Modules

In this page you will find a short explanation about the purpose of each module in the repo.

Accelerometer

This hardware module is incharge of reading accelerometer data from the mpu9250 sensor. We have it because our magnetometer sensor also came with an accelerometer so a module was written for it in case we would want to monitor the acceleration as well.

Communications

This software module is incharge of communicating with different devices, for example the lab computer that would monitor and show all of the sensor data and etc.
The module currently runs on top of UDP.

Control

This software module is for controlling the satellite tendency so it would turn towards earth's surface at any moment. The module uses the Magnetometer and Gyro modules and uses the scale conversion and the Field to Current conversion modules.

Field

This module is used in order to create a virtual field of a certain type (mainly circular or bipolar in the near future).

Gyro

This hardware module is incharge of reading gyro data from the mpu9250 sensor. We have it because our magnetometer sensor also came with an gyro so a module was written for it in case we would want to monitor the acceleration as well.

NOTE : The sensor doesn't measure the current angle but the angular velocity, the module reads the angular velocity and sums it to calculate the current angle.

Logging

This software module logs sensor data locally. We wrote it to give us data regarding the satellites function and to make it easier to analyze it later on.

Magnetometer

This hardware module is incharge of reading magnetic field values, because our entire directional control system is based on magnetic fields, this module is very critical and plays a major role in the satellites functionality.

Magnetorquer

This hardware module control the h-bridges that control the magnetorquers (see satellite block diagram for further explanation). This module also plays a major role in the satellites functionality because the magnetorquers are the only actuators in this system and without this module the system won't move and do what it is intended to do.