Good day and happy New Year to all! I was just wondering what options are available to connect an az-el rotor controller to the PC. The Kansas City Tracker isn't in production, as well as the Trackbox, except on the used market. What else can we use? 73's... Larry N1MIW
The FOD-Track PC board is available from FAR Circuits ( www.farcircuits.net ), and will cost about $30 in parts to build. Mark Spencer from the ARRL also recently put together the Sat688, a PIC-based controller which was featured in the AMSAT Journal, available in limited quantities. A nice feature was that it could be built for RS-232, USB, or both. You might try dropping him a line at mspencer@arrl.org to see if any are still available. FOD-Track is directly supported by SatPC32, Ham Radio Deluxe, Nova, and most other tracking programs. The Sat688 is supported in Nova by the EasyComm 1 setting, and in SatPC32 as a SAEBRTrack Box. It will probably work with other programs that offer one of those choices.
I have used the FOD-Track for a couple of years now and am very happy with it. I also picked up one of the Sat688 boards and am just finishing assembly of it. (I'm still holding onto my club's KCT... they don't want to let it go yet)
Lastly, there are also the LVB-Tracker from Howard Long, G6LVB www.g6lvb.com and the W0LMD Tracker www.ultimatecharger.com , although I don't really know much about them.
George, KA3HSW
----- Original Message ----- From: "Larry" n1miw@cox.net To: "Amsat Mailing List (E-mail)" amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 8:03 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] rotor interface options
Good day and happy New Year to all! I was just wondering what optionsare available to connect an az-el rotor controller to the PC. The Kansas City Tracker isn't in production, as well as the Trackbox, except on the used market. What else can we use? 73's... Larry N1MIW
Hi Larry,
While a little more expensive an option, my suggestion is to check out the ARS Win. It is about the slickest controller I've seen or used. It is most certainly worth the cost. The support that Pablo Garcia provides is unbeatable and it works flawlessly with SatPC32, Satscape, Nova among many others and those that work with WispDDE. He has an AZI only, and AZI-Ele versions for both 8-bit, Satellite and a 10bit for EME and has a few PC interfaces available.
I've cc:'d Pablo, the manufacturer to this e-mail. I have no connection to the company, except I have been extremely happy with it for the last few years despite having used multiple tracking software programs.
http://www.ea4tx.com/products/index.htm
Michael K3MH
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of George Henry Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 9:04 PM To: amsat bb Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: rotor interface options
The FOD-Track PC board is available from FAR Circuits ( www.farcircuits.net ), and will cost about $30 in parts to build. Mark Spencer from the ARRL also recently put together the Sat688, a PIC-based controller which was featured in the AMSAT Journal, available in limited quantities. A nice feature was that it could be built for RS-232, USB, or both. You might try dropping him a line at mspencer@arrl.org to see if any are still available. FOD-Track is directly supported by SatPC32, Ham Radio Deluxe, Nova, and most other tracking programs. The Sat688 is supported in Nova by the EasyComm 1 setting, and in SatPC32 as a SAEBRTrack Box. It will
probably work with other programs that offer one of those choices.
I have used the FOD-Track for a couple of years now and am very happy with it. I also picked up one of the Sat688 boards and am just finishing assembly of it. (I'm still holding onto my club's KCT... they don't want to
let it go yet)
Lastly, there are also the LVB-Tracker from Howard Long, G6LVB www.g6lvb.com
and the W0LMD Tracker www.ultimatecharger.com , although I don't really know
much about them.
George, KA3HSW
----- Original Message ----- From: "Larry" n1miw@cox.net To: "Amsat Mailing List (E-mail)" amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 8:03 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] rotor interface options
Good day and happy New Year to all! I was just wondering what optionsare available to connect an az-el rotor controller to the PC. The Kansas City Tracker isn't in production, as well as the Trackbox, except on the used market. What else can we use? 73's... Larry N1MIW
_______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Larry,
I was going to recommend the Labjack U12 with the NLSA Piggyback card.
https://secure.heze.lunarpages.com/~nlsa002/labjack/labjack_piggyback.html
It is/was a cheap way to get 12-bit precision, and plug and play with several tracking programs. It runs off a USB port, and I have an old USB 1.1 powered hub which powers it, and a couple of other components. This gives me a small amount of isolation from electrical damage to the computer. NLSA however reports that they are out of the Piggyback card, and are not expecting any more. The original package was so cheap that you couldn't justify building your own. However, it could probably be duplicated easily, depending on your skills. It uses a ULN2003A driver chip.
That having been said, if mine were to be vaporized by lightning, I would go with the LBV-Tracker, as I like its ability to use a USB port for control. The ARS Win is also an excellent program.
Alan WA4SCA
Hi Larry
Good day and happy New Year to all! I was justwondering what options are available to connect an az-el rotor controller to the PC. The Kansas City Tracker isn't in production, as well as the Trackbox, except on the used market. What else can we use? 73's... Larry N1MIW
When you purchase an LVB Tracker kit, a handsome donation goes towards building new satellites!
http://www.uk.amsat.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24... =142
73, Howard G6LVB
participants (5)
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Alan P. Biddle -
George Henry -
Howard Long -
Larry -
Michael Hatzakis Jr MD