DIY Satellite Tracker Pt 2 (And Radio Telescope Struggles!) 

Struggle learning is the best kind of learning - because every error is a teacher.

Dude I don't care if you don't get things to work, I just enjoy your ideas and learning from your efforts. Totally about the journey!

I really like the idea of homemade radio telescopes, it would be neat to have a nation wide network of individuals with home radio telescope equipment. People could help each other with optimal positioning and height and share data.

new saveitforparts vid. today is a good day.

Although it's spectacular when it works, I really watch your channel for your unflappable attitude. You never swear and throw things, at least not on camera. You just smile while describing how inexperienced you are, and how badly it's going . Yet you persevere. I aspire to be like you in this way. It's no fun giving up before you start because it's hard and you don't fully know how.

I don't know man. You are doing tons better than I could. It is mind boggling how E.T. got one to work with a speak and spell and an umbrella...

Also don't be discouraged about not getting a project completed. I have been "working" on this one sdr based rugged radio transceiver for over a year and a half. I know its easy to get bogged down by code and hardware not working great, but I find often taking a step back from the project is helpful. You still got a lot done this video!

When I had similar issues (strange communication errors, unwanted MCU resets etc), it was the case, that some (relative) power hungry parts (relays etc) caused power surge thus power supply voltage drop for a fraction of second, which was though enough to mess things up. I've added some big electrolytic capacitors near the micro-controller, etc, randomly till it was enough and everything went well then :)

I literally have zero understanding of anything to do with satellites and radios but I find this channel absolutely fascinating 😂😂😂😂

As a recovering Ax-Man junkie I find you extremely funny and entertaining all in one! And I totally get the cat, concentration, attention demanding thing too!!! Keep up the good work!

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 Using MOSFETs (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors) instead of relays for controlling motors in a satellite tracker offers several significant advantages. One of the primary benefits is the speed of switching. MOSFETs can switch on and off much faster than mechanical relays, allowing for more precise control over the motor's operation. This rapid switching capability is essential for satellite trackers, where accurate positioning and quick adjustments are crucial to maintain the satellite's alignment. Another benefit of MOSFETs is their longevity. Unlike relays, which have mechanical parts that wear out over time due to repeated switching, MOSFETs are solid-state devices with no moving parts. This results in a longer operational lifespan and increased reliability, reducing the need for frequent maintenance or replacements. Additionally, MOSFETs are more efficient in terms of power consumption. They have lower on-resistance compared to the contact resistance of relays, resulting in reduced power loss and heat generation when driving the motor. This efficiency is especially important in satellite trackers, which often operate in remote or harsh environments where power conservation is critical. MOSFETs also offer silent operation, as opposed to the audible clicking noise produced by relays. This can be an essential factor in applications where noise needs to be minimized. Furthermore, MOSFETs provide better control over the motor's speed and direction. By using pulse-width modulation (PWM), an Arduino can vary the voltage applied to the motor, allowing for fine-tuned speed control, which is not feasible with the on/off nature of relays. The contacts in the relays can get stuck which could be the problem described in your video. MOSFETs have no contacts to get stuck, so you can avoid this issue. The text above was generated with ChatGPT to help you understand the importance of using MOSFETs instead of relays. I hope you will change you design because it will make all the difference. I will link a video to the Engineering Mindset to help you get started with using MOSFETs with arduino boards. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AwRJsze_9m4.html

I love watching your videos because you're not like other RU-vidrs who only show their successes. You’re the real deal, sharing your struggles and perseverance, and it’s truly inspiring. Seeing you push through challenges and find solutions makes me feel accomplished and happy, even though I haven't done anything to help. Thank you for being genuine! PS. Just leaving this comment to help with the RU-vid algorithm and boost your engagement.

For max stability, you should make a squat equilateral pyramid with vierendeel truss legs made out of slotted wood strips in which you'd put pex pipe with its ends squashed (with a nail holding the pex inside the wood). Cheap and light, but super solid. I've made quite a few experiments with our more common (here in europe) pexal - but for something like this, pex should be more than enough. For the legs, you could use metal plates from ax-man, if they're like most of our surplus stores, they're bound to have something like that. To make them pivot, you can take golf balls, drill a hole through, put a bolt and nyloc on it, then take some pvc pipe that fits it, and shape it around with a heatgun to encapsulate the ball. With a little bit of grease, that's a perfect ball joint for you to use. The bolt side goes to the disk foot and the pvc end can attach to the truss via a piece of PVC pipe that fits inside (or is the same piece of PVC) that's split down the middle, the heat formed around the truss' end and stapled or nailed into the wood (i actually used this method to cap and tension my test trusses, using half a pvc pipe formed and pulled over the truss' end, very strong end piece with this method - so keep it in mind for other applications). Final piece that will 100% make it stable, from the center mount (which can be made with a classic tripod style mount, no point in innovating that) you can put a hook and hang a weight on. I doubt wind will affect this.

