3 ms·

Show HN: EZ-TRAK Satellite Hand Tracking Suite

41 points by benbojangles 1y ago

EZ-TRAK is a comprehensive satellite tracking suite designed for amateur radio operators, weather satellite enthusiasts, and educational purposes. The software interfaces with an EZ-TRAK BLE device which is mounted to a lightweight foldable portable satellite dish antenna to hand track satellites in real-time, providing azimuth and elevation data for optimal antenna positioning.

wkat4242 1y ago
Really cool project! What kind of foldable dish do you use?
- benbojangles 1y ago
  it's called a farabrella kinda a diy thing made from faraday fabric weighs about 350gr for a 1m diameter dish. They are available on ebay.
  - wkat4242 1y ago
    Thanks I'll check it out!
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
ooterness 1y ago
When you say "hand track", you're not kidding. I was expecting something with motors controlled by a person, but this is literally picking up the dish and pointing it by muscle power. Back of envelope, a 1 meter parabolic antenna at 1.7 GHz gives about 12 degree beam width (FWHM), which is what makes this practical. Very clever.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
Liftyee 1y ago
Neat project! I've always wanted to try downlinking data from satellites because it just seems like magic. I wonder what sort of reactions you'd get from setting this up in a backpack/cyberdeck and walking around pointing a satellite dish at the sky.
- benbojangles 1y ago
  My garden neighbours think I'm up to no good and probably think I'm a spy
hiatus 1y ago
Am I missing something or is this repo devoid of the code mentioned in the README?
- benbojangles 1y ago
  I don't think it's being given away for free sorry about that
  - hiatus 1y ago
    Aren't you the author? What are you showing HN here? There are special rules for Show HN. > Please make it easy for users to try your thing out, ideally without barriers such as signups or emails. You'll get more feedback that way. > If your work isn't ready for users to try out, please don't do a Show HN. Once it's ready, come back and do it then. Don't post landing pages or fundraisers. https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
    - benbojangles 1y ago
      what are you trying to say exactly. Can you be more specific?
      - opello 1y ago
        While I'm not sure it runs afoul of the Show HN rules linked, it may given the referenced repository[1] isn't public. The linked repository from this post[2] and the YouTube video[3] might be sufficient. But I agree it's a little disappointing to not see the code behind the demo. [1] https://github.com/benb0jangles/EZ-TRAK.git https://github.com/benb0jangles/EZ-TRAK.git [2] https://github.com/benb0jangles/EzTrak https://github.com/benb0jangles/EzTrak [3] https://youtu.be/2A2lW0ONNiE https://youtu.be/2A2lW0ONNiE
        benbojangles 1y ago
        there are demo versions added now
lotyrin 1y ago
I guess I'm just too far down the motion-capture rabbit hole, but I first interpreted this phrase as "tracking hands by satellite" rather than "tracking satellites by hand". I think purely linguistically (without any context that it's going to be easier for a hand to track a satellite than a satellite to track a hand) it's likely to be interpreted that way, also.

41 points by benbojangles 1y ago

wkat4242 1y ago

Really cool project! What kind of foldable dish do you use?

benbojangles 1y ago
it's called a farabrella kinda a diy thing made from faraday fabric weighs about 350gr for a 1m diameter dish. They are available on ebay.
- wkat4242 1y ago
  Thanks I'll check it out!
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]

ooterness 1y ago

When you say "hand track", you're not kidding. I was expecting something with motors controlled by a person, but this is literally picking up the dish and pointing it by muscle power. Back of envelope, a 1 meter parabolic antenna at 1.7 GHz gives about 12 degree beam width (FWHM), which is what makes this practical. Very clever.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

Liftyee 1y ago

Neat project! I've always wanted to try downlinking data from satellites because it just seems like magic. I wonder what sort of reactions you'd get from setting this up in a backpack/cyberdeck and walking around pointing a satellite dish at the sky.

benbojangles 1y ago
My garden neighbours think I'm up to no good and probably think I'm a spy

hiatus 1y ago

Am I missing something or is this repo devoid of the code mentioned in the README?

benbojangles 1y ago
I don't think it's being given away for free sorry about that
- hiatus 1y ago
  Aren't you the author? What are you showing HN here? There are special rules for Show HN. > Please make it easy for users to try your thing out, ideally without barriers such as signups or emails. You'll get more feedback that way. > If your work isn't ready for users to try out, please don't do a Show HN. Once it's ready, come back and do it then. Don't post landing pages or fundraisers. https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
  - benbojangles 1y ago
    what are you trying to say exactly. Can you be more specific?
    - opello 1y ago
      While I'm not sure it runs afoul of the Show HN rules linked, it may given the referenced repository[1] isn't public. The linked repository from this post[2] and the YouTube video[3] might be sufficient. But I agree it's a little disappointing to not see the code behind the demo. [1] https://github.com/benb0jangles/EZ-TRAK.git https://github.com/benb0jangles/EZ-TRAK.git [2] https://github.com/benb0jangles/EzTrak https://github.com/benb0jangles/EzTrak [3] https://youtu.be/2A2lW0ONNiE https://youtu.be/2A2lW0ONNiE
      - benbojangles 1y ago
        there are demo versions added now

lotyrin 1y ago

I guess I'm just too far down the motion-capture rabbit hole, but I first interpreted this phrase as "tracking hands by satellite" rather than "tracking satellites by hand". I think purely linguistically (without any context that it's going to be easier for a hand to track a satellite than a satellite to track a hand) it's likely to be interpreted that way, also.