Satellite detection

[Siamak]

Hi Every one,

I have some thing in mind.

Tuning Satellite dishes out of the UK is very difficult, especially when the Geostationary Satellite is moving constantly and in random.

Would it be possible to have Raspberry Pi programmed in such a way that it commands to step motors (one side ways the other up and down) in order to adjust the Satellite dish automatically to align itself to the Satellite?

The servo/step motors can be programmed but the tricky bit is the Satellite itself, is there any way to detect its position, and implement it in the Raspberry Pi through GPIO to run the motors?

If all this possible, which I think it would be, that would make many people HAPPY, including yours faithfully.

Cheers

Siamak

 

[davenn]

Tuning Satellite dishes out of the UK is very difficult, especially when the Geostationary Satellite is moving constantly and in random.

huh ? that's a contradiction

the wonderful thing about geostationary satellites is that they DONT move to any great extent and it definitely isn't random
Geostationaries just do a little a little wobble back and forward from their centre position ( just a little north and south of the equatorial line

This has no great effect on the pointing of the dish or the coverage footprint of the satellite unless you are right on the extreme edge of
the footprint area

so with that information, the rest of your comments need revised


regards
Dave

 

[Siamak]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for you prompt response.

My other dish is in the south of France and believe me it moves, I know because the dish (140 Cm Dia) was perfectly tuned and working fine, few days or a week later the signal of some of the channels were lost, especially Channel 5 and the affiliated channels, no way to get them, waited few days or a week they were there but not as good as the first time.

Any way it would be a challenge at least to see how it would be possible to do this, the challenge would consist of make the Satellite dish to align itself to the satellite constantly?

Cheers
Siamak

 

[Alec_t]

Satellite finders work on the principle of determining a dish position which gives maximum received signal strength. To identify that position involves moving the dish methodically from one angular side of maximum to the other side, in both elevation and azimuth. So if you want a system which strives to align itself constantly, you will have to tolerate repeated movement into and out of the optimum position. That could produce undesirable periodic changes in the picture/sound.

 

[Bluejets]

Agree with Dave. I've never seen a satellite move enough to affect tuning.
Many other things to look at as to why you are loosing signal.
A satellite forum would be my first point of call, many professional satellite people there with insight into your particular problem, but, you are going to have to supply a lot more info about your installation.
You can though, as Alec says, fit a motorised drive to it (readily available for the correct dish) and go from there.Don't think it will solve anything though.

 

[davenn]

Any way it would be a challenge at least to see how it would be possible to do this, the challenge would consist of make the Satellite dish to align itself to the satellite constantly?

Cheers
Siamak

As I said and as bluejets agrees

as long as you are within the footprint area an aiming at the median position point of the satellite, there is no issue
There's millions of sat dishes around the world aiming at Geostationaries NONE of them have any form of continuous control

 

[Siamak]

Thanks to you all for the answers you have given me.

I have used a signal detector device (SKY what's it) and tuned the dish to the perfection and it worked and works fine.

This is an issue for the cruse ship as well, they move constantly so they have a dome and inside it is a dish that is constantly aligning it self to a given Sat position, the dish is on a 3 dimensional Gyroscope which keeps it floating and servo/step motors are keeping it aligned with the given Sat position.

The most important part of the answer would be how to detect the Satellite position, the rest should be just a matter of programming a SBC to turn motors here and there to keep it in position.

I know it is not as simple as it sounds, needs a lot of electronics and programming just to detect the Satellite and that is the challenge I am looking for well with a lot of help.

I have read an article in Mag Pi magazine, they were using Raspberry Pi's GPIO to move a Solar Panel with the moving Sun, that could be easy since it can just detect the light and follow, following a Satellite would be another
pare of Trousers.

Thanks again.

Siamak

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