Satran Satellite Tracking Antenna (opens in new tab)

Specs will be released later on since its still in prototyping phase. Satnogs looks sturdy and has a similar control board but seems more complicated. My goal is to offer complete kits for 200USD (shipping and customs not included) but if you can 3D-print the plastic parts yourself you'll more or less cut the price in half.

Thanks for the feedback! It's still under development so more specs will be released later on.

"Unfortunately" the entire design is based around ESP8266 to make it cheap and easy for people to modify so wifi is the current option but if there's interest for other alternatives, anything is possible.

Since the rotator uses simple HTTP GET queries for the azimuth and elevation, it should be possible to make it compatible with other ethernet enabled positioning software.

I thought equatorial mount is much simpler than Alt-Az for astronomy, hence why the earliest large telescopes used them. All you needed was to align the mount correctly, and then a simple clock can run the movement.

Alt-Az requires a computer to tell the dials where to go at every step of the way and are very non-linear dependent on absolute position on the sky.

Also Alt-Az gives a much more compact design. So as long as you have the computer to control it, isn't Alt-Az preferable?

Correct its and "Az-El rotator" intended for amateur radio and was not designed with any other purposes in mind, but this is just the first release. Main objectives were price and simplicity. But I hope to get a good enough response to release other versions in the future, especially a much tougher all-metal weatherproof version.

Just add an equatorial wedge. Search terms: "DIY equatorial wedge"

The accuracy is designed to be approx 1 degree. The current microprocessor code only handles full degrees. But since I hope to get enough traction to afford developing upgrades, using encoders and higher gear ratios could give a higher precision.

The positioning and calculating of TLEs happens in the android app. Hopefully I can also offer drivers for other software like Gpredict later on.

These will probably be released at the end of this month I think, just have some tweaking left to do. I'd estimate that all the files take approx 30-40 hours in total to print with 0.4mm nozzle, 0.25mm layer height and 60mm/s main print speed on a standard 3D-printer with a 20x20cm bed.

You can visit my website and leave your email at the very bottom, and you'll get a reminder when I release something or start selling the kits/electronics.