Hacking Portable Satellite Dish For More Space Experiments
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of the Parts Channel, the host explores the process of repurposing a Wine Guard portable satellite dish into a radio telescope or microwave imager. The journey involves acquiring the dish from secondhand markets, attempting to interface with its electronics, and overcoming various technical challenges. The host collaborates with a viewer to wire a serial connection and uses Python to control the dish's movement. Despite initial setbacks with signal reception and motor calibration, persistence leads to capturing recognizable satellite signals. The project serves as a stepping stone for future endeavors with larger dishes, promising more sophisticated imaging capabilities.
Takeaways
- 🛍️ The host acquires portable satellite dishes from various online platforms like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and auction sites.
- 📡 The Wine Guard satellite dish discussed in the video is a common find in the secondhand market, similar to the Tailgators brand.
- 💰 The host bought the Wine Guard satellite dish for $46, including a tripod base, after negotiating the price down from the original asking price.
- 🔍 The Wine Guard dish has a unique setup with two separate boards: one for the main functions and another for stepper motors control.
- 🔧 The satellite dish has features like a GPS module and a DIP switch for selecting satellite providers, but some options appear unused or omitted.
- 🖥️ The host intends to repurpose the satellite dish into a small radio telescope or microwave imager, similar to previous projects.
- 🔌 The video includes a detailed guide on how to interface the Wine Guard satellite dish with a computer using various adapters and a six-pin phone cord.
- 🛠️ Viewers are provided with a link to the equipment used in the project for those interested in replicating it, showing the host's reliance on community knowledge.
- 🔄 The host faces challenges with the satellite dish's motor calibration and its constant search for satellite signals, which leads to continuous movement.
- 📡 The Wine Guard's speed and efficiency in moving the dish are highlighted as an improvement over the previously tested dish tailgator.
- 🔬 The project explores the possibility of using the satellite dish for radio signal scanning and imaging, including attempts to read raw signal strength and combine it with dish positioning data.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of the Wine Guard portable satellite dish discussed in the video?
-The main purpose of the Wine Guard portable satellite dish, as discussed in the video, is to be repurposed into a small radio telescope or microwave imager. The host also explores hacking it to interface with a computer for control.
Where does the host typically find these portable satellite dishes?
-The host typically finds these portable satellite dishes on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, auction sites, and free sites.
What was the price paid for the Wine Guard satellite dish in the video?
-The host paid $46 for the Wine Guard satellite dish, after negotiating the price down from the original asking price.
What additional item did the seller include with the Wine Guard satellite dish?
-The seller included a tripod base with the Wine Guard satellite dish, which the host accidentally dropped part of later on.
What is the condition of the Dish Network satellite receiver mentioned in the video?
-The Dish Network satellite receiver mentioned in the video is in a pretty rusty condition, and it's uncertain whether it still works.
What is unique about the Wine Guard satellite dish's motor system compared to others the host has encountered?
-The Wine Guard satellite dish has a unique motor system that is faster compared to others the host has encountered, such as the Dish Tailgator.
What is the significance of the dip switch pad on the Wine Guard satellite dish?
-The dip switch pad on the Wine Guard satellite dish is used to select what satellites it's looking for, which is important when it performs an auto search for Dish Network, Direct TV, or Express View.
What challenges does the host face while trying to interface the Wine Guard satellite dish with a computer?
-The host faces challenges such as determining the correct wiring and baud rate for the serial connection, dealing with flaky USB to serial adapters, and figuring out how to read data reliably from the SDR and the serial connection.
What is the role of the viewer named Kyle Burgess in relation to this project?
-Kyle Burgess, a viewer, has his own Wine Guard satellite dish and has been hacking around with it. He provided the host with suggestions on how to interface the dish using various converters and helped with the wiring scheme.
What is the host's plan for improving the project in future videos?
-The host plans to improve the project by cleaning up the code, adding more features, trying different feeds, and potentially using a Raspberry Pi for control. He also plans to work on a bigger dish for the next iteration of the project.
Outlines
🛒 Acquiring a Wine Guard Portable Satellite Dish
The script introduces a project involving a Wine Guard portable satellite dish acquired for $46 through a local deal. The narrator discusses the prevalence of such dishes on secondhand markets, possibly due to local manufacturing. The Wine Guard dish is compared to the Tailgators brand, noting differences in setup and features. The narrator intends to repurpose the satellite dish into a radio telescope or microwave imager, describing the technical components such as the reflector, L&B, brain, stepper motors, and the unique motherboard setup. The script also mentions the potential for hacking the device for different uses, given the presence of a GPS module and a programming interface, although the narrator admits a lack of expertise in these areas.
🔍 Hacking and Interface Attempts with the Wine Guard Dish
The second paragraph details the initial attempts to hack and interface with the Wine Guard satellite dish. The narrator discusses connecting the dish to a computer using various adapters and converters, with help from a viewer named Kyle Burgess. The process includes using a six-pin phone cord and a serial-to-USB adapter to establish communication with the dish's 'brain.' The script describes the challenges faced, such as incorrect wiring and baud rate issues, and the eventual success in establishing a connection and issuing commands to the dish. The narrator also mentions the dish's speed and agility compared to previous models and expresses excitement about the project's progress.
🔧 Experimenting with Python and SDR Integration
In this paragraph, the narrator delves into the technical aspects of integrating the satellite dish with a software-defined radio (SDR) and Python coding. The goal is to control the dish's movements and read radio signals. Challenges arise with the dish's initial calibration process and its tendency to search for satellites indefinitely. The narrator attempts to disable this feature through the device's nonvolatile storage menu, but this leads to issues with motor calibration. Despite setbacks, progress is made with Python scripting, allowing the dish to move according to commands and read signals, although with some data mismatch and interference.
🌧️ Outdoor Testing and Motor Limit Issues
The script describes moving the project outdoors for further testing, noting the challenges of performing the calibration process in various weather conditions. The narrator observes that the dish's design, which involves grinding gears to find motor limits, may lead to a short lifespan. Despite these issues, the project continues with attempts to capture satellite signals using an RTL-SDR dongle. The narrator discusses the need for fine-tuning the code and addressing the dish's backlash and bounce issues during scanning.
🛠️ Refining the Setup and Struggling with Offset Issues
The narrator continues to refine the setup, experimenting with different feeds and trying to resolve offset issues where clockwise and counterclockwise scans do not align. Various troubleshooting steps are taken, including changing the way SDR data is read and adjusting the scanning method. The script also mentions the use of a hacked GPS patch antenna to improve signal reception. Despite persistent problems and the need to protect the equipment from the rain, the narrator remains committed to finding a solution.
📡 Achieving Success in Satellite Signal Imaging
After nearly two weeks of work, the narrator finally achieves success in capturing and imaging satellite signals. The script describes the process of eliminating interference and obtaining recognizable satellite signal patterns. The video concludes with a discussion of the potential for future projects, including the use of larger dishes and more advanced setups. The narrator also mentions plans to share the code on GitHub for others to use and provide feedback on.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Portable Satellite Dish
💡Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace
💡Wine Guard
💡Dish Network Satellite Receiver
💡Stepper Motors
💡RJ11 Jack
💡Serial Port
💡Python Coding
💡RTL-SDR
💡Planned Obsolescence
💡GitHub
Highlights
The presenter has accumulated multiple portable satellite dishes, primarily found on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.
The Wine Guard satellite dish discussed is common on the secondhand market and was purchased for $46.
The Wine Guard dish includes a tripod base and a rusty Dish Network satellite receiver.
The satellite dish has a unique setup with two boards, one for the main functions and another for stepper motors.
The presenter plans to repurpose the satellite dish into a small radio telescope or microwave imager.
Kyle Burgess, a viewer, provided suggestions on interfacing the satellite dish using various converters.
