International Space Station Orbit Tracker

[@JamesBalazs]

Now you need to get them to send one up to the ISS that always points back!

[@jbichl]

the iss doesn't rotate, so a pointer looking at earth would never move.

[@forgilageord]

Well it does rotate, at exactly the right speed to be tidally locked. But relative to Earth's surface, no, it doesn't rotate.

[@jbichl]

+Forgi LaGeord I was talking about earth. if two pointer point to one another, and one is on earth, and the other doesn't move, it doesn't move relative to earth.

[@redsquirrelftw]

And hookup a laser and photocell so it can communicate back and forth with freaking laser beams! Hopefully not take out any planes in the process. I imagine you could get away with

[@npip99]

The ISS is pretty close to earth, so I don't think just pointing down would be a good enough approximation as pointing to his actual location.

[@Gratitude1305]

I have taken Satellite communication this semester, and I got much clear idea of a couple of topics. I am so glad I watched this video, its inspirational. Your efforts and patience are greatly appreciated. Please make more of such stuff. Thank you.

[@PracticalEngineeringChannel]

+Supriya Gopal Thanks!

[@nathan484848]

Practical Engineering make a kickstarter of this

[@DJayDiamond]

dude what did you major in to learn about sat communications...sounds v cool

[@xiro6]

@@nathan484848 for this,maybe not,anyway you have FPV antena trackers that you can reprogram to do that,but i cant hardly refuse to buy an earth globe with a tiny ISS model on an arm,just like when they simulate the moon rotation,but with an ISS,real time.will be georgeous the 3 items or better,with the Sun.

[@davidhorizon8401]

I did not skip ahead, and this is one of the coolest things I have seen. I would pay money for it, but probably not as much as you would need to charge to make a profit. I do go out every few months and watch the ISS go over. Thanks for sharing this.

[@codacoder]

How awesome would it be to have a large statue like this in a city!

[@rianrushwood1426]

NORAD has multiple jobs but clearly their most important job is to track Santa Claus

[@philgiglio9656]

IIRC it started as a joke.

[@larrydavila8322]

mgs peace walker reference? xd

[@techgamer6875]

You never know if one off his *presents* is a thermonuclear bomb

[@TheHorseOutside]

@@techgamer6875 Santa Claus as a war criminal is a story I want to write

[@pfefferle74]

Always good to know what the Red guy is up to.

[@Tetracarbon]

I just love the level of detail you used to have in your old videos. I understand why your videos have become so much more polished and appeal to a wider audience, but I love your enthusiasm for the “boring stuff”. More deep dives!

[@UnconventionalMillin]

what if you add a laser to the arm and put it in a room with glow in the dark wall paper and trace out the orbit on the walls? or just do a timelaps of it.

[@SHcinema]

I was thinking having a high power hand pointer laser added to it when it's outside so you get a beam pointing right at the ISS or whatever your tracking. Sometimes satellites are in shadow and aren't visible until they hit sunlight. Sometimes they are so bright they are hard to look directly at but this is very rare, so having something bright to point at it is pretty cool. Now, the guys in the ISS are probably not going to be bothered by the radian divergence of a hand held laser at that distance so it should be pretty safe optically for them. You might even send them a coded message in light pulses if added on.

[@JustOneAsbesto]

If pointing a laser pointer at an airplane can be dangerous and get you arrested, I'd imagine pointing one at the ISS probably isn't a very good idea either.

[@jmullentech]

Altitude... altitude...

[@tizoro3]

JustOneAsbesto You clearly don't know how to read.

[@homeXstone]

or put it outside and have it confuse the optical systems on the ISS

[@redkb]

So awesome! You should do a Kickstarter! I'd back it!

[@laserfloyd]

Now there's a kickstarter project I'd back.

[@tizoro3]

laserfloyd I thought that was mangekyo sharingan

[@thatchamtmd5033]

laserfl

[@CheekyMonkey1776]

I would buy one.

