James, thank you for sharing your build with us. I’m just waiting for one to become available. I’m a child of the 50’s and the Mercury 7 were my new hero’s. (Sorry Lone Ranger and Tonto) W2FTR 73
Thank you very much James for the video. I bought the MK3 and have had it for 1 month. I have only done the test in the bank so everything you explain will help me a lot. Happy New Year, 73
Thanks for the nice video. i am just getting into satellites my self and have been looking for a good auto beam controller. SARCTRAC seems to be the way to go. Plan on mounting the beam at the top of my roof.
Bedankt voor deze heel goeie video! Zeer goeie samenvatting voor de SARCTRAC MK3 en ik hoop ook zo eentje te kunnen bemachtigen (heb alvast de makers hiervan gecontacteerd) Ik heb een tijd geleden eens de nyansat gemaakt maar is helaas niet zo weatherproof :D
Isn't it a problem that the rotator has a heavy antena (with counterweight) on one side and nothing (no counterweight) on the other side? Also, 73 de SQ2KTN
Hi, Great video I am just setting mine up. Have tried putty and got the motors to move as you did. Now trying to setuo Satpc32 but cannot get it to work. Could you give me some starters....thank you
Hi, unfortunately I don't have time to make a video on it right now, however, I did write a blog post about it about 10 years back: project-eps.blogspot.com/2013/05/linear-regulated-bench-power-supply.html?m=1 Hope it helps!
I've made something very similar to this, except it uses an ESP32, geared stepper motors and wifi for rotator communication. What is the sensor, a magnetometer and a gyro? I guess they are none-ferrous bolts for a counterbalance? Do you read the sensor during a pass? Doesn't the RF interfere with the sensor when you TX? Looks good :)
The manual describes the sensor as 'Absolute position sensing 3D Magnetometer/Accelerometer'. You are right, I should use non-ferrous bolts, but they are not. It is what I had available, and it works, but I agree, it is a point for improvement. Don't know yet if the RF interferes with the sensor when TXing, I'll find out soon.
@@JamesMegaWatt thanks for your reply :) I get interference on mine when I TX, so I use the sensor to find North and level. I use stepper motors on mine so count the steps to keep track of where it's pointing. I was using 3D printed planetary gearboxes but have recently taken delivery of small commercial ones from China that have very little play on them, so it will be interesting to see how well these work. Any way, congratulations on your rotator, it looks good :)
