In this post, I’ll go over the details of how I managed to put (part 1 of) the electronics tube together. Going into this phase, I didn’t really have a clear idea of how I would put certain parts together, so I’ll go into detail about my thought process for each step. 

I started by printing out the main structural parts for the electronics, which included a mount for the Pi, a mount for the Pixhawk, and a mount for the battery. I sandwiched the Pi between the Pi mount and Pixhawk mount and fastened it all together with M2.5 screws. Because the Pixhawk didn’t have any mounting holes, I figured I would eventually have to fasten it with some kind of tape or a zip tie; furthermore, I was concerned about the space I would need to allot for the signal wires, so for the time being I just left it off the assembly. At this point, the assembly looks like this:

Next, I figured it would probably be best for my own convenience and the well being of the electronics to keep the assembly as simple, organized, and compact as possible, so that it would be easy to take in and out of the tube. Furthermore, I was also a bit concerned about the electronics just being loose inside of the tube, which might lead to issues with the Pixhawk’s positioning or potential breaks in the wiring. I solve this problem by creating two big rings, fastened to the rest of the electronics mounting pieces, that have a perfect sliding fit inside the tube. 

By implementing these rings, I now had a much clearer idea of the space I had to fit components, I could control the exact positioning of the two largest components, the Pixhawk and Pi, and I also made myself some potential mounting room for the ESCs, wires, and more. Specifically, because the Pixhawk is stacked on-top of the Pi, and is also smaller than the Pi, I pushed the two as close to the top of the tube as possible, as it would make the most of the curvature of the tube. This left me with almost half the entire bottom of the tube under the Pi for the ESCs and voltage converters. 

The next thing I decided to tackle was how power would be distributed from the batteries to the rest of the electronics; the 5 ESCs, Pixhawk, and Pi. I decided to stick with what I know, and use a 10 port WAGO as the main power distribution device. Basically, it has 10 ports where wires can be inserted, clamped into place, and connected to a shared piece of metal or something, which for my purposes, allows the single power wire to be split off into 9 other directions. Because there’s a separate black and red wire, I would need two of these WAGOs for separate power distribution. With 5 wires from the ESCs and another two from the Pixhawk and Pi, the 10 ports would be more than enough. I decided I would fasten the two WAGOs with adhesive strips on the underside of the Pi mount, like this: 

After I did that, I began to just follow the direction of the power, starting with the Pixhawk’s power sense module. Because it had a male and female end for power, with the 6 pin Pixhawk connector just branching off, it would have to be wired between the WAGOs and the battery. 

Additionally, because the power wires ended in a deans connector rather than exposed individual wires, I decided to solder a quick male deans to the exposed wire component, which would connect the power sense module to the WAGOs. Next, I had to find a place to mount the module, which turned out to be one of the hardest steps. After probably like an hour of fiddling, I managed to fit it right in the area between the Pi and battery pack. 

(spoilers)

Then, all that had to be done was connect the Y splitter to the power sense module, buuuut of course my terrible soldering skills wouldn’t allow it to survive before I could actually do that. 

Next post, I’ll go in the other direction of the power, to the Pi’s power module and the ESCs.