DIY Satellite Tracker Pt 2 (And Radio Telescope Struggles!)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 มิ.ย. 2024
- This video started as an attempt to make my satellite tracker into a radio telescope, but ended up just being an update to the tracking system. I added solid state relays, an LCD screen, and a separate power input to avoid some of the USB reset issues.
I tried writing some code similar to my miniature radio telescope project ( • Seeing Satellites with... ) but I still haven't figured out the code for that! There will likely be more updates on this project in the future!
Saveitforparts t-shirts and other merch at saveitforparts.myspreadshop.com/
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @saveitforparts
Or support me via Patreon at / saveitforparts
Check out gadgets and devices I like at www.amazon.com/shop/saveitfor... - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Struggle learning is the best kind of learning - because every error is a teacher.
i should be a genius then.
I really like the idea of homemade radio telescopes, it would be neat to have a nation wide network of individuals with home radio telescope equipment. People could help each other with optimal positioning and height and share data.
There is something similar that has had limited success, the Big Amateur Telescope. they have had trouble organizing nights for observation. But its a great idea in theory.
Like a small open source SETI
And people could become a member of a ELA (an Extremely Large Array)
You could do it, but you need to write a network code and have a server and you'd need ground position data for all dishes. Everything on the network needs to feed the server and the server will do all the post processing.
Or you could localize a lot ofnthat processing on the user side.
Anywyas, it would a hella complicated code and it would be not secure at all tbh, but it would work.
Maybe a few really decent programmers could pull it off in a few months.
It would be quite a large project. Security needs to be evaluated before I'd even start on this.
No reason to limit it to nation wide, you can go international. Though seriously amateur visible light astronomy is already a thing so expanding to amateur radio astronomy would be cool as hell.
Dude I don't care if you don't get things to work, I just enjoy your ideas and learning from your efforts. Totally about the journey!
100% this!!
I don't know man. You are doing tons better than I could. It is mind boggling how E.T. got one to work with a speak and spell and an umbrella...
new saveitforparts vid. today is a good day.
Also don't be discouraged about not getting a project completed. I have been "working" on this one sdr based rugged radio transceiver for over a year and a half. I know its easy to get bogged down by code and hardware not working great, but I find often taking a step back from the project is helpful. You still got a lot done this video!
When I had similar issues (strange communication errors, unwanted MCU resets etc), it was the case, that some (relative) power hungry parts (relays etc) caused power surge thus power supply voltage drop for a fraction of second, which was though enough to mess things up. I've added some big electrolytic capacitors near the micro-controller, etc, randomly till it was enough and everything went well then :)
Another issue he might be having is crosstalk on all those communication cables, or induced RFI on the data cables. Adding some ferrite chokes to each individual line, the little tiny ones, has helped a bunch on previous communication problems like this.
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Using MOSFETs (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors) instead of relays for controlling motors in a satellite tracker offers several significant advantages. One of the primary benefits is the speed of switching. MOSFETs can switch on and off much faster than mechanical relays, allowing for more precise control over the motor's operation. This rapid switching capability is essential for satellite trackers, where accurate positioning and quick adjustments are crucial to maintain the satellite's alignment.
Another benefit of MOSFETs is their longevity. Unlike relays, which have mechanical parts that wear out over time due to repeated switching, MOSFETs are solid-state devices with no moving parts. This results in a longer operational lifespan and increased reliability, reducing the need for frequent maintenance or replacements. Additionally, MOSFETs are more efficient in terms of power consumption. They have lower on-resistance compared to the contact resistance of relays, resulting in reduced power loss and heat generation when driving the motor. This efficiency is especially important in satellite trackers, which often operate in remote or harsh environments where power conservation is critical.
MOSFETs also offer silent operation, as opposed to the audible clicking noise produced by relays. This can be an essential factor in applications where noise needs to be minimized. Furthermore, MOSFETs provide better control over the motor's speed and direction. By using pulse-width modulation (PWM), an Arduino can vary the voltage applied to the motor, allowing for fine-tuned speed control, which is not feasible with the on/off nature of relays.