A six-pin phone cord is required for the interface, with wire six not used according to Kyle's instructions.
The Wine Guard dish is faster than the previously discussed dish tailgator.
The presenter struggles with getting the serial connection to work properly with the dish.
Turning off all dip switches did not stop the initial dish scan, contrary to initial expectations.
Disabling the tracker procedure also disables motor calibration, preventing manual calibration.
The presenter successfully creates a self-portrait using the satellite dish and L-band.
Rain and technical difficulties with the rtlsdr and bias te impact the outdoor scanning attempts.
After multiple attempts and adjustments, the presenter manages to capture a recognizable satellite signal.
The video concludes with the capture of GPS satellite orbits and an Aridium satellite's path.
The presenter intends to share the code on GitHub for others to use and provide feedback.
Transcripts
hi and welcome back to the save it for
Parts Channel where we're here yet again
with yet another portable satellite dish
this is like the seventh or eighth one
I've come across I just keep
accumulating these things and people
online keep asking where I get these I
just find them on Craigslist and
Facebook Marketplace and auction sites
and free sites and apparently these
things just saturate the twin Ci's used
Market part of that is because at least
one brand was made locally here the
Tailgators that I've shown in some other
videos this one's a Wine Guard I'm not
actually sure they're made but they seem
just as common on the secondhand market
for about the same price I think I paid
$46 for this the guy had been asking
more but by the time we got together I
only had $46 in cash and he wanted it
out of his truck so I ended up with the
thing he even threw in this
little tripod base thing which I've now
dropped part of it on the ground and I
finally have a Dish Network satellite
receiver although it's pretty Rusty back
here so I don't know if this thing
actually Works mostly I just want to do
what I've done with some of these prior
dishes tear them apart make them into a
small radio telescope or microwave
imager and it looks basically the same
as all the other dishes I've played
around with it's got It's a little
reflector it's got the L&B it's got a
brain back here it's got stepper Motors
the brains on them are always very
different I have not seen a setup like
this before it's actually two boards so
it's got the main motherboard or micro
computer here that looks like it also
has the RF handling hardware and then
it's got a separate board that drives
the stepper Motors there are definitely
some solder pads where things weren't
added as an option for example we've got
a GPS module it's blank BT I don't know
if that's Bluetooth I I forget when
Bluetooth came out and the original
Bluetooth was pretty useless it only
went about 6 in so probably a good
reason to leave that out not sure what
this one's for this little dip switch
pad is how you select what satellites
it's looking for so when it does an auto
search it can look for Dish Network
Direct TV or express view up in Canada
now we do have an rj11 Jack which I've
played around with those a little bit on
some prior wiu guard units and this may
or may not be a Serial terminal
interface this uh pad here seems to be
something like a programming interface
it's got VCC ground clock td0 TDI TMS D
programming I don't really know what all
that means um if I was better at uh
programming or flashing ROMs or whatever
I bet I could use that but yeah I don't
know how to do anything with it right
now now it does seem to have a little
arm processor so again if I knew how to
hack stuff at more of a hardware level I
bet I could get in there and reflash
that to something else or update the
firmware but I don't really know what
I'm doing at that level of stuff in case
I completely destroy the thing I
actually have a second one here it's
been you know mildly run over by a truck
or hit by Falling squirrels or something
but I think the dish inside is just
fine yeah everything looks fine in there
now a viewer named Kyle Burgess actually
has one of these himself and he started
hacking around with it sent me some
suggestions on how to interface with
this thing using a kind of A Rat's Nest
of converters so uh USB to cereal seral
to rs45 to whatever this phone plug is
so I got some of those on Amazon I will
throw the link to all the equipment here
uh down in the description in case
anybody wants to duplicate this project
and then we're going to need a six pin
phone cord or a six conductor phone cord
I think this is technically rj25 I'm
basically trying to wire my terminal
block like so so uh from left to right
on the terminal block we've got wire
three wire 2 wire five wire 4 and wire
one and apparently wire six is just not
