Hi Andrew
As well as sending commands to the rotator controller, most prediction software also polls the rotator controller for some indication of feedback for the user, and sometimes it is also used to detect stalling (protecting you, for example, in the nightmare scenario whereyour rotator wraps itself up in the feeder).
BTW, I've heard the LVB tracker is very good ;-) and the v0.8 firmware works with Predict.
In the LVB tracker I average sixteen or so ADC samples over time to get some kind of sensible value. Either that or I could pop a 10uF cap on the Az/El PIC ADC inputs, but software was cheaper.
73, Howard G6LVB
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Rich Sent: 31 December 2007 10:51 To: Henk, PA3GUO; amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Making your own rotator controller
I got an idea.
At the moment, most systems have some sort of PC sending data to a controller which makes decisions.
1. Antenna pot goes to A/D on PIC 2. PIC is told from com port where it should be 3. PIC makes up its mind to turn left or right. 4. Relays are part of controller.
I have another way to do it.
1. PIC chip reads position of POT etc from A/D and SENDS position to LINUX box on RS232 2. PERL asks PREDICT where the sat should be 3. PERL works out what to do 4. Turn on relays using an inexpensive relay board on the parrallel port.
What about the old games port ?
That used to read pots ?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Andrew Rich VK4TEC
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