Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
45 Motorized Throttle Quadrant for Flight Simulation
Wendi Fu
Yuqi Xue
Ziang Guo
Chaitanya Sindagi design_document3.pdf
design_document4.pdf
design_document5.pdf
design_document6.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
other3.zip
other1.jpg
other2.zip
proposal1.pdf
# Team Members
Ziang Guo - ziangg2 / Yuqi Xue - yuqixue2 / Wendi Fu - wendifu2

# Problem Statement
Modern airplanes are fitted with Auto Throttle systems as part of the Flight Automation System. On Boeing and McDonnell Douglas airplanes, the Auto Throttle system controls the thrust through physical movements of the thrust lever. Traditional commercially available flight simulation equipment is not able to simulate such automated movement which negatively impacts the flight simulation experience. Being able to simulate physical inputs from the Auto Throttle system allows for smooth transitions between automatic and manual throttle control. The overall flight simulation experience realism is also greatly improved.

# Solution Overview
Our solution consists of two parts - hardware device and software driver.
## Hardware
The hardware device will be a custom-made chassis with two thrust levers preferably made to represent the throttle levers of a Boeing 737. The levers will be driven by two belts powered by servos and are independent of each other. A resolver/encoder may be used to measure the lever position as user input. The microcontroller and servo driver will be on a custom PCB inside the chassis. The microcontroller will interface with a host PC running Microsoft Flight Simulator or Lockheed Martin Prepar3Dv4 via USB connection.
## Software
The software driver includes a system driver designed for Windows 10 and an add-on for MSFS and P3Dv4 to collect throttle position. The collected data is sent to the throttle quadrant to move the levers to the correct position.

# Solution Components
- Servo: Stepper motors used to adjust thrust lever position.
- Resolver/Encoder: Measures the lever position as user input.
- Belts and pulleys: Provides a physical connection between the thrust levers and the servo. Slip should be allowed for user safety.
- Chassis and levers: Provides housing for components as well as aesthetics consistent with real flight instruments.
- Microcontroller: Interfaces with software driver via USB to instruct movements of the servo. Also sends back throttle position to the simulator should the pilot overrides Auto Throttle input.
- Motor driver: An H bridge and power supply to drive the servo.
- Windows 10 driver: provides a bidirectional communication interface between the host PC and throttle quadrant microcontroller
- Simulator Add-on: collects throttle position information

# Criteria for Success
- The throttle quadrant must be correctly recognized by Windows 10 as well as the flight simulator as an accepted input source. It must be able to be calibrated inside the flight simulator.
- Once the Auto Throttle is engaged inside the flight simulator, any input made by the Auto Throttle must be reflected by the movement of the throttle lever. The throttle lever must be able to move into position in a smooth, steady manner representative of the movement shown inside the simulator.
- If the pilot manually adjusts the lever position while Auto Throttle is engaged, the servo must be turned off immediately to allow for resistance-free user override. The override must be effectively reported to the simulator.

# Bonus Objectives
- Realistic buttons for TO/GA and A/T disconnect
- Simulate throttle resistance of real airplanes
- Additional realism functionalities including fuel selectors and thrust reversers.

Automatic Piano Tuner

Joseph Babbo, Colin Wallace, Riley Woodson

Automatic Piano Tuner

Featured Project

# Automatic Piano Tuner

Team Members:

- Colin Wallace (colinpw2)

- Riley Woodson (rileycw2)

- Joseph Babbo (jbabbo2)

# Problem

Piano tuning is a time-consuming and expensive process. An average piano tuning will cost in the $100 - $200 range and a piano will have to be retuned multiple times to maintain the correct pitch. Due to the strength required to alter the piano pegs it is also something that is difficult for the less physically able to accomplish.

# Solution

We hope to bring piano tuning to the masses by creating an easy to use product which will be able to automatically tune a piano by giving the key as input alongside playing the key to get the pitch differential and automatically turning the piano pegs until they reach the correct note.

# Solution Components

## Subsystem 1 - Motor Assembly

A standard tuning pin requires 8-14 nm of torque to successfully tune. We will thus need to create a motor assembly that is able to produce enough torque to rotate standard tuning pins.

## Subsystem 2 - Frequency Detector/Tuner

The device will use a microphone to gather audio measurements. Then a microprocessor processes the audio data to detect the pitch and determine the difference from the desired frequency. This can then generate instructions for the motor; direction to turn pegs and amount to turn it by.

## Subsystem 3 - User Interface/Display Panel

A small but intuitive display and button configuration can be used for this device. It will be required for the user to set the key being played using buttons on the device and reading the output of the display. As the device will tune by itself after hearing the tone, all that is required to display is the current key and octave. A couple of buttons will suffice to be able to cycle up and down keys and octaves.

## Subsystem 4 - Replaceable Battery/Power Supply

Every commercial product should use standard replaceable batteries, or provide a way for easy charging. As we want to develop a handheld device, so that the device doesn’t have to drag power wires into the piano, we will need a rechargeable battery pack.

# Criterion For Success

The aim of the Automatic Piano Tuner is to allow the user to automatically tune piano strings based on a key input alongside playing a note. We have several goals to help us meet this aim:

- Measure pitch accurately, test against known good pitches

- Motor generates enough torque to turn the pegs on a piano

- Tuner turns correctly depending on pitch

- Easy tuning of a piano by a single untrained person

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