used or that's what Kyle said again I am
not um making up this wiring myself I
got this from a viewer huge thanks to
Kyle for figuring this out this is the
kind of thing I wouldn't be able to
figure out on my own so I Rely heavily
on other people uh to do some of this
hard work and then I just copy it I hope
that's correct I might have to correct
myself if I got it wrong here so that
phone cable goes into the console port
and then on the serial Port end the cat
is going to help immensely with this
project on the serial Port end we're
hooking up our serial 2 USB adapter all
right I kind of forgot that when you
give the dish power it starts going
through a little scan pattern looking
for a satellite signal uh so I had to
unplug my console cable here so it
wouldn't get tangled I think we're just
going to let it finish let it decide it
can't find the site and then once it's
not moving around anymore we can try to
interface with it on the computer one
reason I like the Wine Guard over the
dish tailgator is it's way way faster
you might remember how slow that dish
tailgator moved this thing just Zips
around I was hoping it would stop
eventually but this thing will not give
up it has gone back to the original step
of its um calibration process and it's
searching for the satellite all over
again so I think as long as this has
power it's going to keep moving around
remember kids part of the fun of hacking
weird satellite equipment is chasing
down a moving serial
part so I'm not actually getting this to
work I've tried various USB ports and
I'm pretty sure the first one there that
prolific technology is my adapter well
with Linux if it's not working right
away just try it again as root yes I
know everybody says to use OBS screen
recorder I still haven't gotten it to
work on Linux we're going to try this
again with a different B rate um Kyle
suggested a couple possible B rates for
this okay and we've got a console and I
typed a question mark and we have some
commands here so uh yeah it's looking
like we are now talking to the wiu guard
brain going to expand this window so I
can see all of these options okay we've
got some flash information some board
information we've got some uh default
commands looks like we can mess with
transponder settings in the dvb menu I'm
just typing Q to get back up into the
main menu so we're in the motor submenu
and this is looking a little bit more
like stuff I would want to use if I have
a computer controlling this aiming it at
different targets okay we've definitely
done something terrible here because
it's gotten all garbled again I think my
B rate is just a little bit wrong it
looks like our unit is actually named
how up there at the top so uh a device
named Hell that controls an antenna
definitely seems a little bit suspicious
but as long as it doesn't ask us to
replace the ae35 unit we should be fine
let's go ahead and look at this target
menu that is something else that Kyle
suggested first off we are going to home
all the motors so we'll tell it to do
H yeah that's really quick that is fun
so it looks like the valid elevation
range on this thing is from 21° to 73°
so it won't go a full 90° in elevation
but that's fine for most of my purposes
I don't need it to go completely
vertical I'm honestly so excited about
this project that I've gotten up while
it's still dark out so I can sneak in
some recreational python coding before
work is that weird the sun's coming up
and we're finally making some progress
on the python code um I've got it where
I can send a series of commands asouth
and elevation through a Python program
over the serial port and the dish will
move and it's actually a little bit
easier than the uh dish tailgator was
that one would only take one character
at a time this one you can actually send
strings uh you have to convert them into
bites first uh due to pie seral but
anyway you can send it command words
through Python and make the dish ju
stuff so when I pass it a command over
the serial port that seems to work fine
but the returns still come back
sometimes kind of
fractured yeah they come back like that
sometimes I don't know if it's my cheap
Prolific USB to serial cable I know
those have flaky chips and they don't
always work right it could be the ba
rate the only B rate that seems to work
on this is 57600 I can't seem to get it
to go up to 115200 now I dug around
behind the Linux box I'm using and it
looks like there is an actual physical
DB9 serial Port back there okay well
that's not working either because
apparently the physical serial Port
isn't active on this system and I don't
know how to activate it occasionally it
seems like it wants to go all the way
around instead of just incrementing back
the other way not quite sure why that is
but uh one more thing to iron out now
one thing I have talked about doing with
[Music]
this is to rip out the brain unit and
