On Wed, Jan 07, 2004 at 02:33:46PM -0800, David Wolfskill wrote: > My boss has informed me that he'd like to acquire a computer- > controllable pan/tilt mount, suitable for mounting an antenna > on it (so a mount rated at 6 lb.s max is very unlikely to suffice). > > This would be for outdoor use -- indeed, probably on a motor vehicle. > > He'd also like to be able to have a GPS in the system, and enough > "smarts" in the controlling program to be able to provide the program > the latitude, longitude, and elevation of the target antenna, and have > the computer-controlled mount get within a few degrees of it. (One idea > is to mount a camera along with the antenna, so if the remote antenna is > visible via the camera, that should be very close for the antenna.) > > At some point, he'd like the device to be able to track the remote > antenna in something fairly close to real time. (The requirements are > not mine....) > > Anyone have experience with -- or know anything about -- such things?
You need something stepper motor based, I would think -- repeatability is an issue. Either that or an optical sensor to determine position. How big an antenna? You might contact Dan Lyke, the guy from flutterby.com, about this; I know he's done some of (and is interested in) the sort of robotics that this stuff is right next door to. Tell him I sent you. If he doesn't know, he may well know someone who does. Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] Member of the Technical Staff Baylink RFC 2100 The Suncoast Freenet The Things I Think Tampa Bay, Florida http://baylink.pitas.com +1 727 647 1274 Come see Linux Gazette in our new home: www.linuxgazette.net! -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
