Satellite Tracker

Stepper motor 

Arduino MKR1000

Ball bearing

3D Printer (generic)

<p >This is a satellite tracker with a 3D-printed dish based off of a real satellite dish. Here it is in action:</p><div class="se-component se-video-container __se__float-none" contenteditable="false" style="width: 100%;"><figure style="width: 100%; height: 56.25%; padding-bottom: 56.25%; margin: 0px;"><iframe frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="https://i.imgur.com/lDmDmiU.mp4" data-proportion="true" data-percentage="100%,56.25%" data-size="100%,56.25%" data-align="none" style="width: 100%; height: 100%;" data-index="0" data-file-size="0" data-origin="100%,56.25%"></iframe><figcaption contenteditable="true"><div>My model dish running in sync with the real thing</div></figcaption></figure></div><p >This dish will track any number of satellites in real-time as they fly overhead.</p><div class="se-component se-video-container __se__float-none" contenteditable="false" style="width: 100%;"><figure style="width: 100%; height: 56.25%; padding-bottom: 56.25%; margin: 0px;"><iframe frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="https://i.imgur.com/Ts3VRdu.mp4" data-proportion="true" data-percentage="100%,56.25%" data-size="100%,56.25%" data-align="none" style="width: 100%; height: 100%;" data-index="0" data-file-size="0" data-origin="100%,56.25%"></iframe><figcaption contenteditable="true"><div>Tracking NEOSSAT over the skies of Saskatoon in real time</div></figcaption></figure></div><h3 >Hardware</h3><p ><span >The satellite dish and support structure was 3D-printed; the STL files can be found on Thingiverse: </span><a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4541354">https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4541354</a></p><div class="se-component se-video-container __se__float-none" contenteditable="false" style="width: 100%;"><figure style="width: 100%; height: 56.25%; padding-bottom: 56.25%; margin: 0px;"><iframe frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="https://i.imgur.com/X9J5rgf.mp4" data-proportion="true" data-percentage="100%,56.25%" data-size="100%,56.25%" data-align="none" style="width: 100%; height: 100%;" data-index="0" data-file-size="0" data-origin="100%,56.25%"></iframe><figcaption contenteditable="true"><div>3D-printed assembly</div></figcaption></figure></div><p >The stepper motors are hookup to the Arduino as follows:</p><figure><img src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/54de3d25-9dca-4434-bace-e6c4c60dd111.png /><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><p >I stripped a USB cable and used the +5 V and GND lines to power the steppers from a mobile battery pack.</p><h3 >Software</h3><p ><span >The code for the project is on Github: </span><a href="https://github.com/alexchang0229/SatelliteTracker">https://github.com/alexchang0229/SatelliteTracker</a></p><p ><span >The orbits of satellites are generally given in two line element (TLE) sets, most satellites are tracked by NORAD and their TLEs can be found on: </span><a href="http://www.celestrak.com/">http://www.celestrak.com</a><span >.</span></p><p ><span >Using a MKR 1000 WiFi board, I grab the latest TLE for the satellites of interest from celestrak; luckily the complicated part of translating from TLE to actual azimuth and elevation is already done in this library: </span><a href="https://github.com/Hopperpop/Sgp4-Library">https://github.com/Hopperpop/Sgp4-Library</a></p><p ><span >I also used the RTC zero library to obtain the current time: </span><a href="https://github.com/arduino-libraries/RTCZero">https://github.com/arduino-libraries/RTCZero</a></p><p >The accelstepper library to control the two stepper motors:</p><p ><a href="https://www.airspayce.com/mikem/arduino/AccelStepper/">https://www.airspayce.com/mikem/arduino/AccelStepper/</a></p><p >Here's how the code works:</p><ul ><li >Connect to internet and get the current epoch time.</li><li >Get satellite TLEs from Celestrak, save it and predict the upcoming passes.</li><li >Put the dish in standby Az = 0 (North), EL = 25</li><li >At 5 mins before pass, move dish to start of pass and wait.</li><li >Track satellite during pass</li><li >Wait at end of pass for 2 mins, predict next pass.</li><li >Go back to standby until next pass</li></ul><p ><span >You can use a free version of STK to verify the predictions: </span><a href="https://www.agi.com/products/stk">https://www.agi.com/products/stk</a></p><p >That's it! Let me know if you tried it and if there's anything that needs clarifying.</p><p ><span >If you'd like to 3D print some satellites to go with the satellite tracker check out my designs on thingiverse: </span><a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/yychang/designs">https://www.thingiverse.com/yychang/designs</a></p><figure><img src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/2975b535-e3e2-4d1e-9158-7adbbe4c2170.jpg /><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><p ><br ></br></p>

Satellite Tracker

Keep up-to-date on the passing of your favourite satellites overhead with this 3D-printed, Arduino-controlled satellite tracker!