video: stand-alone tracking and tuning with Arduino
Gang:
The following one-minute video shows my breadboarded Arduino (ATMega328) tracking two satellites and tuning an FT-817 in response. It also shows the chip periodically announcing the location of the bird in CW, and, as a bonus, you'll see AO-51 being received with a simple dipole directly connected to a low-noise preamp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgNcCGXeRyw
This is an application of the Arduino FT-817, Plan 13, CW and Tle EEPROM storage libraries available at: http://code.google.com/p/qrptracker/
One long-term goal is to port this to the Arduino mini-pro, here http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardProMini, add a clip-on real-time-clock and battery, and make a 10 satellite tracking dongle for the FT-817 and TH-D7A that is not much bigger than a USB key, and suitable for portable use. (In that version, the location will be stored in EEPROM, not derived from the GPS unit.) Long, long term, I hope that demoing this technology will inspire ham radio manufacturers to make stand-alone doppler tuning a built-in feature in rigs like the ones above.
Right now, however, the code only tunes the downlink, and I have to spelunk through the code for Instanttune to see how to deal with the FT-817 on transmit :-)
(For the many people new to this list and this wonderful corner of ham radio, I should mention that his project is an experimenter's platform, not a fully-functioning trackbox. For the latter, you want the LVBTracker, available from AMSAT-NA's shop.)
73, Bruce
Quoting Bruce Robertson ve9qrp@gmail.com:
Gang:
The following one-minute video shows my breadboarded Arduino (ATMega328) tracking two satellites and tuning an FT-817 in response. It also shows the chip periodically announcing the location of the bird in CW, and, as a bonus, you'll see AO-51 being received with a simple dipole directly connected to a low-noise preamp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgNcCGXeRyw
This is an application of the Arduino FT-817, Plan 13, CW and Tle EEPROM storage libraries available at: http://code.google.com/p/qrptracker/
Hi Bruce,
Very nice work, I enjoy following your progress with this project.
... Right now, however, the code only tunes the downlink, and I have to spelunk through the code for Instanttune to see how to deal with the FT-817 on transmit :-)
You should be aware that the FT-817 frequency can not be controlled via CAT during transmission. There are different workarounds implemented in different desktop applications, but AFAIK none of them enable active tuning while PTT is on.
On the other hand, you can change the frequency using the dial. The dial is an optical encoder so it might be possible to hack it that way. In my frustration I have actually considered this.
73 Alex OZ9AEC
participants (2)
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Alexandru Csete
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Bruce Robertson