Category: Satellite Imagery

Orbitron DDE Azimuth Elevation To Serial

Control a satellite rotator automatically from Orbitron by sending it the azimuth (or other properties) via serial.

A while ago I wrote some code to listen to Orbitron using it’s DDE inter-process comms and send the satellite information string over serial to potentially drive an aerial rotator.

I’ve since updated the code and thought I would share it here.

Using DdeOrbitronToSerial

  • Firstly install Orbitron.
    • Update 13-02-2019: Orbitron doesn’t seem to work well unless you run it as admin – it can’t save files to its install dir and won’t pick up config changes. One work-around may be a custom install location.
  • Download DDEOrbitronToSerial.zip (June-2019) and unzip it to somewhere sensible.
  • Open the install directory of Orbitron and find Setup.cfg (example path below)
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\Orbitron\Config\Setup.cfg
  • Add a similar line as below to Setup.cfg: (obviously changing paths to where you unzipped things) As per Orbitron’s documentation:

    List of available drivers. New drivers can be added by editing [Drivers] section of Config\Setup.cfg file. Example config line: MyDriver=d:\MyDriver.exe

[Drivers]
DDEOrbitronToSerial=C:\blah\DDEOrbitronToSerial.exe
  • Don’t directly run the exe, you have to launch it from Orbtron itself by going to the rotor/radio tab, selecting the correct DDE driver, in this case it’s DDEOrbitronToSerial. Then click the button to the right of the dropdown to start sending data and launch the application:

orbtron-rotor-tab

  • The DDEOrbitronToSerial application should now launch and you will be able to select your COM port and output the satellite data to the serial port.
    • NB: You can edit additional options such as com port baud rate in the config file by clicking the open config button.

Any bug reports or feature requests are welcome!

Updates

  • June 2019 – Added latest release with a bug fix:
    • FIXED: Certain USB to serial chips would only receive a few characters.

Decoding Meteor Satellite Images – The fast way SDR sharp plugin

This is a faster method for decoding the Meteor satellites than the old way I’ve been using previously.

Ensure you have SDR sharp installed and setup on Windows 7 or later.

Download the plugin

http://rtl-sdr.ru/uploads/download/meteor.zip which is from here: http://rtl-sdr.ru/page/komplekt-plaginov-dlja-priema-ka-meteor-i-drugih (might want to google translate the page  – click the a-z in your address bar if using chrome).

 

Extract archive and edit Plugins.xml

Then copy the contents of the zip archive to your SDR# directory and edit your SDR# Plugins.xml file and add the ‘magic line’ that should be included in a txt file in the zip archive. Mine looked like:

<add key="Meteor" value="SDRSharp.Meteor.MeteorPlugin,SDRSharp.Meteor" />

 

Now when you open SDR# you will see a new panel on the left – you can now click demodulate and then write to start recording your meteor satellite file.

This file can then be displayed using a copy of the LRPTofflineDecoder, available here: LRPToffLineDecoder_2014.09.01.0006.zip  or http://meteor.robonuka.ru/for-experts/soft/

This method is a lot faster than the slower way previously posted. I’d be interested in seeing other people’s images if anyone would like to share theirs?