Icasim Smart Air Data Boom V3

Icasim Flight Test Equipment (IFTE)

Valentin Buergel Simtec Buergel AG 2007-12-03/V2.0

ICASIM SMART AIR DATA BOOM V3 Icasim Flight Test Equipment (IFTE)

Icasim Smart Air Data Boom V3

Sampling Rate
Air data (impact pressure, static pressure, angle of attack, angle of side-slip and total air temperature) is sampled at 300 Hz and filtered with a sinc3-filter with -3 dB at 79 Hz. Every 20 ms an analogto-digital conversion takes place. The five channels are successively processed, so that every 100 ms each channel data is available. Every 500 ms the internal temperature of the probe is transmitted.

Data Output Rate

The default output rate of the airdata probe is 10 Hz. On request Simtec is able to decrease the output rate down to 1 Hz or increased output rate up to about 30 Hz. Note that an increased output rate will also increase baud rate.

Serial Data Protocol

The ordering of the data is such that the least significant bit (LSB) is the first bit received, moreover the most significant bit (MSB) is the last bit in the sequence. At power-up, the airdata probe sends factory data via the serial interface. This information can be displayed on a dummy terminal.
icasim airdata V3.01

The serial data transfer protocol has the following format:

Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel ID 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sensor Type Impact Pressure Difference Pressure AoA Difference Pressure AoS Static Pressure Total Air Temperature Internal Temperature of Probe Msg. Format 1cccc 0 2cccc 0 3cccc 0 4cccc 0 5cccc 0 6cc 0 Range .. 65535 .. 65535 .. 65535 .. 65535 .. 65535 .. 255 Output Rate 10 Hz 10 Hz 10 Hz 10 Hz 10 Hz 2 Hz

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ICASIM SMART AIR DATA BOOM V3 Icasim Flight Test Equipment (IFTE)

Any c in the message format represents an ASCII character A...P . The characters itself represent the hexadecimal numbers 0x0...0xF :
ASCII Char A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Hex Number 0x0 0x1 0x2 0x3 0x4 0x5 0x6 0x7 0x8 0x9 0xA 0xB 0xC 0xD 0xE 0xF

Transmission time between successive channel transmissions is filled with the binary symmetric ASCII characters U if power voltage is normal and with the ASCII character f if battery voltage falls below the critical value for save operation. If the battery voltage falls below the critical value the measurement data is subject to errors. The following Java function converts a message to the corresponding unsigned integer value:
public static long bytesToUnsignedInt(byte b1, byte b2, byte b3, byte b4) { // convert ASCII character A..P to hex value b1 -= 0x41; b2 -= 0x41; b3 -= 0x41; b4 -= 0x41; // shift and add return (b1<<12) + (b2<<8) + (b3<<4) + b4; }

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ICASIM SMART AIR DATA BOOM V3 Icasim Flight Test Equipment (IFTE)

Conversion of an Integer Value to a Physical Value Unsigned integer values i of channel 1 to 5 are converted to a physical value v by the following formula:
v = a bx cx dx a ,b ,c , d :
2 3

Values are provided for each sensor channel

The integer value i of channel 6 is converted to a temperature T by the following formula:

T Celsius = i 80 2

Example Message The following is a reasonable message (Version 3.0) from the airdata probe if battery voltage is normal:
1HPMA UU 2HPGC UUU 3NPNL UU 4KNLG U 5HDCM UUU 6BP

Channel 1 : Channel 6 :

HPMA decodes to hexadecimal 0x7FC0 which equals to decimal 32704. PB decodes to hexadecimal 0x1F which equals to decimal 31. The internal temperature is computed from the above equation to -24.5C.

The following is the same message as above but from an airdata probe where battery voltage has fallen below the critical value. Even so the probe may send some data the result is questionable because of the low battery voltage.
1HPMA fff 2HPGC ffff 3NPNL ff 4KNLG f 5HDCM ffff 6BP

External Interface Characteristics

The electrical signals used are those for the RS-232 communication port. Only the transmit line is required. The serial port is asynchronous and should be set up with 1 start bit, 8 data bits, no parity bit, and one stop bit. A default baud rate of 9'600 is used. A RS232 to TTL (CMOS) level converter is available on request. It may be connected at the end of the RS232 cable. The air data probe features a standard M8 receptacle (male contacts) at the back side of the aluminum housing. The wireless data modem is connected directly to this receptacle.

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ICASIM SMART AIR DATA BOOM V3 Icasim Flight Test Equipment (IFTE)

Pin assignment:

1 (brown) : 2 (white) : 3 (blue) : 4 (black) :

power supply +6 to +12 VDC, power consumption is approx. 60 mA. reserved (+24VDC for internal heater if available) GROUND (data and power) TXD (RS232 level) data output of air data probe

Male Contacts 4-Pole:

Female Contacts 4-Pole:

All connectors with screw locking IP 68 Standard Color code of leads according to Europe standard (EN 50044)

Standard Sensor Receptacles are available from Simtec Buergel Ltd. or: Richard Hirschmann GmbH & Co., Steckverbindungstechnik Industrie, Stuttgarter Strasse 45-51, D 72654 Neckartenzlingen, http://www.hirschmann.de Lumberg Automation Components GmbH & Co. KG, Im Gewerbepark 2, 58579 Schalksmhle, Germany, http://www.lumberg.com

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ICASIM SMART AIR DATA BOOM V3 Icasim Flight Test Equipment (IFTE)

Installation
Simtec provides a special tutorial on how to best install the Icasim Smart Air Data Boom. Note that the temperature sensor must point downwards to get angle of attack and angle of sideslip values with the correct algebraic sign. If the temperature sensor points downwards it is less affected by the sun. The lastest probe design has an internal temperature sensor. The small notch at the front of the 25mm tube has to point upwards. The flat portion on the 12mm tube may be used to precisely adjust the probe.

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