[amsat-bb] Re: Equipment and ITUNE

[Anthony Monteiro]

At 01:28 PM 10/20/2007, Jim Jerzycke wrote:
>How close is the Orbit rotator to the Alliance U-110?
>Norm's Rotor Service has new-in-box U-110 units.
>73, Jim  KQ6EA

Hi Jim,

Alas, the U-110 is completely different. The OR-360 uses
a DC motor whereas the U-110 is AC.

However, I am convinced that it would be very easy to
make a simple controller for the U-110 with a couple of
triacs and a few opto-couplers hanging on a parallel port

I would use the built-in pulse sensor and interpolate
between pulses using the AC line as a time base. This could get
you down to around 2-3 degrees accuracy which would
be plenty for a 1 meter dish on S-band.

If I need another Az/El system in the future, I would
certainly consider the U-110s.

73,
Tony AA2TX