Pstrotator supporting rotctld (alternative rotor)

Hi all,

Thanks to Codrut owner of the Software pstrotator this Software is now capable to understand hamlib rotctld commands via tcp similar to satnogs. this allows another method to Control possible existing heavy duty rotor Systems. Because of several parallel Interfaces this Software running on Windows allows new use cases. Big cheers and thanks to Codrut willing to enrich his Software with this new Interface.
At my site (oe8rke) i’m doing a promising test with this Interface (first autonomous Tests ran fine, same as with gpredict).

maybe this part is a enabler for other sites too as were mine: to integrate into an exisiting Setup non invasive and parallel upon the proper use cases.

br Robert

link to pstrotator for not googleling: http://www.qsl.net/yo3dmu/index_Page346.htm

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Any progress on having SatNOGS control PstRotator? I have the same issue - PstRotator on the Windows computer controls the rotators for normal satellite operation and I’d have to switch the rotator USB cables between the Windows computer and the Pi.

If the software is capable of understanding rotctld protocol commands, you can set the parameters of the rotator to remote control the software. You just need the correct arguments for rotctld.

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The options would be something like this;

-m 2 -r <ipaddress:port>

where ipaddress is the IP address of the host running the software and port is the port to which the software is listening to.

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Thanks - I’ll try that. I also discovered two parameters in the Advanced setup - SATNOGS_ROT_IP and SATNOGS_ROT_PORT. It sounds like those may be the parameters I need - I’ll try them too.

PSTrotator is having since january this year an hamlib rotctl interface. I use this Setup (satnogs --hamlib --> pstrotar) sucessfull for 6 months. works like a glace, especially if you use a AlphaSpid RAS rotator which in carrying more then 2/70cm as like in my case.
can drop the config as required, but ist just using the remote ip instead the 127.0.0.1 for rotcltd ip.

br Robert

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Thanks - since my PstRotator program is running on the PC and the SatNOGS is on the PI, I’ve enabled the Rotctrol Hamlib Server on PstRotator, and then in SatNOGS Setup I’ve used the string -m 2 -r 192.168.50.21:4533 using the IP address of the computer running PstRotator. Does that look right?

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Actually I got it working with that configuration. Had to remember to open port 4533 on the PC but now the Pi is commanding PstRotator on the PC. Very cool, and it eliminates the need to switch the rotator cable between the Pi and the PC. Thanks for your help.

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