[@AvianFlight]

definitely do not have tech to build this without pulling my hair out, I would buy one that is adjustable to planetary bodies and other satellites!

[@davidgladden8016]

Avian Flight maybe a mobile app that connects with Bluetooth. Just tap on an object and the device points at it.

[@louisswanepoel1614]

The people who write KZbin's algorithms to predict what the user wants to watch did a great job. Glad I found this channel.

[@royvoorberg7165]

I will add my two cents worth here after some nearly six years since this was posted on your website Grady. It was fascinating to say the least for an engineering /mechanical guy like me. Keep up the good work Sir.

[@scottmoore765]

That's such a cool project and to see it actually in motion is joyful. Great work. I really hope your skills and aptitude are being utilized and appreciated in your professional career. You deserve it. Take good care.

[@Rhacman]

"Now for the moment you probably skipped ahead for..." Sweet ;)

[@deyesed]

This will help me with my five daily prayers facing the ISS.

[@felixdietzCGN]

Great idea and great execution! Extra points for the use of Kerbal ;-) Somehow i see a Laserpointer attatched to this, constantly annoying the crew...

[@pimpshiza]

+Felix Dietz I thought that was the Kerbal Space game. LOL it's so hilarious.

[@ElHyperion]

+Felix Dietz Exactly my first thought after watching this- a laser pointer would definitely make it easier to spot the station for everyone around. I would definitely like to see a video of it in action, with the pointer!

[@JulianDanzerHAL9001]

+Felix Dietz Laserpointers are devastating to pilots a few miles away, but when reaching the ISS most laser pointers will have already lost concentration siginifacantly, becoming nothing but a VERY dim light. A big hih precision hightech laser would do - but that would be VERY dangerous

[@kill-nine]

+Grady Hillhouse I'm in Austin and have a couple lasers you're welcome to try. One is a 1/2W green and the other a pretty blue-violet. The green can be seen for a couple miles. I'm outside looking up for the ISS almost every time it's visible and would love to see a video with a laser pointing it out.

[@trini314]

Felix Dietz i

[@arborola]

Came here from Reddit. I gotta say, it's very very rare that I will watch a KZbin video all the way through - I found this video very interesting and also very well made. Thanks for sharing! I'll be sure to check out your channel.

[@kirkhamandy]

At 5:59 what's the aluminum kit called? I've re-listened over and over and just can't make out the name

[@PracticalEngineeringChannel]

Actobotics

[@ΑΡΗΣΚΟΡΝΑΡΑΚΗΣ]

Practical Engineering if we move this gizmo in 45° 35' N 31°E will update to its current location, or will stay on its original?

[@campbellmorrison8540]

What a neat idea, just highlighting this amazing human accomplishment is all that is needed, anything else is just icing :)

[@dmy986]

This may be the coolest device i've seen in a while. Bravo

[@patrickferrell4131]

Outstanding! It inspired me to take on a similar build. A quick visit to a favorite website and now my pocketbook is lighter, but the mailbox will soon be full. Hopefully I'll have something to show for it before too long. Thanks for documenting and sharing your project.

[@Dagreenberg68]

this channel has always been great. Thank you

[@liamtobey2936]

I need one. Like now. Keep up the fantastic content, Grady! As I am soon to be attendi g college to become a mechanical engineer, I LOVE all the math and physics content you've been putting into your videos lately!

[@3rdeye7thdimension]

You took the greatest technological advances of mankind to create a metal finger of direction giving.

[@pimcramer2569]

You blew my mind telling orbits aren't round. My schoolbook lied to me!

[@moejama64]

some are round.

[@gregknipe8772]

I like to visit your shows. thank you. by the way, some of us visit low earth orbit every time we step outdoors, and explore this world you try to explain, one bit at a time. again, thank you.

[@gregknipe8772]

I am now looking back several years for your work. what a great legacy sir.

