Mt. Pleasant Aerial Experiments Checklist

• Site conducted

  Select

• Conducted on

  Date

• Prepared by

• Location
  Address

Drone Checklist

• Is the battery for the drone fully charged?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Note charge percentage.

• Is the battery for the controller fully charged?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Note the charge percentage.

• Is the battery for the raspberry pi fully charged?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Note the charge percentage.

• Is the battery for the phone fully charged?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Note the charge percentage.

• Are the propellers firmly attached?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Is the GPS Module present and attached?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Is the 915 MHz Antenna present and attached?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Is the Raspberry Pi attached to the battery, camera, and servo motor?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Attach the phone to the drone.

• Attach raspberry pi battery.

• Attach drone battery.

• Place controller battery in controller.

Weather Station Checklist

• Are the batteries for the raspberry pi fully charged?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Note the charge percentage.

• Is the battery for the servo motor fully charged?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Note the charge percentage.

• Is the battery for the phone fully charged?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Note the charge percentage.

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Inspect the wiring to ensure all connections required are in place.

• Attach the phone to the weather station.

Ground Station Checklist

• Is the battery for the laptop completely charged?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Note the charge percentage.

• Is the 915 MHz transmitter present along with attaching cable?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

Weather and Airspace Checklist

• How is the weather looking outside?

  Good

  Fair

  Poor

  N/A

• Note the chance of rain.

• Note the temperature.

• Note average wind speeds.

• Note wind gusts.

• Check radar for incoming weather.

• Check for NOTAMs in the area.

• Check for airspace clearances.

• Check that drivers license and FAA license are in pocket.

Vehicle Inventory Checklist

• Drone and all attached accessories.

• Weather station and all attached accessories.

• Drone Controller.

• Table.

• Wagon.

• Laptop.

• Note time of departure.

  Date

Ground Station Setup

• Set up table on site and place weather station, laptop, and controller on top.

• Turn on weather station and connect via VNC Viewer.

• Spin wind vain to face 0 degrees to North.

• Turn on weather collection systems.

• Note current wind speed.

• Note current wind direction.

• Note the current tide level.

• How are current flying conditions?

  Good

  Fair

  Poor

  N/A

• Turn on GPS data collection on the ground station phone and attach to drone station.

• Enable servo motor to start spinning.

Drone Setup

• Is the airspace clear for flying?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Enable USB battery drainer.

• Turn on GPS data collection on drone phone and attach to drone.

• Turn on onboard raspberry pi and connect via VNC Viewer.

• Start video recording on drone.

• Enable servo motor to start spinning.

• Fold out drone arms. Ensure drone arms click into place.

• Plug up the battery for the drone.

• Place drone out on an open flat space clear of bystanders.

• Turn on remote control transmitter.

• Turn on the drone. Is the light solid green, then flashing?

• Open Mission Planner on the ground station.

• Are you uploading the flight path via telemetry or direct connection?

  Telemetry

  Direct Connection

• Plug in 915 MHz Transmitter to computer.

• Plug in battery to drone and wait for tune to finish.

• Set the COM Port to the active port and set the Baud Rate to 57600.

• Click connect.

• Plug the 915 Mhz transmitter that is attached to the pixhawk into the ground station.

• Wait for the tune to finish.

• Set the COM Port to the active port and set the Baud Rate to 115200.

• Click connect.

• Upload the flight path to the drone. Ensure controller is set to Either POS HOLD or AUTO depending if this is a test flight or not.

• Is throttle set to the minimum on the controller?

• Before flight, check that the flight mode is set to ALT HOLD. (Push the upper-left most switch on the front of the controller to the middle setting.)

• When ready to launch, push throttle to the right and hold for 3 seconds. Listen for the beep indicating the drone is armed.

• Is this a test flight?

  Yes

  No

  N/A

• Hold up on the throttle to begin flight.

• Set flight mode to POS HOLD and ensure the drone is holding position and not drifting or spinning. (Push the upper-left most switch on the front of the controller to the highest setting.)

• Ground the drone and hold the both sticks down and inward until the drone stops.

• Set the flight mode to ALT HOLD. (Push the upper-left most switch on the front of the controller to the middle setting.)

• Using Mission Planner, set the POS HOLD command to AUTO. Save the command change.

• Hold up on the throttle to begin flight.

• Set flight mode to AUTO and ensure the drone is holding position and not drifting or spinning. (Push the upper-left most switch on the front of the controller to the highest setting.)

• Observe that the drone flies away safely to begin the mission. Be ready to switch back to ALT MODE if the flight goes wrong. Monitor B4UFLY for incoming aircraft.

• Once drone has completed the final check point, set flight mode to ALT HOLD MODE. (Push the upper-left most switch on the front of the controller to the middle setting.)

• Land the drone safely and slowly. Hold both sticks down and inward until the drone stops.

• Hold the button to turn the drone off.

• Turn the controller off.

• Record the time after landing safely.

  Date

Drone Shutdown

• Unplug the battery for the drone.

• Connect to the raspberry pi on the drone via VNC viewer.

• Disable servo motor rotation on the drone.

• Stop and save video recording on the drone.

• Turn off drone raspberry pi.

• Unplug the battery for the servo motor on the drone.

• Remove the phone from the drone.

• Stop the data collection from the drone.

• Upload the data from the phone from the drone to a google folder with the date using drone prefix.

• Fold down the drone arms.

Weather Station Shutdown

• Connect to the raspberry pi on the ground station.

• Disable the servo on the ground station.

• Remove the phone from the ground station.

• Upload the data from the phone from the ground station to a google folder with the date using station prefix.

• Stop data collection from the ground station.

• Stop weather station data collection.

• Click Exit so CSVs are written to disk.

• Turn off ground station raspberry pi.

• Return all equipment to the vehicle.

Data

• Connect the phones to the internet to allow the data to upload to the cloud.

• Connect to Drone Station via VNC.

• Move video feed onto laptop.

• Connect to Weather Station via VNC.

• Move the collected data onto laptop.

Batteries

• Remove battery from ground station.

• Note battery from ground station percentage.

• Remove battery from weather station.

• Note the battery from the weather station percentage.

• Remove battery from the drone.

• Note battery from the drone percentage.

• Remove battery from drone servo.

• Note battery from drone servo percentage.

• Remove battery from drone raspberry pi.

• Note battery from the drone raspberry pi percentage.

• Remove battery from remote controller.

• Note battery from the remote controller percentage.