[pomwtin]

Hy there!

This is my first bigger project in this field and I decided to share it, so it may help or inspire someone to build his/her own.

If interest will be big enough, i will make exact documentation of final product, free to use 😉

How it started

One day I tried to do my first war-drive and so I scanned whole village I live in- 106 APs showed+ 8 hidden ones were indicated, but not displayed.
Having house on highest point in village, I decided to do some tests.
I scanned upper floor wih auso36nh- monitor mode, and noticed that if I put wifi card out of roof-window it can find APs which are on the other side of village, and this made me think- if I get directional antenna... then what? :)
So I bought ALFAs AGA 2424T and made another scan. It could see almost every AP in direction that roof-window allowed me to turn it.

This is how I decided for this project- High placed, cheap and easy to controll antenna grid.

The most important things needed

-Not to mention, we will need directional antenna, wireless card and quality antenna cable (with low signal loose).

-For rotation we need two rotors (vertical and horizontal rotation), which can be remotely or wired controlled- I decided for cheapest I could get in resonable time, so I bought “AntennaCraft TDP2 TV Antenna Rotor Automatic Outdoor Rotator ”.
It can be found on ebay, here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271419644721?ssP...1497.l2649

-Steel- 4mm steel plates and dia. 48mm tube with 4mm wall thickness (this can be addjusted for your construction calculations/ different mounting techniques)

-Welding aparat

-Sliding bearings

These are just major things, all of others can be found below on pictures, video or description ;)

Blueprint

So this was first idea I got (click to enlarge):

[img]http://shrani.si/t/1s/ka/2tb8FltS/3/20140926232051.jpg[/img]

Meanwhile working, I made some improvements, for which I do not have blueprint- you can see the differences between this blueprint and reality below.

Realisation

Grid is made of upper and lower part:
Upper part is holding antenna and rotating it up and down, lower part is holding upper part and rotating it left and right.

It is important for rotators only to rotate and NOT to bear whole construction- this way they will serve you longer.

Problem with this kind of rotators:
Only one diameter of pin is right one for it to be centric. With all other in supported range rotation is eccentric, so some kind of eccentric clutch is needed- I used hard rubber tube (eccenter is minimal, ca 0,8mm so this solution is acceptable).
Manufacturer does not provide information of which diameter can be used for ideal centric rotation.

Lower part:

You can notice two holders- upper and lower (lower is near to upper part rotator).
The upper one have additional carriers as it will hold whole weight of upper part and horizontal forces, the lower one will only be competing against horizontal forces.
On top of both will be sliding bearings which will hold upper part.

click to enlarge:

[img]http://shrani.si/t/1e/ll/FboDkoS/1/20140926231436.jpg[/img] [img]http://shrani.si/t/3q/2D/41jJo0Z7/1/20140926231506.jpg[/img]

Upper part:

This is dynamic part of grid. The whole “T” construction and antenna pin (silver thingie) is able to rotate.

click to enlarge:

[img]http://shrani.si/t/3Y/Kr/38tudVl0/20140926231300.jpg[/img] [img]http://shrani.si/t/1T/Tb/3zMzcx5k/20140926231210.jpg[/img] [img]http://shrani.si/t/3o/yn/1WxA1e4s/20140926231203.jpg[/img] [img]http://shrani.si/t/39/2z/1JXcNoLO/20140926231146.jpg[/img] [img]http://shrani.si/t/O/hG/2LTSErmZ/20140926231130.jpg[/img]

Upper part test of up-down rotor:

Today I mannaged to come so far I could test upper part up-down rotation.
The tools on antenna pin represents antenna (right side) and counter-mass/counter-momentum (left side).

