Quote Originally Posted by Demon View Post
Just wondering, why bother counting pulses?

Wouldn't you only need 360° rotation, 90° elevation and not sure for skew?

Since you haven't tackled the tracking yet, would it be simpler to just "move" as long as a button is pressed on the handheld?

Or, maybe enter a degree and go to that position (a rotary encoder on the devices can track where it's pointed).

Just tossing thoughts.

Robert
Well ya... that's the idea. But without an encoder, how would it have any idea where it is? The pulse counting is the only way to indicate how far the dish has travelled. When you look at the handheld, (or the phone or terminal) when I'm done, you will only see degrees or a satellite choice. You won't see the pulses anymore, but they have to be there. Maybe you misunderstood my project... This is a self-acquire satellite system, BUT I'm rebuilding the electronics from scratch. I S***canned all the stock electronics. The dish itself is VERY hearty, and well (over) built, but the electronics were way overbuilt as well, and as such, never worked reliably. Also, I am upgrading (completely changing) the satellite system that run on it as well. Totally different band even. So I have to establish a new way for it to identify and peak in on the new satellite as well.

I just re-read... OH! No, you would have to see the dish.. lol. Not small. 1 meter, on it's own trailer with an on-board box for generator, UPS, batteries, modem, router, etc. The dish only needs 360deg, (well a lil for overlap in case the user has the trailer oriented with the satellite right at the stop point) and elevation 90deg. BUT the motors are very small and geared down to hell and back. (I'm pretty sure the reason was so the motors could be de-energized and the dish stay put due to the extreme gearing) As a matter of fact, the elevation hardware is a C-band Superjack. The azimuth motor is nearly the same, but of course oriented differently. So an encoder that would only read a partial amount of a single revolution won't work. The motors turn many thousands of times to fully rotate the dish.

When I'm done, there will be a JOG mode that moves as long as the button's pressed. But I still want it tracking where it is, both for auto-stow purposes, and because the box that mounted on the trailer is in a possible path of the dish. It'll never be in the way to find the bird, but you can (and I did this morning, and ripped the mounting plate right off the trailer, something else I'll need to repair now) crash the dish into the box. Bad S*** happens. So even when jogging, I want to program in "no fly zones" that wont allow you to crash it.

As for giving it target coordinates, it'll be even easier than that. It only points to one satellite. With the addition of GPS and compass, you will be able to turn it on, and press Auto-Acquire and it'll do the rest. That's the end goal.


Make a lil more sense now?