal of the rocket design was to be capable of delivering an 8.8 pound payload to an altitude of 30,000 feet while employing as much student innovation as possible.

=System Design=

[[File:IREC2018cad.png|800px|thumb|center|frame|CAD model of the rocket, displaying subsystem layout.]]

The system went through a few key iterations: at first, a full staging system was considered, then a boosted dart system. After those options turned out to be relatively infeasible due to manpower and expertise issues, as well as the full system redesign that it would have required to conform to smaller airframe diameters, a move was made to a powered decoupling system.

==Avionics==

The avionics system consisted of multiple custom printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs), which used direct board-to-board interconnects to eliminate the use of wires.

The main boards in the avionics system were:

* [[Skybass]], an altimeter developed by [[User:Johnldean|John Dean]]. Testing of Skybass was referred to as SHITL (pronounced "shittle," /ʃɪt(ə)l/)
* Motherboard, which was the main interface between all other boards and contained the power distribution, arming systems, and e-match firing pathways.
* Daughtership, a board for mounting the StratoLogger and Raven COTS altimeters.

==Recovery==

At apogee, the recovery system deployed a small (32") SRAD drogue parachute for a swift, controlled descent (~70 ft/s) that minimized horizontal drift. The deployment of the drogue was triggered by a CO2 canister deployment mechanism.

When the rocket reached an apogee of 1,500 feet, the main SRAD chute (90"), which was retained in the recovery bay by the Tender Retention System, was aimed to deploy for a soft landing. Due to compact packing, the main chute did not successfully deploy.

The recovery bay was selected to have a restricted diameter (2.65"), smaller than that of the rocket airframe (3.9"). This reduced diameter was chosen so that the parachutes would be able to deploy through the restriction in the airframe size caused by the staging ring.

==Structures==

The structure of the rocket was constructed using COTS fiberglass tubing, with a student-built carbon-fiber fin lay-up. The structures team attempted to build a custom airframe using the [[X-Winder]] filament winder, but was unable to produce a usable airframe in time using this method.

==Payload==

The payload flown on the rocket was a software-define GPS experiment. The goal was to use a COTS software defined radio USB dongle (RTL-SDR), connected to a Raspberry Pi Zero, to capture raw samples from the GPS L1 spectrum. One the rocket is recovered, the raw samples could be downloaded from the Raspberry Pi's SD card and run through tracking algorithms to solve for the rocket's position throughout the flight. The advantages of such a system were specifically for rocketry applications, namely that such a system could be more resistant to losing lock with satellites during high accelerations during flight due to high rates of doppler shift, and that it could provide a way around the GPS COCOM restrictions. The COCOM restrictions limit consumer GPS operation under high velocities and altitudes, which poses an issue for SSI's [[Spaceshot]] project.

==Staging==

The staging project was a decoupling mechanism developed for high-speed decoupling. A stepper motor drives a lead screw, on which a nut rides, lifting and lowering a set of lever arms that turn the vertical motion of the nut into horizontal motion. This horizontal motion actuates a set three clamps which affix two metal rings together. These rings are each mounted on one half of the airframe. By backing off the clamps, the rings, and consequently the airframes, are free to separate.

Issues with the staging system arose when it was near to its completion. The greatest problem was that the stepper motor would have to provide a constant holding torque in order to keep the rocket rigid during the period of time between integration and when separation was required during launch. This application of holding torque required a significant amount of power, and the original battery size resulted in a 20 minute maximum lifetime. Given the lack of adequate space to add enough batteries for a multi-hour lifetime, required in the event of launch delays, and uncertainty about the speed with which the system would drain the battery, it was decided before test launch three that the project should be cut from the final rocket design.

==Launch Operations==

Launch Operations handled all launch logistics, including food at the launch, lodging for multi-day launches, checklist organization, pre-launch packing, and transportation.

=Test Launches=

==Launch 1==

TODO: Attach launch stats and a link to the data?