[@AflacMan13]

"The world is full of inspiration... if you just know what direction to look." Imma need you to T-Shirt that please.

[@AflacMan13]

Seriously... that right there... was some seriously profound and inspiring words... put it on a t-shirt and I will buy that t-shirt. Sounds like a catch phrase for your channel even. ;-)

[@Cactusworkshopchannel]

Very enlightening! Nice explanation and nice results! Thanks for sharing!

[@DrRChandra]

Heck, even one of the most sophisticated position tracking systems we have today, the GPS, has to have the space vehicles constantly monitored for precise location because of all the orbital perturbations, and an almanac of all the precise positions periodically uploaded to them for dissemination through their broadcasts. I knew this was the case, but not why or what it was called, but now I do thanks to this video! Thanks. The ISS does not currently have tourists, but had tourists, such as Mark Shuttleworth (the Canonical/Ubuntu guy) in 2002. It cost him about 20 million dollars and required him to train for about a year, so that's some of the reasons not a whole lot of people have done that.

[@michaelrundle5279]

Very cool Grady. I am a ham radio operator and I have several software programs that track amateur radio satellites. I have made many contacts via these satellites, using my VHF/UHF handheld radio at about 5 watts of power, and a homebuilt, handheld antenna to point at the satellite during its pass. This is great fun and always amazes me. Back when the Soviet MIR space station was in orbit, I actually made a contact with it, and that remains the highlight of my ham radio satellite operating. I suspect your apparatus in this video could be fairly easily be adapted to control the azimuth and elevation of my handheld satellite antenna, given a suitable mounting system. That would be an interesting project.

[@alexandreconlon8990]

This was super cool! Great project and nicely done. Must have been quite exciting to see it track the ISS as it passed above. It even got me stoked sitting here at my laptop.

[@samram2950]

Man Every time i see one of your video, i feel like "Thank god i subbed to your channel".

[@Debraj1978]

This is awesome. Once a while, when I see a bright stop flying like a start, I use my mobile phone to verify, if its the ISS. This creation makes the ISS more lively.

[@robbiedw1495]

So glad I found your channel. Cheers from SW Houston!!

[@azyfloof]

Incredible! Added this to favourites in the hopes of being able to build it one day :D It'd make a really interesting kinetic sculpture to just have in the lounge as a centerpiece. You could even have a figurine with one outstretched arm, forever pointing at the ISS.

[@freddupont3597]

Has this ever made it to a commercial product? One that can track both the ISS and the Chinese Tiangong Space Stations.

[@gustavgnoettgen]

Perfect gift for flatearthers. Try to find out why always when this points upwards in the evening and in the morning its accompanied by a shining dot in the sky!

[@ilovefunnyamv2nd]

Witchcraft, BURN IT! *cough cough* I mean Science, BURN IT! Boiling water at room temperature? BURN IT!

[@coltrinculo703]

“A little bit further from the specs of the Apollo guidance computer” it the best way to say “more powerful” I have ever encountered

[@TroyWuelfing]

This project is great. In the coming months I had planned on making an arduino based version of something similar to this. I understand the alternate choice of microcontroller, but the vast support for the arduino will be a huge help for me. Likely an arduino mega will be used. here are the ideas I hope to incorporate into a version of this concept 1. adding a very bright laser pointer to the arm and turning it on during visible transits 2. possible gps with magnetic compass to allow it to calibrate itself. 3. star wars bb8 inspired magnetic coupling to allow the addition of a spinning globe with the space station magnetically coupled, perhaps an LED shining on the inside of the globe to indicate the area where the transit is visible. 4. fixed position LEDs to indicate launch sites that change color as launch events approach. 5. small display - probably raspberry pi powered to provide info about the various space events that are occuring, hopefully pulled off an RSS feed. 6. LEDs inside the globe to indicate light and dark with a good representation of the terminus of the sun revolving around the earth. its quite ambitious and it likely will take me a very long time to create it all, perhaps a kickstarter to make a simplified version, and a big version to donate to museums? great work, I love it, and keep it up.

