[amsat-bb] Yaesu G-5500 meters and readings to LVB tracker not working

[John Brier]

I may have figured this out. Since I noticed pushing in the connector
on the elevation rotator caused the readings to correct, I took the
connector apart. One of the wires came unsoldered so I resoldered it
and now the elevation reading is perfect and barely, if at all, moves
when I tap the box. The azimuth reading does bounce up/right a little
when I tap the box but it always comes back to the actual reading. I
tried resoldering/heating up the pins on the connector used for the
azimuth rotator but it didn't make any difference.

I still plan on removing the connectors completely, removing the
disconnect and reinstalling them, so perhaps if there still is some
flaky connection in the azimuth cable I will fix it in the process of
doing that.

I also took Burns' advice bent the terminals that connect at the
control box, too.

BTW, it took me a while to figure out how to open these connectors
since I never installed them myself. They don't pull apart, they
unscrew.

As of now SatPC32 is tracking sats and the rotators are moving as expected.

Thanks for all the help everyone!

73, John Brier KG4AKV

On Sat, Oct 3, 2020 at 7:58 PM John Brier <johnbrier at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks Jim.
>
> So, I did that a dozen times for the azimuth side and it didn't make much of a difference. It did start reading (instead of staying at around 0), going to about 180, but never much beyond that that. And eventually it seemed to get stuck again.
>
> However, when I started doing the same for the elevation rotator I noticed that the cable jacket was falling out of the connector. The rubber and the connector wasn't compressing the jacket so there was presumably stress on the wires. When I pushed the cable in the connector the meter started reading right.
>
> There is a similar issue on the connector on the cable I am using for azimuth but pushing it in towards the connector or wiggling it doesn't seem to help.
>
> I think I am going to redo these cables. They came with the rotator and there is also a disconnect a few feet from the rotator connectors. Not sure what for. The connector there is wrapped in electrical tape so I am not sure what state it is in.
>
> One question: If the issue is in the rotator or a connection issue at the rotator, why would tapping the control box affect the issue?
>
> The only thing I can think of is there could be another issue in the box (connection or otherwise).
>
>
> 73,  John Brier KG4AKV
>
> On Sat, Oct 3, 2020, 18:12 Jim Walls via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
>>
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> Sounds like the position pots in the rotor (not the controller) are
>> dirty.  That does make some sense with it not being used for several
>> years.  Step one (the easy way) is to use the manual control levers on
>> the controller and repeatedly move the rotors from end to end while
>> watching the needles.  If you are a bit lucky, after a few passes back
>> and forth, the needles will start responding correctly. Keep trying at
>> least a dozen full passes back and forth before giving up on this
>> method.  The next method requires disassembly of the rotor - now you
>> know why I suggest giving the first method lots of tries before giving
>> up on it.  If you have to resort to the second method, I will let
>> someone who has done that more recently than I (about 20 years) give
>> instructions.
>>
>> --
>> 73
>> -------------------------------------
>> Jim Walls - K6CCC
>> jim at k6ccc.org
>> Ofc:  818-548-4804
>> http://members.dslextreme.com/users/k6ccc/
>> AMSAT Member 32537 - WSWSS Member 395
>>
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