==Launch 2==

==Launch 3==

=The Competition=

=Documentation=

* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B-4ndZNTqcyyGEI-J9Cef_EhLjfIpOm6/view?usp=sharing Project Technical Report]
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JBI0Ohp3OFxwmPIfnDCpdROMip6v7sKL/view?usp=sharing Poster]
* [https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1FZ-EO2cmcVqKG4EX4ICNpjDG-7YpyGjMEO3sUQ1J7eA/edit?usp=sharing Fast Facts Card]
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/11V0K0Fe9YUkwESrhL8_F12ssUUUeGvvl/view?usp=sharing SRADio Podium Presentation Slides]
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nuDhLZtP00u9kX1kKX7aCkomgPamfNCM/view?usp=sharing SRADio Podium Presentation Proposal]

[[Category:Rockets]]

Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Competition

2018-07-09T07:21:58Z

Mjpauly:

The '''Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Competition (IREC)''' is hosted annually in June by the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA) at Spaceport America in New Mexico. The competition requirements are to build a rocket with solid, hybrid, or liquid propulsion capable of delivering an 8.8 pound payload to either 10,000 or 30,000 feet. The most recent team, [[IREC 2018]], was the second SSI team to participate in the competition, and won second place in the 30k commercial off-the-shelf motor category.

= Overview =

The competition is split into six different categories across the two altitude targets and three motor types: commercial off-the-shelf solid motors (COTS), student researched and developed solid motors (SRAD), and student researched and developed hybrid or liquid motors (hybrid/liquid). Teams are judged on their performance in a number of categories:

* Poster and podium presentations at a conference day
* Technical report on the project
* Quality and construction of the rocket
* Quantity of student researched and developed components
* Flight performance and closeness to the altitude target
* Payload design and originality

[[Category:Rockets]]

IREC 2018

2018-07-08T22:50:02Z

Mjpauly:

[[File: IREC2018pose.jpg|400px|thumb|right|frame|The team posing with the fully integrated rocket before launching it at the competition.]]

IREC 2018 was the second SSI IREC team to participate in the [[Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Competition]], placing second in the 30k commercial off-the-shelf motor category. The rocket was named Redshift and featured an avionics bay with a long-distance radio system, a reduced-diameter recovery system, a fiberglass airframe with a carbon fiber fin lay-up, a powered decoupling mechanism, and a software-defined GPS payload.

=Overview=

At four inches in diameter and 128 inches long, the rocket design used a minimum diameter airframe to house the Cessaroni Technology N2900 motor. With a wet mass of 58 pounds (dry mass of 27.8 lbs + 1-7 lbs lead shot ballast), the rocket was built to fly to 30,000 feet.

=Goals and Requirements=

The goal of the rocket design was to be capable of delivering an 8.8 pound payload to an altitude of 30,000 feet while employing as much student innovation as possible.

=System Design=

[[File:IREC2018cad.png|800px|thumb|center|frame|CAD model of the rocket, displaying subsystem layout.]]

==Avionics==

The avionics system consisted of multiple custom printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs), which used direct board-to-board interconnects to eliminate the use of wires.

The main boards in the avionics system were:

* [[Skybass]], an altimeter developed by [[User:Johnldean|John Dean]]
* Motherboard, which was the main interface between all other boards and contained the power distribution, arming systems, and e-match firing pathways.
* Daughtership, a board for mounting the StratoLogger and Raven COTS altimeters.

==Recovery==

At apogee, the recovery system deployed a small drogue parachute for a swift, controlled descent that minimized horizontal drift. The deployment of the drogue was triggered by a CO2 canister deployment mechanism.

When the rocket reached an apogee of 1,500 feet, the main chute, which was retained in the recovered tubing by the Tender Retention System, was deployed for a soft landing.

The recover tube was selected to have a reduced diameter, smaller than that of the rocket airframe. This reduced diameter was chosen so that the parachutes would be able to deploy through the restriction in the airframe size caused by the staging ring.

==Structures==

The structure of the rocket was constructed using COTS fiberglass tubing, with a student-built carbon-fiber fin lay-up. The structures team attempted to build a custom airframe using the [[X-Winder]] filament winder, but was unable to produce a usable airframe in time using this method.

==Payload==

The payload flown on the rocket was a software-define GPS experiment. The goal was to use a COTS software defined radio USB dongle (RTL-SDR), connected to a Raspberry Pi Zero, to capture raw samples from the GPS L1 spectrum. One the rocket is recovered, the raw samples could be downloaded from the Raspberry Pi's SD card and run through tracking algorithms to solve for the rocket's position throughout the flight. The advantages of such a system were specifically for rocketry applications, namely that such a system could be more resistant to losing lock with satellites during high accelerations during flight due to high rates of doppler shift, and that it could provide a way around the GPS COCOM restrictions. The COCOM restrictions limit consumer GPS operation under high velocities and altitudes, which poses an issue for SSI's [[Spaceshot]] project.