The contacts in the relays can get stuck which could be the problem described in your video. MOSFETs have no contacts to get stuck, so you can avoid this issue. The text above was generated with ChatGPT to help you understand the importance of using MOSFETs instead of relays. I hope you will change you design because it will make all the difference. I will link a video to the Engineering Mindset to help you get started with using MOSFETs with arduino boards.
th-cam.com/video/AwRJsze_9m4/w-d-xo.html
For max stability, you should make a squat equilateral pyramid with vierendeel truss legs made out of slotted wood strips in which you'd put pex pipe with its ends squashed (with a nail holding the pex inside the wood). Cheap and light, but super solid. I've made quite a few experiments with our more common (here in europe) pexal - but for something like this, pex should be more than enough. For the legs, you could use metal plates from ax-man, if they're like most of our surplus stores, they're bound to have something like that. To make them pivot, you can take golf balls, drill a hole through, put a bolt and nyloc on it, then take some pvc pipe that fits it, and shape it around with a heatgun to encapsulate the ball. With a little bit of grease, that's a perfect ball joint for you to use. The bolt side goes to the disk foot and the pvc end can attach to the truss via a piece of PVC pipe that fits inside (or is the same piece of PVC) that's split down the middle, the heat formed around the truss' end and stapled or nailed into the wood (i actually used this method to cap and tension my test trusses, using half a pvc pipe formed and pulled over the truss' end, very strong end piece with this method - so keep it in mind for other applications).
Final piece that will 100% make it stable, from the center mount (which can be made with a classic tripod style mount, no point in innovating that) you can put a hook and hang a weight on. I doubt wind will affect this.
Although it's spectacular when it works, I really watch your channel for your unflappable attitude. You never swear and throw things, at least not on camera. You just smile while describing how inexperienced you are, and how badly it's going . Yet you persevere. I aspire to be like you in this way. It's no fun giving up before you start because it's hard and you don't fully know how.
The cussing and throwing things happens off-camera 😂
I second this. The just enjoy trying attitude is the best part ❤
As a recovering Ax-Man junkie I find you extremely funny and entertaining all in one! And I totally get the cat, concentration, attention demanding thing too!!! Keep up the good work!
I think your extremely humble about your ability at programming and math. I have been recommended your videos for like 2 years and have never really watched one just think I probably wouldn’t find it interesting, I was wrong.
Glad you like it! I can kind of stumble my way through some programming if I mostly copy other people's work :-)
I literally have zero understanding of anything to do with satellites and radios but I find this channel absolutely fascinating 😂😂😂😂
Your channel is truly an inspiration love seeing all the projects come together even if it is piece by piece over a long time. That's how projects go lol
I love watching your videos because you're not like other TH-camrs who only show their successes. You’re the real deal, sharing your struggles and perseverance, and it’s truly inspiring. Seeing you push through challenges and find solutions makes me feel accomplished and happy, even though I haven't done anything to help. Thank you for being genuine! PS. Just leaving this comment to help with the TH-cam algorithm and boost your engagement.
Thanks!
Similar solution as EME amateurs, following the moon , following the sun. I like your approach, you are an RF warrior engineer!
Congrats on the AMSAT write up! Very cool! Experience is something you get right after you needed it
You should look for conical scanning or box scan type code. It will allow the antenna to use the radio signal strength to peak up on the signals. Great video!
I hope the next time I'm at AxeMan you're there and I can meet you :) Your videos are absolutely my favorite!
I just had a thought,🤔if those are stepper Motors, you can use the guts from a 3D printer to drive them.
It's funny that you got all weird about the camera angle.
I often like those weird off angle positions, it is what makes your video style unique and more relatable.
I don't care for all that high polished professional stuff necessarily.
It's okay if you have a genuine channel in which you're trying to please sponsors.
Now if only you had a radome for that wind
You have really opened my eyes to a lot of things I had never considered. Thanks for taking us along with you as you figure it all out. Very cool.
