1-Wire Satellite Position Controller

After finally completing the 1-wire hub project I had time to build a mount for my Triax prime focus satellite dish. I had also earlier bought two 18" Geotrack Dish Actuators and now needed a method of controlling them remotely from a computer. So I had the bright idea of using 1-wire devices to control the process of switching the motor supplies and counting the pulses from the actuator sensor.

For this I used 3 x DS2407 to switch the 6 relays controlling the motor supply voltage between 24VDC and 36VDC (soft start) and controlling the polarity of the supplies to the motors thus controlling direction (in or out). I also used a DS2423 to count the pulses that are generated by a reed switch on the actuator worm drive shaft, one input per actuator.

The latest version now has a DS9503 fitted on the connection to the 1-wire network for static / transient protection, and motor overload protection using 2 x DS2890 1-wire pots to set the overload levels for each motor and 2 x DS2450's to allow the software to monitor various voltage levels and to reset the overload trips.

The rest is all down to the software.

Circuit schematic and PCB

Here are some pictures of the current installation

Triax 1.2 Metre Prime Focus Dish with a custom dish mounting to accept the Channel Master polar mount. The mast and H frame are also custom built.

The dish is rotated using an 18" Geotrack dish actuator.