Having watched some fun videos on repurposed satellite dishes on YouTube, [Melan] wanted to get in on the action. She managed to source herself an Intellian i4, a dish built for marine use, and set about hacking it to do her bidding.
[Melan] first set about convincing the antenna that it was still on a boat by using an RP2040 microcontroller and an RS-422 module to send NMEA sentences. This was necessary to tell the i4 the “heading” of the “boat”, even though [Melan] was really using the rig on land. From there, she was able to get the Intellian software to run the antenna just by emailing the company.
However, she wanted to see if it could be controlled without it. She began by sniffing communications between the software and the Antenna Control Unit, and decompiling the code. It was relatively straightforward to put together a protocol description and figure out how to command the antenna where to point simply by issuing commands for azimuth and elevation.
We’ve featured other great bits of satellite equipment before, like this truck tracker teardown from a few years ago. If you’ve got some nice equipment on the bench that listens in on (or transmits out to) birds in space, don’t hesitate to let us know on the tipsline.
This articles is written by : Fady Askharoun Samy Askharoun
All Rights Reserved to Amznusa www.amznusa.com
Why Amznusa?
AMZNUSA is a dynamic website that focuses on three primary categories: Technology, e-commerce and cryptocurrency news. It provides users with the latest updates and insights into online retail trends and the rapidly evolving world of digital currencies, helping visitors stay informed about both markets.