==Staging==

The staging project was a decoupling mechanism developed for high-speed decoupling. A stepper motor drives a lead screw, on which a nut rides, lifting and lowering a set of lever arms that turn the vertical motion of the nut into horizontal motion. This horizontal motion actuates a set three clamps which affix two metal rings together. These rings are each mounted on one half of the airframe. By backing off the clamps, the rings, and consequently the airframes, are free to separate.

Issues with the staging system arose when it was near to its completion. The greatest problem was that the stepper motor would have to provide a constant holding torque in order to keep the rocket rigid during the period of time between integration and when separation was required during launch. This application of holding torque required a significant amount of power, and the original battery size resulted in a 20 minute maximum lifetime. Given the lack of adequate space to add enough batteries for a multi-hour lifetime, required in the event of launch delays, and uncertainty about the speed with which the system would drain the battery, it was decided before test launch three that the project should be cut from the final rocket design.

==Launch Operations==

Launch Operations handled all launch logistics, including food at the launch, lodging for multi-day launches, checklist organization, pre-launch packing, and transportation.

=Test Launches=

==Launch 1==

==Launch 2==

==Launch 3==

=The Competition=

=Documentation=

* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B-4ndZNTqcyyGEI-J9Cef_EhLjfIpOm6/view?usp=sharing Project Technical Report]
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JBI0Ohp3OFxwmPIfnDCpdROMip6v7sKL/view?usp=sharing Poster]
* [https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1FZ-EO2cmcVqKG4EX4ICNpjDG-7YpyGjMEO3sUQ1J7eA/edit?usp=sharing Fast Facts Card]
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/11V0K0Fe9YUkwESrhL8_F12ssUUUeGvvl/view?usp=sharing SRADio Podium Presentation Slides]
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nuDhLZtP00u9kX1kKX7aCkomgPamfNCM/view?usp=sharing SRADio Podium Presentation Proposal]

File:IREC2018cad.png

2018-07-08T22:15:30Z

Mjpauly: CAD model of the IREC 2018 rocket.

CAD model of the IREC 2018 rocket.

User:Mjpauly

2018-07-08T21:17:17Z

Mjpauly: Created page with "Matthew Pauly is a sophomore in electrical engineering. He was a payload colead for IREC 2018."

Matthew Pauly is a sophomore in electrical engineering. He was a payload colead for [[IREC 2018]].

IREC 2018

2018-07-08T21:12:14Z

Mjpauly:

Stanford Student Space Initiative (SSI)

2018-07-08T08:13:05Z

Mjpauly: add link to IREC page

{{teams-table}}

The Stanford Student Space Initiative (SSI) is a completely student-run organization founded in 2013 with the mission of giving future leaders of the space industry the hands-on experience and broader insight they need to realize the next era of space development.

SSI is the largest project-based group on campus. We’re the gathering place for people who want to act on their interests in space. Since 2013, we’ve flown a zero gravity experiment with NASA, helped build multiple CubeSats, inspired 60 teams in 20 countries to launch high altitude balloons, certified over 30 students for high powered rocketry, hosted over 100 speakers at talks and conferences, been featured in media like Popular Science, and helped our members intern and work at top aerospace companies and organizations.

Over the next year, our teams will launch a suite of [[:Category:Rockets | rockets]] designed to test novel rocketry technologies and defend our win at last year's [[Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Competition]], finish and launch the first [[:Category:Satellites | satellite]] of our own, continue to send [[:Category:High Altitude Balloons | high altitude balloons]] across the country and beyond, develop the first in-space [[:Category:Biology | DNA synthesizer]], teach the third edition of our [[AA 47SI: Why Go to Space?|space policy class]], and organize speaker events and workshops with industry leaders.

We invite you to join us.

[[Category:Stanford Space Initiative| ]]

IREC 2018

2018-07-08T08:06:11Z

Mjpauly: Created page with "The team posing with the fully integrated rocket before launching it at the competition. IREC 2018 was the second SSI IREC..."

