Discussions

Antenna Tracking using Mission Planner and Maestro

Posted by FPVGenie on November 16, 2013 at 8:08am

Guys,

I wanted to dabble into setting up an antenna tracker. Got myself the ServoCity Tube servos, for Pan and Tilt. Assembled it all with a Polulu Maestro and got the interface working. Followed the article here :

http://vps.oborne.me/gcs/Tracker.html

Few things I couldnt figure out and would be glad if someone can point me in the correct direction:

-- Any way I can set a minimum radiius for the Antenna Tracking to start working ? Dont want the tracker to go round and round when I am flying close by or doing passes around me.

-- For the Tilt servo, I have a 180 degree servo travel. The article above says that the neutral should be set facing 45degrees .. In that case though I cannot utilize the full 180 degree travel . Can only get 90 at the most. So my question here is, can the tilt center be set to 0 degrees ie facing straight up and 90 tilt on either side ?

I think thats most of it for now . Would appreciate some help.

Thanks !

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antenna, maestro, mission, planner, tracker

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Replies

Shawn Mahoney October 17, 2016 at 8:56pm

How difficult is it to set up the maestro MP tracker using the Dragon Link V3 to transmit telemetry? I'm comparing all the options for antenna tracking and I'm open to input from everyone. Thanks. Oh I'm using this for fixed wing with APM.
Developer

Michael Oborne January 12, 2014 at 3:18pm

the next mp version will have beta support for a 180, 180 servo setup.

I actualy think this is less effecient however, as you have 2 crossover point, instead of just 1 with a 360 pan servo.

ie if you fly around yourself, the tracker needs to do a full 180 degree pan, for 2 points of the circle.

whereas a 360 degrees needs to do a single 360 pan at only 1 point.
- This reply was deleted.
  - David Pawlak February 11, 2014 at 5:52am
    
    I just bought from the pololu website. www.pololu.com
    
    W/ credit card, shipped via Fedex got here real fast (I'm in Chile). Bought 4 of them to make it worth the shipping. They should have cheaper shipping rates, if you don't need express.
- David Pawlak > Michael Oborne February 11, 2014 at 3:47am
  
  Do I have to have my quad connected before I can see any activity on the Pololu Maestro?
  
  I followed the instructions listed in the the web page. Everything works fine with the Maestro control program, all configuration saved... (Power off and power back on, and I have the values that I pre-configured)
  
  But I plug into Mission Planner, (without my quad connected) and no joy. It comes to initial settings, but doesn't move from there. If I adjust offset for instance. I set home position manually.
  
  What am I missing?