just replace all this with a raspberry
PT High let's move on we can drive the
dish with this little brain and some
serial Port commands we just can't read
the radio signal so let's try to read
the radio signal another
[Music]
way so I've hooked up a software to find
radio to the dish instead of the L&B and
we've just got a little l-band patch
antenna hot glued into the focal point
here so we're looking in the 1500 MHz
range we've got some pretty strong
signals here probably from cell phones
and whatnot I'm going to rotate this by
[Music]
90° and we definitely see some things
happening here with the signal we get a
much stronger area through part of that
rotation so our next step would be to
try to read the raw signal strength or
dbm of Whatever frequency we're tuned to
read the asouth and elevation that the
dish is reporting combine those things
together into an array and then into a
bit map so similar to what we were doing
with the tailgator before still have
some challenges with that I need to
figure out the code for actually reading
from the SDR into python I need to
figure out how to read this information
reliably that's coming over the serial
connection and mash that all together so
I've been poking at this for a couple
days and one thing I was wondering about
and Kyle actually confirmed is that the
dip switches here can all be disabled to
turn off that initial dish scan and
hopefully that'll save some time on
Startup so it won't spend 15 minutes
spinning around looking for nothing now
it does still do the initial calibration
so that it knows all of its
[Music]
limits that still sounds terrible to me
there there has to be a better way to
know the drive limit than just slamming
into it and grinding the gears like that
well it still seems to be searching for
a satellite so yeah turning all the dip
switches off doesn't seem to have
actually helped in this case as I
struggle through the python code to
interface with an rtlsdr it's very
entertaining to look up some of these
things and all of the results I find are
people I know that I didn't know were in
the same field so we've got uh Marcus
from up in Canada discussing stuff like
10 years ago on Reddit talking to some
other people I know from the Twin Cities
who were into this stuff I'm going to
have to contact some of them and see if
they remember any of this okay I think I
might have had my breakthrough moment
with how to get all the codes squash
together get it working and we are now
doing an initial scan so we're just
incrementing back and forth and then
incrementing the elevation so all the
data should be saved in the same format
as it was before so I should be able to
just run it through my same image
processing script and get a heat map out
some of the details and the labels will
be wrong but and that didn't work um
because of course it would have been too
easy if it just worked we're still just
running this inside my office so there
are no satellites in my office that I
know of so we're just getting background
radiation here we're not getting any
actual data all right we're going to
give this a shot outside we've got our
battery Bank our cyber deck our
miniature radio telescope it's December
late December in Minnesota but since
we've screwed up the climate so much
it's t-shirt weather we might never have
winter again this is great for doing
projects outside but I think I'm going
to regret this in uh August I'm going to
be hiding inside with the air
conditioning all right let's see if
it'll
go we're running into that problem again
where the position is kind of relative
so when it homes itself it figures out
where the limits are and if you give it
an asthma that's too close to where it
thinks it's going to run out of space it
just goes all the way back around and
it's it's not always accurate because
it'll run into other limits so yeah
we're going to have to figure that out a
little more too well the dish is
scanning but it's gotten itself off by
180° because it ran into the motor
limits on one side so um we may or may
not get anything successful out of this
there should still be a satellite in the
frequency I was looking at in this
direction but it might be closer to the
Horizon now you notice it is still uh
stepping one degree at a time and I put
in a delay in the python code for a
third of a second that seems to be
enough where it eliminates the shake or
the wiggle of the dish so by the time
the dish starts to backlash or bounce
back it's got the next steper command so
it seems to be moving a little more
smoothly I couldn't do it in a
continuous sweep because the rtlsdr
couldn't keep up and the dish Motors
wouldn't actually keep up with the
scanning so we did have to introduce
some artificial delays it means
everything's a little slower but it's
still running faster than the old
tailgator so that's a plus all that
riding around and crashing into the