File:IREC2018pose.jpg

2018-07-08T08:04:16Z

Mjpauly: typo

The IREC 2018 team poses with the fully integrated rocket before launching it at the competition.

File:IREC2018pose.jpg

2018-07-08T08:03:55Z

Mjpauly: The IREC 2018 poses with the fully integrated rocket before launching it at the competition.

The IREC 2018 poses with the fully integrated rocket before launching it at the competition.

Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Competition

2018-07-08T07:46:08Z

Mjpauly: Created page with "The '''Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Competition (IREC)''' is hosted annually in June by the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA) at Spaceport America in New..."

Category:Rockets

2018-07-08T07:14:19Z

Mjpauly:

Rockets Team

2018-07-08T07:09:43Z

Mjpauly: update outdated info in intro

{{rocket-sidebar}}

[[File: CardinalIILaunch.jpg | right| 250px | thumb | Cardinal II lifting off the pad on a J class motor.]]

The Rockets team is a student-led group striving to push the limits of high power rocketry. The team's long-term goal is a shot to the 100-km Karman Line which forms the common definition of space. Along the way, it competes every year in the Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Competition and runs Project Daedalus, a suite of experimental projects developing technology required to reach space. This year's [[Project Daedalus]] is a suite of three rockets: [[Charybdis]] is testing out passive ascent stabilization with canted fins, [[Argus]] is designing a rocket with RF-activated interior camera systems, and [[Icarus]] is creating a reefed parachute that can vary its size during descent.

To accomplish each of the components of Daedalus, the Rockets team builds and launches [[L1 Certification|Level 1]], [[L2 Certification|Level 2]], and Level 3 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-power_rocketry high-power rockets]. These are launched with national rocketry clubs.

The Rockets team Faculty Advisor is [[Dr. Hai Wang]]. The current team leads are [[User:iangomez|Max Newport]] and [[User:iangomez|Daniel Shorr]].

The rest of this page is dedicated to explaining everything an SSI Rockets Team member needs to know.

= Background =

== [http://wiki.stanfordssi.org/HPR_Background_Information High Power Rocketry]==

A high powered rocket is defined as a rocket that weighs more than 1500 grams and contains a motor or motors containing more than 125 grams of propellant and/or rated at more than 160 Newton-seconds of total impulse. There are different classifications for motors and different levels of certification required to use these motors. These rockets fall in the Class 2 Rocketry category as long as their total impulse remains below 41,000 Ns. Class 3 rockets require motors that cannot be bought commercially (and are classified as [[ITAR#Defense articles | ITAR defense articles]]).

{|
! Class
! Rating
! Total Impulse (N-s)
|-
|
Class 1 (Model Rocketry)

No certifications required
|-
|
| A
| 1.26-2.5
|-
|

| B
| 2.51-5.00
|-
|

| C
| 5.01-10.0
|-
|

| D
| 10.01-20.0
|-
|

| E
| 20.01-40.0
|-
|

| F
| 40.01-80.0
|-
|

| G
| 80.01-160
|-
|

Class 2 (High Power)

L1

|-
|
| H
| 160.01-320
|-
|

| I
| 320-640
|-
|

L2
|-
|
| J
| 640-1,280
|-
|

| K
| 1,280-2,560
|-
|

L3
|-
|
| L
| 2,560-5,120
|-
|

| M
| 5,120-10,200
|-
|

| N
| 10,200-20,500
|-
|

| O
| 20,500-41,000
|}

=== Level 1: H, I ===

There is no test required to acquire a Level 1 certification. Just a successful flight and recovery using an L1-class motor is required.

=== Level 2: J, K, L ===

The holder of an L1 certification (not necessarily from the organization they are attempting to obtain L2 certification from) must pass an examination on the subject of advanced rocketry concepts and have a successful flight and recovery using an L2-class motor.

=== Level 3: M, N, O and beyond ===

There are many requirements for an L3 flight. Check the NAR and TRA websites for further information.

==[[Project Daedalus]]==

Daedalus teaches the major design principles of high power rocketry with hands-on experience. Teams design and launch novel rocket concepts iteratively, starting with L1, L2 and finally ending with an L3 rocket that successfully flies the thoroughly tested design. The technology coming out of this project will benefit the Rockets Team’s flagship rocketry project.

