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- hacker
PiRotator
RaspberryPi controlled antenna rotator
Summary:
Current commercial az/el antenna rotators are really expensive(easily over 1500€ with controllers), and moreover technically most are from 90s (analog potentiometer sensors/control, no network, rs/lpt controllable, no web, no rest api, etc).
I tried to take little bit different approach..
Goals:
- Cheap common hardware (wormgears, nema steppers, rasberrypi, etc)
- Intelligence on mast (controlbox includes rasberrypi, this enables many things, like SDR on mast)
- All digital (digital rotary sensors, steppers, tcp/ip, etc)
- network (only IO is network, controlling thru different apis(REST, legacy RS emulation api))
- backward compatibility to legacy software, via software RS (ham radio deluxe, pstrotator, etc)
- project is only for fun, and learning new stuff!
Project status:
hardware & software are in quite good shape
- most important missing things:
- weather "shield" for rotator (some ideas, not tested)
- testing testing testing
Hardware:
- Steppers:
- Common 4-lead NEMA 23
- one full step 1.8 degrees
- cheap (from 10$/each)
- easy to control
- Worm gears:
- Absolute rotary encoders:
- Cheapest used 10bit absolute rotary sensors what i could find (KOYO TRD-3A1024)
precision is more than enough (10bit -> 1024 -> 360/1024= 0.35 degrees)
- price about 15€/each
- 10bit means in this case that there are 10pin for data + 2 power pins
- Slip rings:
- Capsule slip ring OD22MM 18Wires
- stepper control cables and rotary sensors data cables to upper module go thru axle, with slip ring we dont have to worry about these cables and rotation.
- about 15€
- Stepper control:
?PicoBorg Reverse
- easy, cheap, efficient,
- Controller:
- Raspberrypi 2 or B+
- full OS
- enough gpio ports for encoders and stepper control
- network port
- could run as "SDR streamer" with rtl_tcp or similar
- full python
- Connectors/box/cables/gears/belts/bolts/etc:
Software:
Plan / specs for pirotator server:
- REST api for controlling (done)
- you could control your rotator via simple http posts
- enables many kind of solutions
- Legacy rotator emulation for legacy software via virtual RS (done)
- emulates yeasu GS-232B protocol (only control and feedback commands implemented)
client OS sees ?SerialPort via virtual serial port software (eg. hw-groups HW virtual serial port -HW VSP3)
- Tested with HRD rotator and PSTrotator
- Simpple CLI UI (70%)
- mainly for debugging purposes
- Multithreaded structure, and locks/aborts (90%)
- could use all of those apis/interfaces at same time
- Neat WEB/JavaScript UI top of REST api (15%)
- Graphical javascipt / angular UI
Videos
https://www.youtube.com/embed/0F_P8_iJNqI
Pictures
- description
- Current commercial az/el antenna rotators are really expensive(easily over 1500€ with controllers), and moreover technically most are from 90s (analog potentiometer sensors/control, no network, rs/lpt controllable, no web, no rest api, etc).I tried to take little bit different approach..
- started
- 2015-10-02