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 Home brew rotation unit 
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Post Home brew rotation unit
Do like to tinker and of late got on with me Antenna rotation unit
Finally fitted the shaft into the 24v wiper motor and its slowly coming together.
The control box I did ages ago

Here's first few picys :yahoo:

M3FEH karl


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Sat Aug 11, 2018 1:15 pm
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 Home brew rotation unit 
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Post Re: Home brew rotation unit
As you can see slowly coming along.
Note the pole drive sprocket and smaller one to go on the main drive shaft :shock:

Hopefully soon no more running up down stairs into garden :banghead: to turn the beams for VHF/UHF


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Sat Aug 11, 2018 1:18 pm
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 Home brew rotation unit 
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And here is the remote control box 12v in, 24v out :shock:

Rocker reverses the DC polarity to swing pole in one direction or other. :D
And Knob is speed control :beg:

Note lot of old heavy chopping board used in Construction of :rotfl:

And fused on 12v and 24v sides. :amen:

M3FEH


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Sat Aug 11, 2018 1:42 pm
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 Home brew rotation unit 
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Post Re: Home brew rotation unit
You will go far :) Nice to see someone create something

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Sat Aug 11, 2018 3:20 pm
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 Home brew rotation unit 
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Post Re: Home brew rotation unit
Nice one! :good:
Many years ago I made a similar rotator, with added under the boom "elevation" motor as well, using a couple of modified wiper motor units.
Ugly as sin compared to a purpose built and bought slickly manufactured unit, but worked surprisingly well! :D
Also built a couple of "pan and tilt" units, with positional control console, for video camera's I used to use on various fashion shows we did lights and video for, using motorised gearboxes purchased from RS, I did make them look a bit more tidy though! :D , and they are both still going strong.
The control panel also had all the switching for zoom and focus control of the cameras, and the multicore cable that fed them incorporated the video down feed in it, making each pan and tilt plus camera hook up a simple multi-pole plug, plug and play single cable install.
I love homebrew, nice to see other people with the same build it yourself attitude! :good:

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Sun Aug 12, 2018 8:16 am
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 Home brew rotation unit 
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CHEERS DAVE :hello:

It surprising what you can do with bits and bobs this morning knocking up a vertical wire for 80m 1/4w squid pole and is 10m long BUT antenna wire is 22m long. :shock:

Got me OCFD 80m and inverted L 1/4w portable wire antennas to run off said squid pole.

So took at least 12m of the wire 22m total length wire required and wrapped it around a large former of about 11.5 cm dia using about 38 turns. NOTE not tight to each other as in loading coil but what i call a shortening length coil wire set about 1cm apart leaving 5m up and 5m wire dangling down to the HB :good: 9:1. :beg:

Chucked up in garden bunged the MFJ939 and FT857D and so easy to tune up 160m to 10m its snipped it so quick no struggle 6m some what tuning required by the MFJ but did it :clapping: .

So have upgraded me portable antennas for 80m.
Now have the 1/4w vertical
1/4w inverted L
OCFD 80m ( yet to be sorted proper like) :blink:

using one squid pole

have to sort out some picys

laters KARL


Mon Aug 13, 2018 10:44 am
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 Home brew rotation unit 
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Good one Karl :good:
Homebrew always outstrips "bought off shelf" for sheer personal satisfaction, in my humble opinion, even if results sometimes don't! :D
It's the doing it/attempting it yourself, that works for me, always has, always will.
I know I can't compete with the "big guy's" and there millions of pounds invested in research and development, but that really isn't the point of "amateur" radio, and have a go "self learning" home brew.........the rewards are often in the knowledge gained, as you move on to the next more complex "homebrew"!
A shiny new 7300, and off the shelf antenna won't really teach me anything, other than what's gone out of my bank balance, a knocked up simple CW TX, into a bit of home spun wire whatever, from bits in the spares pile, that works surprisingly well, might just! ;)

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Been there and got the T shirt, sadly like the T shirt the memory of it has long since faded, gone rather tatty, and finally been consigned to the bin!