You go dude, you're my favorite channel on here. Hi from Bulgaria!
10:35, I am glad to see i am not the only one that still uses Pandora.
Great work! at least you got the motors to move, that’s already quite an accomplishment imho 😅 I also like your approach to building a mount/ rotator from off the shelf equipment.
I’ve been working on my own mount for a 1 metre radio telescope as well, made the mechanical parts from scratch but the coding and electronics were beyond my ability. So I decided to use an Onstep controller (preassembled) and even that took me three months to get working…
By the way, a motorized mount is nice to have but it’s not an absolute must for radio astronomy. The 3 metre dish in my profile pic is mounted on a simple manual alt/az mount. I point it to the south and use a planetarium program like stellarium to find at which altitude and time the object I want to detect passes the south meridian. Then I point the dish at that altitude and wait for the target to drift through the beam of the dish, essentially using the earths rotation as the other axis. I know of several other amateurs who use such a “drift scan” approach for their radio astronomy projects with success. It’s a slow but proven technique.
I suggest you look into ssh, vnc, and build a ptz camera. If I was in your shoes, I would set up a webcam pointed at the antenna in the garage, then either use ssh to connect to the garage computer, or use vnc/rdp if you need a GUI.
I would also suggest either building a NAS and use nfs or smb, or use something like dropbox or owncloud. Personally, I store most of my project data on my owncloud server as well as config files for my 3d printer so when i make a change like adjusting the default temp on my office desktop, that change syncs to my livingroom laptop, garage pc, etc.
I have a cheap antenna/rotor in my garage that just has a "rotate" button on the remote. I opened the remote to solder the rotate button and made it powered off a wall wart plugged into a wifi outlet. the amp/control box is in my basement. Currently i have an old iphone attached to the top of the antenna to be used as a digital compass which feeds its data to node-red. Node-red receives a command like "rotate antenna to 220 degrees" and then it waits for the next compass reading to come in. if it is within acceptable range, the wifi outlet stays turned off. If it receives a reading outside the acceptable range, it sends the power on command to the wifi outlet. once it is within acceptable range, it sends the power off command to the outlet. Not precision, but I am happy when i can tell it to turn to 220 degrees and it stops at 223.
Ive been working on building a dedicated digital compass because occasionally, the software on the phone does lock up and i have had to go out to the garage to reset it twice.
I love watching your content. A suggestion (that other commenters may have made), but why not remote into the laptop in the garage? Point the laptop's camera at the dish, and make the changes either directly or on your desktop and then copy them over. You'll be able to work from the comfort of the house, but make the changes directly.
I should try that, although I don't technically have Wifi in the garage so I'd need to run a cable over to the security camera network.
13:20 A geodome should proctect from wind issues. I'm sure your s would work well. And after I typed this i hear you are going to use the geodome. Awesome!
I so enjoy your experiments. It inspires me in my endeavors. Thank you.
Keep up the learning bro. For programming especially, chat GPT can be your best friend for finding what is wrong with your code or even writing simple bits of code
a few thoughts,
- Community assisted project? github?
or
-wifi to the garage?
- RDP to remotely control the unit in the garage? (with camera from the office??)
- pizza?
love what you do, keep up the good work!
You are such an inspiration. You are curious, interested and interesting, and even though you struggle through these projects, you keep going. Thank you for sharing these journeys, and showing what is possible with stuff that is considered junk
you'll never forget what this teaches you the experience makes the knowledge indelible, the first learning we all do is intuitive, you never loose that ability
Hi from the Netherlands! Love every video you make and my compliments for how long you keep trying, I have no knowledge of satellite stuff like you but really enjoy every video, keep it up!
Thanks for the awesome write-ups on your website! I need to visit Ax-Man soon, it's been a long while. It was so much easier when I was at the U and could take the light rail right to the St. Paul location.
