Rotator and rotator controller shopping list

[saintaardvark]

Hi @lk151 – welcome from another newbie! I’m juuuust starting the process of building out a ground station myself, so I’ve been trying to collect this kind of info too. I don’t have all the answers, but hopefully this will be somewhat useful.

@lk151

Is V2 the latest version of the rotator controller?

I believe so; I don’t see a later tag or git branch on the repo.

@lk151

If so are clones of the discontinued Arduino Pro mini acceptable for use in place of the original?

No idea, I’m afraid; perhaps someone else can chime in here.

@lk151

Is there a list of all the individual bits I need to put the rotator controller together?

Is the bill of materials what you’re after? Also, it looks like you should be able to get Oshpark to print out the PCB boards.

@lk151

Is there a comprehensive step by step guide for assembly?

You can find assembly instructions for v3 of the rotator on the Ohai site. (Side note: hardware assembly instructions are being migrated from the old Dozuki site to the new Ohai site. This is a work in progress. I don’t think I see anything on the old site that’s relevant to your questions, but you should double-check that. ) I also came across this set of notes from someone who has assembled v3, which may be of some use.

@lk151

What motors do you use for the rotator?

The wiki mentions both steppers and DC motors; electronics isn’t my strong suit, so I’m not sure of the tradeoffs, but this post goes into the details a bit. You may want to check in the gallery section of this site, or a search through this site for “motors”.

@lk151

Is there a more detailed guide on rotator assembly than the one that is available on the wiki?

Mechanical assembly of the v3 rotator can be found on the Ohai site. There’s also a fun assembly timelapse video on YouTube, though I’m not sure how useful it will be to you.

@lk151

Is there a universally accepted comprehensive required item list for the rotator?

Is the bill of materials on the repo what you’re after? As for sourcing, this post has a good list of places to buy parts if you’re in the US or Canada.

@lk151

Is there any detailed information on the power supply of the rotator controller? If so where can I find it? (There’s nothing substantial on the wiki).

The only mention I can find is this post, which mentions the v1 branch of the satnogs-rotator-controller repo…but AFAICT, the v1 branch was merged in a couple years ago. I haven’t dug around in that repo yet, so possibly power suppy files are in there…maybe someone else can chime in.

@lk151

If all of these questions have been answered a million times and you are sick of hearing them, could you point me in the direction of the answers please? I’m keen to help myself as much as much as possible in addition to getting help from others.

Speaking for myself, I haven’t seen all these questions before, and I’m grateful you asked them…like I said, I’m early in the process of building a ground station. (For no particular reason, I started with the antenna…so I haven’t started to dig into the rotator yet.) I’ve tried to improve the wiki, which is meant to be the one place that holds this info, or pointers to it…it’d be great if you could have a look and add anything that’s missing.

Hope that helps, and definitely keep us posted on your progress!