Questions about getting things together

So we’ve put a lot of work into our SatNogs project, and have come a long way in getting each of the components working, but I’m struggling at this last stage.
We have the SatNogs client installed on the Raspberry Pi. We have build the Motor Control board and tested it with our rotator and our antenna, and confirmed that all works.

Now however I am struggling to figure out how to get all of the disparate pieces working together. We have the Raspberry Pi with the RTL SDR and we have the motor controller board. How do I connect the two?

I have the FTDI to USB cable that we use to send manual commands to the motor controller board. Do I just connect that to the arduino and then the usb to the Raspberry Pi?

How do I power the Raspberry Pi? We have a 48V 1.24A DC power supply for the motor board. Is there a way to power the Pi from there (maybe using the 5V pin from the motor board somehow)?

Also we have these magnetic wire thingies, that we got. Where would I put these in the overall construction?

Is there any documentation which can help me test out the entire system as a whole?

Thanks for any help with any of these questions!

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Hi
I have the same question about connecting controller and raspberry pi together, i want to use RS485.
I brought the one on the BOM. i assume it connect to A and B on the same place as the input power.

I do not think you can power the raspberry pi with the 5v off the controller board as the voltage regulator is on the mini pro and wouldn’t be able to supply enough current for the pi. I am going to use the V1 power supply board for this purpose

hope we can get some answers soon.

thanks

Hey!

Just connect the USB to UART to the Raspi. The USB to UART is connected to the controller as you can see in the wiki - UART .

You must use a power supply for the Raspi that convert the 48V@1.24A DC to 5V@2.5A like this, Micro USB Active POE Splitter Power 48V to 5V 2.4A for Raspberry pi 3 Board. Do not use the 5V of rotator controller because hasn’t enough power. Do not use the v1 power supply board because the maximum input voltage is 32V.

What are these “magnetic wire thingies”?

In order to test the rotator, run the rotctl.
In order to set-up and adjust the client.

Take a look in this box:

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Hi Azisi! Thanks for your help! We got all of the items tested, and think we’re ready for an observation. We’ll keep update soon. :slight_smile:

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