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The drive belts arrived and fit correctly.

A project log for Satellite Antenna Rotator Mechanical System

This is the Satellite Antenna Rotator mechanical system for my step motor driver board project.

bharbourBharbour 12/10/2015 at 03:160 Comments

The drive belts arrived today and everyghing fits as is was supposed to. I was concerned that the azimuth belt was going to hit the elevation pulley, as there is very little space in there, but there is 1/8" of clearance as the belt passes the elevation pulley. The home sensors with cables are now mounted to their brackets. While I had the motors out for attaching belts, I put some heat shrink tube over the wires which will keep them much more orderly than the flood of wire that was there when I took the pictures.

The next steps are to fabricate the PCB mount brackets and finish the endcaps. A cover for the PCB area needs to get fabricated too. I haven't decided whether to hinge it or just screw it down. Holes for 3 connectors need to get machined into one of the endcaps, a 9 pin D connector for the serial data connection, a round 8 pin connector for the antenna Theta motor and home sensor, and a 2 pin round connector for DC power in.

I am still undecided whether to leave the aluminum raw or to powder coat the housing. It would look a lot more finished if it were powder coated, but it would show scratches and heavy handling more.

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