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nixiebunny t1_j2pjrn6 wrote

I work on radio telescopes. They typically have a large diameter roller bearing to support the yoke. The azimuth drive is completely independent of this bearing. Some use a friction roller, others a ring gear with two motors with pinions, one has a direct drive motor built into the housing (not recommended).

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Fun-Palpitation81 OP t1_j2pnfam wrote

Thank you, for my elevation stepper, I am using two rolling bearings, directly driven by a stepper - I'm using direct drive to save on space, but if I haven't tested that I'll have enough torque.

For the azimuth drive, I will try using these slew bearings, with the benefit that I can feed my elevation stepper motor wires through the center.

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Fun-Palpitation81 OP t1_j69174h wrote

I ended up going with a design like this AWS ground station, which has two 180 degree range motors.

I'm curious as I ran into the issue when I was instead using one 360 degree azmiuth stepper, and a 180 degree elevation stepper - how do you control that the wiring doesn't get twisted with azimuth rotation, as the elevation stepper has to rotate with the azimuth?

I'm just curious how this is done with real radio telescopes/ground stations.

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