homemade arrow rotator motors
All,
I am working on designing a rotator that the arrow antenna can snap into. I am aiming for this platform to be portable, so that it could be packed up and taken to different events. The base of the system will be a small circular rotating platform, that will provide a full 360 degree of freedom. The 'arm' that will hold the antenna itself, will provide elevation and roll control. I have seen a couple of random videos online of people that have made rotators but I haven't seen any that have the entire antenna mounted... or a system that provides for a flexible amount of movement. I am interested in talking to anyone that has hacked at something like this, in order to discuss lessons learned. In addition, i'd like to find out which motors you chose and why. The arrow antenna with the di-plexer weighs roughly 2lbs. Right now, I am looking at two different companies that provide stepper motors, namely:
http://www.kelinginc.net http://www.linengineering.com
Joe
Hi Joe,
I'm using geared motors (http://www.seefrid.de/images/dcgm43t42.pdf) that can easily be controlled by a PIC running PWM. Let me know and I can send you the schematic that I'm using to run those motors.
BR, -- //\arc
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Joseph Armbruster Sent: zondag 18 oktober 2009 15:53 To: AMSAT-BB@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] homemade arrow rotator motors
All,
I am working on designing a rotator that the arrow antenna can snap into. I am aiming for this platform to be portable, so that it could be packed up and taken to different events. The base of the system will be a small circular rotating platform, that will provide a full 360 degree of freedom. The 'arm' that will hold the antenna itself, will provide elevation and roll control. I have seen a couple of random videos online of people that have made rotators but I haven't seen any that have the entire antenna mounted... or a system that provides for a flexible amount of movement. I am interested in talking to anyone that has hacked at something like this, in order to discuss lessons learned. In addition, i'd like to find out which motors you chose and why. The arrow antenna with the di-plexer weighs roughly 2lbs. Right now, I am looking at two different companies that provide stepper motors, namely:
http://www.kelinginc.net http://www.linengineering.com
Joe _______________________________________________ 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
participants (2)
-
Joseph Armbruster -
Marc Vermeersch