College of Engineering, Forestry, and Natural Sciences

EGR 476C - PROJECT DESIGN PROCEDURES

NASA ORION Heat Shield Spectrometer
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Project Description
Problem Definition
Proposal Phase
Detailed Design Phase
Integration and Testing
Final Product
Team Members

Actions and Milestones:

The construction of testing circuits for individual components onboard the spectral data collection unit was assigned to the team. The team designed layouts of testing environmnts for the 3.3V to 5.0V Logic Transceiver unit as well as an optical isolator circuit.

Design RS232 test circuit within OrCAD

Completed
Design Optical Isolator within OrCAD

Completed
Procure components for construction

Completed
Verify Design Approval

Completed
Construct Testing Circuits Completed

Design Decisions and Implementation:

Tools and Testing:

RS232 Surface mount components were soldered to a pin out PCB at NASA to facilitate testing on the equipment provided by NAU. Optical isolator and Transceiver components were mailed to the team. Testing environment and tools were all provided by the NAU Engineering Labs. Oscilloscopes, function generators and tools for software analysis were all located in the Engineering building.

Challenges:

Initial layout of the testing components yielded unexpected behavior. When further investigating these issues, discrepancies were found between pin out diagrams referenced. After addressing these changes, it was determined there was no stress to the component.