Tutorial on calibrating your S.A.T. rotator controller to Yaesu Rotators. The Yaesu G5500 was shown here. www.csntechnologies.net/yt?ref=YT Stand holding Sat Tracker. amzn.to/3LOHCWT
Hello Mike, Just received my S.A.T. today! (Thursday; I'm a "night owl", writing this at 2:25 AM Friday 😉). I ran into an issue with the rotator setup that I wanted to pass along in the event anyone else ran into the same problem. To start off with the problem was NOT with the S.A.T. controller; it was my rotator control box! When I went to set the maximum voltages as you described here, I saw that the elevation voltage properly came up to 4.6 volts, but no matter WHERE I moved the azimuth rotator the voltage stayed close to zero (just a few millivolts, regardless of the rotator position). Intially someone might wonder if the rotator cable to the S.A.T. was bad or a problem with the S.A.T. itself. As it was coming up on the time for me to head down to the local YMCA for my 3 times a week swim workout, so I dropped things at that point & headed down to the Y. Over the years, I've found that while counting off the laps (I usually swim at least a mile, 72 times across a 75 - foot pool), it's a good time to think over problems. 🤔 If you recall my original e-mail to you asking if the S.A.T. would work with my older KENPRO KR-5400A rotator, I thought to nyself, "What if the problem is in the rotator control box?". A few hours after getting back home, I checked out the rotator box. Fortunately, the original owner had included the instruction manual with it, which gave the DIN connector pinouts; Pin 1 was the elevation voltage output, which varied correctly with the elevation. Pin 6 was the voltage output, which as the S.A.T. readout said, was close to zero. Fortunately, when I was originally installing & testing the rotator, connecting & disconnecting the 12 separate wires at the screw terminals got old VERY quickly, so I had obtained some high - quality waterproof 12 pin connectors from Amazon; this literally made disconnecting the control box for a look inside a "snap"! ☺ This used rotator system was in pristine condition; internally, the controller looked like it had just come off the assembly line. The output voltage for both elevation & azimuth came through a couple of relatively simple op-amps with a pair of diodes after them; perhaps one of the diodes had shorted? But before I started tearing into it I decided (with the power off) to check the resistance to ground of both pins 6 & 1; they measured virtually identical (a few K), so that tended to rule out problems in that area. Then I started thinking, "What if the issue is with the voltage control pot?" I plugged the rotator cable back in, powered up the control box, & monitored pin 6 with a DVM while adjusting the output control pot. As SOON as I started adjusting the pot, the voltage immediately jumped up about 4.3 volts! 🤗 Playing with it a bit, it appears there was a bad spot right at the maximum end of the pot's track. Adjusted it to about 4.3 volts, then brought it up to about 4.6 with the trim pot on the S.A.T. After saving the maximum & minimum points as you described here, I went through the rest of the setup procedure; setting my location, setting up the radio (IC-9700), and downloading the satellite TLE's. Of the satellites I marked as favorites, the first upcoming pass was CAS-4B, which i knew wasn't active; but at the time of AOS, I went out into my backyard & was gratified to see the antenna system automatically adjust both azimuth & elevation as it passed overhead. 🤓 A pass of AO-73 (which was supposed to ba active) was due about 15 minutes or so after LOS from CAS-4B; although I didn't hear any other activity, I tried the "QUICK CW" function by sending a series of "V"s. Sure enough, I saw my signal coming back down on the IC-9700 spectrum display! 😁 I quickly adjusted the TX signal to match my received frequency, & was delighted to hear my voice coming back strongly on SSB! - AND staying that way until just a few minutes before LOS! 😎(No QSO's though because most of the "sane" operators were in bed!). 😌 Again, my main intention here is to alert you & any other owners of older rotators to MAKE SURE that the rotator control box is ACTUALLY outputting the elevation & azimuth voltages before blaming the S.A.T. Looking forward to having a LOT of fun 😀with this! 73, Tom WA1LBK
Good info. Even adjusting the pot on the back of the rotor controller, I could not get a reading over 2.9 volts. Adjusting the pot on the S.A.T. box brought it up to where it should be. 73 de K4RS