motor limits maybe stressing out the
belt and that doesn't bode well for
long-term survivability of this design
so here's what our initial scan looked
like pretty much useless it's still just
background radiation we're not getting
anything uh clearly defined on here um
yeah it it keeps crashing into the motor
limits those hard limits this doesn't
seem to actually have limit switches it
just grinds the gears and that's how it
knows that it can't go any further and
it does that every time it gets power
that is not because of something doing
that is how this is designed it is
designed to find its limits by grinding
its gears so that might be what's called
planned obsolesence after a year or two
of having this on your RV it's destroyed
itself you have to go into Wine Guard
and buy another one it's definitely the
cheap model speaking of which the stupid
thing just rebooted itself shut down in
the middle of my scan and is now doing
the recalibration thing where it grinds
the gears all over the place
so yeah we're basically just tangling
all the cables now so we've got this nvs
menu menu which I suspect might be
nonvolatile storage or nonvolatile
settings something like that now the one
that I'm interested in the
most is disable tracker procedure so I
think I want to see if I can kill that I
went into another submenu here for the
OS and you
can get a list of processes right
and that targeting one is suspended
currently I'm not sure if targeting is
the same as tracker but that's
definitely one I'm interested in turning
off cuz I think that's what initiates
that default scan that wastes 10 minutes
every time this thing turns on so let's
try editing number 20 for disabling the
tracker and we're going to
say
true save these values I don't know
where it's saving it to apparently
there's some nonvolatile memory chip on
the
board all right we are definitely
hanging during the boot process um
normally by now there would be more boot
messages scrolling past well
unfortunately it turns out disabling
that tracker process also disables the
motor calibration and you can't do that
manually from the OS interface or at
least I couldn't find a way to do it
when I try to home the motors it just
grinds against the gears so we're back
to doing the whole song and dance where
every time it Powers up it has to
calibrate all the limits by slamming
into them as hard as possible and then
go through the whole little dance of
looking for a satellite we are now
performing a CAT
scan since this one runs so fast I did a
quick self-portrait of myself sitting on
the floor in lb band and we can
immediately see there's some meshing
issues or some offset issues so
the clockwise scan is not quite matching
up with the counterclockwise scan I
massaged the data a little bit I found
an old script that fixes that offset
error or at least attempts to this seems
a little bit cleaner and apparently this
is what I look like in the L band so
this is what I currently have for a feed
I've got my little PVC pipe I've foil
taped around that to keep any stray
radio signals from getting in the back
here so all the signal going to my feed
should be coming in the front of the
dish bouncing off the secondary
reflector and then coming back here
currently I have this hooked up to a
sawbird goes L and filter I'm trying to
do another scan here but now it's
starting to rain in December so we'll
throw the lid on this thing and we'll
throw a box over the computer well now
the bias te stopped working on my rtlsdr
so this never fails just when I think
I'm making progress on a project like
this something simple just stops working
okay I think it's finally working um I I
don't know what happened I don't know
how I fixed it I just tried it multiple
times and it started working again so
we've thrown everything into protective
Dome so we have the dish in its original
Dome we have the power supply under a
big pan we have the laptop under
whatever that is I don't even know what
that is and we've left space around the
dome for the cables so I'm going to run
inside while the camera is still semi-
dry and we'll see if this works or just
wastes the rest of my day now regular
viewers might ask hey didn't you get a
whole geodesic rate oh so you could do
your radio astronomy and satellite
experiments in an enclosed space Without
Rain on it yes but we still have not set
that up for some reason we thought it
would be cold and snowing in the winter
so we didn't prep the ground we didn't
start installing uh the panels for that
geodesic dome we figured we'd do it in
Spring but yes I am planning to put that
up as soon as I can get helpers to come
out and work on it and then we can run
some of our radio science experiments
with an even bigger dish inside the
cover of the Dome so so I've done a few
scans now and I'm still getting
basically nothing but static just