Your channel is truly an inspiration love seeing all the projects come together even if it is piece by piece over a long time. That's how projects go lol

I think your extremely humble about your ability at programming and math. I have been recommended your videos for like 2 years and have never really watched one just think I probably wouldn’t find it interesting, I was wrong.

Congrats on the AMSAT write up! Very cool! Experience is something you get right after you needed it

You go dude, you're my favorite channel on here. Hi from Bulgaria!

You should look for conical scanning or box scan type code. It will allow the antenna to use the radio signal strength to peak up on the signals. Great video!

Similar solution as EME amateurs, following the moon , following the sun. I like your approach, you are an RF warrior engineer!

I hope the next time I'm at AxeMan you're there and I can meet you :) Your videos are absolutely my favorite!

You have really opened my eyes to a lot of things I had never considered. Thanks for taking us along with you as you figure it all out. Very cool.

10:35, I am glad to see i am not the only one that still uses Pandora.

An Information Sciences Major here with a similar lack of math skills. I had a lot of trash thrown at me for having that skill set and still working in IT. I even had people saying that it would be impossible for me to work as a programmer. That comment was made while I had several years of experience as a programmer and several solo projects as programmer of custom ERP projects at my name. Keep up the good work and the output of the new tracking system seems the best I have seen on the channel in a while. Even with the wind conditions the output is very good.

you'll never forget what this teaches you the experience makes the knowledge indelible, the first learning we all do is intuitive, you never loose that ability

You are such an inspiration. You are curious, interested and interesting, and even though you struggle through these projects, you keep going. Thank you for sharing these journeys, and showing what is possible with stuff that is considered junk

Great work! at least you got the motors to move, that’s already quite an accomplishment imho 😅 I also like your approach to building a mount/ rotator from off the shelf equipment. I’ve been working on my own mount for a 1 metre radio telescope as well, made the mechanical parts from scratch but the coding and electronics were beyond my ability. So I decided to use an Onstep controller (preassembled) and even that took me three months to get working… By the way, a motorized mount is nice to have but it’s not an absolute must for radio astronomy. The 3 metre dish in my profile pic is mounted on a simple manual alt/az mount. I point it to the south and use a planetarium program like stellarium to find at which altitude and time the object I want to detect passes the south meridian. Then I point the dish at that altitude and wait for the target to drift through the beam of the dish, essentially using the earths rotation as the other axis. I know of several other amateurs who use such a “drift scan” approach for their radio astronomy projects with success. It’s a slow but proven technique.

I love watching your content. A suggestion (that other commenters may have made), but why not remote into the laptop in the garage? Point the laptop's camera at the dish, and make the changes either directly or on your desktop and then copy them over. You'll be able to work from the comfort of the house, but make the changes directly.

13:20 A geodome should proctect from wind issues. I'm sure your s would work well. And after I typed this i hear you are going to use the geodome. Awesome! I so enjoy your experiments. It inspires me in my endeavors. Thank you.

I suggest you look into ssh, vnc, and build a ptz camera. If I was in your shoes, I would set up a webcam pointed at the antenna in the garage, then either use ssh to connect to the garage computer, or use vnc/rdp if you need a GUI. I would also suggest either building a NAS and use nfs or smb, or use something like dropbox or owncloud. Personally, I store most of my project data on my owncloud server as well as config files for my 3d printer so when i make a change like adjusting the default temp on my office desktop, that change syncs to my livingroom laptop, garage pc, etc. I have a cheap antenna/rotor in my garage that just has a "rotate" button on the remote. I opened the remote to solder the rotate button and made it powered off a wall wart plugged into a wifi outlet. the amp/control box is in my basement. Currently i have an old iphone attached to the top of the antenna to be used as a digital compass which feeds its data to node-red. Node-red receives a command like "rotate antenna to 220 degrees" and then it waits for the next compass reading to come in. if it is within acceptable range, the wifi outlet stays turned off. If it receives a reading outside the acceptable range, it sends the power on command to the wifi outlet. once it is within acceptable range, it sends the power off command to the outlet. Not precision, but I am happy when i can tell it to turn to 220 degrees and it stops at 223. Ive been working on building a dedicated digital compass because occasionally, the software on the phone does lock up and i have had to go out to the garage to reset it twice.

Hi from the Netherlands! Love every video you make and my compliments for how long you keep trying, I have no knowledge of satellite stuff like you but really enjoy every video, keep it up!

