Birdcage

Birdcage turns salvaged RV satellite dishes into general-purpose AZ/EL positioners. Point them at LEO satellites, map the RF sky, capture images during passes — the hardware doesn’t care what you’re tracking or why.

What it does

Satellite Tracking

Search the sky catalog by name, track targets at 1 Hz, predict upcoming passes. Works standalone via the Craft API or with Gpredict through the built-in rotctld server. Tracking guide →

Camera Capture

Manual, interval, and pass-event triggered image capture. Produces JPEG frames with JSON metadata and optional FITS output for scientific workflows. TUI guide →

Radio Telescope

2D RF sky mapping with azscanwxp — a firmware command that sweeps azimuth while cycling DVB transponders and logging RSSI at each grid point. Radio telescope guide →

Signal Analysis

Live RSSI monitoring, automated sweep peaking, DVB tuner access, and LNB polarity switching — all from the Signal screen. Signal screen →

Motor Control

Keyboard nudging, position presets, velocity tuning, configurable step sizes. Direct motor commands with safety gates to prevent accidental stow. Control screen →

Raw Console

Full firmware shell access through the TUI. 12 submenus, 100+ commands, with history and prompt-aware I/O. Command reference →

The Sky Catalog

Birdcage doesn’t maintain its own TLE files or orbital prediction engine. It talks to Craft — an open API that knows where everything is. Search “ISS” and get its current azimuth and elevation from your location. Search “Moon” and point the dish at it. The catalog covers LEO satellites, GPS constellations, geostationary birds, deep space probes, and celestial bodies — anything with a known ephemeris.

The integration runs at three levels:

• TUI Craft mode (F2 → Craft tab) — search, select a target, hit Track. The dish follows at 1 Hz. Pass predictions show rise time, peak elevation, and duration. Pass-state transitions (AOS → TCA → LOS) feed the Camera overlay for automated capture.
• MCP server — search_satellites, get_passes, get_next_pass, and get_visible_targets tools let any MCP client query the catalog and compose tracking workflows.
• rotctld bridge — Gpredict and other Hamlib-compatible controllers drive the dish via the built-in TCP server on port 4533. Craft provides the orbital data; Gpredict does the math.

No NORAD catalog numbers to memorize, no TLE files to download, no prediction libraries to configure. Type a name, get a position.

The TUI

Six screens, one terminal. Everything from pass prediction to raw firmware commands:

• F1 — Dashboard: Four action cards — Point Dish, Monitor Signal, Scan Sky, and Stow — each jumping to the relevant screen
• F2 — Control: Motor nudging, presets, velocity controls, step size selector
• F3 — Signal: RSSI plots, DVB tuner status, sweep peaking, LNB diagnostics
• F4 — System: NVS settings, firmware identification, motor lifetime stats
• F5 — Console: Direct firmware shell with prompt-terminated I/O and command history
• F6 — Camera: Live capture overlay with manual, interval, and pass-event triggers

No hardware? No problem.

Demo mode runs the full TUI with simulated data — every screen, every interaction. It’s the fastest way to see what Birdcage can do.

uvx (no clone needed)

uvx birdcage-tui --demo

From source

cd tui/
uv sync
uv run birdcage-tui --demo

Why “Birdcage”?

In ham radio, satellites are called “birds.” The Carryout G2’s white dome radome looks like a birdcage — and a birdcage catches birds from the sky.

It’s also a nod to saveitforparts. Gabe saves discarded RV satellite dishes “for parts.” We took the parts and built a birdcage from them.

Standing on the shoulders of saveitforparts

This project builds directly on the open-source work of Gabe Emerson (KL1FI) and his saveitforparts YouTube channel. Gabe documented five different Winegard dish variants, wrote Python control scripts for each, and shared everything on GitHub. Chris Davidson (cdavidson0522) figured out the G2’s RS-422 wiring and discovered the built-in radio telescope mode. Without their work, none of this would exist. Read the full story →

Supported hardware

Five Winegard dish variants are documented, with varying levels of testing:

Variant	Connection	Status
Trav’ler (HAL 0.0.00)	RS-485 / RJ-25	Supported (Gabe’s original)
Trav’ler (HAL 2.05)	RS-485 / RJ-25	Supported (Gabe’s original)
Trav’ler Pro	USB A-to-A	Partially supported
Carryout (2003)	RS-485 / RJ-25	Supported (different protocol)
Carryout G2	RS-422 / RJ-12	Fully reverse-engineered

The Carryout G2 has the most complete documentation — over 100 firmware commands mapped across 12 submenus, NVS settings dumped, GPIO pins identified, and motor control characterized.

Firmware Variant Comparison Detailed comparison table of all five variants: baud rates, motor commands, position formats, and protocol differences.

Where to start

Getting Started

What hardware you need, how to connect, and your first satellite track. Start here →

Guides

Wiring, calibration, satellite tracking, camera capture, radio telescope, BLE wireless bridge. Browse guides →

Reference

100+ firmware commands, NVS settings, GPIO pin maps, hardware specs, serial protocol. See reference →

Experiments

Solar monitoring, rain fade radiometry, hydrogen line astronomy, weather satellite imagery, and more — on-board DVB and external SDR. Browse experiments →

Project Journal

Discovery stories, debugging sessions, and the ongoing narrative of reverse-engineering these dishes. Read the journal →

Project journal

This isn’t just a reference manual. The project journal captures the story of how we got here — the debugging sessions, the discoveries, the moments where a ? in the right submenu revealed a whole new capability.

Read the journal Discovery stories, debugging sessions, and the ongoing narrative of this project.