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Old bicycle wheels

A project log for The tiny radio telescope

Ever wanted a meteor detector? Interested in radio telescopes? This project is for you

paul-scottPaul Scott 09/25/2015 at 15:520 Comments

The sterling gentlemen at our local cycle shop (Linden Cycle) donated 2 old bicycle wheels for our project. They also threw in a cog and a derailleur sprocket for a spiffy 3:1 gear ratio.

The idea is to weld the spoked aluminium wheel to the lazy susan turntable top, with the big cog in between. A bicycle chain to a stepper motor will then rotate it, giving up a pretty sweet azimuth system, controlled by a stepper driver and a microcontroller.

The altitude system will work similarly, just a touch worried about getting enogh holding torque for it to be useful!

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