Daedalus is the overarching rockets project for the 2015-2016 year that is divided into 4 subteams as described below.

=== [[Pegasus]] ===

The purpose of Pegasus is to demonstrate the feasibility of using a parafoil recovery system to create a controlled, directed recovery for a high-powered rocket from over 10,000 ft.

=== [[Prometheus]] ===

The purpose of Prometheus is to demonstrate roll control of a payload descent using PID-controlled fins.

=== [[Talos]]/[[Kythera]] ===

Talos is the launch vehicle for Kythera, SSI’s first generation flight computer system which will feature a Raspberry Pi that reads data from sensors and communicates that data to Teensys (Arduino-based microcontroller) in addition to using radios to provide real time GPS, orientation, and video data.

=== [[Charybdis]] ===

The purpose of Charybdis is to demonstrate passive ascent stabilization using canted fins.

= Expectations =

== Meetings ==

The Rockets Team has general meetings every week; during Spring Quarter of 2015-2016, these meetings are held on Thursdays from 8-9pm in Durand 450. They cover all relevant project updates (i.e. Daedalus team updates and launch logistics) and function as worksessions where all of the Rockets Team members are in the same place at once.

Each project under the Rockets Team umbrella needs to have at least one work session/meeting a week in conjunction with the team-wide meetings.

'''If you cannot make a project meeting, let your project lead know ahead of time.'''

== Previous Knowledge ==

We don’t expect you to know very much about rocketry. If you do, great! But if you don’t, we will spend the time teaching you the fundamentals and give you the opportunities and resources to learn as much about rocketry as you’d like. Working on a project is the best way to exercise and synthesize with the knowledge you gain from working with theory.

Rocketry is a multi-disciplined topic. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of useful disciplines:

<ul>
<li><blockquote>Heat Transfer</blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>Thermodynamics</blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>Fluid Mechanics (incompressible and compressible flow)</blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>Physics</blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>Material Sciences</blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>Statics and Dynamics</blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>Controls</blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>Circuits</blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>Amatuer Radio</blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>Manufacturing</blockquote></li></ul>

Introductions to many of these are available on [[So You Want To...]]

== Time Commitment ==

Rocketry is difficult to master, but worth the tedious design process. The more time you put in, the better your project will turn out as well as experience less schedule slip. L1 and L2 do not require more than 10 hours combined (since they come from kits). L3 projects require much more time since these are designed from scratch and need to go through our NASA-inspired design process.

= The Process =

== Design Reviews ==

Note: For a much more specific documentation check out [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c3D9EUYV-cxaDAc-bi3u-ufAYVxP0EIeB3hBln9TbUQ/edit# ''''The Process: From PDR to PLAR'''']. The document provides specific guidelines and expectations for each stage of the process.

As specified in NASA’s engineering design life cycle, multiple design reviews are used to assess the feasibility and practicality of both attempting and accomplishing a particular project. This includes a Preliminary Design Review ([https://docs.google.com/presentation/u/1/d/1DXe1mLi3W9Z8g58muUl7w96wpbG8cZbLAWL8znXPc2M/edit#slide=id.p3 ''PDR example'']) to assess mission goals, risks, and criteria and is followed by a Critical Design Review (CDR). By CDR, a project is expected to have assessed ''specific'' hardware and software configurations for viability, addressed questions raised in the PDR, and considered manufacturing and production of their final product. Both stages include extensive criticism and evaluation by other SSI members and external entities.

'''The PDR demonstrates that the overall preliminary design meets all requirements with acceptable risk and within the cost and schedule constraints.''' It shows that the correct design options have been selected, interfaces have been identified, and verification methods have been described. Full baseline cost and schedules, as well as all risk assessment, management systems, and metrics, are presented.

The CDR demonstrates that the maturity of the design is appropriate to support proceeding to full-scale fabrication, assembly, integration, and test and that the technical effort is on track to complete the flight and ground system development and mission operations in order to meet overall performance requirements within the identified cost and schedule constraints. Progress against management plans, budget, and schedule, as well as risk assessment, are presented. '''The CDR is a review of the final design of the launch vehicle and payload system'''. All analyses should be complete and some critical testing should be complete.

