Tracking Antenna Initial Concept W23

Owned by Daniel Puratich
Last updated: 2024-05-20
2 min read

Status: Active

Owner: Nolan & Hardy

 

Project not being supported by EE at this time due to lack of competition criticality.

EFS is leading this effort due to a lack of availability from EE & Mech and lack of priority for this project.

 

External Links:

 

2/17/2023 Arch Meeting EE Notes:

  • Begin with modular solution then as things are validated move to a more integrated solution.

  • We can eliminate slip ring entirely and rotate the entire sensor head leaving the tower itself stationary and without hardware. This is because all the signals are transferred wirelessly and the towers can be made somewhat tall.

  • Also be sure the servos/motors we select support multiple rotations - EE will select the motors here!

  • Conformal coating all boards.

  • We need to get as much height as possible on the sensor head for RF stuff

    • Omni directional things at the top spaced out as much as possible

    • Primary directional antenna goes on the middle of the sensor

  • We need an hour battery life for sure so fill sensor head with battery stuff if it can be supported

  • A Li-Po will sit in the sensor head. Connectors following: 2023-02-11 - Connector Clarifications

  • ^ Some concept I drew up

 

The purpose of the tracking antenna is to always orient an antenna on the groundstation tower towards the drone in the sky to maximize the performance and range of the RF link between the groundstation radio and the drone in the air.

This is done by using motors and a mechanical system to orient the antenna. A battery (3s to 6s) is attached to the tower and will be used to power the tower (power is not received from another source).

As a result, this PCBA should be designed to buck the power from the batteries down to the voltage levels required by the board (for sure 12V and 5V, maybe some other voltages). This tower will also require some voltage sense to keep track of battery life.

This board is also responsible for driving/controlling the motors on the tower and orienting them towards the drone.

This PCB will also require some sort of communication/feedback system to know where to point the antenna (requires some sort of MCU).

This board will also provide power to the ELRS Gemini board (likely 5V).

 

 

 

 

 

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