PCB drill files and sources

[taprootmx]

Where are the drill files for the PCBs? I believe these will be required for manufacturing.

I am also looking for PCB source files for both the Air and Ground units. If this project is actually open source (which is starting to seem like a misleading description, but I hope I’m wrong) we need access to the PCB sources so we can make modifications. For example I’m considering making my own modified version that integrates an IMU.

[tomipiriyev]

@taprootmx , for manufacturing you will need Gerber files , and BOM , already in here . IMU is for detecting movement? if so you can use tiny accelerometer , which has built in crash detection output , will be simpler to implement into firmware

[taprootmx]

The PCB manufacturers that I’ve worked with all require an NC drill file for vias and through holes. The Gerber files alone are not enough for the cheaper, on-demand PCB houses that are common now.

And there’s still the question of PCB source files. From the schematics it looks like you use Altium—can you upload those source files? Having them will make it possible for us to make our own customizations to the PCB. It will also help with issues like the missing drill files, because it will allow anyone using this project to generate output files to the PCB manufacturer’s specifications. And overall, it will allow those of us who really like your project to contribute and help make it even better!

The IMU is something I’m considering experimenting with to improve position accuracy. Currently I’ve been seeing very poor GPS accuracy (sometimes +-200m or worse) especially while stationary, even with a clear view of the sky. My two Air units are mounted to dog collars which obviously have to deal with lots of movement and weird rotations and angles, so I was going to try combining the GPS data with gyro and accelerometer data in a Kalman filter.

Is there a spot on the existing Air board to connect extra sensors?

Thanks for your response!

[tomipiriyev]

I will upload new firmware for both air and for Ground unit, accuracy issue is coming from the length of Lat , Long data format implementation . I have fixed it

[taprootmx]

Ah, great, that’s good to know. I already fixed some other numeric precision issues on the Ground unit firmware and submitted it as a pull request: #27 (different GitHub account, sorry).