As you can see in video attached below, test was succesful :D





In plan:

finish rotation construction
Sensor placement for critical positions
Galvanization protection (Zinc)
Rain protection for rotor on upper part (it is not mounted as instructed by manufacturer- horisontal instead of vertical position)

This is as far as I got with project.
As soon as I will have some spare tame and mannage to make progress, I will keep you informed.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask :)

Regards 🤝

[Mad76e]

I think I have misjudged you a little. I got out of bed just to give you 3+ This is hacking at its best.. To think outside the box. Very very good

[pomwtin]

Thank you for comment :)

And it will get even better 👍

[Mad76e]

Hmma. Btw, i got a friend that has a satelite dish connected to something like that with a box under hos TV to controll the rotation to the sat-dish.. so i wonder if there's some kind of memory control, to get back to that specific AP (Example)

[pomwtin]

Yes it is possible, but this cheap rotators does not have this option, I will have to help myself here with wardrive map i made before
With some better ones you get PC software, which have a lot of functions.. with these two I got only stickers to note where channels (APs) are :P
But hey, they are affordable and carry out the needed task :D

[Twhitten]

VERY GOOD!!!! This is something like I use for testing towers for the WISP I worked for.
I did the same with the TV rotor, but not with the V/H changer. Of course I always knew what polarity the tower was so that was a non issue. We used outdoor POE radios so cable loss was not a issue either.
We do have boom trucks though with a mount welded on the bucket so I would just mount my dish in correct polarity raise the bucket and sit in the truck in the A/C in summer or heater in the winter with my laptop and do my testing the easy way. When you are out there by yourself for a week straight of testing a new tower this makes it SOO much easier.
Glad to see someone else thinks outside the box like I do, you are pretty awesome, if I could give you points I sure would for this.

[Rogers Communications]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhMuo-76uE4

This is my Parabolic setup.. control box is inside!

[PinkPanther]

Pomwtin, awesome project man! Your beads look better than mine. Glad to see dedicated people with ingenuity! Do you plan to make altitude adjustable?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhMuo-76uE4

This is my Parabolic setup.. control box is inside!

Old LTD everytime. 😁

[sp3ctrum]

This is really nice, great job for real. Need to see more posts like this!

[pomwtin]

Twhitten thank you for reply and explanation. Seems to me like you have access to some very interesting equipement 😉

wpginterceptor nice setup 👍
I have one question (since you have only left-right rotation)... is it a problem not to have up-down rotation of antenna (one like shown on my video), or the signal gain isn´t worth the problem setting up another rotator?

PinkPanther thank you 🙂
Just to be sure that i understood correctly, by altitude did you mean tube length? if so, then yes. But it will only be adjustable by hand, used for storing and setting back up the antenna (meanwhile winter, storms etc...).
I do not think that lets say 10° offset (caused by targeting AP from higher ground) from polarisation position will affect communication with AP so much, so i think there is no need for altitude remote control.
Please tell if i am wrong, there is still time to fix this 😉

Gator- thank you! Will try to do my best 👍

[Rogers Communications]

it doesn't make much of a difference up and down. if you wanted to do 2 for up and down etc, you would need a better rotator, more heavy duty, to handle the extra weight! and they do make them

[PinkPanther]

PinkPanther thank you 🙂
Just to be sure that i understood correctly, by altitude did you mean tube length? if so, then yes. But it will only be adjustable by hand, used for storing and setting back up the antenna (meanwhile winter, storms etc...).
I do not think that lets say 10° offset (caused by targeting AP from higher ground) from polarisation position will affect communication with AP so much, so i think there is no need for altitude remote control.
Please tell if i am wrong, there is still time to fix this 😉

Whoops! I just realized you built in attitude control with the second rotator. I didn't see it at first. And yeah, I was talking about the up and down rotation of the dish, not tube length. I know, I slow sometimes. 😎

[pomwtin]

Oh ok then, looks like i am on right way :)
wpginterceptor that is why i decided to include holders and counterweight in my build, rotator is powerfull enough, but is not made for heavy load

[Rogers Communications]

I mean during a windy day, if its not heavy duty, the gears will strip in the rotator!

[1ethality]

Omg its really nice , great job for real..