The FRR examines tests, demonstrations, analyses, and audits that determine the overall system (all projects working together) readiness for a safe and successful flight/launch and for subsequent flight operations of the as-built rocket and payload system. '''It ensures that all flight and ground hardware, software, personnel, and procedures are operationally ready.'''

Immediately prior to launch, SSI will conduct a Launch Readiness Review (LRR). The LRR is performed on-site to verify procedural compliance and compliance with applicable safety codes. Furthermore, please note that launch-site safety officers will also be present to approve and assess your rockets.

After launch, SSI will conduct a Post-Launch Assessment Review (PLAR). The PLAR is an assessment of system in-flight performance. The PLAR will determine if mission success criteria were met, discuss any adverse events, enumerate lessons learned, and describe any recommended changes to the SSI Rockets program.

== Budget ==

Rockets has [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11LfZaV59FnFJyt4DnnCq2Vj7DgzM_2XfgwEPw27zTdI/edit#gid=0 ''a running budget''] in the Drive (Stanford Student Space Initiative > Teams > Rockets). Please add your purchases to the correct tab so we can have a running tally of what we’re spending.

== TRA and NAR ==

[http://www.tripoli.org/ ''Tripoli Rocketry Association (TRA)''] and [http://www.nar.org/ ''National Association of Rocketry (NAR)''] are the two major organizations that organize launches, certify members, and maintain specific standards that govern high power rocketry.

In order to launch high power rockets, you are required to be a member of either organization ([http://www.tripoli.org/Membership ''Tripoli Membership''] / [http://www.nar.org/join-nar/ ''NAR Membership''])

The closest Tripoli launch site to Stanford is [http://www.tccrockets.com/ ''Tripoli Central CA''] (near Fresno) and the closest NAR launch site is [http://www.lunar.org/ ''LUNAR''] (somewhat near Stockton). TCC holds HPR launches (max height 16,800’) on the 3rd Saturday of each month. LUNAR holds HPR launches (max height of 15,000’) on the 1st Saturday of each month in addition to low power launches (max height of 1000’) on the 3rd Saturday of each month at Moffett Field.

== Launches ==

Here is the launch procedure as lifted from the [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ItllblKqc9oATIYz2Mf4VrZK0Fh1h3ohmwlDXR33KQM/edit ''Operating Principles and Risk Management''] document.

Once the team arrives at the launch site, the rules and regulations of the governing body sponsoring the launch will take precedence. Although procedure is likely to vary from site to site, the launch procedure usually occurs in this order:

<ol style="list-style-type: decimal;">
<li><blockquote>Those attempting to fly a rocket approach the Range Safety Officer (RSO) and officers in charge of the launch, sign in (with their member numbers) and usually pay a launch fee. If the flyer is attempting to get a certification, they will fill out relevant forms to declare their intention (these and other useful documentation pertaining to both national rocketry associations are included in the Appendix).</blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>Depending on the skill level of the flyer, there are two variations of what may occur.</blockquote>
<ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;">
<li><blockquote>In the non-certification flight case, the RSO will inspect the rocket and send the flyer to set up the rocket on the launch pad. This requires placing the rocket on the launch rails, placing the igniter in the motor, and checking the launch pad electronics for errors before returning to a safe distance from the launch pad.</blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>In the case of a certification, the RSO and someone above the flyer’s certification level will inspect the rocket and send the flyer (and another more experienced member) to set up the rocket for launch. The same setup process occurs as stated above.</blockquote></li></ol>
</li>
<li><blockquote>After the range has been cleared of spectators/flyers, the RSO announces each rocket and launches them one at a time (unless otherwise specified; an example of an exception is a drag race between two rockets).</blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>Once the range is cleared of rockets, flyers recover their rockets.</blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>If the flight is not a certification, the procedure ends here. Otherwise, the flyer shows his or her rocket to the RSO and has them sign off on the flyer’s paperwork if the flight is successful. The paperwork is then sent off to the headquarters of the organization and processed.</blockquote></li></ol>

== Rocket Naming Conventions ==

For mass certs:

SSI-R# will be the designation for general rocket launches (blanket certification launches).

Your rocket’s name can be whatever you would like it to be. Examples in the past are: ''Cardinal I'', ''Flamos'', ''Chris May'', etc.

