KrakenRF
Software Defined Radio
Discovery Drive
A motorized antenna rotator engineered for the Discovery Dish
KrakenRF
Software Defined Radio
Discovery Drive is a low-cost, turnkey, fully weatherproof, high-quality automatic Az/El (azimuth/elevation) antenna rotator designed for use with Discovery Dish and other antennas of similar size and weight, such as Yagi and Wi-Fi grid antennas.
A motorized rotator allows you to use a satellite dish or directional antenna to track and receive signals from polar orbiting satellites, which quickly move across the sky. It also lets you switch swiftly between geostationary satellites without manually realigning the dish. It’s also very easy to set up—no fiddling with expensive, separate controllers! Just connect Discovery Drive to 12V and Wi-Fi (or USB serial) and go!
A motorized rotator, such as Discovery Drive, enables precise tracking of fast-moving polar orbiting satellites using a satellite dish or directional antenna. Examples of polar orbiting weather satellites include METEOR-M2, METOP, and FENGYUN. Depending on your location, you may also have access to other interesting satellites that dump data over specific regions.
Apart from public weather data, operators and enthusiasts might be interested in using Discovery Drive to track CubeSats, and amateur radio operators may wish to track amateur radio satellites.
Amateur radio astronomy hobbyists can map the galaxy in the hydrogen line spectrum using Stellarium, or custom software to aim a Discovery Dish with H-Line feed, allowing you to scan multiple parts of the sky in one night.
Other interesting use cases include:
With Discovery Drive, all you need is a mast or tripod and your dish. Everything else is ready to go.
Unlike other rotator systems that require you to 3D print parts, assemble complex kits, or solder electronics, Discovery Drive arrives fully assembled and ready to use straight out of the box.
Simply mount it to your mast or tripod, attach your Discovery Dish (or a similarly sized antenna), connect to Wi-Fi, align to true north with your phone’s compass, and you’re ready to start tracking!
For a portable or temporary mast mount, we recommend heavy-duty DJ lighting or speaker stand tripods, which can be purchased cheaply on Amazon or other local stores.
Discovery Drive connects to your local Wi-Fi network and provides an easy-to-use control dashboard over the web.
Furthermore, established software such as SatDump, GPredict and Look4Sat can connect directly to the Discovery Drive rotctl NET TCP interface, allowing these programs to automatically control the rotator without any fuss.
The firmware also supports connections to Stellarium via the Stellarium Remote Control plugin, allowing users to click to point and aim radio telescopes easily. (Note that the accuracy level provided by Discovery Drive is not intended for use with telescopes or cameras.)
There is also an optional USB-serial interface that implements the EasyComm II protocol, should you wish to control the Discovery Drive with hamlib over serial.
When searching for a rotator to pair with our Discovery Dish, we were frustrated by the lack of well-designed, ready-to-use options. Most solutions required significant time to assemble, modify, or research, and many suffered from design compromises. We simply couldn’t find a true plug-and-play system that met our standards.
We explored options such as the SatNOGS v3, but quickly realized that the time commitment required to source components, PCBs, and assemble it (even when purchasing pre-printed parts from a third party) was substantial.
For the AntRunner we found that its torque was far too weak to support any dish based system, it was not weatherproof, and the Wi-Fi kept dropping out when the dish blocked line of sight to the router due to there being no external Wi-Fi antenna.
More pro-grade rotators like the Yaesu G-5500 seemed like a good solution, but require research into creating a DIY Arduino-based digital controller, or purchasing an expensive official digital controller if you want to hook it up to modern automatic satellite tracking programs like SatDump.
The SkyWatcher AZ-GTi Astronomy Mount seemed like an affordable solution, but we discovered that it cannot be left out in the rain, needs custom software to connect it to SatDump (which we could not get working), and still needs a 3D printed adapter to connect antennas to its camera/telescope mounting point.
Other rotators, such as SATRAN and SARCNET, didn’t offer a purchase option and provided only the designs.
The table below compares Discovery Drive to these various alternatives.
| Discovery Drive | SATNOGS Rotator Kit | Yaesu G-5500 (incl. controller) | AntRunner | SkyWatcher AZ‑GTi Astronomy Mount | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best For | Turnkey satellite & SDR setups, Wi-Fi-based installs | DIY builders, high‑torque open‑source projects | Heavy antennas, large dishes, permanent installations | Lightweight portable Yagis | Lightweight portable antennas with custom adapters |
| Pros | Integrated solution, low power requirements, affordable | High torque | Very high torque | Affordable | Built‑in Wi-Fi, compact, affordable |
| Cons | — | No waterproof enclosure, full assembly required | Analog control only unless official digital controller is purchased, requires AC power | Too weak for DD, no weatherproofing, no locking (drops on power off) | Requires 3D-printed adapters for antenna use, low payload vs true satellite rotators, not weatherproof |
| Wi-Fi | Yes | No | No (requires add‑on) | Yes | Yes |
| Weatherproof | Yes | Electronics need protection | Yes | No | No |
| Torque (kg·cm) | 125 | 306 | 600 (Az), 1 400 (El) | Very low | ~100 (estimated) |
| Setup Type | Turnkey | Full assembly required | Turnkey (analog) with custom integration required for digital | Turnkey | DIY (partial assembly required)) |
| Price | $799 w/ shipping | $890 US or $945 non-US ($860 + shipping) | $1409.98 (official digital) or $819.99 (Arduino DIY solution) | $375 w/ shipping | ~$515‑$550 |
Note: Discovery Dish and Feed are not included!
During the campaign, Discovery Drive will be priced at $699. After the campaign, it will be at least $799, so get an order in now before the price goes up!
Discovery Drive is backed by a one year warranty that covers manufacturing defects. For more general information, see our wiki, which is currently under development.
We expect manufacturing to take about two months and shipping to take one or two months. We are already in the process of producing the molds for the plastic parts, and all metal parts have been designed and are ready for production after the campaign.
Once mass manufacturing is complete, the units will be shipped to Mouser’s warehouse, where they will be distributed to backers. You can learn more about Crowd Supply’s fulfillment service under Ordering, Paying, and Shipping in their guide.
The political environment for international trade and tariffs has been relatively unstable recently, which has led us to pause this project a few times. However, the situation appears stable for now. Regarding manufacturing, we see no barriers to scaling production.
Discovery Drive is part of Qorvo RF Accelerator
Produced by KrakenRF in Chicago, IL and Auckland, New Zealand.
Sold and shipped by Crowd Supply.
One Discovery Drive motorized automatic satellite antenna rotator. Includes a 12 V universal power supply, a 12 V DC barrel extension (6 meters), USB Type-A and USB Type-C cables (6 meters), a compass shelf, a mast-mount bracket set, mast-mount bolts, a U-bolt cover, a Wi-Fi antenna, and an antenna-mount bracket