[@haleighmalloy7705]

i'm so proud of him; just a funky little dude tracking ISS.

[@TheEngineeringToolboxChannel]

This is insaneeeeely cool!

[@aamirpalnak6983]

He is very under rated

[@PhotoshopTutor101]

I’d love one of these such a cool thing to build. Well done.

[@911aDay]

Quick tip stick a red or green laser pointer on it , we went to a planatarium recently and that is what the presenter used to show it to us after the show (:

[@ScienceGuides]

Beautiful piece of electronics! You should put a starpointer (laser to point at the stars at night - sorta given by the name - but you never know) on the tip, only turning on, while the ISS is near. Would look AWESOME!

[@ScienceGuides]

Yeah - and maybe tracking other celestial objects as well. Can see from the other comments, that I´m simply not that original. :-D Thanks for great videos. Also enjoyed your gardening video, and many more.

[@brandona1370]

What a fantastic little project!!

[@ErikPelyukhno]

The first idea that came to my head for practical uses of this is you could mount a camera on a system built to handle the weight, have it zoomed in and always pointing at the ISS so it’ll take long-exposure time lapses while keeping the ISS centered in the frame!

[@ClearNinjaFox]

DAM your the man, im gonna have to put this on my things to do one day! this video reminded me of Smarter Everyday videos but the MCU version of it, thanks for all the work and research and provided links! gotta say im a Arduino guy all the way and thats after giving up on Parallax MCU but dam it would have been nice to post the link of that mcu you used i was sorta impress by the specs

[@roguetrooper70]

I found your channel by accident and just finished watching your video on your ISS tracker and the first thought that came to my mind was" Frickin super cool and where can I get the coding" so I have yet to look at your links and went right to posting a comment. I tinker around with alot of electronics, prototyping and computers and just started with the Arduino...which I just started to learn using.... right from the very first code writing...the blinking LED light....So I don't think I'm at level of writing code that you're at. So I will use the links that you posted and go from there and try to make my very own tracker. Love the tracker and thank you for another project to put on my list of projects that I have on the go, which will make me hurry up and finish up on my projects because the tracker will be a awesome challenge. 👍👍👍

[@-.._.-_...-_.._-..__..._.-.-.-]

You're a soldering pro!

[@mhartmann1987]

What I thought was cool was that when I was in the service I was a 13R Firefinder Radar Operator and your machine has a lot of mirrors in our radar set (AN-TPQ 53). One of our first steps (since it was a mobile radar set) was to drop it within 6 inches of a known point and point the radar true north. We even a similar setup in terms of having a slip ring, azimuth and elevation drives, except ours cost about $70,000 each and weighed about 70lbs.

[@PracticalEngineeringChannel]

+Michael Hartmann Very cool

[@dustoin1386]

Who thumbs down a video that's just compressing information for you.

[@op-pv2nn]

dus toin People who know the earth is flat and still with a dome.

[@matchem9178]

Love it, and the design is so cute!!

[@shahidhassim5477]

Great video. I built a prototype solar tracker using the arduino platform 6 months ago , so this brings back memories. I'll probably try using the nucleo platform and actobotics next time around. Thanks.

[@lgrizzly]

Great stuff. Very clean! I guess I have yet ANOTHER project to put on my to do list. My suggestion. ..add a "next visible pass in xx:xx:xx" clock and you've got yourself a marketable product.

[@Re_Kitty]

Attatch a directional Yagi-Uda antenna to it and you'll be able to hear their communications on ham-radio field days :)

[@HeliFreak18]

Amazing. Thank you. This video deserves many more views.

[@v8tony]

That is awesome!! how have I not seen this before...

[@manuelsanabria8060]

wow great job!! This could be really helpful for ham radio operators to point their antennas to any satellite during a pass!

