I share one Hy-Gain DCU-1 controller between three rotors: a T2X and two Ham
IV rotors. It isn't perfect because the calibration is slightly different
between the T2X and Ham IV, but it's good enough. The T2X is at the bottom
of a rotating tubular tower, and the Ham IVs are on top of a pair of AB-577
portable military masts that can be manually rotated from the bottom. That
made it easy to match the orientation of the antennas and rotors (I don't
use a standard N or S center of rotation, which is why I need a DCU-1.)
The control system is pretty simple. At the tower end I have a box
containing cascaded relays to switch the eight rotor lines. I don't have the
relay box or schematic handy, but as I recall it takes two DPDT relays to
switch two lines, so there's a total of 8 relays. Here's a rough schematic
for switching a single line:
______ Rotor #1
Input (common) ____|^ ______ Rotor #2
____________________|^
______ Rotor #3
RELAY 1 RELAY 2
The truth table is as follows:
RELAY 1 RELAY 2
Rotor 1 OFF OFF (default state with power off)
Rotor 2 ON OFF
Rotor 3 ON ON
The diagram is the same for the other half of the DPDT relay, which switches
another rotor line. So, you need two control wires plus ground to activate
the relays. I put the motor starting capacitor in the box with the relays,
which reduced the number of rotor lines between the shack and box to 6,
freeing up two lines for activating the relays (ground is shared with the
rotors.) At the shack there's a simple control box with a four-positions
switch (OFF, Rotor 1, Rotor 2, and Rotor 3) and three LED indicators to show
which rotor is active. The box has a +12V input jack on the back and a jack
for connecting the two control lines and ground (I use an 1/8" stereo jack.)
The control jack is connected to a jack I added on the back of the DCU-1 for
connecting to the rotor cable inside the DCU-1.
All in all, pretty simple and it works well. You should be able to do it
with a standard Hy-Gain control box as long as the orientation of the
antennas on the masts and the centers of rotation of all the rotors are the
same.
Hope this helps.
73, Dick WC1M
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WB4UNA@aol.com [mailto:WB4UNA@aol.com]
> Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 9:02 PM
> To: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] 1 control box on more than 1 rotor
>
> I am going to stick a couple more towers in the air and wondering if
> anyone
> has tried or done the below .
> i would like to operate 2 or more rotors with one control box. They
> will al
> be TX2 style rotors. I just would like to save some on running all
> the rotor
> cable to each tower .
> It is just a idea....
>
> Thanks Randy
>
> Carlus M. Randy Chavis
> WB4UNA since 1970
> 432 tru 160
> EM 93
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