A good antenna holder system is a must for the experiments. This is the first prototype of a very basic rotator, made out of wood plate and simple components all avaiable at Ebay or in the internet. The design files are listed below also.
The final rotator.
The antenna rotator device is called Azimuth Positioner in the literature, since it will move the antenna only in azimuth direction. The rotator is built with stepper motor and an “XMC1300 Stepper Shield”, which is capable to drive motors in full/half/microstep mode. The kit with an arduino Uno board is a good combination if you need a simple but reliable stepper driver. The motor commands are sent via the virtual serial port of the arduino board.
Power Supply is capable to deliver 3.2A at 24V. I recoomed to use similar power supplies, since you can change your motor later to a stronger one if necesarry. The 5V for the arduino board and future peripheries is delivered by an adjustable DC-DC converter from ebay. Set the converter to 6.5-7 V since the arduino board has a5V LDO integrated.
The diffirent circuits of the rotor
Hall sensor board with 3 x 3 x 3mm magnet mounted on the rotating plate
| Position | MPN | Manufacturer | Distributor | Order No. | Note |
| M1 | KITXMC1300IFX
A000066 |
Infineon | Mouser | 726-KITXMC1300 | Stepper Motor Control Shield with IFX9201 & XMC1300 |
| M2 | 9201TOBO1 | Arduino | Mouser | 782-A000066 | Development Boards & Kits – AVR Arduino Uno Rev 3 |
| M3 | LRS-75-24 | Mean Well | Mouser | 709-LRS75-24 | Switching Power Supplies Switching Power Supplies 76.8W 24V 3.2A |
| M4 | – | – | Guangzhou Manyi
Trading Co.Ltd. |
ebay link | 5A 5V 12V/24V DC-DC Step down Spannungsregler Abwärtswandler Buck Modul |
| M5 | – | – | MissBirdler | amazon link | MissBirdler Hall Effekt Transistor Sensor LM393 für Arduino Raspberry Pi |
| Z1 | – | – | Polulu | ebay link | Pololu Universal Aluminum Mounting Hub for 6mm Shaft, M3 Holes (2-Pack) 1999 |
| Z2 | – | – | Onpira | amazon link | Aluminum rotating plate, 120mm. ALU Drehteller 13 Größen von 120 bis 1000mm (Aussendurchmesser: 120mm;) |
| Z3 | – | – | Smagnon | amazon link | Magnets 3x3x3mm, N45.
5 xWürfelmagnete 3,0 x 3,0 x 3,0 mm N45 Nickel. |
The antenna holder is made of a camera stand. On the bottom side it has thread which makes it comfortable to mount. I found it since a long time on Ebay but similar can be ordered anytime. It also allows to set the elevation of the antenna. In order to connect the thread to the a small 3D part has to be printed. Download the STL, and IPT (Inventor) files here.
The 3D printed holder mounted with screws.
rotartor mechanical design: rotator-baseplate-drawing.dwg
I found it useful to size the main units to fit in to a transport box. In Germany the hardware stores are selling such wood boxes (e.g. W:40 x L:30 x H:23 cm) with covers. The laser cut plate has W:36 x L:26.5 cm, so there is space for a cable and easy removing. It also fits to “euro-boxes”.
