Table of Contents
What is an Automatic Antenna Tracker?
A device called an automatic antenna tracker can point a directional antenna towards a moving object, like a drone. The device is usually composed of a gimbal that can rotate an antenna in two directions, a controller to calculate the orientation and the location of the target and a communications link for sending and receiving data. Automatic antenna trackers can be used for applications that need long-range, reliable wireless communication. Examples include FPV (first-person view) flying, radio direction finding, and satellite communication.
Drone automatic antenna trackers track a drone using GPS data or telemetry signals and then aim its antenna towards it to increase video or data transmission quality. Some types, such as the AAT Auto Antenna Tracker Gimbal, even alter the frequency or channel of transceiver frequencies/channels for interference-free operation.
Automatic Antenna Tracker AAT User Manual
FAQ
Question: Does your automatic antenna tracker support raw data or Mavlink data?
on the aircraft transceiver, the TTL port that Receives the NMEA-0183 data, is different from the port that I will Send and Receive the Row data on it? Because I will use NMEA-0183 To Send TTL GPS DATA to the Transceiver on the aircraft, Please confirm with me the data link is configured to send and receive raw Data. Not Mav link protocol is it okay?
Answer: support.
Question: Do your automatic antenna tracker with GPS and compass?
Answer: Yes.
With the GPS function, the cost is higher than USD60 / RMB400.
Question: How about the frequency range of your automatic antenna tracker AAT support?
Answer: The gimbal can only withstand 3G radio frequency, and the loss is very large if it is higher. That means the radio frequency is from 0-3000Mhz/3G. For example, 800Mhz is 0.8G < 3G, then it supports. The core morning transceiver 1428-1447Mhz, 1.4G is less than 3G, so it also supports.
If your transmission frequency is 3500Mhz, 3.5G, then you can install the receiver on the directional antenna.
Question: What is the HS code of your AAT?
Answer: Product name: Direct Drive gimbal, Customs HS code: 8543709990.
Question: Does it support two antennae?
I have two antennas, one Yagi antenna designed for tracking at a frequency of 433MHz, and one patch antenna in microstrip design at a frequency of 5.8GHz for capturing the video signal from the drone.
Answer: We understand that your wireless video transmission and radio telemetry are two independent devices. Our automatic antenna gimbal has only a one-way high-frequency feeder connector and sliding track.
If your wireless video transmission and wireless data transmission have two different operating frequencies, you need two automatic antenna trackers to track.
Question: Does the automatic gimbal need to be equipped with this kind of adapter cable? Will it get stuck when rotating 360 degrees?
Answer: Our antenna gimbal has a built-in slip ring and supports 360-degree rotation.
Question: Our drone video transmission is RS232 data port, can you modify your automatic antenna tracker AAT to RS232 from default TTL?
Answer: Yes, we can customize the data port to RS232.
Question: Can we send commands to the AAT? For example, the antenna goes to a specific angle When the trajectory is tracking or the connection is lost.
I read the user manual but could not find the commands, When there is no data, I want the gimbal to point to 25 degrees in azimuth concerning the north and 40 degrees in elevation.
Answer: This requires programming software to connect to the gimbal.
You can run our program on your computer, or you can integrate our program into your ground station.
Here you can download our programmer.
MAVLinkProj.rar (sample code)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xEqn_lUoiieNuf7Aoh87d2-3bHTV0GUh/view?usp=sharing
Mavlink_MFD.rar (Protocol)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TosLRNbjT1OZl38g4QpKQ46nnGXIMFAo/view?usp=drive_link
Question: With the above software, I could not send a command. Must we use an upper TTL connector?
Does it have a specific setting? For integrating with our ground station, can you give us a sample code or a protocol?
Answer: use the lower (firmware update cable) to send the command (MAVLinkProj).
Question: What is the weight and size of the tracker only in the package?
Answer: 35x32x17cm, and 5.5kg
Question: The AAT sends a message 20hz to our ground station. We need a description of the parameters that have been sent. Two parameters Yaw and pitch is our command or the antenna’s real position?
Answer: Yaw and pitch are your command values. but the tracker executes the command fast. so you can consider it to be of real value.
Question: Your antenna tracking system has a rotary joint and slip ring. How much max RF power the rotary joint can accept? Like 10 watts or 50 watts or more.
Answer: No limits.
Question: We have a direct GPS feed coming from air unit via rs232. Format is NMEA.It’s a standard GPS string, please double confirm it.
Answer: Yes, our engineer confirms that it is NMEA standard GPS string.
Question: What is the range of the automatic antenna tracker for a walk snail gimbal?
Answer: As for the transmission distance of the automatic pan-tilt flat antenna, we can understand it from a parameter. The gain of a 1.2-meter omnidirectional fiberglass antenna is about 7 dBi. However, if it is a 40×40 cm directional antenna, its gain can reach 14-16 dBi, which means that the automatic antenna tracker with directional antenna has twice the antenna receiving sensitivity than the omnidirectional fiberglass antenna, and the supported transmission range can be more than twice as long.
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