[@bradarmstrong3952]

Brilliant! Fun and interesting. Now I want one!

[@BuckeyeStormsProductions]

Thanksgiving last year, when my family was all gathered together, my brother was using a 2m amateur radio handheld with a cheap yagi antenna he built out of hardware supplies to listen to signals bouncing off one of the hamsats. He used an app on his phone, which he could use to aim it. I bet he could use something like this for the same purpose. He has talked about actually trying to ping it, but said he either needed more power than a handheld provides, or better aim then manually pointing can provide. This would certainly provide the better aim.

[@North49Radio]

That is really something. I am an amateur radio operator and the ISS now has a FM repeater on board. Well they have for a while but I just became aware of this. Anyways great job and you may have inspired me to try to make one of these on a slightly larger scale that you can attach a yagi onto that would track and point at the ISS for use on the repeater. Now I just need to get smarter...more smarter??? See what I mean. Again great job.

[@mikegrown9691]

13 'flat earthers' disliked this.

[@higgans]

22 now..

[@Pac0Master]

So "never" I guess

[@infinite3365]

Katone Vi shhh,you’re wrong,the earth is a geosphere(in other words,a not so perfect sphere). Second of all if the earth is flat,then what is stopping people from digging straight through the earth?

[@my3dviews]

Katone Vi Are you serious? All you need to do is go to the southern hemisphere and you see that the stars rotate around the south celestial pole, which proves we are on a rotating sphere with two celestial poles. Not to mention that geostationary satellites orbit above the equator for things like satellite TV.

[@EpicSqu1rrel]

Katone Vi researched it, found flat earth to be fake

[@lucanissoli9901]

Nice and clear. Bravo!!!

[@GlennHamblin]

Dude! That is awesome! I wish I had the time to make one for myself. What a great desk toy. Many Thanks.

[@patrickcrask3739]

Just a note to correct the Adafruit part number so you don'y buy an RFID reader. the motorshield needed and called out in the text is : Adafruit Motor/Stepper/Servo Shield for Arduino v2 Kit - v2.3 PRODUCT ID: 1438 I believe the file says 1483, just a typo. Great video.

[@krawithan]

love it. watching the ISS pass over is as cool as this project

[@ahaveland]

I just made a solar tracker using an arduino, two servos, gps module and a 16x2 display - the gps module solves having to enter the time and location details in the code, and it'll allow the unit to work anywhere in the world on power up and acquisition. My azimuth servo struggled with the mass of a 20W solar panel, so am going to use stepper motors and 3D printed worm drives which can hold position without power until updated - these should be able to handle the mass of a few hundred watts of panels or more depending on worm drive construction and stepper motor power. Would be nice to modify to add an antenna/telescope/camera to track satellites, planets etc to have a second life at night!

[@gking08]

Very well done. Great idea.

[@rpyrat]

That is AWESOME. Well done to you!

[@d4b]

How much would it cost to set up something similar to this to continually aim a solar panel toward the sun? Would the (presumed) increased efficiency in energy conversion be enough to make such an investment cost-effective?

[@macacoman]

Man this video made me feel so inspired

[@Pupperoni938]

Love this. Is there a follow-up video?

[@munirone]

Awesome work dude!! 🙌

[@poyraztahan]

You said let me know what you are thinking? Here is what I am thinking: I fucking loved it

[@Pretender6]

Should stick a Laser Pointer onto it, combining with fog (natural/artifical) would allow for a wide public audience? Could you combine it with a android phone OTG or bluetooth, to select other targets and/or using its GPS to determine a new location to calculate orbits from the new locations?

[@DerinTheErkan]

I was looking into ways to point an antenna at the ISS for amateur radio - scaling this up should work pretty well, thanks!

[@thebzz2299]

Absolutely wonderful.

