Simple Weather Satellite Receiver Station with Arduino

Tags:arduino programming chatgpt In this guide, we will outline the steps to build a simple weather satellite receiver station using Arduino. The receiver will be able to receive signals from weather satellites, like those from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and convert them into weather images.

Requirements

Arduino Board
Suitable Antenna (Quadrifilar Helix Antenna - QFH)
Radio Receiver (Software Defined Radio - SDR dongle)
Decoding Software (WXtoImg or similar)
Two Servo Motors (for Azimuth and Elevation control)
Arduino IDE (for programming the Arduino)

Step 1: Setup the Antenna

The Quadrifilar Helix Antenna (QFH) is commonly used for weather satellite communication because it is an excellent omnidirectional antenna for circularly polarized signals, like those transmitted by weather satellites.

You can find various guides and tutorials online that can help you build your own QFH antenna.

Step 2: Setup the Radio Receiver

You will need a Software Defined Radio (SDR) dongle capable of receiving VHF signals. The dongle will be used to tune into the frequency range used by the satellite (typically around 137 MHz for NOAA satellites).

Step 3: Install the Decoding Software

WXtoImg was a popular software for converting weather satellite signals into images, but it has been discontinued. There are alternatives available that you can use, like the open-source software called ‘noaa-apt’.

Step 4: Setup the Arduino

The Arduino will be used to control the servo motors which will orient the antenna towards the satellite as it passes overhead.

Here’s a simple Arduino sketch that shows how to control two servo motors:

#include <Servo.h>
 
Servo azimuthMotor;  // Servo motor for azimuth control
Servo elevationMotor;  // Servo motor for elevation control
 
void setup() {
  // Attach the servo motors to their respective pins
  azimuthMotor.attach(9);  // Connect the azimuth servo to digital pin 9
  elevationMotor.attach(10);  // Connect the elevation servo to digital pin 10
}
 
void loop() {
  // This is where you would put your code to control the servo motors
  // The following is just a basic example that moves the servos to random positions
 
  int azimuth = random(0, 180);  // Generate a random azimuth position
  int elevation = random(0, 180);  // Generate a random elevation position
 
  // Move the servo motors to the generated positions
  azimuthMotor.write(azimuth);
  elevationMotor.write(elevation);
 
  delay(1000);  // Wait for 1 second
}

Step 5: Calculate the Satellite Position

Determining the satellite’s position in the sky involves some complex calculations. You will need to know the satellite’s ‘Two-Line Element’ (TLE) set, which is a data format encoding a list of orbital elements of an Earth-orbiting object for a given point in time.

There are libraries available that can help with these calculations, like the ‘predict’ library for Python.

You could run a separate Python script that uses ‘predict’ to calculate the satellite’s position and sends the azimuth and elevation data to the Arduino via the serial port. The Arduino would then move the servo motors to point the antenna towards the satellite.

Please note that this is a non-trivial project requiring a good understanding of various fields including radio communications, orbital mechanics, and possibly image processing. Be prepared to do a lot of learning and problem solving along the way!

SY Mind

Explorer