background noise when I hacked
everything together like this it's a
little bit hard to track down exactly
what the problem is I've brought it back
inside to play with the sand or more
specifically Wi-Fi using my ham it down
down converter so we can go uh a little
bit higher range than the rtlsdr can
usually see and we're going to try to
look at 2.4
GHz so here's the Wi-Fi environment in
my office on a relatively quiet Channel
let's try a more active Wi-Fi Channel
doesn't look like much I've tried a
couple feed options so far I have not
gotten anything to work at the back of
the dish I think it's just too
constricted in there we can't fit a wide
enough wire to pick up anything other
than really uh small wavelength signals
so it's designed for 12 GHz 12 GHz fits
down in there to a small receiver feed a
bigger receiver feed for lower
frequencies like like L band just
doesn't work in there so we've uh rubber
banded another feed on the front and I
am actually seeing some signals from the
go satellite with this not strong enough
to decode but maybe strong enough to
show up on a heat map when you're
outside scanning for satellites like
this it's important to have all the best
technical components possible such as
structural milk crates and since my
cyber deck has a tendency to tip over
backwards a support
brick so in this one we get some signal
at the bottom which I think is actually
my garden fence I think we're just
getting Reflections we've moved some
things around we're no longer getting
much from the fence we are getting some
stuff up in the sky but we're getting it
smeared across the entire Sky it's not a
point signal in here and I think that's
because of the way my feed is set up
anytime it's at the correct elevation I
think it's getting a signal it's getting
side lobes all right we've tried this
again uh changing a few more things
around this is starting to look a little
bit more more like a picture I've got
some semi- recognizable features in here
I think I can see some of the trees in
my yard so we've got another picture out
this is a different frequency yeah they
they kind of came out almost opposite so
I'm getting uh more active emissions
from my trees in the uh 1694 MHz and
more from the sky and less from the
trees in the 1500 MHz it's I'm very
confused I'm not getting really good
enough pictures to quite tell what's
going on this one is interesting not
because we got a good result because we
didn't but because I got that streak of
high radio strength white up in the
upper left I think that's right when I
was running the microwave back in the
house so we're getting some spous
microwave signals from the microwave
oven in the house approximately on this
frequency band and it's kind of wiping
out our signal this just goes to show
how hard it is to pick up some of these
signals with a very small dish with a
fairly wide focal area it's getting
interference from all over we're going
to go back to my little hacked GPS patch
antenna this is just a regular GPS
antenna I've gotten into it I've
desoldered the filter so it'll get more
of the L band it'll amplify that this
runs off a regular bias we're going to
slap that right at the focal point here
maybe put some foil tape over it to try
to cut down on outside signals and give
this one more shot before we throw it
back in the garage the other problem
with that big feed on the front is that
it wouldn't fit inside the plastic
rayome and yes it's raining again so
we've got all the covers back on our
equipment we've got the cyber deck
hiding out there underneath that big uh
aluminum pan thing so the protective
dome for this dish also doubles as an
exciting Cat rocking
toy Donnie jumped in there himself and I
don't know if he's going to leave
again are you having fun in there
sir
Donnie what are you
doing what are you doing are you eating
that don't eat
it you're a little
monster so I'm still having this really
annoying offset issue where the
clockwise rotation scans are off by some
amount from the counterclockwise scans
and I still can't figure out what's
going on with it I've checked all my
math which honestly could still be wrong
I've tried changing from SDR read
samples to SDR bites to try to eliminate
any buffering I've tried putting in
delays I've tried pre-reading the SDR
data uh it seems like the SDR data is
always lagging behind the Dish location
by a little bit so I've been scanning
with the dish across up back up across
up back Etc um the way I fixed this same
issue with the old tailgator was to just
scan across go up go all the way back
scan across go up go all the way back so
I'm basically just scanning in One
Direction every time I don't want to do
that with this because I want to figure
out this back and forth scanning method
I want to use that method on my next
iteration of this project with the
bigger dish because I don't want to just
