[HamWAN PSDR] toys & tennas

[Benjamin Krueger]

If we're even thinking the tiniest bit about putting rotors on remote sites
with remote control, stick to unix libs and languages. :)


On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 4:03 PM, Rob Salsgiver <rob at quailsoftltd.net> wrote:

> And here I was thinking a simple VB or C app.  Silly me. <g>****
>
> ** **
>
> I’m sure there’s >some< start/stop lag, but the speed once started seems
> to be pretty consistent at least.  With the position resolution we can
> probably come up with something one way or the other.  ****
>
> ** **
>
> Back to the salt mines…****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* PSDR [mailto:psdr-bounces at hamwan.org] *On Behalf Of *Bart Kus
> *Sent:* Thursday, February 21, 2013 3:58 PM
> *To:* Puget Sound Data Ring
> *Subject:* Re: [HamWAN PSDR] toys & tennas****
>
> ** **
>
> I just got word from Baltic that their next shipment of 5SHPn radios is 6
> weeks away, and is for 80 radios.  Looks like we're back to $100 land for
> the near term.  Not a tragedy, just an annoyance.
>
> Regarding the rotor, I'm guessing it does smooth start+stop.  This makes
> the speed non-constant during rotation.  Which means the angular positions
> are not easily deduced through timing and must be sampled from the rotor
> controller.  But you mentioned it does provide the current position at all
> times, so that should work.  The RF strength samples also take an arbitrary
> amount of time to acquire, something in the region of 100ms.  It's sounding
> to me like we need asynchronous IO on 2 descriptors with timestamping and
> possible interpolation so we can spit out reliable (angle,signal) tuples.
> Doing it by coming to a full stop @ each stepping will take too long, so
> the measures must be done while in motion and assigned to angles as best as
> we can.
>
> Here's <http://pyserial.sourceforge.net/> a nice python serial port
> library.  I use the PyVISA <http://pyvisa.sourceforge.net/> library to
> communicate with the GPIB instruments.  WARNING: It requires Python 2.7
> series.  Or at least, I never got it working on Python 3.
>
> --Bart
>
>
> On 02/21/2013 03:38 PM, Rob Salsgiver wrote:****
>
> Got 2 radios – (5SHPn’s) and one of the ARC-DA5830SD1’s in today from
> Baltic Networks.  So far received 2 orders from them and they seem to be a
> dependable source.  Got a couple of rubber ducks and some adapters to round
> out the package for a garage to house link so I can do some playing around
> with the OS and a few other things.****
>
>  ****
>
> Ordered and received a Yeasu 5500 AZ/EL rotor with a FoxDelta ST-2 PC
> interface (used).  Had to make the cables between the rotor control box &
> rotor.  All tested out very nicely.  FoxDelta is a serial-port driven
> interface that can also control the rotor via front panel push-buttons.
> The 2 line LCD shows programmed AZ and EL, as well as current AZ/EL.
> Protocol for commanding it seems to be very straightforward and quite
> simple.  Character codes followed by  text or integer values, sent via
> serial port.  Current position can be read the same way.   Calibrated the
> unit and put it through full rotation testing via Hyperterminal <g>.****
>
>  ****
>
> Commanding and controlling the rotor should be fairly easy – going to
> start an application to do a predictable pattern of scanning for measuring
> the antenna radiation patterns.  ****
>
>  ****
>
> Bart – we traded a basic outline on the scan setup, but we’ll need to come
> up with however you want to coordinate the position control with the
> measurement recording.  Do you want to have the position sent to the test
> equipment, output the test equipment values to the PC to be recorded with
> the position, or something else?  I don’t know that I need the info right
> this second, but we can start thinking about it in the background.  Sunday
> will be my first day to play with it, but barring Murphy it shouldn’t take
> THAT long (famous last words..)****
>
>  ****
>
> Cheers,****
>
> Rob****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
>
>
>
> ****
>
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>
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> ** **
>
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>


-- 
Benjamin
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