Satellites on Robert Bost

Update #3 on Pocket-Sized Satellite Tracker

Thu, 10 May 2018 01:06:58 +0000

I haven’t updated much on the satellite tracker but I figured I would make the repo public since it is just sitting there at the moment. :)

https://github.com/bostrt/sattrack

https://github.com/bostrt/libpredict-arduino-lib

I plan to work on this some more before upcoming DEF CON 26.

Update #2 on Pocket-Sized Satellite Tracker

Fri, 27 Oct 2017 23:11:52 +0000

Things are progressing nicely on the satellite tracker. The following is functional:

libpredict modified to work on Adafruit Feather M0
Real-time clock with battery backup complete
Storage for configs complete
OLED display working and displaying data calculated by libpredict
USB Serial interface for configuring location, callsign, TLE’s, and time (in case RTC loses battery power)

Current tasks

Develop a dev pcb to replace bread-board. Just something that all the breakout boards above solder onto
Finish display graphics
code-cleanup

Screenshot & Photos

Serial interface All components Polar chart that will display relative satellite position Missing photo of the satellite position data due to being in middle of display code rewrite.

Update on Pocket-Sized Satellite Tracker

Thu, 28 Sep 2017 00:35:06 +0000

After some fighting with libpredict, I found that I am going to need a microcontroller with better floating-point support. The Atmega series of microcontrollers do not have an FPU which means any floating-point support is hard (either inaccurate, slow, or hacked).

I found that some of the ARM Cortex processors do indeed have an FPU and their also come in similar form as Arduinos or other development boards:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2772

Beginning Pocket-Sized Satellite Tracking

Fri, 15 Sep 2017 23:07:30 +0000

A couple months ago, I worked on putting a satellite tracking application on a Raspberry Pi. This worked okay but I have to use a keyboard to select the satellite I want to track before going outside to find it. I also have to lug around an external battery outside which isn’t fun. I could really use something more compact.

Hard Requirements

Screen + Buttons
Tracking multiple satellites (not hundreds, just a few)
Display Azimuth
Display Elevation
Display transponder frequency with Doppler shift
Polar plot (sky plot)
Button to switch between satellites
Ability to set the time and timezone on device (RTC required)

Soft Requirements

Flyby Satellite Tracking on Raspberry Pi

Sat, 22 Jul 2017 03:23:35 +0000

Flyby is a satellite tracking application that runs in a terminal (no GUI required). I wanted to run it on my Raspberry Pi that has a display attached to it so I can carry it outside with me when tracking amateur satellites. This is much easier to move around than a laptop or even my phone where I have to keep the screen from going to sleep or touching something on the screen.Setting up Flyby on a Raspberry Pi was a bit of a challenge but it is now working fine. Here’s my setup steps: