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Post by Randy MSGC on Feb 1, 2017 14:27:50 GMT -7
What improvements have you made to the Ground Station?
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Post by smgraham on Feb 2, 2017 8:35:31 GMT -7
Our team elected to reduce the weight of our ground station with a 3D printed carbon fiber/nylon baseplate and reduced a little of the congestion behind the dish with a similar printed RFD holder. In addition, we've used a large garbage can (on wheels) to improve mobility of the system overall. We affectionately refer to our system as Oscar now.
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Post by Randy MSGC on Feb 2, 2017 8:43:04 GMT -7
This sounds great! Do you have some pictures of Oscar you can share?
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Post by ShaneMG_MSGC on Feb 2, 2017 12:47:03 GMT -7
If you could email me (Shane) any images and details, we would love to share these in an EAR!
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Post by CofC_HighBall on Apr 1, 2017 11:51:04 GMT -7
Once our ground station over spun and severed the ground wire on the servo lead! So we are adding a 24" extension to our servo lead so that the system can complete several 360 degree turns. We also cut some bendy straws down the middle long ways to act as a cheap cable sleeve to keep things together.
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Post by David MSGC on Apr 3, 2017 11:54:58 GMT -7
The antenna pan servo should not spin more than 400 degrees, if it does it usually means it lost its zero position or getting 'left over' data from the com port by not shutting down the program before unplugging the usb cable from the computer. If it spins around I suggest re-zeroing the pan servo and make sure the usb cable is not unplugged before closing the antenna tracker program. FYI: if the servo spins around it will not stop from the tension of any cables or a person holding it, it is strong enough to break wires and strip gears so the best way to prevent damage is to power on the maestro and if it spins, be ready to unplug or shut off power to the maestro.
I would also be careful of adding length to the usb cable, we have had issues with stuff not working when using extensions.
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Post by CofC_HighBall on Apr 3, 2017 12:58:46 GMT -7
The antenna pan servo should not spin more than 400 degrees, if it does it usually means it lost its zero position or getting 'left over' data from the com port by not shutting down the program before unplugging the usb cable from the computer. If it spins around I suggest re-zeroing the pan servo and make sure the usb cable is not unplugged before closing the antenna tracker program. I would also be careful of adding length to the usb cable, we have had issues with stuff not working when using extensions. The "over spin incident" was cut short, no pun intended, after about 30 degrees of rotation when the pan servo lead found its way into the pan servo gears. It did not get the chance to over spin, but we have had other instances like the one you have described so I appreciate that info. Secondly, have you had issues adding extensions to the servo leads too or just longer usb? Thanks again! |
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Post by David MSGC on Apr 3, 2017 16:32:01 GMT -7
We have added 6 inch servo extensions without any issues and you could probably go a couple feet but I wouldn't go much longer than 24" total length from the maestro servo controller.
The usb extension that gave us problems was on the ftdi cable used for the RFD radio on the ground station.
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Post by CofC_HighBall on Apr 4, 2017 15:55:01 GMT -7
got it, thank you!
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Post by leviw on Apr 4, 2017 17:55:33 GMT -7
For what it's worth, we added a powered USB hub to simplify the wiring. The 3 USB wires go into the hub, and one USB wire (and the ethernet wire) runs back to the laptop. It seems to work well but we made sure it was a powered, not unpowered, USB hub.
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Post by smgraham on Apr 7, 2017 17:18:08 GMT -7
 Oscar  Carbon fiber/nylon baseplate with embedded bubble leveler  nylon RFD bracket All credit to our 3D printing guru, Ryan Duncan. This sounds great! Do you have some pictures of Oscar you can share? |
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