An Information Sciences Major here with a similar lack of math skills. I had a lot of trash thrown at me for having that skill set and still working in IT. I even had people saying that it would be impossible for me to work as a programmer. That comment was made while I had several years of experience as a programmer and several solo projects as programmer of custom ERP projects at my name. Keep up the good work and the output of the new tracking system seems the best I have seen on the channel in a while. Even with the wind conditions the output is very good.
You really inspire some of us out here. Thanks for what you do brother.
Great Work i have no doubt you will get it going for Astronomy in Time ,its always interesting watching your videos to learn i like it when i see mistakes or its not working tend to learn nothing if it all works day one and here we have the satellite tracker evolving and that helps every one interested from going simple to a more complex system , i am sure every one like me is impressed with the hobby work you are showing .
I think you did very well. Your determination inspires me. Thank you for sharing this
Extremely cool. No need to feel bad, your vids are great. If you somehow could figure out how to read the radio signal without USB, then maybe you could use an spi SD card module from axman to collect the data without serial port problems.
Thank you saveitforparts for the awesome content. Keep it up.
Gabe. You are my hero. Keep living your best life there buddy!
With the C-band dishes, if they are expanded mesh, they will only be useful to 4 GHz. If they are perf dishes, they will work to Ku-band.
Love these projects so much!
Nice work! I suggest prototyping simple tasks first (only elevation stepper for exp) before throwing in the whole thing, it is easier to debug and you learn a couple of things before running the more complex code
This type of strange errors is a good example of when a digital oscilloscope would be useful. Checking supply voltages and signals for interference.
Really enjoy these videos. Thank you Ir
That's why I love your channel, I doesn't always work but it's fun finding out.
Im happy to hear someone else's struggles with maths 🤬 besides me.
Im also colorblind and still managed to wire up more stuff than most....
Keep up the great channel 💯💪
Imagine if you had some kind of dome to shield the dish from wind 🤔
Love them videos! Keep it up!!!!
Random resets of a microcontroller are almost always caused by a power problem, this can be a coil activating and dragging the 3.3/5V rail down below what the microcontroller can run at, or it can be a coil activating and producing an EMI spike on nearby conductors. Both of these can be reduced somewhat by putting a capacitor across 3.3/5V and ground, which is generally good practice. I don't know that board specifically but a lot of microcontrollers have a VUSB pin, which is the positive voltage directly from the USB cable, so you can put the capacitor from there to ground if you're powering the arduino from USB exclusively.
A third thing it can be is that every microcontroller has a limit to the amount of current each individual pin can source, and all of the pins together can source, exceeding that can cause a reset, or magic smoke. The solid state relays should draw far less current from the pin, but you may find it improves reliability to have the pin control a mosfet that controls the relay
the spirit is unstoppable ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
England watching thanks
nice progress!
Great work!!
Congrats on your article
Epic. I still think your projects are amazing. I'd buy you a root beer any day! Thanks for the videos.
Good work. Don't give up
Ax-Man has Arduino stuff? Guess I gotta go back! You're encouraging me to start learning Python programming - it's been on my to-do list for a long time, but I didn't really have any projects in mind to cause me to learn it. Your attitude of plugging away despite a project not working is very encouraging to me - maybe it'll teach me patience! You'll get this going, I know it.
Yep, they've got a variety of Arduino stuff, or at least they did! All their items tend to be "while supplies last".
so, I mean, you're doing more than I do lol, so it's productive! in any case, driving these motors with relays is kinda not good. I don't know if these are steppers or plain old brushed motors, but if they're the former, get one of those 3d printer stepper driver modules (should be straightforward to connect to arduino, and as a bonus, should take care of actually moving the motor for you, while you just move it by N steps). if it's a brushed motor, I'd suggest just using mosfets and pwm channels from the arduino (don't forget to add flywheel diodes to the motor!). not sure if it's able to figure out the actual position by means of a feedback signal (potentiometer, encoder wheel), but if it does, you can make it even more robust to winds and such. but hey, your solution works, and I don't have time to build that, even if I really want, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt. but seriously, this project is really cool!
