Antenna position controller using a microcontroller

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ceeme

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hi
Please i need help on how to program a microcontroller to control position and signal strength in an antenna. I will appreciate ur kindness
 

what kind of positioning hardware do you have, or are you planning to build all the mechanical structure?

I think you basically need 3 stepper motors and 3 H-bridge controllers, and probably you will like to have 3 encoders... you can also use linear actuators instead of the stepper motors..
 
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Thanks for ur kind response. What my supervisor told me was that I will have a transmitting antenna at one end and another recieving antenna at the other end. The receiving antenna will be connected to the microcontroller, which will be interfaced into a computer system. The angular positions and signal strengths of the antenna will be monitored to get a reference point at which the antenna will give the desired/best output.
The question now is '' how to start? How to generate data? How to program the microcontroller for different angular positions and the corresponding signal strength?
Please, am so confused? Kindly help
Waiting for your response
 

Well, I think you need a simple proportional controller..

for example,
loop:
//first axis
do
start by increasing the first angle..
if the signal gets stronger you continue to increase until the max signal
if the signal gets weaker you reverse the increment..
loop until max signal
decrease one increment to get back to max signal


//second axis
do
start by increasing the first angle..
if the signal gets stronger you continue to increase until the max signal
if the signal gets weaker you reverse the increment..
loop until max signal
decrease one increment to get back to max signal

//save data...
endloop

... you can save positions and signal strengh to and sd card, or eeprom, or even send it to a computer trough usb
... this was a tracking system...
now if you want to get something like a signal strenght plot, just scan all possible positions and save the respective signal strenght with the angle positions... you can scan it in a similar way as you go trough a algebra matrix...
 
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Tanx for the information. I think am getting there now!
Please, can u help me with the programming of the microcontroller? I mean any clue on writing the program? Type of language that can work with the microcontroller? Choice of the microcontroller?
That I think is the starting point because for now, no antenna has been provided by the supervisor to get the data.
Please, i will appreciate any assistance.
Thanks once again
 
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    asmie

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