Arduino Antenna Rotator

“After 5 years of operation of the antenna HexBeam I decided to remove the antenna from the chimney and put on a 10m mast in the garden. In the old mast remained FM antenna and the old rotor AR303 controlled by the previously described controller on Atmega 8. For the filming of the antenna HexBeam a new mast constructed rotor on the basis of the old worm reducer. A reading element of the antenna is built-in pulse sensor rotor. For the construction of the driver used the Arduino UNO board and display 2 * 16. The controller can operate in two modes, manual and automatic. Manual control is done by asking the azimuth from the potentiometer on the front panel and automatic control is to communicate with your computer in minutes of Yaesu GS-232 at a speed of 9600 Bd and works with all programs logującymi.

Below is a block diagram of connections with a few external components. All modules and components purchased on the purchasing portal known in the total price below 100pln. The driver power supply voltage 13.8V with the same power supply as TRX. Because I used the engine 24V applied the additional adjustable voltage converters 12> 24VDC, which can be omitted for 12V motors. Switching on and change the direction of rotation of the motor is carried out by the relay module. Antenna location every time you turn off the power stored in the memory of the microcontroller and read after power-up.When the driver turned off the rotor should be locked mechanically shake due to wind gusts. Elements D1 and C1 accumulate the energy needed to sustain the operation of the controller and store parameters into memory EEPROM after disconnecting the power supply. The controller by the voltage divider R3 and R4 and analog input A1 supervises the state of the supply voltage of 12V and immediately stores the location of the antenna in the memory during power failure. Possible LCD backlight should be done from a separate circuit + 5V instead of + 5V voltage Arduino board. Otherwise, the memory function may not work properly. RESET switch mounted on the rear of the unit should be normally open and switched only for programming Arduino . Otherwise , if we do not receive proper communication programs logującymi. The pulses from the sensor rotor are served on pin 2 of the module Arduino. I used an inductive sensor M8 PNP but can be used reed switch, halotron or another sensor. The pulses are counted in the interrupt. In the program code in line 168 to calculate a brave right to the rotor and the total number of pulses for a full rotation of 360 degrees.