New V3 rotator being built. What about encoders & main board?

SatNOGS Hardware
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Dear all,

I am discovering your neat project, and as a start I decided to build a rotator for testing & maybe one day make a full-featured ground station.

I was wondering if one could use market encoders like these ones


instead of the satnogs ones?

I was also wondering if an arduino mega with a ramps board for a 3D printer would do the job instead of the custom PCB proposed in your project (I have a spare in a box lying around that’s why) ?

Thanks in advance for your help.

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I’m curious about the ramps myself. I’m just starting the process of building a 3.01 and have a spare ramps board out of a 3d printer.

Someone was asking the same question not too long ago but not sure how far they got.

I’d be very interested in this as a option.

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Did either of you end up going the RAMPS route? I also have a couple kicking around and considering its use over having PCBs made. Curious if it worked out.

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I actually ended up going the PCB route. I did the v2 controller with version 3.1 (not 3.01) rotator hardware

https://wiki.satnogs.org/SatNOGS_Rotator_Controller

3.1 is not officially out yet, but all the freecad files are out there, you just have to export to stl. I modified my files though for imperial fit (used 1" pvc pipe instead of the 40mm)

It’s still a work in progress, I just got the metal for the frame last week. I planned on documenting the build after I get one side of the rotator built so stay tuned.

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