Satellite Tracker for Low Earth Orbit

The project is based on a microcontroller to build an automatic tracker while trying to point the antenna to Low earth Orbit (LEO) satellite with the antenna position being controlled by DC motor-based rotators.
Large antenna arrays are not suitable for this project but a standard VHF/UHF setup and even a small dish can be handled. The satellite tracker is an inexpensive system suitable for amateur radio satellite chasing.

Low cost TV rotators were used for development systems with minor modifications. It is able to drive any system that utilizes drive voltages and a variable resistor to indicate position. The two rotators sample the position voltages by the SST unit. The LTC-1298 A/D converter is used to convert analog voltages into digital numbers.

Depending on the position of the rotator, the position voltage from the rotator varies between 0 and 5V and this value are converted into a digital number that varies between 0 and 4095. The digital number is serially sent from A/D unit to the Basic STAMP II while the STAMP obtains new-position data from the tracking program which it uses to compare the last known position of the rotators.

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