Breakaway antenna mount







The Breakaway Antenna Mount is a module that connects the antenna to the body of the rover. It is designed to break away during a collision, rollover, or other energetic event to prevent damaging the rover or antenna.

Project Overview
The breakaway mount makes sure that the rover doing a barrel roll does not permanently damage the antenna, ideally while minimizing cost.

Technical overview
The current design has a separate magnet base steel plate and rover side steel plate. Neodymium magnets sit between the plates to hold them together, and rubber pads keep the magnets from sliding around. Vertical force (weight of the antenna) is transmitted through aluminum V-shaped brackets through the magnet, ideally with a shape that promotes self-centering and passive orientation stability. The mounting patterns are the same on both the chassis side and the antenna side as the previous design to allow easy integration and hot-swapping of parts without any structural modifications (and because the current antenna model in the SolidWorks CAD model isn't very clear as to how it works structurally, so it's easier to just sandwich something in).

Important TODO: figure out the wiring connector

Planning references
No planning at the moment. Design completed and parts have been ordered for the magnetic concept; fabrication, assembly, and testing are pending.

Personnel and Roles

 * Alnis Smidchens - Magnetic concept designer
 * Alex Barbera - Breakaway bolt concept designer

External References

 * CAD model
 * Purchase order (sort of BOM)
 * Breakaway calculations spreadsheet
 * Relevant code - N/A
 * Clickup reference - Not in Clickup :(
 * Presentation - TODO
 * Manufacturing data

Design Requirements

 * Don't fall off while driving (including bouncing around)
 * Do fall off when the antenna is at risk of breaking
 * Direction of force on antenna can't matter (whatever direction the impact is coming from, the antenna must detach safely)
 * Resetting shouldn't be a huge pain
 * Behavior must be consistent

Key Decisions and factors
Magnetic concept:
 * Same force each time & no cost to reset
 * Rubber pads prevent slip when vibrating (would not be necessary for a breakaway mechanical component)
 * Shape of aluminum V attachments helps passively reset/center antenna mount (untested!)
 * Use same mounting pattern on both sides as the previous design for ease of integration

Citations/References
looks left... looks right... wind whistles through an empty space...