For Daedalus:

SSI-[Level][three letter code denoting name][Launch number] ex. SSI-L3TAL1. These will not affect the number of SSI-R launches. They will have separate counts. The launch number will be useful if the same rocket goes flying again (which should be plausible if you don't mash it).

If the rocket is Class 3, no Level number is required.

== Rockets Leadership ==

The logistics required to run a fully operational Rockets team can be too much for just two co-leads to handle. The Rockets Leadership is a group of people who care about organizing the logistics behind launches and projects that the team is working on. If you show that you care and put in an exceptional amount of effort into your project, you can choose to be a part of this group.

[https://docs.google.com/a/stanford.edu/document/d/1-J5TS0MRgHi0HFTyPhYzzF6VZBa3dqO-WpxrCLgJIpQ/edit?usp=sharing ''Here is a document with all the roles on Rockets Leadership.'']

= Resources =

Other members are one of your best resources if you have any questions about rocketry. Other fantastic resources are laid out below.

== Rockets Drive ==

There are tons of useful things in the Rockets folder!!!!! Here are descriptions of a few of those folders.

=== [http://wiki.stanfordssi.org/Stanford_Student_Space_Initiative_(SSI) ''Wiki''] ===

Go here first for finding useful data on L1 certification procedures! You should add as much to the wiki as possible.

=== [https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_uGMv8pu2KgVUFUcEpWRGt2M00 ''Archive''] ===

This holds all the older Rockets plans/documents/etc. Usually these documents are not particularly useful (which is why they are in the archive).

=== [https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_uGMv8pu2KgU3Rsbi1KOFpuSzA ''Daedalus''] ===

This holds all the information for Daedalus, like team folders, L3 requirements, and PDRs & CDRs. Snoop around to see what they’ve done so far and steal information for your project (citing is always a good idea when you do take information).

=== [https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_uGMv8pu2KgVkdjcGQtWTNsZU0 ''Getting Nerdy: Textbooks and Manuals''] ===

This folder holds a collection of useful texts ranging from textbooks, manuals, NASA articles and technical reports. If you need to learn things, [https://docs.google.com/a/stanford.edu/document/d/18PSjKqlVLTQzfJLG7ggiWY61W3ZcaD9kCcEePinAJw0/edit?usp=drive_web ''check out this document''].

=== [https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByRlIAW5-8GqcUcyckNmZlFfN1U ''Launch Documentation''] ===

This holds all the launch documentation for upcoming launches and things like build slot signups, ride signups, rocket building instructions, required reading, pre-flight checklists, etc. Read through this folder and you’ll have a pretty damn good idea of launch logistics.

=== [https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-5MRX1wVAAdNXQxUzdNVGNRRWc ''Rockets Operating Principles''] ===

This folder houses all of the operating principles, risk mitigation planning, and miscellaneous safety codes, documentation, and literally anything Stanford’s lawyers could possibly want from us. If you read the document you will have a very good understanding of how the team operates on an administrative level.

=== [https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_uGMv8pu2KgdXo4YVJEV1duRlU ''The Design Process''] ===

This folder houses all you need to know to design, fabricate and launch a rocket from a documentation standpoint. Read it.

== [https://ssi-teams.slack.com/ ''Slack''] ==

Slack is the lifeblood of SSI. It is a messaging client that allows everyone within SSI to communicate. There are general channels (like #rockets), which allow us to push out general updates to everyone interested in the rockets team and direct messages in order to communicate with one person - although Slack has recently added a group messaging feature if you don’t want to make an entire channel for a 4 person chat - at a time. Notifications are pushed directly to your phone/computer/anything that has internet so that way we can infringe on all of your free time!

[https://ssi-teams.slack.com/signup ''Join the SSI Slack here.'']

== [[Mission Control]] ==

Mission Control can be considered the temple to SSI’s religion, the hub, nerve center, or kernel of all project activity. Located in Durand 390, Mission Control houses work sessions and project storage. Note: keycode access is required to the room. For specific questions, contact MC Hammer: Austin Pineault. Meetings or work sessions can also be conducted in the conference room, Durand 393 (often available), or Durand 450 (with prior reservation through AA Department Office on the second floor of Durand).

<noinclude>[[Category:Rockets]]</noinclude>

Category:Rockets

2018-07-08T06:00:28Z

Mjpauly: update coleads