have to drive the dish back every time
that's going to waste a lot of time it's
going to put extra wear and tear on the
motors i' like to be able to figure this
out so that I can use it in the next
project we're out here yet again trying
this again I keep saying this is my last
try and then like a sucker I keep coming
out here and doing it again we've got
the very latest code uh we've got 3
crate stacked up so hopefully the dish
gets less reflection off of the fence in
the garden here um yeah we're trying uh
little bit different feed again little
bit different
frequency lot of traffic noise in the
background all right after screwing
around with this for almost 2 weeks it
finally works we actually have a picture
of a satellite or at least a picture of
the radio frequency coming from a
satellite and this is finally
recognizable it's not 100% perfect we
still have some choppy edges but we've
got the same signal pattern that we were
getting before with Ku band except now
we're in the L band so this is I believe
inm Marat F3 let's push my luck and see
if we can get any other satellites this
way still no luck for goes east we just
get a very weird interference pattern
with that one so it turns out part of
the reason I got this interference
pattern is that I was being too clever
for my own good again I was having
issues with SDR read samples buffering
and lagging behind the actual array
right so I found there's this SDR read
bites and I thought oh that sounds good
it doesn't buffer it just overwrites
itself so I'll use that one and that
worked once and then every run after
that gives me this interference patterns
now this one might not look like much
but I think it's really cool because we
can actually see the orbits of multiple
GPS satellites because the dish moves a
little slower than the satellites move
across the sky it's catching each
satellite multiple times in its orbit
I'll draw an overlay here showing the
path of each satellite as viewed from
the ground here and these are in what's
called a medium earth orbit so they're
higher in altitude than a low earth
orbit like the old Noah 18 Noah 19 and
Noah 15 satellites now they are lower in
altitude than a geosynchronous orbit
like inm Marat or go this is an aridium
satellite it's one of about 60 lower
thit communication satellites and they
have an orbit that looks very straight
from the ground going north to south or
south to North this one just happened to
be going south to North as the dish was
scanning from the southern Horizon up so
we caught much of its pass as kind of
this long Blobby streak we didn't get
the whole thing because the satellite
was moving faster than the dish so it
ran away from the dish and kind of
dropped off the screen here but we did
get quite a bit of signal from it okay I
think we're going to wrap up this video
we are going to call it a day or like
two weeks now that I've been working on
this I'd like to work on a little more
I'd like to get some prettier pictures
I'd like to fix some of the indexing
issues clean up the code add some more
features try different feeds on this but
all of that is going to have to wait for
another video because we probably
already have like 3 hours of raw footage
and I'm going to have to cut that down
to some reasonable size I never did get
around to putting a Raspberry Pi on here
again that's going to have to wait for
another video stay tuned for that um
eventually some of that might happen
might not I don't know but we do have
plenty of other satellite projects we
have plenty of other dish projects and
as I've mentioned before this was kind
of a stepping stone to the next size up
where we're going to try to use either
that 30-in dish I have or jump up to
some of the cand dishes and be able to
use those with motors uh use some of the
same code or similar code to do imaging
with those and then we'll have
potentially more of a real radio
telescope more of a real satellite
ground station just as with the dish
tailgator project I will throw all of my
half ass code onto GitHub for everyone
to critique and tear apart or possibly
even use themselves although just like
last time I can't guarantee I'll respond
to PLL requests because half the time I
don't understand what other people are
trying to do with their code so thanks
to everyone who sat through this entire
video no matter how long it ended up I
don't think it'll be 3 hours but we
might be over 20 minutes at this point
anyway thanks for watching we'll see you
next
time
関連動画をさらに表示
Automated Weather Satellite Ground Station (Mostly Made From Trash)
How does Starlink Satellite Internet Work?📡☄🖥
Pengenalan Global Positioning System (GPS) / Sistem Pemosisi Global | #gps #perpetaan #sig
SpaceX Starlink - Project Kuiper Tests 1000 Dishes
Transmission Media (Wireless)
Cable TV vs Satellite TV | Which Is Best for You?
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)