ve2dx
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Re:Antenna rotors issues - 2012/05/02 04:12
Hello Fabi,
regarding the controller, yes the MDS is a nice design and a lot less expensive then the greenheron for example, my biggest beef (moo!) with bof is simple there protocol for application interfacing (logging/contesting/etc...) implementation of DCU-1 is a real a bad ideal...
DCU-1 (protocol used to communicate with either the MDS and GreenHeron replacement rotor controlers) does not have the strengh as does the GS232B protocol, GS232B is better designed and more complete. for example DCU-1 does not have rotor positionning feedback to the application, this means the application can not know where the rotor is in real time, thus it can not display it the application.
Yes! guys like Idiompress and Green heron did add the AI1; command to react to this issue, problem is this is badly documented and never standardized, thus some of the controllers are responding with nnn or ;nnn or nnn;, wome with OA OD or just OD, etc... bottom these variation in protocol responses have caused issues in the past with different applications...
GS232B is a mutch better application integration then DCU-1...
This said another issue you will encounter is that not all application are supporting DCU-1 and same thing is true that not all applications are supporting GS232B???? this can really cause problems... A german ham DF9GR did come out with what I consider the best rotor interface design and protocol intergration out ther; The ERC-M can be adapted to ANY rotor either directly or (for older or prop motors) using relay cards, and it not only supports DCU-1 and GS232B here is the list of supported protocols:
- DCU-1 (Native)
- DCU-1 (AI1; mod)
- GS232A-AZ
- GS232A-AZ/EL
- GS232A-AZ/AZ (Dual Azimuth, control two azimuth rotors from single interface)
- GS232B-AZ
- GS232B-AZ/EL
- GS232B-AZ/AZ (Dual Azimuth, control two azimuth rotors from single interface)
That is a pretty impressive list
it also has many other features, like progresive speed ramp up or down, offset, easy calibration, and many many others... I been following and helping (when I can!) Rene DF9GR and he really put together something nice... It is not a direct replacement like the MDS or GreenHeron, but it is a lot less expensive, could be used as one (you need rotor power source seperatly) and really more pwerfull device...
73
Richard ve2dx
73
Richard VE2DX
Jesus Island, PQ-014, FN35cm |
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