[Moon] [Moon-Net] Spid Ras

[Peter Blair]

Al, K2UYH had squirrels that chewed through his rotator cables quite regularly ... but I dont think anyone else has had ants do it Sam.... you may have a first.
73 Peter G3LTF 

From: jewell--- via Moon-net 
Sent: Sunday, July 07, 2019 1:11 PM
To: Freetalk Moonnet ; Moon-net Amateur Radio Moonbounce 
Subject: Re: [Moon-Net] Spid Ras

All working again............... 
I wouldn’t have believed it, but.........
All my cables run in a duct. At the dish the cables are terminated in a weatherproof ABS box (Timeguard).
When I opened it there was no moisture in there. But......a huge ant colony had managed to find their way in. One cable was broken. It was an earth/braid connection. There was no sign of anything else affected except everything was covered in earth, ant lavae and, of course, ants. I have several stings/bites to show for it.
Once cleared out and the broken earth replaced, everything worked fine.
I’m a bit embarrassed by this as the ducts had been checked, the terminations on the sensors to the motor drive, etc. The junction box was in full view but I hadn’t thought to check it!
I have taken advantag of the sun being close to south, right now, to ‘shadow check’ direction calibration prior to a sun noise check.
All of this has led me to seriously consider an upgrade to a bigger rotator so that I can accommodate a bigger dish (what else!). The Spid Ras is just about OK with the 2.3m dish, but anything bigger is going to need more oomph.

Many thanks for all your suggestions. I have definitely learned a lot about the early Spid Ras and what has changed in the last few years.

73 de Sam, G4DDK




Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad


On Saturday, July 6, 2019, 7:27 pm, jewell--- via Moon-net <moon-net at mailman.pe1itr.com> wrote:

  Has anyone else experienced a Spid Ras failure where the azimuth motor turns both ways, as it should, but will only increment the angle ready (counts up) on the controller, but not decrement when rotating counterclockwise? The pulse output from the azimuth encoder obviously works. 
  Baffled!
  Sam, G4DDK


  Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

  _______________________________________________
  Moon-Net posting and subscription instructions are at http://www.nlsa.com/nets/moon-net-help.html




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Moon-Net posting and subscription instructions are at http://www.nlsa.com/nets/moon-net-help.html