I'm just a few weeks from starting my own satelite project, thanks to you!
Awesome! Hope it goes well!
Regarding the wind loading: it's too bad you don't have a dome similar to ones that cover the RV dishes, but bigger. Finding a clear one would be even better. Or maybe just make one out of foam cut into pentagons.
If you are doing low level serial commands typically you cant just fire ASCII at it and expect it to keep up. A lot of times its doing a bidirectional sequence where it will send back ACK's (acknowledge) and NACK's (negatinve acknowledge) in various formats to tell you whether the command was processed or not. So when you send a command go into a receive mode and see if the unit is sending back some type of ACK or NACK characters or sequences.
Hello, I am happy to see you some sort of worked the equipment of yours. I think you are lucky to not burn your arduino ports because of those old type relays. As you know those relays has some coils to close the curcuit and coils rebound magnetism to electricty to the arduino ports when open the curcuit. I think it is the reason to frozen your system and all that issue before you use solid state relay.
It honestly seems to work a little worse with the solid state relays, but I'll keep adjusting stuff.
It's good to know that someone is just as bad as me with programming.
But you give me hope that I too can succeed in my projects.
Hello, thank you for the video! One note: people usually refer to I2C as 'I squared C' and it is strange to hear a different name. You might have overlooked some documentation in the form of videos, since people name the bus differently.
Very cool. You would’ve had to fortify the crap out of the mechanical relays. So much switch bounce and feild effect breakdown needs to be soaked up if you’re using any type of digital circuit. You were hammering that poor Arduino EMF noise. Cheers 👍
Im awaiting you to phase a bunch of your antennae together to make a phased array and higher gain ❤
I actually tried that in a prior video, and ran into phasing / interference issues. I need something like a KrakenSDR ($$$$) to combine multiple signals.
I changed some code on the raspberry noaa v2 program to record Ham chatter off the ISS repeater with a omni-directional antenna when I'm not at home, this sat tracker idea with a yagi mounted on it will work well with that I think.
Now that we have our somewhat-larger dish tracking, you have to visit again some time!
We should! I enjoy the updates, can't wait to see more :-)
The cats are so cute omg
I would love to have a 16' C-band dish laying round my place.
yeah I'm in the same boat with the math and "ai". I hate math and I don't understand it for the most part. I've really never needed it to make the stuff I build. At least for programming and stuff.
pushing limits teaches you! keep at it
Yeah, i have seen math like that. but that math i don't think the average person or even scientist today would worry about.
Today we have computers which make the daily calculations on the precise whereabouts of a satellite.
I think that math looks at signal vectors which bend through the earths different layers and skews the apparent position. Kind of like if you watch something on the bottom of a lake.
What maybe could be favorable could be a feed back circuit which would lock the dish to the desired position with regards to the satellite position data.
get some rebar and concrete and anchor a base into the ground properly.
You could go less permanant by just forming up a cube of concrete that can be moved around. An engine crane can be found second hand cheap and works as a forklift if you need to move it.
This thing isn't really waterproof, so I want to be able to put it away when it rains. I also have limited amounts of big heavy stuff I can put in the front of the garage, I still need to be able to get a car in there sometimes, and boats, etc. Also this thing is too tall to fit through the garage door without tipping on its side 😅
We gotta get you into FPV quadcopters 👍👍🇺🇸
I don't know if I've got the reaction time for those... I used to be OK at flight sims and air combat games but I think I'd just lose quads in trees :-P
@@saveitforparts trees certainly are dicks!
@saveitforparts Use a triac instead of a relay (solid state or mechanical). Your life should get A LOT easier using triacs 👍
Bad luck the wind picked up just as you got it working. You could do with a radome or something... 😂
A very nice project, the clicking of the relays reminded me of an old telephone switchboard. I'm already looking forward to the continuation.
Did you know that Schuco offers a functional model of a monorail with tracks?