I just had a thought,🤔if those are stepper Motors, you can use the guts from a 3D printer to drive them. It's funny that you got all weird about the camera angle. I often like those weird off angle positions, it is what makes your video style unique and more relatable. I don't care for all that high polished professional stuff necessarily. It's okay if you have a genuine channel in which you're trying to please sponsors. Now if only you had a radome for that wind

This type of strange errors is a good example of when a digital oscilloscope would be useful. Checking supply voltages and signals for interference.

You really inspire some of us out here. Thanks for what you do brother.

Gabe. You are my hero. Keep living your best life there buddy!

Keep up the learning bro. For programming especially, chat GPT can be your best friend for finding what is wrong with your code or even writing simple bits of code

Thanks for the awesome write-ups on your website! I need to visit Ax-Man soon, it's been a long while. It was so much easier when I was at the U and could take the light rail right to the St. Paul location.

Thank you saveitforparts for the awesome content. Keep it up.

Great Work i have no doubt you will get it going for Astronomy in Time ,its always interesting watching your videos to learn i like it when i see mistakes or its not working tend to learn nothing if it all works day one and here we have the satellite tracker evolving and that helps every one interested from going simple to a more complex system , i am sure every one like me is impressed with the hobby work you are showing .

I think you did very well. Your determination inspires me. Thank you for sharing this

That's why I love your channel, I doesn't always work but it's fun finding out. Im happy to hear someone else's struggles with maths 🤬 besides me. Im also colorblind and still managed to wire up more stuff than most.... Keep up the great channel 💯💪

a few thoughts, - Community assisted project? github? or -wifi to the garage? - RDP to remotely control the unit in the garage? (with camera from the office??) - pizza? love what you do, keep up the good work!

Extremely cool. No need to feel bad, your vids are great. If you somehow could figure out how to read the radio signal without USB, then maybe you could use an spi SD card module from axman to collect the data without serial port problems.

I'm just a few weeks from starting my own satelite project, thanks to you!

With the C-band dishes, if they are expanded mesh, they will only be useful to 4 GHz. If they are perf dishes, they will work to Ku-band.

Ax-Man has Arduino stuff? Guess I gotta go back! You're encouraging me to start learning Python programming - it's been on my to-do list for a long time, but I didn't really have any projects in mind to cause me to learn it. Your attitude of plugging away despite a project not working is very encouraging to me - maybe it'll teach me patience! You'll get this going, I know it.

Nice work! I suggest prototyping simple tasks first (only elevation stepper for exp) before throwing in the whole thing, it is easier to debug and you learn a couple of things before running the more complex code

It's good to know that someone is just as bad as me with programming. But you give me hope that I too can succeed in my projects.

Epic. I still think your projects are amazing. I'd buy you a root beer any day! Thanks for the videos.

Random resets of a microcontroller are almost always caused by a power problem, this can be a coil activating and dragging the 3.3/5V rail down below what the microcontroller can run at, or it can be a coil activating and producing an EMI spike on nearby conductors. Both of these can be reduced somewhat by putting a capacitor across 3.3/5V and ground, which is generally good practice. I don't know that board specifically but a lot of microcontrollers have a VUSB pin, which is the positive voltage directly from the USB cable, so you can put the capacitor from there to ground if you're powering the arduino from USB exclusively. A third thing it can be is that every microcontroller has a limit to the amount of current each individual pin can source, and all of the pins together can source, exceeding that can cause a reset, or magic smoke. The solid state relays should draw far less current from the pin, but you may find it improves reliability to have the pin control a mosfet that controls the relay

Love these projects so much!

Really enjoy these videos. Thank you Ir

Love them videos! Keep it up!!!!

Imagine if you had some kind of dome to shield the dish from wind 🤔

the spirit is unstoppable ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

Hello, I am happy to see you some sort of worked the equipment of yours. I think you are lucky to not burn your arduino ports because of those old type relays. As you know those relays has some coils to close the curcuit and coils rebound magnetism to electricty to the arduino ports when open the curcuit. I think it is the reason to frozen your system and all that issue before you use solid state relay.

Now that we have our somewhat-larger dish tracking, you have to visit again some time!

Congrats on your article

Good work. Don't give up

so, I mean, you're doing more than I do lol, so it's productive! in any case, driving these motors with relays is kinda not good. I don't know if these are steppers or plain old brushed motors, but if they're the former, get one of those 3d printer stepper driver modules (should be straightforward to connect to arduino, and as a bonus, should take care of actually moving the motor for you, while you just move it by N steps). if it's a brushed motor, I'd suggest just using mosfets and pwm channels from the arduino (don't forget to add flywheel diodes to the motor!). not sure if it's able to figure out the actual position by means of a feedback signal (potentiometer, encoder wheel), but if it does, you can make it even more robust to winds and such. but hey, your solution works, and I don't have time to build that, even if I really want, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt. but seriously, this project is really cool!

Great work!!

