HH Rotor Modifications & Technical Questions

[Tom.K3IO]

I am using DiSEQc HH rotors to move amateur radio antennas and I have a few (non-standard!) technical questions:

1. Does anyone know of any straight (non-bent) axis pipes? I want to use the rotors in AZ-EL mode and the offset makes some problems.
2. Does Sadoun offer the Eagle-Aspen 540 degree DiSEQc azimuth rotor similar to this one (or some similar unit)?
3. Does anyone know of PC-based hardware/software to generate arbitrary DiSEQc commands?

You might be interested in the use of HH rotors to control a small educational radiotelescope implemented by a colleague of mine:
http://www.haystack.mit.edu/edu/unde..._Memos/009.pdf

The photos in this memo illustrate quite graphically why I want to find some straight (non-bent!) axis shafts. Some of my work is described in this presentation I gave a few months ago.

Thanks, Tom Clark, K3IO

[Larry Acklin]

Hi-

You will need a way to get the diseqc caommands onto coax- you could use a DVB-s receiver card and freeware like DVB Dream- which allows you to input a string. TSmover is another program- I believe it works with twinhan cards.

If you had a manual coax switch, you could move first az then switch to move el. Store locations by making the sat names up, and use diseqc 1.2.

You could fabricate straight pipes by chopping off the bent portion and scabbing on an extension.

Years ago I tried to make an az-el with two inexpensive tv rotors- remember the RS model? Unfortunately, the servo loop gain was way too high, and they hunted allmost all the time.

73 de KB3CUF

Larry