Metal antenna rotator
From SatNOGS Wiki
To build this metal antenna rotator you will need a welder.
Bill of materials
Part | Qty | Source | Price per Unit ($) |
Nema23 stepper motor - Wormgear 60:1 | 2 | [1][2] | |
Bearing for the az axis 100x135x25 mm | 1 | [3] | |
Stepper motor driver | 2 | [4] |
Communication test and setup
Open a terminal and start the rotctld (the rotator controller daemon):
$ rotctld -vvvvv -T 127.0.0.1 -r /dev/ttyUSB1 -m 202 -s 19200 -t10
The parameter -t is to use \n as end of command. The parameter -vvvvv activates the verbosity - remove some to get less infos.
Open another terminal and start the rotctl client:
$ rotctl -m 2 -r 127.0.0.1
To test you will need to:
Rotator command: P<enter>
then enter target position:
Azimuth: 360<enter> Elevation: 90<enter>
Or shorten this to:
Rotator command: P 180 090<enter>
The motors should move, if not: check connections.
Then you have to check that the endstop are working:
Rotator command: IP1<enter> Rotator command: IP2<enter>
If the result ends with ',0', and the endstop is not activated, its good. (if it's not good, reverse them in the config)
If the two endstops are at 0 when reset, the homing will be peformed. Homing is always in the opposite way of the motor (-max angle)