I changed some code on the raspberry noaa v2 program to record Ham chatter off the ISS repeater with a omni-directional antenna when I'm not at home, this sat tracker idea with a yagi mounted on it will work well with that I think.

My ultimate fear is saveitforparts stopping making videos.

The cats are so cute omg

England watching thanks

Regarding the wind loading: it's too bad you don't have a dome similar to ones that cover the RV dishes, but bigger. Finding a clear one would be even better. Or maybe just make one out of foam cut into pentagons.

I would love to have a 16' C-band dish laying round my place.

Hello, thank you for the video! One note: people usually refer to I2C as 'I squared C' and it is strange to hear a different name. You might have overlooked some documentation in the form of videos, since people name the bus differently.

Very cool. You would’ve had to fortify the crap out of the mechanical relays. So much switch bounce and feild effect breakdown needs to be soaked up if you’re using any type of digital circuit. You were hammering that poor Arduino EMF noise. Cheers 👍

Im awaiting you to phase a bunch of your antennae together to make a phased array and higher gain ❤

nice progress!

Never not impressed by your work. Single-handedly trying to bring us into the star wars universe

A very nice project, the clicking of the relays reminded me of an old telephone switchboard. I'm already looking forward to the continuation. Did you know that Schuco offers a functional model of a monorail with tracks?

Real life person sharing the struggle with real life people.

get some rebar and concrete and anchor a base into the ground properly. You could go less permanant by just forming up a cube of concrete that can be moved around. An engine crane can be found second hand cheap and works as a forklift if you need to move it.

We gotta get you into FPV quadcopters 👍👍🇺🇸

I can't understand half of what you're talking about but bro this is pretty cool shit

Bad luck the wind picked up just as you got it working. You could do with a radome or something... 😂

pushing limits teaches you! keep at it

Hey man! I’ve actually also just picked up a similar pelco Unix and have been retro fitting it with an arduino and stepper motors for more precise and user friendly control. I’m going to be posting a video about it soon. I will have to let you know when I am finished so I can send you the files and bill of materials if you wanted to do the same with your unit!

It would be nifty to figure out a way to use a compass, accelerometer, and gyro chip to orient the dish and ignore the position you assume from the motors. Basically, you command the dish to go to X/Y, and it will drive the motors until the sensors are satisfied. You may be able to use an old phone to do this perhaps?

I haven’t been this excited since the wife left

Yeah, i have seen math like that. but that math i don't think the average person or even scientist today would worry about. Today we have computers which make the daily calculations on the precise whereabouts of a satellite. I think that math looks at signal vectors which bend through the earths different layers and skews the apparent position. Kind of like if you watch something on the bottom of a lake. What maybe could be favorable could be a feed back circuit which would lock the dish to the desired position with regards to the satellite position data.

Too bad you do not have a dome to put that inside. But Wait! You do have one. But I think the dome in the yard would be used as evidence when the spouse cleaned you out and left. 😂

Dont worry mate we think you are a genius. Can you put a tent over the dish to block the wind?

Great thing about programming languages is most often you don't need to know the math odds are someone wrote a library for it :) Get better at programming by just doing it :)

I wonder if you are running into UART time out issues. (although just finished watching, seems like it might be been power related after swapping out the mechanical relays.) Do you have room to push the BAUD rate of your connection? most arduino boards easily support 115200 (including the Nano), many can also support up to 250k. (common on 3D printers with ATMEGA2560) The Nano is a good cost/accessibility option, but It might be worth exploring some of the ESP32 boards as they have a strong community and support as well. Regardless, Great job so far. I really enjoy following along with this exploration! Good luck!

donnie is the dloogie may boi

hi...i figure that you would mark north on the program....time the rotation speed, and manual the angle .... co ordinate that with satelite path....or connect to near by antenna s ... thanks for hangin out,... see you later...

could use some metal wires to pin the dish down in 4 corners :3

@saveitforparts Use a triac instead of a relay (solid state or mechanical). Your life should get A LOT easier using triacs 👍

Next video: ICBM tracker part 1

*_"Never, never, never give up."_* - Winston Churchill

you are small mini's gold on ,my monitors too :P

I feel your garage/house testing/coding struggle. But in my case, its house/observatory-that-is-80km-away :) :) struggle.

Screw all that............I'm goin' fishin' 🤠

It's "I-squared-C". It's just written out as I2C because people can't be bothered to do the exponent on their keyboard.

AX-Man should sponser you with the shear amount of business you give them.

To stop the arduino problems put a 2,200uf cap on the arduino power line as it will kill off the RFI thats on the cable and if ya got some ferrite put some on ya USB cable

I wonder if there is an Arduino library for the math side of all of the radio telescope. Might make things easier, or if there is some other dll or library for the control software.

NICE