Avionics Onboarding 2020

Welcome

Hello! Welcome to the 2020 Avionics on boarding page for SSI. If you are confused (as most Frosh are) then please contact Tim Vrakas, Lucy Brown, Akasha Hayden, Hagop Chinchinian, or Ian Chang on Slack. No experience at all is required to join. We welcome and want to share our knowledge of and love for EE with everyone!

Getting Started

Please fill out the following to participate in Avionics Onboarding 2020:

• Google Form [1] to express interest and indicate preference for electronics (must login with Stanford email)
• when2meet form [2] to indicate availability for avionics workshops and events

Please also join the slack channel #av-onboarding-2020. In order to go through onboarding you must be a member of SSI. See the How to Join SSI wiki page for more information on how to join slack and pay/waive dues. [3]

If you've finished a module or are running into issues, please fill out the following form. [4]

Lab 64

We work very closely with Lab 64 [5]. Steve Clark, the lab 64 manager, is an important and vital part of our on boarding process this year. Steve, as one of the important pillars of the Stanford EE community, runs many events through lab 64. You can join the mailing list to hear about them here[6].

Kits

We are creating kits to send to people. These kits will contain parts and instructions to create some really cool projects and give you some awesome EE knowledge and experience. These kits include a mini weather station, strain gauge, and magnetometer/IMU. If you are interested in getting a kit, please fill out the first form in the welcome [7].

Workshops

In order to help you work on your kits as well as teach you skills that will be necessary for your future work in SSI, we'll be holding multiple workshops to teach you important EE skills and practices. These workshops will be run by experienced SSI members and also by Steve Clark, the lab 64 lab manager, whose vast EE knowledge is an important part of our Avionics workshop program this year and in the future. The workshop schedule is available here [add link to schedule] and if you miss a workshop they will all be recorded and available here [add link to recordings].

Community

SSI has an awesome EE/Avionics community, and joining SSI's Avionics on boarding is a great way to meet fellow students and older mentors who all love electrical engineering. In addition, because of our collaboration with the lab 64 manager Steve Clark, who is often referred to as the central hub around which the EE community at Stanford revolves, you will get to know the larger EE community at Stanford outside of SSI.

Schedule

Please feel free to join at any time. It's never too late.

Week 1: Introduction to SSI and Avionics. [September 23, 8 PM]

Week 2: Kit Projects Introduction. [TBD]

Week 3: Setting up base kit MicroController. [TBD]

Weeks 4-5: Setting up peripherals. [TBD]

Week 6-7: Finishing the kits. [TBD]

Week 8-10: Getting started with Altium. [TBD]

Helpful reading

Sparkfun article on serial peripheral interface (SPI) [8]

Sparkfun article on I2C [9]

Module 0: Safety

• We're here to help you! Ask us if you have any questions.
• When working with LEDs, make sure to add a resistor to avoid frying the LEDs.
• When working with the Feather, make sure to never connect any of the ground pins to the 3.3 V pins . This could damage the board, and we may be unable to replace the board.
• Disconnect the Feather from its battery and micro USB connection when rewiring anything on the breadboard. This makes it less likely to accidentally connect the GND and 3.3 V pins and cause a short, which could damage your board.
• Always double check how you've wired everything on the breadboard before connecting the Feather to a micro USB cable or to the Feather battery.

Module 1: Intro

Watch the following video. [10]

Module 2: Parts Overview

Watch the following video. [11]

Module 3: Setting up the Feather

Unfortunately, we don't have a video for this module yet. We'd recommend you follow the Adafruit tutorial. [12]

Module 4: Serial demo Module

Watch the following video. [13]

Module 5: LED Demo Module

Watch the following video. [14]

Module 6: Anemometer Demo Module

Watch the following video. [15]