I might have one of those Schuco models, I know I have at least one working ER model and a broken one :-)
@@saveitforparts Then you must know about the Monorail model train. They are occasionally offered on eBay. I wish you the best of luck in getting a functional Monorail from Schuco.
I can't understand half of what you're talking about but bro this is pretty cool shit
It would be nifty to figure out a way to use a compass, accelerometer, and gyro chip to orient the dish and ignore the position you assume from the motors. Basically, you command the dish to go to X/Y, and it will drive the motors until the sensors are satisfied.
You may be able to use an old phone to do this perhaps?
That's what the accelerometer chip does, I showed that in the prior video but maybe didn't mention it here.
Hey man! I’ve actually also just picked up a similar pelco Unix and have been retro fitting it with an arduino and stepper motors for more precise and user friendly control. I’m going to be posting a video about it soon. I will have to let you know when I am finished so I can send you the files and bill of materials if you wanted to do the same with your unit!
Very cool! Yeah I'd love to see it. TH-cam tends to lose comment replies so maybe shoot me an @ in the video or email me (saveitforparts at gmail)
Great thing about programming languages is most often you don't need to know the math odds are someone wrote a library for it :) Get better at programming by just doing it :)
Real life person sharing the struggle with real life people.
hi...i figure that you would mark north on the program....time the rotation speed, and manual the angle ....
co ordinate that with satelite path....or connect to near by antenna s ...
thanks for hangin out,...
see you later...
could use some metal wires to pin the dish down in 4 corners :3
Dont worry mate we think you are a genius. Can you put a tent over the dish to block the wind?
I've got a radome out at Sandland, just need to build an even bigger dish for that!
I wonder if you are running into UART time out issues. (although just finished watching, seems like it might be been power related after swapping out the mechanical relays.) Do you have room to push the BAUD rate of your connection? most arduino boards easily support 115200 (including the Nano), many can also support up to 250k. (common on 3D printers with ATMEGA2560) The Nano is a good cost/accessibility option, but It might be worth exploring some of the ESP32 boards as they have a strong community and support as well. Regardless, Great job so far. I really enjoy following along with this exploration! Good luck!
Too bad you do not have a dome to put that inside.
But Wait! You do have one. But I think the dome in the yard would be used as evidence when the spouse cleaned you out and left. 😂
Never not impressed by your work. Single-handedly trying to bring us into the star wars universe
I wouldn't say single-handedly, there are plenty of TH-camrs trying to make lightsabers 😂
@@saveitforparts AHHHHH YOU CONMENTED ON MY COMMENT SO COOL THANKS FOR ALL THE WORK YOU DO ITS VERY INSPIRING
It's "I-squared-C". It's just written out as I2C because people can't be bothered to do the exponent on their keyboard.
I haven’t been this excited since the wife left
NICE
donnie is the dloogie may boi
you are small mini's gold on ,my monitors too :P
To stop the arduino problems put a 2,200uf cap on the arduino power line as it will kill off the RFI thats on the cable and if ya got some ferrite put some on ya USB cable
Screw all that............I'm goin' fishin' 🤠
*_"Never, never, never give up."_*
- Winston Churchill
Hey, you left on a pessimistic note but I thought it was a huge step forward. I wanted to suggest that as you learn and refine your skills, It may be cool to see a scripted summary with detailed instructions on your project how you completed your project and how someone may go about doing the same. Almost like a published piece but in video and for youtube.
Sometimes when I have a sucessful project I'll do a writeup on saveitforparts.com or I'll do a how-to video. Usually things are still kind of in-progress or still being polished, so I'm not always ready to do formal instructions.
I feel your garage/house testing/coding struggle. But in my case, its house/observatory-that-is-80km-away :) :) struggle.
I get that! You have a nice lounge though! And hopefully fewer mice than my garage 😂
Heya Gabe, if you need a second set of eyes on the code, let me know. I'm not an expert coder either, but sometimes more than one set of brain cells might help to see something that was missed. Perhaps setup a github for what you're working on? Also, the documentation for the items in the dish assembly couldn't hurt either. :)