Anyone connected Alfaspid Rot2Prog USB to Raspberry PI?

SatNOGS
1

Hi, has anyone successfully connected Alfaspids USB rotor controller Rot2Prog to Raspberry PI and can use it to control a RAS-rotor from SatNOGS software?
//Lars SM0TGU

2

Hi, yes!

I am using a Rot2Prog, though with a RF Hamdesign SPX-02.

Because the Rot2Prog only runs at 600 baud, I had to add a post_write_delay setting when starting rotctld:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
rotctld -m 901 -r /dev/rotator -s 600 -vvvvv -t 4533 -C az_resolution=2,el_resolution=2,post_write_delay=300

I don’t use satnogs to start the rotctld process, instead i start it from /etc/rc.local using the line:

su - darkside -c "screen -dm -S rotator /home/darkside/start_rotator.sh"

This lets me look at the log output from rotctld by running: screen -r rotator

Also note that i’m manually specifying the az and el resolution - the SPID protocol reports steps, not degrees. If your rotator has 2 steps per degree, then set the az/el resolution values to 2, if it’s one step per degree, then set them to 1.

Finally, I also run a custom post-observation script which pre-points the rotator ahead of the next pass. You can find out more about why and how I run this here: https://github.com/darksidelemm/satnogs-unwinder

4 Likes
3

Thanks. Then I know it´s possible :slight_smile:

4

@vk5qi Hi, I’m trying to replicate your setup, and I’m not entirely sure about this:

I don’t use satnogs to start the rotctld process, instead i start it from /etc/rc.local

I have a basic setup working (SatNOGS client using rotctld directly), but I really like the idea of running rotctld in screen.

What is the configuration in satnogs-setup? Do you set SATNOGS_ROT_MODEL to ROT_MODEL_NETROTCL and HAMLIB_UTILS_ROT_ENABLED to False? And what are HAMLIB_UTILS_ROT_OPTS, is that just left blank (as options for rotctld are set in rc.local)?

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Relevant portions of my configuration:

    "satnogs_rot_model": "ROT_MODEL_NETROTCTL",
    "satnogs_rot_port": "localhost:4533",
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Thanks - so you have no hamlib utils options set? For example, does hamlib_utils_rot_enabled show up in your configuration file?

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It didn’t show up in the support report, so I’m guessing it’s not enabled.

1 Like
8

Yeah, that means it’s left at the default values - thanks again!