Mon Aug 13, 2018 10:55 am
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 Home brew rotation unit 
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BANK balance whats that LOL

Had the Q70/8 out last night on Kitt hill during the UKac 70 contest not hear much let alone work much but best one of night was the SO55 wab square another portable 219km NE of me. That s satisfaction of building it and making it work using on 10w. Now want to make another and pair them up for portable and then 4/4 from home and testing out me vertical 80m end fed 1/4w wire portable on the 10m squid pole via home made 9:1 Unun. Worked well in to MU across G and GM and in SM again on 10w via the MFJ939 and FT857D on 80m and tune sin well 160 to 6m :-)

karl


Wed Aug 15, 2018 2:57 pm
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 Home brew rotation unit 
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Post Re: Home brew rotation unit
:shock:

Finally its up and running works well :good:
Gotta watch the speed as chain jumps off LOL
Finally no more running up down stairs into garden can see it turn from shack window and nice to see directionless of the home made beams of me T6M and the Q2/8 and soon to be Q70/15 from 8 :yahoo:

Next stage get hold of more chopping board and box off the motor better and screen of the chain better and suppress the noise across radio when its in operation mainly VHF. Now surely if i cap the out put of the terminals heading out of the control box sure to help.

Karl M3FEH


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File comment: rotor mount out of old chopping boards
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Fri Sep 07, 2018 11:27 am
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 Home brew rotation unit 
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I'm a bit late to the party, but for what my opinion is worth - that there rotator is what amateur radio is all about. Experimentation and making.
A superb effort. you are to be applauded!

John


Wed Oct 24, 2018 8:18 am
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 Home brew rotation unit 
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Excellent stuff. Wiper motors are quite useful, I used one for the elevation control of my fly-swatter at the top end of a 60ft Hilomast.

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Wed Oct 24, 2018 8:58 am
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 Home brew rotation unit 
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Nice going Karl, with a couple of micro switches, a potentiometer and a meter you could easily add a direction indicator and 360 degre stop to your system. Good-Luck.

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Sun Nov 18, 2018 7:05 pm
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 Home brew rotation unit 
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Post Re: Home brew rotation unit
do tell me more :D


Sat Nov 16, 2019 9:47 am
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 Home brew rotation unit 
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One question, how are you speed controlling the motor, do you use a PWM circuit, or simple voltage reduction?
I only ask as PWM control will help maintain cold start torque at lower speeds, simple voltage reduction most likely will not, and can result in a crawl start that "ramps up" in speed as it starts to turn.
I built a pan and tilt unit for mounted cameras for the shows, I initially tried simple voltage reduction on the two enclosed motors, but results were not that satisfactory, swapped to a PWM motor drive boards, and it worked just fine at any speed, with no drag or ramp up.
On the end stop micro switches, I assume you are currently using two wires to the motor, reversing at the controller?
You would need a minimum of three wire drive, a common to one motor pin, it can be made plus or minus via your switching, then the other two go via a micro switch on the large gear, both after the switch commoned at the other motor connection.
You arrange the two micro switches such that fully clockwise triggers one, fully anti clock wise triggers the other, via suitable pegs.
Thus you apply say plus to common and negative to one pair of wires, and rotator does 360 degrees clockwise and stops when micro switch is opened for that direction, then apply negative to common, and plus to the other wire and rotator does 360 degrees the other way until the second microswitch opens!

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Been there and got the T shirt, sadly like the T shirt the memory of it has long since faded, gone rather tatty, and finally been consigned to the bin!


Sun Nov 17, 2019 8:58 am
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 Home brew rotation unit 
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Post Re: Home brew rotation unit
On direction indicator its basically a driven linear pot, driving a needle type indicator, but bear in mind most pots are 270 degree rotation, and would require gearing to change 360 to 270.
You can get wider rotational degree sweep pots, but full 360 ones are not that common!
Alternatively a crude system can be a simple magnet and ring of magnetic leaf switches, like you get in simple burglar alarm door switches, that would illuminate a ring of LED's in a crude points of the compass display, but would require a multicore cable suitable for a common and number of lamp switched return feeds to suit the amount of compass points you were trying to highlight!.
I would add on the rotator stops, it's quite difficult to get a full 360 that trips both, as if they were perfectly both at north, then obviously both open at the same time, you get a small missing gap.
A better system is a motor driven linear worm screw arrangement, with adjustable switch stops at each end of travel, like you often get in roller shutter door controls for example! ;)

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Been there and got the T shirt, sadly like the T shirt the memory of it has long since faded, gone rather tatty, and finally been consigned to the bin!


Sun Nov 17, 2019 9:21 am
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