[amsat-bb] Re: lvbtracker (or other) and AlfaSpid rotors?

[Ryan Caron]

I don't have experience with 3rd party controllers but the position 
reporting is fundamentally different. Instead of potentiometers 
indicating the present az/el, there are just pulses indicating when the 
motors have traveled a degree.

So a little more work is associated with keeping track of the heading, 
and I haven't heard of a compatible 3rd party controller, but I don't 
foresee modifying one to do so as particularly challenging.

On 2/7/10 10:12 PM, amsat-bb-request at amsat.org wrote:
> Message: 5
> Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2010 17:34:13 -0400
> From: Bruce Robertson<ve9qrp at gmail.com>
> Subject: [amsat-bb]  lvbtracker (or other) and AlfaSpid rotors?
> To: AMSAT-BB<amsat-bb at amsat.org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<49657a761002071334n17015d9cm9de43e37134395f2 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> The Alfa Spid price list
> http://alfaradio.ca/docs/AlfaSpid_Price_June15_2009.pdf  indicates that
> the az/el rotor alone is about $600 (CAD) cheaper than the rotor with
> controller. I understand that this controller is a very nice piece of
> kit, and many are quite pleased with, for instance, its mouse
> interface. However, that additional charge moves the purchase from the
> 'maybe one day' to the 'no way Jose' column.
>
> So I'm wondering if anyone has experience with third-party controllers
> to operate the Alfa Spid rotors. Are they electrically similar to
> other rotors, or is the proprietary controller absolutely necessary?
>
> 73, Bruce VE9QRP
> -- http://ve9qrp.blogspot.com