[amsat-bb] Re: Tracking - End-stop Problem

[David Johnson]

Hi Clive,

Dave is correct about MacDoppler, it works a treat.

What Don (the writer on MD) and I do for GENSO is set a rotator dead 
spot and indicate to the software that it should allow the
elevation to flip the rotators 180 degrees before the pass. The 
prediction algorithm then knows that if the azimuth passes through the
dead spot during the predition, it should flip the rotators beforehand 
and output the adjusted azimuth position.

I'm sure that some of the windows trackers do this.

AFAIK none of the existing programs allow for the 450 degree rotation.

733

Dave, G4DPZ

On 08/02/2010 10:59, Dave-K7DAA wrote:
> Clive:
>
> If you're running Windows, this won't help you, but MacDoppler does
> this easily, and without operator intervention.  I'm using the same
> equipment you are, but with a MacBook Pro laptop, and it works
> beautifully.
>
> 73,
>
> Dave - K7DAA
>
>
> On Feb 8, 2010, at 2:17 AM, Clive Wallis wrote:
>
>    
>> Hi,
>>
>> A problem that I've had for many years is how to track when the
>> satellite's azimuth crosses across the rotator's end-stop,  ie. when
>> the
>> azimuth changes from 0 to 359 degrees.
>>
>> My rotator turns between 0 and 450 degrees, so it should be possible
>> to
>> use  angles between  360  and 450  to  overcome a sudden  transition
>> from  0 to 360 degrees.
>>
>> As the pass data is  available within the tracking program, it
>> should be
>> feasible to deal with the problem in the program.   Do any tracking
>> programs include this feature?
>>
>> A possible solution would be to use a small PIC between the computer
>> and
>> tracker, which could modify the commanded azimuth.
>>
>> I'm using a Yaseu 5500, LVB tracker, Sat_Explorer tracking program and
>> WinXP.
>>
>> Any help,  suggestions or comments would be most welcome.
>>
>> 73     Clive    G3CWV
>>
>> Hitchin, North Hertfordshire, UK
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