[@Nika-cp9np]

Could this be adapted to mount a directional antenna to transmit and receive slow-scan TV images with the ISS via amateur radio frequencies? A 144MHz or 440MHz high-gain yagi, maybe?

[@joserauloromi3538]

That would be awesome to mount a 2m antenna with a Baofeng inexpensive radio to listen or even communicate with the ISS. Beautiful project!

[@davidtaylor6124]

You really crammed the jokes into this one :) Great video. I'm burning through your channel now I've found it! Buy yourself a small metal lathe and milling machine, you deserve it.

[@waltherbert]

Wow. Great video. I'm going to have to watch this again.

[@k3wfnUTUBE]

That is a really cool project! Congratulations on a job well done.

[@shoofle]

Definitely putting this on my list of projects to make!

[@thesevenrider]

This is a nice build. I hadn't seen the actobotic mechanical pieces before - they give it a good look. I want one, spec'ing out the parts now :)

[@brainfornothing]

This is great ! Thanks for sharing !

[@Marsupilamibombami]

Very nice! After visiting a lecture of André Kuipers I started spotting it every now and then. Would it be nice to add an LED on the lever, which is on when ISS is in sunlight?

[@fenderrexfender]

the Nucleo has made a name for its self

[@redmidubai3005]

if NASA and ISS installed an automated and stabilized reflective mirror (MEMS/DMD type) to divert the sun's light back to the earth at an angle perpendicular to the direction of freefalling and with respect to ISS's position in the orbit, then we can have a nice flickering flair visible in the sky (brightest in night time) every time ISS flyover occurs, this project will be fruitful even more, considering the money time and effort spent on it

[@redmidubai3005]

Additional (if a special shaped buoy is tethered with ISS which when is rotating and trailing parallel to the direction of freefalling ISS with a half hemisphere highly reflective will have a better result in terms of visibility upto the horizon on earth surface

[@redmidubai3005]

Some Iridium satellite 🛰 have been in orbit these satellites have been installed with a reflective mirror and when viewing an iridium flyover the flickering is visible in midnight clear sky

[@karhukivi]

You can see the ISS as a very bright object anyway, the multiple solar panels act like many mirrors.

[@Ahzealion]

I know this was made in 2015, but now you can get a pretty convincing tour in vr! Its pretty fun to be weightless in vr, even if you don't feel like it in real life

[@KyleKirkland]

Grady, I know I'm very late to the game here, but I just stumbled on this video and absolutely love it! I've had an idea to create a globe that shows the location of the ISS in real time either with a physical magnet or projected light. If you ever make something like that, I'd love to be the first in line to buy one! Thanks for everything you do!

[@tomhenry5870]

Plan or a kit would be awesome as a hobby project AND as a teaching tool!

[@lefty1960a]

So cool. I love to see the build plans, I'd be building one for sure.

[@TrentTaylor]

This is such a cool idea. Thanks for sharing. I want to build one now.

[@redsquirrelftw]

Woah that's cool. Should make a bigger version that can mount a DSLR with a telephoto (or even hooked up to a telescope) lens, could maybe try to get a pic of the ISS, or any other satellite.

[@MakeCrazydays]

Is there a GPS component which determines where on the globe you are? Or do you have your calculations based on your home location?

[@fishtankguy]

Nice ! Tracker for a Dob telescope would be nice too :)

[@laureven]

for me the videos where You building something are most interesting :) ..Awesome . Regards

[@BlargKing]

Could this be use to point an antenna at the ISS to receive the SSTV broadcasts they do?

[@avr_kon]

Is this accurate enough to attach a telescope and watch the iss when it passes overhead? And I mean from the programming view, clearly it needs a gearbox to smooth out the rotation. Supposing I build a smooth enough system and attaching a telescope, will it allways and without disturbances point exactly to the ISS?

[@SwithinFeely]

Thank you for making this video

[@bruno_sjc_]

That was cool! I like when art mixes itself with engineering.